New Delhi — Imagine you’re sipping chai near Patel Chest in North Campus, cribbing about your 8 a.m. lecture, when someone drops, “Bro, UGC is getting dissolved.” Suddenly, everyone shuts up. What does that even mean? If you thought the New Education Policy (NEP) was complicated, wait until we pull apart what’s coming for DU, JNU, and your cousin in Greater Noida chasing that ‘AI-ML boosted BTech’ degree.
UGC is Out. HECI is In. But What Does That Mean?
The University Grants Commission (UGC) — the body that decides which course gets funding, which college gets recognised, and which university your parents can afford — is officially set to be replaced by something shinier, called the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI). Under the New Education Policy (NEP), this new avatar will handle everything from curriculum reforms to teacher recruitment
HECI isn’t just one body though. It will be broken into four verticals:
- National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC): to monitor standards and policy
- Higher Education Grants Council (HEGC): to handle funding
- National Accreditation Council (NAC): for grading universities
- General Education Council (GEC): for curriculum framework
Sounds cleaner, right? Less overlap, more accountability. The goal is ambitious: make Indian higher education globally competitive, flexible, and just a tiny bit less soul-sucking.
Will It Actually Make Your Lecture at 8 a.m. Any Different?
Now before you chuck your class notes into the Yamuna, let’s talk about what this means for students in real life. If you’re studying at Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College in South Campus or rushing through the Blue Line to reach Indraprastha University, this could mean:
- A four-year undergrad program with entry/exit options, meaning you don’t lose everything if you drop out in Year 2.
- “Academic Bank of Credits” where you can mix courses from institutions — imagine doing one semester in Jamia and one in OP Jindal.
- Syllabus that doesn’t feel like it was written in 1984 — course updates every 2-3 years.
In theory, your degree won’t decide your prison sentence in a cubicle farm. You’ll have more choices — of subjects, colleges, and scholarships. But in actual Dilli life? Expect teething problems, especially when universities start fighting over accreditation like aunties in a Karol Bagh lehenga shop.
This Isn’t the First Time They’re Messing with the System
Ask any DU professor chilling with chai outside Delhi School of Economics — this isn’t the government’s first rodeo. In 2013, the Four-Year Undergraduate Program (FYUP) debuted at Delhi University and then got unceremoniously rolled back amid student protests. Remember the Meta University idea? Allowing students to take courses across multiple institutions? Cool on paper, never implemented.
The problem has always been execution. Even now, universities lack the infrastructure and admin training to pull off such a reform. You can’t go from marking roll numbers in a tatty register to running cloud-based Academic Credit Banks overnight.
📍 Spot Check: If you’re passing through Vishwavidyalaya Metro, expect more noticeboards in colleges like Hindu, SRCC, and Miranda announcing course overhauls and credit combinations. Outside Gate 4 of JNU, professors have already begun agitating over the new accreditation rules. In Noida’s Sector 62 campus hub, there’s buzz about aligning IT and Business programs with the skill-based NEP model.
The Final Word
This feels like a “Yay” but with strong “We’ll see.” The NEP and dissolution of UGC could make Indian higher education less of a stress factory — but only if it’s implemented right. Will that happen? Well, if you’ve ever waited an hour at Sanskriti Express in North Campus for a roll because zomato cancelled again, you know that “planning” in Dilli often remains just that — a plan.
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