NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet has cleared the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill which proposes a unified regulator for higher education, replacing existing statutory bodies of University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).
The legislation, which will be introduced in the ongoing Winter Session of Parliament, was earlier known as the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill.
This decision was taken on the recommendations in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 for a single regulatory authority to streamline governance and oversight in India’s higher education sector.
According to previous reports, the proposed unified regulator is intended to merge the functions of the UGC, AICTE and NCTE into one body responsible for academic regulation, accreditation and setting professional standards across higher education institutions.
However, medical and legal colleges have been put out of the ambit of the unified regulator.
Funding and financial autonomy will remain with the administrative ministry rather than the regulator itself.
The idea of a unified regulator dates back several years, with an earlier draft of the HECI Bill first circulated in 2018. That version aimed to repeal the UGC Act and establish a central commission, but it faced significant resistance from stakeholders over concerns of centralisation and overreach, and was not pursued further.
The current Bill represents a renewed effort to implement the NEP 2020 vision, incorporating a more comprehensive framework that includes technical and teacher education oversight under the new authority.
Under NEP 2020, the concept of a single regulator was highlighted as part of a broader repositioning of higher education governance. The policy recommended separating regulatory functions into distinct verticals including regulation, accreditation, academic standards and funding, to reduce duplication and improve efficiency while maintaining accountability.