Higher Education Commission to be set up in 2021; to replace UGC, AICTE: Official

New Delhi: The Higher Education Commission of India, which envisages replacing autonomous bodies like the University Grants Commission (UGC) and AICTE, will be set up next academic session, a top government official said on Friday.

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recommended setting up of the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) as a single overarching umbrella body for higher education, excluding medical and legal education.

“You will see some of the major changes in 2021 itself. If I could list out, for example, the common admission test for entrance to all central universities that are coming in 2021, the Academic Bank of Credit through which one can transfer credits from one university to another, that is also 2021,” Higher Education Secretary Amit Khare said at a virtual conference organised by FICCI.

Talking about regulatory changes planned for the next year, he said bodies like UGC, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) will get merged.

“And in the next academic session, we will be having one single Higher Education Commission of India,” he said. To promote research in the country, the National Education Policy talks about the National Research Fund, he noted.

“All universities, be it private, state or Central, they can have competitive funding. It’s like the National Science Foundation of the USA. Some addition that we have added, social science also will be the part of the National Research Fund,” he said.