‘Withdraw Immediately’: SFI on Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill 2025; calls it 'Anti constitution'

Calling it an “anti constitutional” move, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has strongly opposed the Union Cabinet’s approval for the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill 2025 to centralise the higher education sector of India.

The bill, earlier known as the Higher Education Commission of India - HECI Bill, has replaced educational bodies such as the University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) with single regulatory structure - HECI.

The students’ federation claimed that the bill is an attempt to centralise, commercialise and communalise the higher education sector of India as it aligns with the “capitalist” interest of the corporates and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).

As per reports, the new bill will have three broad functions – regulation, accreditation and setting learning standards.

“The adoption of this bill results in huge transformations in the funding and functioning of the higher educational institutions of India, directly impacting the common students,” the SFI said in an official statement.

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Bill favours the rich, says SFI

Explaining the discontinuation of UGC as a regulatory body for non-professional higher education institutions, the SFI stated that there will be a direct shift from the idea of grants to servicing, which means it will make education an expensive commodity only accessible to the rich.

Alleging that the move is an attempt by the centre to impose the ideological agenda of RSS-BJP, the federation said: “The composition of HECI itself is questionable, in which 9 out of 12 members are appointed by the central government, while maintaining the principle of less government, more governance.”

The central government, through the bill, will now have the full power to operate the education sector as per their ideological interests, it added.

Terming it as a “draconian bill”, the students’ group said it will directly fall on the shoulders of students and families from underprivileged and marginalised backgrounds.

The SFI has demanded the central government to withdraw the bill with “immediate effect”, and urged students, and the public to oppose the HECI Bill 2025 and join the resistance movement in large numbers.