A Proposal to Reform the University Grants Commission

Re-imagining a Pan-India Regulator for the Higher Education Sector

Summary: This report recommends an overhaul of the structure and functioning of the University Grants Commission to address problems like centralisation, corruption, ad-hocism, and a lack of capacity, coordination and principle-based regulation.

This Vision Document examines the institutional challenges faced by the University Grants Commission (“UGC”) in regulating higher educational institutions in India. The purpose of the Vision Document is to consider how a new regulator that could replace the UGC should be structured. Further, this document also outlines appropriate regulatory tools that would equip such regulators to effectively administer universities in India. In making these suggestions, this document also analyses regulatory theory, and draws from the vast literature on higher education administration to propose a roadmap for reform.