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Author :
Nisha Sharma |
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill 2025 provides for a new system of higher education regulation through a single commission.
The Union Government has introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill in 2025. It proposes to update India's higher education regulatory framework and replace the UGC, AICTE, and NCTE with a new umbrella commission. This Bill was scheduled for the Winter Session of the Parliament.
The long-standing presence of multiple regulators in India's higher education system has resulted in uneven standards, conflicting jurisdiction, and irregular approvals.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishathan (VBSA) Bill, 2025 was introduced by the government to address these structural issues and the fundamental principles of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The Bill is planned to raise standards of academic quality and provide accountability in regulation. And introduce modern governance and transparency into India's universities and other higher education establishments. It is said to be one of the biggest policy-level decisions taken in the higher education sector in the recent past.
The Bill states that its purpose is to "promote and facilitate the University's achievement of excellence in teaching, learning, research, and innovation." This is to be achieved through:
Better coordination between regulators
Visibly defined academic and institutional standards
Singlefied higher education governance
The NEP 2020 principle of a "light but tight" regime, which provides less bureaucratic overreach while maintaining strong accountability. It was highlighted in the Statement of Objects and Reasons.
The proposed reforms revolve around the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) a 12-member umbrella commission that acts as the apex authority.
It will deal with three specialised councils:
Viksit Bharat Viniyaman Parishad (Regulatory Council)
Responsible for maintaining regulatory standards
Colleges and universities are coordinated for governance standards
Viksit Bharat Gunvatta Parishad (Accreditation Council)
supervises the accreditation process.
Provides an independent setting for program and institution accreditation.
The Viksit Bharat Manak Parishad (the Standards Council)
Establishes academic standards.
Facilitates policy and quality standard convergence.
A council may have up to 14 members. The VBSA will include the Education Ministry, State higher education institutions and other distinguished experts.
The following types of institutions would be covered under the proposed law:
The proposed legislation concerns the following:
All central and state universities.
Colleges and HEIs.
Institutions of national importance
Institutions of eminence
Technology and teacher training institutions
Professional programs like medicine, dentistry, nursing, law, pharmacology, and veterinary sciences, however, are exempt and will continue to be governed by their own authorities.
The architecture professional standards body will continue to be the Council of Architecture, but it will not have any regulatory powers.
Repealing Existing Legislation
The VBSA Bill seeks to dismantle the UGC, AICTE, and NCTE and bring their regulatory functions under one roof of regulation, accreditation and standardisation.
Funding Separated from Regulation
The big change is that the UGC’s power to distribute grants is abolished. The functions of funding will be carried out under the procedures specified by the Ministry of Education.
This separation is in line with NEP-2020's vision of separation of concerns, specifically separation of academic regulation from institutional/commercial ownership and management.
Going global and opening doors to universities abroad
The Regulatory Council shall (a) set the standards for the operation of foreign universities within the Indian territory.
Encourage excellent Indian universities to establish offshore campuses
Stop the commodification of higher education.
Enhancing Accreditation
The Accreditation Council should design an outcomes-oriented framework that motivates institutions to enhance learning outcomes rather than just compliance with inputs.
Criticism and concerns are raised
Previous reforms of the higher education structure, like the 2018 Higher Education Commission of India(HECI) Bill, were severely criticised for having too much central control and a minimal role of States. Similar concerns have resurfaced.
Amongst the major criticisms of the system are:
Potential for the Centre to have an overbearing influence on appointments
The directive power of the selection board to withhold grants from an autonomous institution
The threat of too much centralisation in the setting of standards
The introduction of state representation in all three councils, a nominal recognition of federal concerns is an important distinction between the VBSA Bill and the HECI Bill.
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