UGC-like funding mechanism to be adopted under Shiksha Adhishthan: Education Ministry

Education Ministry proposes UGC-like funding under Shiksha Adhishthan, raising concerns about centralization and public university financing.

Months after introducing the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, with a primary objective to separate grants-disbursal powers from the higher education regulatory framework to minimise conflict of interest, the Education Ministry seems to have changed its mind.

On Tuesday (March 17, 2026), it told the Joint Committee of Parliament examining the Bill that a UGC-like grants-disbursal mechanism will now be “devised and adopted under” the proposed Shiksha Adhishthan, without offering any specific details.

This came even as Opposition MPs on the committee slammed the Bill in its current form, terming it “skeletal”. They also questioned the government about the increasing centralisation of higher education regulation proposed in the Bill, the sidelining of State representation which will be decided by the Centre, and the future funding mechanism for public universities. The government insisted that the Bill promotes “cooperative federalism”, arguing that it offers more representation to State governments and institutions than the existing framework.

The Bill, introduced in December 2025, seeks to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education, and the National Council for Teacher Education, in an overhaul of India’s higher education regulatory structure driven by the National Education Policy, 2020.

However, the Education Ministry has now submitted that the grants-disbursal powers that the UGC currently exercises will, in fact, come “under” the Shiksha Adhishthan.

Ministry officials told the panel, led by BJP MP D. Purandeshwari, that the UGC currently disburses monthly grants to Central Universities from funds released to it by the Department of Higher Education. It also releases funds under its own schemes, based on quality standards, accreditation status, and NIRF ranking.