The government may introduce bill to set up a comprehensive regulatory body for higher education-higher education commission of India (HECI) — during the monsoon season Parliament in July. The proposed commission will have the authority to enforce educational quality standards and order closure of substandard institutions. Failure to comply may result in fines or jail sentences.
Higher education commission of India (HECI)
HECI is a regulatory reform envisaged in national education policy 2020 in which it was stated that “there is a need for a complete overhaul of the regulatory system to reactivate the higher education sector and enable it to flourish”.
The idea of an umbrella body of regulators actually predates NEP 2020, when in June 2018, the government uploaded a draft law titled ‘The Higher Education Commission of India Act, 2018’.
According to New Education Policy
According to the New Education Policy, regulation of higher education “is fraught with very basic problems, such as heavy concentration of power within a few bodies, conflicts of interest among these bodies and the consequent lack of accountability.”
HECI will have four verticals
As stated in the draft being prepared in the NEP 2020 and the Ministry of Education (MoE), HECI will have four verticals – National Council for Higher Education Regulatory (NHERC) as a single point regulator for the higher education sector; a meta-recognized entity called National Accreditation Council (NAC); Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC), which will undertake funding and financing of higher education; and the General Education Council (GEC), which will prepare expected learning outcomes for higher education programmes.
