The last date to submit comments and suggestions on the draft bill for UGC Repeal Act 2018 is tomorrow. Earlier, the last date was July 7 which was extended after receiving criticism also for the smaller time frame allowed to submit suggestions. Since, the Draft Bill was uploaded on the MHRD website, it has received mixed response from the concerned parties.
10 Points About The UGC Repeal Act 2018 Or HECI Act 2018
1. MHRD uploaded the Draft Bill for UGC Repeal Act 2018 on its official website on June 28 and invited suggestions and comments from stakeholders till July 7, 2018.
2. The move immediately drew criticism particularly from University teachers across the country who claimed that scrapping UGC was only a bid to increase government's interference in the administration of universities.
3. One of the key features of the draft bill was that the HECI which would replace UGC would only focus on academic matters and quality of education imparted at the institutes and the grants would be dispersed directly by MHRD. This feature was heavily criticised.
4. DUTA had condemned the move in a press statement and said that the new Act will only increase government' interference in the academic institutes. It also expressed its concern that "...an increased focus on accreditation and yearly evaluation of higher educational institutions will create a system of over-regulation."
5. "It is clear that as per the new norms, the authorisation is going to be given and maintained not only on the basis of what a university has at that particular point of time, but it would be contingent on achieving a set of goals over a decade. We can expect these goals to be about resource-generation, a burden that will surely be passed on as fees and a cutback in recruitment, and most likely, by introducing all kinds of rubbish, short-term courses. This means compliance with the Centre's diktats will be essential from the word go, for both the older and newer universities," said Professor Ayesha Kidwai from JNU.
6. MHRD, on July 2, issued a clarification and said that the decision to shift the grant giving power to MHRD was not final and that it will be merit-based.
8. Tamil Nadu and Puducherry governments opposed the decision to scrap UGC.
9. As per a report in HT, the Ministry had received close to 6000 suggestions so far and based on the suggestions received MHRD has dropped plan to keep grant giving power and instead will appoint an independent experts panel.
10. The deadline to submit comments and suggestions is tomorrow and concerned parties can send the same to reformofugc@gmail.com.
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