HRD ministry organising meetings to finalise draft NCHER bill

NEW DELHI: Not leaving anything to chance, the human resource development ministry is organising “retreat” meetings to finalise the draft National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) bill. The ministry is planning to present the draft legislation to the Central Advisory Board of Education (Cabe) at its meeting on June 18-19.

A taskforce set up to work out the contours of the proposed overarching body in higher education, has finished preparing a draft. Sources said that at the retreat meetings suggestions from experts will be solicited and considered. HRD minister Kapil Sibal will be attending these meetings.

Several states including West Bengal and Tamil Nadu have opposed the new regulatory authority. However, the objections by state governments may no longer be valid as the taskforce has made changes to the draft bill that was circulated. Sources said that states will have the opportunity to express their views on the draft as finalised by the ministry at the Cabe meeting, where their suggestions will be considered.

Delinking of the funding functions from the regulatory ones is one of the changes that has been suggested by the taskforce. The proposed overarching body, NCHER, is likely to focus only on regulating institutions and framing policies. This would require setting up of a separate agency that would deal with funding of colleges and universities. At present, both functions are served by the University Grants Commission.