Broken
By Vipul Goyal and Vidur Bhatnagar
Yash Pal committee had recommended that the UGC (University Grants Commission) and AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) should be combined within a single Higher Education Commission.
The Central government prepared a draft of Act to replace the University Grants Commission with a new regulator for higher education in the country. The proposed Higher Education Commission of India Act, 2018 (Repeal of University Grants Commission Act) aims to provide more autonomy to colleges and facilitate holistic growth of the education system, and provide greater opportunities to students at a more affordable cost. It aims to reduce the interference of various regulatory bodies in the functioning of higher education institutions and create a single body that will have the power of giving accreditation to institutions, maintaining their academic standard and even imposing fines for non-performance.
However, the bill drew immediate criticism particularly from University teachers across the country who claimed that scrapping UGC was only a bid to increase government’s interference in the administration of universities. Further, the government was unable to introduce the bill in any of the parliament sessions, the bill still remaining a proposal.
Therefore the promise has been classified as “Broken”