VBSA Bill: Joint Parliamentary Committee to finalise, adopt draft report on July 17

VBSA Bill: The Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) Bill will conclude discussions and adopt the draft report on July 17. Aimed at setting an overarching higher education regulator, the draft law is being discussed since it was referred to the committee during the winter session following massive opposition.

The VBSA Bill was introduced by education minister Dharmendra Pradhan last year. The new bill, a revision of the previous draft known as the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill, was tabled to constitute a single higher education regulatory body.

The VBSA Bill provides for the repeal of three existing laws and the regulatory bodies they set up – the University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) .

A senior official said, “The report will be shared with the members before July 17 and on that day it will be adopted.” Earlier the chairperson of the 31-member committee, D Purandeshwari has stated that the committee was conducting a “clause-by-clause” discussion of the bill. The Bill is expected to be tabled in the monsoon session of parliament.

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VBSA Bill: ‘Excessive centralisation’

During the parliament session several MPs had said the bill, if enacted into law, would result in excessive centralisation, intrusion upon the administration, affiliation, establishment, closure of university campuses and institutional autonomy of the state universities.

The committee has held meetings with officials from UGC, AICTE, NCTE, higher education department as well as institutions, including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) and universities.

The Hindu reports that some IITs and IIMs have opposed various clauses of the bill, with a few subsequently, including IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras, saying they merely suggested changes.

Congress MP Jairam Ramesh has called upon states to oppose the bill saying, “VBSA will actually be a very bad Shiksha Act.”

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Constitution of three verticals under the VBSA

As per the bill, there will be three “verticals” of functioning under the VBSA and each will be managed by a council.

The three councils under the VBSA and their functions will be as follows:

• Viksit Bharat Shiksha Viniyaman Parishad or Regulatory Council: Responsible for coordination and maintenance of standards.

• Viksit Bharat Shiksha Gunvatta Parishad or Accreditation Council: Oversee the accreditation process, taking up the role currently fulfilled by the National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC).

• Viksit Bharat Shiksha Manak Parishad or Standards Council: Set academic standards across higher education.

As per the current iteration of the Bill, funding is outside the purview of the body.