HRD, law, health ministries in tussle over higher education control

Updated on: Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Three different versions of the same bill regarding the regulation of higher education in India have been drafted by the HRD Ministry, health ministry and law ministry.

As the law and health ministries battle to have the regulatory control over higher education under their respective fields, the HRD ministry is working to bring education in these fields under its own jurisdiction.

The issue has now been taken up to the Prime Minister's office in order to help solve the tussle.

After the HRD ministry's National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) Bill was introduced in the parliament, the health and law ministries had come up with their own bills to keep higher education in their respective fields under their own domain. The NCHER was meant to be an overarching body, having more power than the University Grants Commission, which would control all higher education in India, except in the field of agriculture.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been asked to take a final decision on the issue. This might be a hindrance to the proposed Bill by the HRD ministry which had won the approval of the central government in June. The proposal had also been backed by the state education ministers as the bill would bring moth legal and medical education under the regulation of one authority.

After the corruption scandal in the Medical Council of India (MCI) had been uncovered, MCI chief Ketan Desai had been arrested and the council had been dissolved.

The HRD ministry had initiated talks to bring medical education under its ambit. However, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has said that a single overarching body, the National Council for Human Resource in Health (NCHRH), must be created for the sole purpose of regulation of all medical education in India. The NCHRH would have under its domain not only the functions of the MCI but also over the functions of the Dental Council, Ayurveda, nursing and paramedical training.

HRD, law, health ministries in tussle over higher education control

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