The Centre has proposed to establish Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) in place of the University Grants Commission (UGC). What follows is a whole debate as to whether it would be effective. On June 27, the Human Resources Development Ministry announced that it was planning to replace the UGC with HECI and invited people to put forward their suggestions. HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar tweeted urging educationists, stakeholders and others to provide their comments till July 7. The big question is as to how HECI from the current UGC or how it will advance the current education system.

The HECI Bill is the Ministry of Human Resource Development’s fresh Draft Bill to revoke the existing UGC Act 1956. It provides five foundational principles—less government and more governance, separation of funding, an end to inspection raj, academic quality and enforcement powers. It means it aims at making educational institutions more autonomous.

UGC distributes grants to those central institutions which are out of its funds, but HECI will ‘specify standards for grant of authorisation to a university or higher educational institution to commence its academic operations’. In order to verify these financial requirements, UGC conducts periodic inspections, but the proposed bill will only advise on academic performance by the higher educational institutions. The new HECI will have the financial powers to fund or de-fund an institute. UGC appoints its own staffs and the same will be applicable to the HECI as well. On the other hand, the number of members has been slightly extended in the fresh Bill. While in UGC, we have a Chairman, Vice-Chairman and 10 members by the central government; in HECI, 12 members will be appointed by the centre that will include educationists and a member of the industry.

However, the HECI Bill has been opposed by many educationists and bureaucrats. Many including MP Anbumani Ramadoss have suggested that instead of dismantling the UGC, the government should attempt to strengthen its consultative which promotes quality education.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 05, 2018 07:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).