The Government is planning to scrap the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to replace them with a single education regulating body called Higher Education Empowerment Regulation Agency (HEERA).
The Human Resource Development Ministry and the Niti Aayog are currently working to frame a new HEERA legislation, reports say.
The idea behind the new legislation is to bring technical and non-technical education under a common body. Currently, non-technical education is regulated by UGC while technical education, which includes engineering and management studies, is regulated AICTE.
Once in place, HEERA’s aim will be to eliminate policy and regulatory overlaps involving the two streams.
“Both Niti Aayog and HRD Ministry officials are working on the plan. It was felt that multiple regulatory bodies led to excessive and restrictive regulation and hence contributed to lack of institutional autonomy,” a news agency quoted a source.