Five years after the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recommended it, the central government is set to table a draft law establishing a single regulatory authority for higher education.The Higher Education Commission of India Bill 2025, to be introduced in the Winter Session of Parliament next month, seeks to merge the functions of three statutory bodies — the University Grants Commission (UGC), the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). This marks the Bill’s second iteration after 2018.What is the Higher Education Commission of IndiaAccording to officials, the Bill is likely to follow NEP 2020’s recommendations. The NEP proposed a single overarching regulator subsuming the functions of the UGC, AICTE, and NCTE. While the UGC regulates higher education, the AICTE oversees technical education in engineering and management, and the NCTE sets standards for teacher education.The NEP proposes four verticals under HECI: the National Higher Education Regulatory Council to regulate all fields except medical and legal education; the National Accreditation Council as an accrediting body; the General Education Council to frame learning outcomes; and the Higher Education Grants Council for funding.“Each vertical in HECI will be an independent body consisting of persons having high expertise in the relevant areas along with integrity, commitment, and a demonstrated track record of public service. HECI itself will be a small, independent body of eminent public-spirited experts in higher education, which will oversee and monitor the integrity and effective functioning of HECI,” the NEP 2020 says. However, officials say funding decisions would remain with the government.The commission aims to reduce bureaucratic red tape. Pointing to the “heavy-handed” nature of the current system, NEP 2020 notes: “The mechanistic and disempowering nature of the regulatory system has been rife with very basic problems, such as heavy concentrations of power within a few bodies, conflicts of interest among these bodies, and a resulting lack of accountability.”A Lok Sabha bulletin says the Bill seeks to constitute a commission to help higher education institutions “become independent self-governing institutions” and to “promote excellence through a robust and transparent system of accreditation and autonomy”.Story continues below this adWhat the 2018 Bill includedThis is the Modi government’s second attempt at replacing the UGC. The earlier Bill — the Higher Education Commission of India (Repeal of University Grants Commission Act) Bill, 2018 — envisioned a commission replacing the UGC with a chairperson, vice-chairperson, and 12 members appointed by the Centre. Since this version did not subsume AICTE and NCTE, their chairpersons were to be commission members.However, the 2018 Bill did not empower HECI to disburse funds, leaving that with the then Ministry of Human Resource Development. The commission’s tasks included laying down standards for institutions to award degrees and granting autonomy. It also proposed an advisory council headed by the HRD Minister, with heads of state higher education councils as members.After the draft was released for feedback, it faced pushback over concerns that it could centralise power and lead to overregulation. It saw no progress thereafter, with the government taking it back to the drawing board to align it with NEP 2020.What has the opposition been to HECIOpposition to the 2018 Bill centred on fears of centralisation and reduced university autonomy. Critics raised concerns about the commission’s composition, limited stakeholder representation, and the transfer of UGC’s financial powers to the MHRD.Story continues below this adIn a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said there was “not even token representation of representatives from disadvantaged sections like women, Dalits, Adivasis, backward castes, minorities or persons with disabilities in the composition of the Commission, while the Industry and Commercial sector has been singled out as a stakeholder and included in the composition”.Edappadi Palaniswami, then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, expressed apprehensions about skewed fund distribution. “Our experience of sanction of funds objectively based on merits to Tamil Nadu has not been very positive by various ministries of government of India,” his letter said. “Further, if this financial power is taken over by ministry, we apprehend that the funding pattern would change from 100% funding to 60:40 ratio between Centre and state.”Similar concerns surfaced earlier this year when a parliamentary standing committee headed by Rajya Sabha MP Digvijay Singh cautioned against “excess centralisation”. “The Committee observes that the multiplicity of regulators leads to inconsistency in standards and monitoring, making it difficult for institutions to function effectively,” the committee said in February. It added that the Bill could leave state universities caught between national and state-level regulations.“The draft Higher Education Commission of India Bill (HECI) (which seeks to replace UGC as a single regulator) appears to perpetuate many of these same issues by maintaining a Central Government-heavy composition and insufficient state representation,” the panel said.