The board, which also has state education ministers as its members, supported the idea to bring medical, agriculture and legal education under the ambit of the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER), Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said after the CABE meeting here on Saturday.
The move would help the apex body to plan a cohesive policy in higher education, the minister said.
The issue of bringing medical education under the NCHER has already evoked sharp protest from the Health Ministry, which is overseeing it now. Agriculture, on the other hand, is a state subject and thus approval of the states will be necessary to bring agricultural education under the apex body.
Even the Bar Council of India has not favoured legal education to be part of the NCHER.
According to the draft NCHER Bill, the body will be the apex institution in higher education and will replace the existing regulatory bodies like the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Education and Research (AICTE) and the Distance Education Council (DEC).
The day-long CABE meeting also witnessed a tussle between Sibal and the state ministers on financing the implementation of the Right to Education Act which provides free and compulsory education for children aged between 6-14 years.
The states asked for 90:10 sharing pattern, with the Centre bearing a major share while the ministry favoured around 65:35. However, the final decision is yet to be taken.
There was a broad consensus among the states on the proposal to set up an overarching body in higher education in the form of the NCHER.
Centre’s enchroachment’
However, states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana termed it as an “encroachment of the Centre”, a provision that new universities will have to seek permission from the NCHER before starting functioning.
“This provision is blocking the freedom of states to open universities,” Uttar Pradesh Education Minister Rakesh Dhar Tripathi said.
Similar views were expressed by Haryana Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal, who said this provision is an “encroachment” on the state government’s power to start new universities.
M K Bhan, a member of the task force, cited a Supreme Court judgement to say that the state universities need to get clearance from a Central regulatory agency before starting functioning.
Sibal also informed that the core curriculum in science and mathematics would come into effect from next year.