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The NEP 2020 committee felt need for restructuring the regulatory system for higher education and make it simpler as well as supportive. The major recommendations in this regard include.......

Adequate but considerate regulation is the backbone of any system to survive and grow. This is more pertinent for a knowledge sector like education where the regulator must be appreciative too. Education in India has been subject to multiple regulations being a subject under “Concurrent List” of the Constitution; this means that the sector is regulated both by the central as well as state government. The higher education sector has been adversely affected as both regulations often run parallel. For example, for a technical education like engineering which is affiliated to university, one must take permission from the university, state government as well as central government regulatory authority AICTE. This sometimes delays the decision-making process. Further, many of the associated areas like funding, accreditation is all under different domains. That also sometimes delays the smooth flow in the system.

Major Regulatory Reforms:

In the above context, the NEP 2020 committee felt need for restructuring the regulatory system for higher education and make it simpler as well as supportive. The major recommendations in this regard include the following:

Formation of An Umbrella Body: The committee suggested formation of mega-body at the apex level to be known as “Higher Education Commission of India (HECI)”.

Creation of Four Verticals: The committee recommended formation of “four verticals” under the HECI to take care of four important aspects of functioning of HEIs. These are:

1. National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC): This will take care of all aspects of regulation. This will be for all segments of higher education excluding medical and legal education. This body will ensure that HEIs are operating within the rules and have appropriate infrastructure, both physical as well as academic, proper learning outcomes and all systems & procedures are in place.

2. National Accreditation Council (NAC): This will be the meta-accrediting body for all types of higher education and work independently towards quality assurance to ensure that all institutions move towards best of quality standards and a high level of accreditation. This will be a coordinating and policy making body and may not be the actual accreditation agency on the ground.

3. Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC): This will take care of all types of funding including scholarships for deserving students.

4. General Education Council (GEC): This will frame the “learning outcomes” for all types of higher education programs and devise the “graduate attributes” for each program. This body will be responsible to set the “National Higher Education Qualification Framework (NHEQF)” and to identify the skills and competencies needed for the 21^st century.

All these four verticals will work independently but in close unison with each other to ensure that the HEIs are allowed to operate freely, move towards the required international quality benchmarks, and at the same time operate within the given rules and regulations.

The regulation will look both the players operating in the system: “public” and “private” with the same lens meaning thereby rules will be equally applicable to both. One of the important tasks of regulation will also be to ensure that “commercialization of education” stops, and education becomes truly a not-for-profit activity. All surplus generated must be ploughed back in the system.

Current Stage of Implementation and Moving Forward:

The above recommendations prescribe massive changes in the parlance of regulation of higher education in India. It is too early to say whether it will be feasible to implement all these recommendations because of the pressure from the states and other quarters. Needless to say, regulation is extremely important to shape the education system, and all of us are keenly watching the progress.

After five years, there seems to be some movement only in recent times with introduction of Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) Bill 2025 which was introduced in Parliament only in December 2025 and now referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee. This Bill aims to set up a single central regulator for all higher education courses replacing AICTE, UGC and NCTE. However, certain professional courses like those in Medical and Health Services, Law and Pharmacy, Veterinary Sciences remain outside its purview. The Bill also keeps the funding outside its domain and call for the single regulator VBSA being supported by three Councils: one each for regulatory control, quality & accreditation and standard for academic benchmarks. We need to wait and see what the final contour of the Bill will be after the recommendations of the Joint Parliamentary Committee are out. In the meanwhile, there is already significant criticism on the constitutionality of the Bill and the issues related to the federalism aspects. The road for the Bill adoption and implementation is, therefore, not going to be easy. It is already five years and still the reforms envisaged by the committee do not seem to be moving easily. We as citizens of the country can only wish the education system would get the reforms it deserves in 21^st Century to make it world class.