Poet Tiruvalluvar in his 140th Thirukkural says: “Education imparted is useless, unless one learns how to live with the society.”
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 intends to provide that holistic education that teaches one to be socially relevant.
To ensure that the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 is achieved, India needs citizens who can lead from here. The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 15, 2025, aims to make this a reality and help reimagine India’s higher education institutions.
Need for change
Why is there a need for this? India’s higher education system has expanded rapidly, spanning over a 1,000 universities, tens of thousands of institutions, and crores of learners. But, regulation has not evolved at the same pace. Multiple statutory bodies with overlapping mandates have created a maze of approvals, inspections and compliance that often pulls institutions away from teaching, research and innovation. This has turned well-meaning oversight into over-regulation, forcing institutions to prioritise paperwork over outcomes and making it harder to collaborate, innovate or update curricula quickly. Institutions find themselves spending a disproportionate effort on “process” rather than “purpose”.
NEP 2020 recognised this and called for a “light but tight” framework — strong on transparency and standards, but minimal on procedural burden, while granting greater autonomy to well-performing institutions. The Bill is a structural step in this direction, aiming to replace fragmented oversight with coordinated standards, streamlined regulation, and credible quality assurance. Anchored in Entry 66 (Union List) of the Seventh Schedule, the Bill creates an apex umbrella body, the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan, with three separate councils for regulation, accreditation and standards. This clear division of roles aims to improve credibility and reduce conflicts of interest. It also proposes repealing three key Acts — the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, the All India Council For Technical Education Act 1987, and the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993 — to unify and modernise the regulatory architecture, bringing relevant higher education institutions under a single framework for coordinated standard-setting and oversight.
Finally, it envisages a technology-enabled single window system built on public self disclosure, where institutions publish key information on governance, finances, infrastructure, faculty, programmes and outcomes, thus enabling continuous transparency and forming the basis for accreditation and public accountability.
The impact
The Bill could trigger three high-impact outcomes. First, it can enable youth empowerment at scale. A streamlined regulatory landscape can expand access to quality institutions and raise the Gross Enrolment Ratio by reducing bottlenecks that slow down capacity-building and programme expansion.
More importantly, it can shift institutional energy toward what truly matters: teaching that builds reasoning and values; learning that is interdisciplinary and flexible; and opportunities for reskilling and upskilling across a lifetime.
Students will provide feedback on academic quality and the overall learning experience of the higher education institutions. With robust grievance redress, they become active stakeholders and are able to demand quality, reward good governance, and help institutions improve through structured feedback.
Second, it can accelerate the adoption of global best practices while remaining rooted in Indian priorities. International credibility is not achieved by copying foreign models, but by meeting global benchmarks of outcomes, ethics, research culture and student experience. A coherent standards framework can support mobility of learners and faculty, promote collaborative research and help Indian institutions attract international students and faculty while also retaining Indian talent.
Third, it can modernise governance through transparency and minimalistic, responsive regulation. A faceless, technology-enabled single-window system can reduce discretion and delays, encourage integrity, and improve predictability for institutions. Public disclosure, when meaningful and audited, creates a culture where trust is earned, not assumed. Autonomy for well-performing institutions and institutions of eminence can then become a tool for excellence; common standards with differentiated autonomy can allow diversity to thrive without compromising quality. The end goal is smarter regulation: focused on outcomes, learner welfare and national priorities.
In perspective
Atmanirbharta in higher education is achieved when India’s institutions can set ambitious goals, innovate responsibly and remain accountable to society. When the Bill succeeds in aligning standards, regulation, and accreditation into a coherent and transparent system, it will help build exactly the kind of citizens that Tiruvalluvar envisioned.
V. Kamakoti is Director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras
Published – January 13, 2026 12:08 am IST
