MHRD receives around 10,000 suggestions on Draft Higher Education Commission Bill; no plan to scrap AICTE

NEW DELHI, JULY 25: As many as 9,926 suggestions have been sent to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) on the draft Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill, 2018, which seeks to replace the University Grants Commission(UGC) by a new body.

The draft Bill was put in the public domain on June 27 for comments and suggestions from educationists, stakeholders and the general public before July 20. Minister of state for HRD Dr Satya Pal Singh speaking in the Lok Sabha informed that till July 19, it received 9,926 suggestions from Members of Parliament, State Governments, academicians, teacher unions, Chambers of Commerce, students etc. and appropriate changes are being made in the draft Bill based on the public feedback.

He further added that there is no proposal under consideration to scrap the technical education regulatory - All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

As per the draft, the new body will focus entirely on promoting quality and academic activity while the funding part will be managed by the Ministry. The Minister informed that the grant disbursal function to Universities and Colleges is now proposed to be under one entity which would works in a transparent, merit-based approach through an ICT enabled platform.

The draft HECI Bill, 2018 has been introduced to repeal the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956. It intends to promote quality of academic instruction, maintenance of academic standards and autonomy of higher educational institutions among a number of other things. The new HECI also aims to provide for comprehensive and holistic growth of higher education and research in a competitive global environment.