The University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) may soon be a thing of the past, with the government planning to replace them with a single higher education regulator, a source said.
The proposed higher education empowerment regulation agency is aimed at eliminating overlaps in jurisdiction and removing irrelevant regulatory provisions.
The Human Resource Development Ministry is working with Niti Aayog on the plan under which both technical and non-technical institutions will be brought under one umbrella.
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A detailed blueprint of the proposed regulator and its legislation was being worked upon. “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,” the source said.
The plan to have a single higher education regulator is not new. Recommendations have been made earlier by various committees set up by the government.