HECI soon, ARIIA scrapped, school rating from next year: Dharmendra Pradhan

NEW DELHI: The proposed Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) which will replace the University Grants Commission, will not discriminate against private and Deemed-to-be universities, said union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan at the release event of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF 2022) on Friday.

The UGC is actively working to make the HECI Bill into reality, Pradhan said. The minister also emphasised on a unified system that will come under the HECI which is likely to become reality soon.

There are two types of deemed universities – trust-run and philanthropic–universities in India. Pradhan said India’s premier institute, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru is also a public deemed university. IISc Bengaluru has claimed the top position in the research category of NIRF 2022 while it ranked second in the overall NIRF list 2022.

The HECI Bill is expected to be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament which will commence on July 18. HECI, as a single regulator for higher education, is set to replace multiple authorities including the UGC and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

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NIRF ranking, NAAC, school rating

Pradhan, speaking at the event, emphasised the need to bring all educational institutions under the NIRF and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) frameworks to improve the quality of education. The minister said all institutions under UGC, AICTE, and other bodies must come under these two frameworks. Pradhan also said that the department of school education and literacy is also working on a framework for awarding star ratings to schools from next year.

“There are so many institutions under UGC, AICTE, and other ministries like NIPER [National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research] that must come under NIRF and NAAC. The NIRF is objective, impartial and the assessment is qualitative, or else PGI Chandigarh would not have ranked,” said Pradhan. The government is also planning to unify this quality framework to improve education standards.

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The education minister also announced that the Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements released by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) will be scrapped from next year. “AICTE framework has ARIIA for innovation ranking but we want to merge it with NIRF ranking. From next year onwards, we will add innovation and entrepreneurship to the NIRF rankings,” Pradhan announced.

Talking about the Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Samagam, conducted at Banaras Hindu University, Pradhan said the focus is now on student-centric policy making. “We must provide 100 percent knowledge, skilling, and innovation to our youth and today’s NIRF is working towards this aim,” he said.