Review: Draft bill on higher education:

  10-Jul-2018 16:26:28

EducationModi government

The Modi government has introduced a draft bill on higher education act, 2018 which will repeal the University grants commission act of 1956. Under this act, the Higher Education Commission of India(HIEC) will be set up in the place of the University Grants Commission. The focus of this commission will be on increasing the quality and standards of higher education in India. Before this, the government had already introduced a number of reforms in education like granting autonomy to universities, autonomy to colleges, reforms in distance education, and reforms in NAAC etc.


The composition of HECI:


The commission will consist of 12 members along with a chairperson and a vice chairperson all of whom will be appointed by the central government. The selection of chairperson and vice-chairperson would be through search-cum-selection-committee (SCSC). The 12 member commission will have members of central government (03), Head of regulatory bodies namely NCERT and AICTE (02), vice chancellors (02), professors (02), industry doyen (01) and members of the executive body (02).


THE HECI:


The commission will help in maintaining the autonomy of various higher education institutions. It will evaluate the yearly performance of all higher education institutions with a robust accreditation system. The previously working inspection system will come to an end and will be replaced by a transparent and flexible system of assessment. The commission would promote research and provide appropriate mentoring for maintaining quality educational experience. It will have the power to shut down institutions if they fail to maintain minimum levels of academic performance.

The HECI will grant authorization to new institutions through an e-governance module. Unlike university grants commission, the HECI will not be able to provide grants to the universities which will make it an academic body functionally. The HRD ministry will be now responsible for granting of funds to various universities.


Problems:


There has been a strong opposition to the act as it transfers the power of allocating funds to universities, to theMHRD. According to the academic, this move can lead to universities becoming government controlled departments. The strict financial control of central government over universities might lead to the regimentation of knowledge.

The composition of the commission is heavily dominated by bureaucrats and has only two members as teachers, which is half of what was under UGC. This itself will make the HECI susceptible to political influence rather than allowing it to be a neutral body.


Conclusion:


The UGC has been failing as a functioning regulatory body. The colossal mismanagement in granting of funds, authorizing sub-standard universities along with shoddy monitoring has substantially reduced its credibility. Even though the existence of UGC has been repeatedly questioned, scrapping it completely would not necessarily solve the current educational crisis in India. A reason for this problem lies elsewhere.

India invests only 1.7% of its GDP in education. There is no clear link between the creation of infrastructure and the premeditated policymaking, which complements it.

The draft bill on higher education, which is pending for the current monsoon session of the parliament, will most likely be passed. But to actually see changes that will revamp higher education in India, we need to overcome this gap, which requires a strong political will and a willing leadership.

Written by:

Ekta Bhardwaj