Think tank slams NCHER Bill,seeks review

The Observer Research Foundation has slammed the National Commission on Higher Education and Research (NCHER) Bill and sought a review of its provisions.

Stating that the Bill will “further exacerbate problems in the higher education system”,the interdisciplinary public policy think tank noted that it had failed to address any real problems faced in higher education. It said,in a report,that the NCHER should only be a strategy-making body without any regulatory or funding functions. “We are opposing the concept of a single over-arching regulatory body,which will end up being autocratic and corrupt. Instead,we need a body that can transform all present regulatory bodies with a new mandate and avoid overlapping of jurisdiction. Instead of reporting to the President,the body should report to the Prime minister,” said researcher Radha Vishwanathan.

The Bill seeks to abolish all present regulatory bodies like the University Grants Commission,National Assessment and Accreditation Council and All-India Council For Technical Education and make NCHER the only regulatory,funding and accreditation body.

The report also suggests exploring the public-private partnership model in the education sector to prevent backdoor entry of privatisation. “We have to be open about the fact that educational institutes are profit-making bodies. We have to fix the extent to which this profit can be termed fair,” said former UGC chairman Dr Arun Nigavekar. He said instead of abolishing these bodies,they should be given a particular domain so that they could be overlooked by the NCHER.