The government is drafting a bill to set up a higher education body that will replace the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).

The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the government’s blueprint for changing the face of education in the country, also mentions setting up a Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) as an umbrella body with independent verticals to perform distinct functions of regulation, accreditation, funding and academic standard setting, according to Union Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar. The minister shared the information in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha.

The concept of the HECI has been discussed before in the form of a draft bill.