educationists & academicians welcome move
Lokmat News Network
By Mehboob Inamdar
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill (VBSAB), 2025, introduced in Parliament, seeks to reform higher education by creating a single apex regulatory authority to enhance coordination, quality, and academic standards.
The proposed body will replace the existing regulatory authorities—the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE). While many educationists, experts, and academicians have welcomed the move, saying it could bring major reforms by replacing multiple councils with a single regulator, others have raised concerns that changes in funding policies could adversely affect institutions and make education more expensive.
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Many regulatory bodies creating confusion in HE system
Former vice chancellor of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (Bamu) Dr Vijay Pandharipande, said that bringing higher education altogether under one umbrella is a good step taken by the central government.
“Many controls like UGC, AICTE, and Council of Architecture was creating confusion in the university system. In fact, all rules of admission, examination and promotion must be the same throughout the country. Even UG, PG curriculum for all branches must be more or less uniform in all States, except for local language, local history, and local culture. Non-uniformity in teaching learning process, examination patterns, and quality standards in different states is causing a lot of problems when going from one State to another State,” he said. Dr Vijay Pandharipande said that if control of the entire higher education system is under one single roof, there would be uniformity and equality in the education system.
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Edn may become unaffordable for common man
Dr Maruti Tegumpure, an office-bearer ofDr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University and College Teacher Organisation (Bamucto) said that through this, the Government aims to diminish the importance of the UGC. “This is a way for the government to shirk its responsibility of providing education in the higher education sector, which will result in education becoming unaffordable for the common people of the country in the future,” he said. He said that only those who can afford higher education would be able to obtain it, while those who cannot would be deprived of education.
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3 new councils
--The Commission will have the following three Councils: Regulatory Council, which will function as the common regulator for higher education, Accreditation Council to oversee the system of accreditation and Standards Council to determine academic standards.
--Currently, UGC allocates grants to universities and colleges. Under the new Bill, the Commission or its Councils will not have any powers regarding funding to HEIs.
-- Each Council will be headed by a President and will have up to 14 members.
-- The Presidents and the full-time members of the Council will be appointed by the President of India, upon recommendations of a search and selection committee.
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Old chairmen era ends
--UGC, AICTE, NCTE and PCI will be dissolved.
--No UGC, AICTE, NCTE and PCI Chairmen.
---Medical and Law education excluded