{"id":79261,"date":"2026-07-14T18:51:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T13:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=79261"},"modified":"2026-07-14T18:51:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T13:21:48","slug":"vbsa-bill-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/14-07-2026\/vbsa-bill-2025","title":{"rendered":"Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) Bill, 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/ Education\/ Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Several universities and higher education institutions have demanded a separate grant-disbursing authority under the proposed Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) Bill, 2025.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Features of the Bill<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Regulatory Body: <\/strong>\u00a0The Bill establishes the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (the Commission) as an apex regulatory authority for higher education.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It replaces the University Grants Commission (UGC)<strong>, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE). <\/strong>The Commission will comprise the Regulatory, Accreditation, and Standards Councils.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It will regulate <strong>technical education, teacher-training, and architecture education.<\/strong>\u00a0 Other professional courses, such as medicine and law have been excluded from its purview.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Composition of the Commission: <\/strong>\u00a0The Commission will consist of a Chairperson and up to<strong> 12 members.<\/strong>\u00a0 Members include:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Presidents of the three Councils,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The higher education secretary of the central government,<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The five eminent experts, and\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Two eminent academicians from state HEIs. The Chairperson will be selected by the central government.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Composition of the Councils: <\/strong>\u00a0Each Council will consist of <strong>14 members<\/strong> headed by a President.\u00a0 Members will include eminent experts, one nominee of the Union Department of Higher Education, and nominees of the other two Councils.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Functions of the Councils: The Regulatory Council<\/strong> will be responsible for establishing and ensuring compliance with minimum standards for setting up an HEI, facilitating the autonomy of HEIs in a timely manner, and addressing grievances received from stakeholders against HEIs.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The Standards Council <\/strong>will be responsible for framing learning outcomes for higher education programmes, and minimum academic standards for HEIs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Accreditation Council<\/strong> will be responsible for developing an accreditation framework and system for HEIs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Removal of members:\u00a0 <\/strong>The Chairperson, Presidents, or any full-time members of the Commission or the Councils may be removed on grounds of; insolvency, conviction of offence involving moral turpitude, physical or mental incapacity, or abuse of powers.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Right to confer degrees: <\/strong>\u00a0Degrees may be granted only by:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A university (established by a central or state Act or deemed under the <strong>UGC Act, 1956<\/strong>), or\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>An institution specially empowered by a central Act, or<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Other HEIs authorised by the Regulatory Council with the prior approval of the central government.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Key Issue of the Bill<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Autonomy of HEIs:<\/strong> The Bill\u2019s provisions may not significantly improve the autonomy of higher education institutions (HEIs). In some cases, autonomy already granted to HEIs may be rolled back.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Currently,<strong> institutes of national importance<\/strong> are governed under their specific laws, with academic and research autonomy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Bill brings such institutes under the purview of the Commission and its Councils.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Funding:<\/strong> Allocating and granting funds is a key function of the UGC.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Bill does not include this as a function of the Commission or its Councils.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 <\/strong>had recommended setting up a single regulator with four verticals for regulation, accreditation, funding, and standard setting.\u00a0 <strong>The Bill sets up three of these, excluding funding.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Bill treats professional courses inconsistently.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Technical, management, and teacher education<\/strong> will come under the VBSA Commission.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Architecture education<\/strong> will be regulated by the Commission, while the Council of Architecture will continue as a professional body.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Medical, legal,<\/strong> and certain other professional courses remain outside its ambit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Appeals against decisions of the Councils <\/strong>will be made to the central government.\u00a0 This is unlike the procedure for other regulators, such as SEBI and TRAI.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Grounds for <strong>removal of part-time members<\/strong> not provided.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Significance&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The present bill represents a <strong>renewed effort<\/strong> to implement the <strong>NEP 2020 vision<\/strong>, incorporating a more comprehensive framework that includes <strong>technical and teacher education oversight under the new authority.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Under NEP 2020, <\/strong>the concept of a single regulator was highlighted as part of a <strong>broader repositioning of higher education governance<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The policy recommended separating regulatory functions to<strong> reduce duplication and improve efficiency while maintaining accountability.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/education\/universities-institutes-call-for-separate-grant-disbursing-authority-under-vbsa-structure\/article71217554.ece\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong><br \/>\nContext<\/p>\n<p><\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">\nSeveral universities and higher education institutions have demanded a separate grant-disbursing authority under the proposed Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) Bill, 2025.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong><\/p>\n<p>Key Features of the Bill<\/p>\n<p><\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"\t>\n<p>Regulatory Body: \u00a0The Bill establishes the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (the Commission) as an apex regulatory authority for higher education.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">\n<p>It replaces the University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE). The Commission will comprise the Regulatory, Accreditation, and Standards Councils.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<p><a href=\" https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/14-07-2026\/vbsa-bill-2025 \" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79261"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79263,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79261\/revisions\/79263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}