Key structural reforms in the education sector, especially the merger of regulators leading to the creation of Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), will happen this year, AICTE Chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe said here on Thursday.
The HECI will be a single overarching umbrella body for higher education, as per the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
“All regulatory bodies including the AICTE, UGC and NCTE will be merged to form the HECI. This will come into effect this year,” Sahasrabudhe said.
Speaking at the one-day national conference on “Salient features of approval process of handbook (2021-2022) for resetting technical education and implementing NEP”, he said the NEP had several features benefiting students, faculty and institutions.
Blaming a section of media for the “confusion” that mathematics, physics and chemistry are not mandatory for admissions to undergraduate engineering and technology, Sahasrabudhe said “it is absolutely elementary.”
Without these one can’t complete education in engineering. The policy permits students from other streams to join engineering colleges but mandates them to take a course in physics, maths or subjects they have not studied in higher secondary, he added.