IITs and IIMs push back against VBSA norms / Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025
Institutes of National Importance, including Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management, are seeking exemption from several provisions of the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025.
- The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025 proposes a new apex higher-education regulator and is under scrutiny by a Joint Parliamentary Committee.
- The Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the Bill is headed by D. Purandeswari.
- Institutes of National Importance, including Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management, are seeking exemption from several provisions of the Bill.
- The government says Clause 49 is intended to protect the autonomy of Institutes of National Importance and Institutes of Eminence.
What happened
Institutes of National Importance, including Indian Institutes of Technology and Indian Institutes of Management, are pressing for exemption from several provisions of the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025. The institutions say the proposed law could centralise higher-education regulation and dilute the autonomy of premier public institutions.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025 is being examined by a Joint Parliamentary Committee headed by BJP MP D. Purandeswari. The Bill proposes to repeal several existing statutes governing the University Grants Commission, the All India Council for Technical Education, and the National Council for Teacher Education, and replace them with a single apex body called VBSA with regulatory, accreditation, and standards councils under it.
UPSC may test the proposed shift from multiple statutory regulators to a single apex body, and may ask whether the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025 balances regulatory uniformity with autonomy for Institutes of National Importance and Institutes of Eminence.
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