KOCHI:Prof P K Abdul Azis, former vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University and Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat), said the proposed move to disband the University Grants Commission (UGC) and set up the Higher Education Commission of India is a “blatant attempt for political control of higher education”.
In a letter to Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar, he said there was no reform in this initiative and it was a blatant attempt to usurp all financial powers to allocate funds received by the ministry for higher education based on political consideration.
“The result would be unfettered bureaucratic and political control of grants released to higher educational institutions and universities across India.It is virtually total bureaucratic takeover of the higher education sector, negating the claim of the Centre that it stands for ‘less government and more governance’,” he wrote.
Bureaucrats and some politicians were constantly giving successive HRD ministers baseless feedback on the functioning of the UGC, he said. Disbanding UGC will be a retrograde step and the initiative be withdrawn, Azis said.