NEW DELHI: The University Grants Commission is all set to give way to the Higher Education Commission of India (Repeal of University Grants Commission Act) Act 2018, which the government is branding as the end of the “end of inspection raj.” According to reliable sources in the
ministry of human resource development (
MHRD), it is all set to upload the draft of the Act which provides for establishing the HECI repealing the
UGC Act, 1956 on its website on Wednesday evening inviting feedback from the public.
The ministry has prepared a draft Act for repeal of UGC and setting up of the commission, whose mandate would be to improve academic standards with specific focus on learning outcomes, evaluation of academic performance by institutions, mentoring of institutions, training of teachers, and promote use of educational technology, among others. Unlike UGC, HECI will not have grant functions and would focus only on academic matters. The ministry will deal with the grant functions.
The idea is to downsize the scope of regulation with “no interference in the management issues of the educational institutions,” according to senior government official.
The Commission will, apart from the chairperson and vice-chairperson, will have 12 other members appointed by the Central Government. The members would include secretaries of higher education, ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship and department of science and technology, chairpersons of AICTE and NCTE and two serving vice chancellors, among others.
According to the draft, the functions of the commission includes steps for promoting the quality of academic instruction and maintenance of academic standards, specify learning outcomes for courses of study in higher education, lay down standards of teaching, assessment, research, evaluate the yearly academic performance of higher educational institutions, put in place a robust accreditation system for evaluation of academic outcomes by various HEIs, mentoring of institutions found to be failing in maintaining the required academic standards and order closure of institutions which fail to adhere to minimum standards without affecting the student’s interest or fail to get accreditation within the specified period, among others.
