Pradeep Singh

Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar today cleared the air on the replacement of University Grants Commission (UGC) by stating that a new body will take over soon.

While replying to questions raised by some members in Lok Sabha over the government bringing in the Higher Education Commission of India Bill, 2018 to repeal the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act, 1956, Javadekar said:

“We are not converting the UGC into a bureaucratic body. It will be autonomous. We will only change the name. It has to concentrate on quality of education and maintenance of standards.”

[caption id="attachment_237702" align="aligncenter" width="661"]UGC File Pic[/caption]

He informed that the new body will be an autonomous one with two separate wings - one for regulatory functions and the other for providing grants to higher education institutions.

The UGC was created in 1956, when the country had 20 universities and 500 colleges with around 200,000 students, but now there are over 3.5 crore students in the country having 900 universities and  40,000 colleges, the minister said.

The new act proposes to establish the Higher Education Commission ostensibly to improve the quality of higher education in the country and bring it at par with international standards, IANS reported.

Javadekar also said that the ministry has received "10,000 reactions" from people in this regard and the government is currently reviewing them.

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