In News:

The Union Government is set to table the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill, 2025 in Parliament, nearly five years after the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) recommended a single, integrated regulator for higher education.

What is the HECI Bill, 2025?

• Nature: A draft legislation to establish a single regulatory authority for higher education in India.
• Coverage: All higher education except medical and legal education.
• Core Change: Replaces the existing multi-regulator system led by University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).

Objectives of the Bill

• Streamline and simplify higher education regulation.
• Remove fragmentation, overlap, and conflicts of interest.
• Implement NEP 2020’s vision of a transparent, outcome-based, and less intrusive regulatory architecture.
• Promote institutional autonomy and academic freedom.

Key Features of the HECI Framework

1. Single Regulator Model

• HECI will subsume the regulatory roles of UGC, AICTE, and NCTE.
• Medical and legal education will continue to be regulated separately.

2. Four-Vertical Structure (as envisaged in NEP 2020)

• National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC): Regulation and compliance for institutions (excluding medical & legal).
• National Accreditation Council (NAC): Accreditation and quality benchmarking.
• General Education Council (GEC): Academic standards, learning outcomes, and curricular frameworks.
• Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC): Funding-related functions (with major financial control likely retained by the Ministry).

3. Functional Separation

• Clear separation of:
  • Regulation
  • Accreditation
  • Funding
  • Academic standard-setting
• Intended to avoid concentration of power and conflicts of interest.

4. Independent, Expert-Driven Governance

• Each vertical to function as an autonomous professional body.
• HECI to act as a light, coordinating commission rather than a heavy regulator.

5. Reduced Regulatory Burden

• Addresses criticism of the current regime being bureaucratic and compliance-heavy.
• Aims to cut duplication, delays, and inconsistent rules across regulators.

6. Institutional Autonomy

• Encourages higher education institutions to become self-governing and academically independent.
• Accreditation outcomes linked with graded autonomy.

Significance of the HECI Bill, 2025

• Major Governance Reform: Ends decades of fragmented higher education regulation.
• Quality Enhancement: Focus on outcomes, accreditation, and professional standards.
• Ease of Doing Academia: Reduces regulatory overlap and administrative friction.
• NEP 2020 Implementation: Converts policy vision into a statutory framework.