Education Authority Bill: Its Implications for Architecture Education

The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill (VBSA Bill), recently tabled in Parliament, could significantly and positively impact architecture education. It offers ‘minimalistic regulation,’ greater institutional autonomy, and enabling ways for academic excellence, reforms that could prove transformative if realised.¹

This bill comes five years after the National Education Policy (NEP), which called for a comprehensive overhaul of the higher education sector. Among other recommendations, NEP understandably focused on institutional restructuring to consolidate multiple regular authorities, eliminate university affiliation, and let institutions take full charge and responsibility for quality education.

The VBSA bill can help realise NEP goals. The proposal is to dissolve the University Grants Commission (UGC) and related authorities, such as the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), which regulate professional education, and to integrate their functions into a new structure. While about 10 professional fields of education, such as veterinary, medicine, law, and pharmacy, are exempt from this restructuring, architecture is not.²

This does not mean that the Council of Architecture (CoA) will be dissolved. It will continue to exist and regulate practice, but will not regulate architecture education as it currently does.³ CoA will continue to play an influential role, but primarily as a member of the councils envisaged by the bill. More of it later.

The bill proposes a new structure with an apex commission and three councils:

• Regulatory,
• Accreditation, and
• Standards.

The apex commission will serve as the umbrella body, providing strategic direction and developing a roadmap to transform higher educational institutions. It will advise the state, guide the three councils, and provide financial support for them. CoA is not an ex officio member of the apex commission, but will be an official member of all three councils.

The three councils will operate independently, each with distinct responsibilities. The Regulatory Council will direct institutions to accredit, a requirement for seeking autonomy. Full disclosure of finances, infrastructure, faculty, and educational-related information will be mandatory, along with a transparent grievance redressal system for students. Importantly, the Council will set minimum standards for both Indian and foreign institutions, as recommended by the Standards Council, and will facilitate high-performing Indian universities in establishing campuses abroad and multiple campuses within the country.

The Accreditation Council will serve as the accrediting body and help establish and oversee an independent accreditation ecosystem. To scale its operations, it will empanel institutions to conduct accreditation and monitor them. In the proposed system, institutions must publish their Institutional Development Plan (IDP), which will make public their educational, research, and societal goals; standards and regulatory compliance; and resource allocation and development plans.

The Standards Council will frame expected learning outcomes, or “graduate attributes,” for various programmes; set norms for credit transfers; and facilitate student mobility. Importantly, it will develop a preventive plan for academic standards and a framework for curriculum and pedagogy development. However, the framework will be `non-binding,’ and institutions can frame their own pathways.

What will be the CoA’s role? What concrete changes will come, and how will institutions have to respond? It is a bit early to answer these questions in detail.

So far, we have the proposed structure; the operational details and specifics will follow. The Bill states that the CoA will serve as a Professional Standard Setting Body (PSSB) and be a member of all three Councils. The Bill itself does not detail the PSSB’s role; it refers to NEP 2020, which briefly outlines it. The PSSB would help specify the curriculum framework, and set `the standards or expectations in particular fields of learning and practice’. It will also play an important role in devising an accreditation framework.⁴ The three proposed councils will solicit inputs from and consult with PSSBs. Thus, the CoA will continue to shape architecture education, primarily through its professional registration requirements.

Two factors will determine the success. First, the Bill has been referred to a Joint Parliamentary Committee, which will consider various views and produce the final version accordingly. The final version must uphold the spirit of the reforms, simplify the process, grant institutions greater autonomy, and support their pursuit of excellence.

Second, the details will matter. For instance, how will graduate attributes and standards be determined? What ideas of profession will it reflect? Will it support diversity in educational approaches, or will it settle for a cookie-cutter template? How will it support student choices? Will new regulatory mechanisms be truly light-touch? Will the operating procedures resulting from this bill enable institutions to make improvements? Answers to these questions will determine the quality of education.

This is also an opportunity to broaden the definition of research in the professional education context. Applied research, works that support professional practice and help deliver better products and services, deserve equal recognition and support.

Notes

1. Section 2.1(e) mentions that the Act will apply to “institutions regulated under the Architects Act, 1972. ↩︎
2. Section 2.3 ↩︎
3. Section 2.2 states that “Notwithstanding anything contained in the Architects Act, 1972, or any other Act governing the regulation of higher education and open and distance learning, or online education and digital education, the provisions of this Act shall apply to any matter concerning the coordination and determination of standards in higher educational institutions. Provided that nothing contained in this Act shall be construed as restricting the powers of the Council of Architecture constituted under the Architects Act, 1972, to regulate their professional practice.” ↩︎
4. National Education Policy, 2020. Pages 47-48. Last accessed on December 25, 2025. ↩︎

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