Looking to accelerate education reforms, the union government Friday said it will merge all the higher education regulators including the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All Indian Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to create a single education commission in 2021.
Higher education secretary Amit Khare said that structural reform in the education sector will happen in 2021 and several reforms including the merger of education regulators, and introduction of a single entrance test for admission into all central universities, will be executed.
The merger of the higher education regulator, considered a big reform in the education space, was being debated for years. Authorities and academics have been arguing how multiple regulatory systems in the education sector are fostering red tape, and hindering its growth. Even the new education policy announced in July had touched upon the need for it.
Khare said a single entrance exam for admission into all central universities is coming in 2021 and “the academic credit bank, through which one can transfer credits from one university to another, that is also (coming in) 2021″. The secretary said, the “multiple entry and exit system that we are introducing” will allow a student to “take a sabbatical for a year, come back and join the system without losing out on the credits that she or he has already earned”.
