Academicians slams Centre's decision to scrap University Grants Commission

Academicians came out against the Centre’s decision to scrap the University Grants Commission (UGC) and bring in a new regulatory body in the higher education sector and questioned the move saying politicians should not be involved in academic matters.

Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry had on June 27 announced its decision to replace the UGC with the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) by repealing the UGC Act, 1951.

The new commission will solely focus on academic matters and monetary grants would be under the purview of the ministry, according to a draft, which has been placed in the public domain by the ministry to seek feedback from the stakeholders.

Noted academician Jayaprakash Gandhi said, the new structure will give political parties more say in decision making regarding education.

"The structure of the new body is such that it will give political parties more say in decision making regarding education, which should ideally be done by a group of core educationists and veteran academicians who can take the country forward," Gandhi said.

“It is clear that as per the new norms, the authorisation is going to be given and maintained not only on the basis of what a university has at that particular point of time, but it would be contingent on achieving a set of goals over a decade. We can expect these goals to be about resource-generation, a burden that will surely be passed on as fees and a cutback in recruitment, and most likely, by introducing all kinds of rubbish, short-term courses. This means compliance with the Centre’s diktats will be essential from the word go, for both the older and newer universities,” JNU professor Ayesha Kidwai said.

Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) has also condemned the move as an attempt to increase direct government interference in higher education.

“It is also not clear how shifting the grant-related functions to the ministry will result in less interference. On the contrary, we fear that it will result in an increased direct interference by the government. The present structure is being completely replaced without providing a detailed study of its founding goals, achievements, shortcomings and their possible reasons and corrective measures taken or required to improve the health of the UGC,” DUTA president Rajib Ray said.

IGNOU professor Kapil Sharma alleged that government is attempting to interfere in each and every aspect, adding loopholes in UGC should have been addressed by the academicians in the higher education sector and not the government.

“Right from the admission process to the intake of research scholars—attempts are being made by the government to interfere in each and every aspect. We agree that there were loopholes in the functioning of the UGC, but they should have been addressed on an institution-specific basis. That should have been done by the academicians in the higher education sector and not the government,” Sharma said.

Less government and more governance, separation of grant-related functions, end of the inspection raj, focus on academic quality, powers to enforce compliance with the academic quality standards and to order closure of sub-standard and bogus institutions are some of the highlights of the new Act—the Higher Education Commission of India Act, 2018 (Repeal of the University Grants Commission Act), according to HRD Ministry.

The new Act is likely to be tabled in Parliament during the Monsoon Session, which begins on July 18.

(With inputs from PTI)