UGC- AICTE Merger Body Likely to Look Into Higher Education Standards
In the AICTE-UGC merger, the proposal allows for new quality-maintenance bodies to be formed. As per sources, a Higher Education Grants Council and a Professional Standard-Setting Bodies while a National Higher Education Regulatory Association will be set-up post-merger.
After being in existence of years now, the proposal of merging the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the University Grants Commission (UGC) has now been updated with the duties of the new body. A new body will be formed in place of the Higher Education Quality Control Centres in India. The new bodies will be known as the Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC) and Professional Standard-Setting Bodies (PSSBs), sources state.
Sources add that a Regulatory Authority by the name of National Higher Education Regulatory Authority (NHERA) will be responsible for the activities in the higher education sector. Separate bodies will be formed under NHERA which will take up the responsibility of maintaining quality standards of higher educational institutions.
As per official statements from the HRD Ministry, a bill will be placed before the Cabinet which proposes to replace the UGC and the AICTE. They added that they plan to place the bill in front of the cabinet in the month of October 2019. Sources state that the Ministry has put forward a draft bill in the Public Domain to see the kind of response along with taking in suggestions that the bill will receive from the different stakeholders.
Official statements announce that the responsibility of maintaining the quality standards of the different higher educational institutes in India will lie with the Professional Standard-Setting Bodies (PSSBs). Among the duties that the PSSBs will need to carry out includes ensure the quality of infrastructure provided by the institution. They will also be checking up on the different facilities of educational institutions such as the faculty, academic curriculum and research activity.
One of the duties of the new quality-assurance body is to determine the different areas, courses as well as institutes that require routine checks for quality. The institutes will be receiving incentives for maintaining the standards, however, those who fail to meet the standards will have to face the consequences or action will be taken against them.
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According to the sources, previously, a system or mechanism for conducting quality inspections regularly had not been put in place. This raised various questions on the quality of the education imparted by the institutions. They added that the Ministry of Human Resource Development will ensure that the issues are resolved and in turn attract more international students to pursue higher education in India.
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Hopefully, the merger of UGC-AICTE will bring a positive change in the entire Education System in India and will also help to maintain the standards of Higher Education Institutes.