UGC, AICTE may be folded into one higher-ed regulator: What the new bill changes for colleges

Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025 proposes a single umbrella regulator, separates funding from regulation, and introduces steep penalties.

The Union government is set to overhaul higher education regulation by replacing bodies such as the University Grants Commission (UGC) and AICTE with a single umbrella authority under the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, scheduled to be introduced in Parliament this session, The Hindu reported.

The proposed law aims to establish a 12-member Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA), comprising three separate councils for regulation, accreditation, and academic standards, marking the most significant change to India’s higher education governance in decades.

According to The Hindu, the Bill aims to subsume the functions of the UGC, the All India Council for Technical Education and the National Council for Teacher Education. Crucially, it removes the UGC’s long-standing role in grant disbursal, stating that funding will instead be handled “through mechanisms devised by the Ministry of Education”.

The government has cited the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which called for a “light but tight” regulatory framework, to justify separating funding from regulation.

The VBSA will act as an apex body overseeing three councils, the Viksit Bharat Viniyaman Parishad (regulatory), the Viksit Bharat Gunvatta Parishad (accreditation), and the Viksit Bharat Manak Parishad (standards). Each council can have up to 14 members.

The VBSA itself will include the presidents of the three councils, the education ministry secretary as an ex officio member, two professors from state institutions, a member-secretary, and five eminent experts, The Hindu reported. State and Union Territory governments will also have representation at the council level.

The proposed law will apply to all central and state universities, colleges and higher education institutions, including institutions of national importance and institutes of eminence. Professional courses such as medicine, dentistry, law, nursing, pharmacology and veterinary sciences are exempt.

The Council of Architecture will continue as a professional standards body but will not have regulatory powers, though it will be represented on all three councils.

The Bill gives the VBSA significant punitive powers. It proposes graded penalties starting at Rs 10 lakh for first-time violations, rising to Rs 75 lakh or even closure for repeated breaches. Institutions operating without accreditation could face fines exceeding Rs 2 crore.

The regulator would also have the authority to suspend an institution’s power to award degrees or diplomas.

A similar proposal, the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill, was floated in 2018 and met strong resistance from academics, teachers’ unions and states over concerns about centralisation and loss of financial autonomy.

While the current Bill introduces an umbrella structure instead of a single regulator, critics are likely to revisit earlier objections, particularly the concentration of power with the Centre and the lack of clarity on how grants will now be allocated.