HECI Bill 2025: Higher Education Commission of India won’t have UGC, AICTE’s funding powers
The Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill, is scheduled to be tabled in parliament during the upcoming winter session, will provide for three verticals for accreditation, regulation and for framing learning outcomes. Like the earlier version of the bill, drafted in 2018, funding of higher education will not be within its ambit – an aspect that had caused controversy.
According to sources, the bill may also define changes in the roles of several existing professional education councils, such as architecture, agriculture and others. One of the committees constituted by the education ministry looked into this aspect has submitted a report to the ministry.
The HECI Bill 2025 will lead to the creation of the HECI, replacing the three existing higher regulatory authorities – University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).
Digvijaya Singh, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on education, has however, written to education minister Dharmendra Pradhan stating that the Bill should first be placed before the panel before it is tabled in parliament.
UGC regulates the universities in the country; engineering, standalone management and other technical institutes fall within the ambit of AICTE and the teacher education institutions under NCTE. Although such a body has been in discussion for decades, the National Education Policy 2020 has pushed for a joint regulatory authority most recently.
Many of NEP 2020’s other proposals for higher education reform have already been set into motion by the UGC. According to education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, UGC had framed over 40 sets of regulations and guidelines based on the NEP by early 2025, before being taken apart.
HECI 2025 bill and higher education funding
A Higher Education Commission of India (Repeal of University Grants Commission Act) Bill was drafted in 2018, which sought to repeal the UGC Act and set up the HECI. It was placed in the public domain for feedback and consultation with stakeholders but was never tabled in parliament.
A serious objection to the previous bill was that it took away the main regulator’s powers of funding.
The UGC provides grants to central universities and private universities which are recognised under sections 2(f) and 12(B) of the UGC Act. The AICTE, through various financial schemes, provides assistance to technical institutes, not including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) which are governed by a separate law. NCTE does not directly provide funding to the teacher education insitutes.
The 2018 draft had proposed shifting the power to manage and make grants to another body. Opponents of that draft HECI bill had argued that funding powers ought to belong to a neutral regulatory body driven by academics. “It is best for the regulatory body to release funds because funding is based on an academic exercise and they can monitor its use,” the former UGC chairman Sukhadeo Thorat had told ....in an interview.
It is learnt that the draft HECI bill 2025 that may be tabled next month also excludes funding from the HECI’s powers. “Following interactions it has been known that the funding aspect of the institutions would not be part of the HECI Bill. The education minister has also in the past talked about it. The three verticals will have their defined specific functions and will govern all higher educational institutions in the country,” an official told Academia360.
A senior official said that he believes that ultimately the Anusandan National Research Foundation (ANRF) will be the funding agency on behalf of the government. In November 2024, ANRF had launched the ‘Partnership for Accelerated Innovation and Research (PAIR)’ scheme, an initiative to enhance research capabilities of universities, central and state public institutions in particular.
The union government has also introduced the Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA) to provide infrastructure loans to education institutions. However, the HEFA loans have had mixed results.
Even the parliamentary panel headed by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh had raised concern that the proposed HECI could lead to closure of institutions in rural areas that suffer from infrastructure or faculty shortages and indirectly fuel privatisation.
HECI Bill 2025: What it means for other councils
Of the three committees the ministry had constituted, one was mandated to look into professional councils that also oversee training and education in their sectors. These include the National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology (NCHMCT), Council of Architecture (COA), Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), Indian Nursing Council (INC), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and others.
The law and medical fields, regulated by the Bar Council of India and National Medical Commission (NMC) respectively, will remain outside the purview of the HECI.
In 2021, the government also enacted the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professional Act, establishing the regulatory authority – NCAHP – for the allied and healthcare professions and education.
“Our role was to look into various other councils which govern the various other fields of education. Till now, their role entailed giving approvals and affiliation. With HECI, although they will continue to exist, they will be more of a professional body, setting standards for quality education,” stated an official.