Why in the news?

• The Union Education Minister tabled the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025 in the Lok Sabha.

Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill

• What is it?: The Bill represents a major structural reform aimed at improving academic quality, governance, and regulatory efficiency in the Higher education system.
• Core Objectives:
  • Enable universities and HEIs to achieve excellence in Teaching as well as in Research.
  • Achieve Better coordination among regulators and establish clear and uniform academic standards
  • Reflects NEP 2020’s principle of “light but tight” regulation through Reduced bureaucratic control and Strong accountability mechanisms.
• Key Features and Proposals:
  • Establishment of the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) as a 12-member apex commission to oversee three specialised councils-
    • Viksit Bharat Viniyaman Parishad (Regulatory Council): Maintains regulatory standards and coordinates governance norms for universities and colleges
    • Viksit Bharat Gunvatta Parishad (Accreditation Council): Oversees accreditation processes
    • Viksit Bharat Manak Parishad (Standards Council): Sets academic standards and ensures harmonisation of quality benchmarks.
  • It includes all the higher education institutions except Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Law, Pharmacy, Veterinary Sciences.
  • It subsumes University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) and creates a single integrated regulatory framework.
  • Funding to be managed through mechanisms of the Ministry of Education to align with NEP 2020’s recommendation to delink regulation from financing.
  • VBSA empowered with strong punitive measures such as monetary fines and suspension of degree/diploma granting powers.

Source: Press Information Bureau