A year on, HRD NITI Aayog undecided on Hari Gautam committee report

One year on, the Professor Hari Gautam committee report to review the functioning of the University Grants Commission (UGC) continues to remain in cold storage, first with the human resource development ministry and now with NITI Aayog. The committee was formed to suggest measures to upgrade and update the regulatory bodies in the field of higher education.

The Hari Gautam committee was one of the first committees set up by former HRD minister Smriti Irani, soon after taking charge in 2014. The four-member committee submitted its report in the month of March last year. The committee is learnt to have recommended scrapping of the UGC and other regulatory bodies. It has pointed out that restructuring UGC could be a futile exercise and has suggested setting up of a National Higher Education Authority through the act of Parliament to replace UGC.

The ministry differed with the committee over the issue of scrapping UGC. The UGC was created by an act of Parliament and it could not be shelved overnight. Instead of putting the report out in the public domain seeking suggestions, the ministry had sent the report to NITI Aayog to study the finer details.

The report was handed over to Aayog in July last year. While there was no official timeline given to the Aayog for making its recommendations, Aayog had set a timeline of June 30 for studying the report and making its recommendations.

Till a few months back, Aayog, which does not have in house experts in the field of education was mulling over the idea of setting up an expert panel to study the report. "The idea did not materialise and we have decided to conduct an in house study," said a senior functionary at the Aayog. However it has now missed its June 30 deadline and is yet to fix up a new timeline.

Professor Hari Gautam who has also served as a UGC chairman is surprised by the lacklustre attitude of the ministry and the Aayog. "We had made a lot of good recommendations that would have revamped the functioning of the higher education sector. I am surprised as to why is the government is holding back the report," he said. He also said that he has not heard anything from the ministry after submitting the report.

TRS Subramaninan went ahead and spoke about his recommendation in the New Education Policy after the ministry decided to hold back his draft, Professor Gautam has no plans in doing so. While he is surprised by the attitude of the government towards treating such reports, he does not plans to go all out. "I have done my job. It is a government's report and it is for them to decide," he said.