NCHER and State Universities: An Exercise in Redundancy

State universities are the unsung arteries of higher education in India. The strengths and the weaknesses of higher education today are primarily the strengths and weaknesses of these universities. However, the bill to establish the National Commission on Higher Education and Research, as it stands, does not explicate any specific mechanisms to address the crucial problems faced by the state universities. If any, by concentrating all the powers in a single authority, the problems might become even more deeply entrenched once the bill is passed.