Bill meant to replace UGC, AICTE circulated among 39 Ministries, departments for discussions, says government

The draft Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) Bill, 2025, to overhaul the higher education regulatory framework in India, was circulated among 39 Union Ministries and departments as part of inter-ministerial consultations, the government has informed the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) looking into the Bill, The Hindu has learnt.

The Bill proposes the setting up of a 12-member umbrella commission – the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan – to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).

Unlike the UGC, the new commission will not have the power to disburse grants. The Bill hands over the funding power to “mechanisms devised by the Ministry of Education”.

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The 31-member JPC is headed by BJP MP D. Purandeswari. In a communication to the JPC ahead of its first meeting on Thursday, the government explained the background to the Bill and its provisions.

The Bill intends to subsume the UGC, AICTE, and the NCTE, by repealing the laws under which these bodies were set up. The commission will include separate regulatory, standards, and accreditation councils.

The government said the Bill evolved from Budget announcements in 2019-20. It had proposed the establishment of the VBSA under entry 66 of the Union List in the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution. It further noted that the plans for this reform had been laid out in the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, which was brought in after wide consultations.

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Opposition’s dissent

The VBSA Bill was introduced by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Parliament in December 2025, even as MPs from across Opposition parties opposed it. They said the Bill represented “executive overreach”, subjected higher educational institutes to “pervasive executive control, graded autonomy, intrusive compliance requirements, severe penalties, and closure powers”; and went against the principles of federalism.

Soon after the Bill’s introduction, the government said it would be examined by a JPC, which was constituted earlier this month.

Sources told The Hindu that the government, in its communication to the panel, explained the rationale behind separating the grant disbursal powers from the regulatory authority, saying that this was needed to remove potential conflict of interest, and to ensure transparency.

At the JPC meeting on Thursday, officials of the Education Ministry and the Ministry of Law and Justice (Legislative Department) are expected to brief the panel members on the VBSA Bill.