The University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) submitted before a joint panel of Parliament on Thursday (March 12, 2026) that the newly-introduced Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025 was the “solution” to the current challenges of India’s higher education regulatory framework. They added that the bodies largely “agree and concur” with the provisions of the Bill, which was an “enhancement” of their functions as it stood today, The Hindu has learnt.
The VBSA Bill, introduced by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in December 2025, intends to replace the UGC, the AICTE, and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) with a 12-member umbrella Commission known as the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan, under which three separate councils — for regulation, accreditation, and standards-setting - will be operating.
The Bill was introduced to objections from Opposition parties, arguing that it represented “executive overreach”; subjected higher educational institutes to “pervasive executive control, graded autonomy, intrusive compliance requirements, severe penalties, and closure powers”; and went against the principles of federalism.
