Yashpal panel to review UGC’s role

NEW DELHI: Turf war and political compulsions may have rung the death knell for the National Commission for Higher Education, but the ministry of human resource development is unwilling to give up on the idea of greater coordination among education regulators.

The ministry has entrusted the UGC/AICTE review committee, headed by Professor Yashpal, with the task of assessing the role of the University Grants Commission in coordinating standards of higher education vis-a-vis the functional role of other statutory bodies like AICTE and Medical Council of India.

The Yashpal Committee will do more than just find a way to ensure India���s education regulatory framework works in sync. It has the mandate to provide a regulatory system for higher and technical education that is in sync with the requirement of the country. The Committee has a year to complete its task. This would mean that even if Professor Yashpal and his team complete the work on schedule, its recommendations will not be taken up for implementing by the current UPA government.

The Committee is more than a simple review of the functioning of the university regulator, UGC and the technical education regulator AICTE. It has also been entrusted the task of reviewing the legislative framework under which these institutions were set up. The Committee has been asked to review the provisions of the UGC Act, 1956 and the AICTE Act, 1987. It will also review suggestions made by various committees to amend these Acts.

The other crucial area of concern that Professor yashpal and his team will be required to review is the role of the UGC and AICTE in enforcing standards in education institutions. It has been asked to consider the ���possibility of introducing a system of incentives and disincentives so that national standards of higher education/technical education are not compromised or diluted���.