The University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on 21 September agreed upon a cluster approach by clubbing officers of both the regulators to deal with similar functions. Most of these functions will be with regard to higher education policies like research, training and so on.
According to an official statement, the decision was taken at a meeting of all the bureau heads of the technical education and higher education regulators. M Jagadesh Kumar, chairman, UGC, who is also the interim chairperson of AICTE, said, “In the meeting both the regulators agreed to work mutually in areas of research and innovation, e-governance, translation of books in regional languages and examination reforms, among others.”
The chairman further stressed that both the higher education regulators must work in a synchronised way, should be in coordination, learn from each other, share and adopt each other’s best practices and have a similar approach towards different aspects of higher education.
UGC chairman also stated, "Post detailed deliberations, it emerged that both UGC and AICTE must share a symbiotic relationship and mutually work on matters such as faculty development programme, students and faculty induction programme, skill development, internships, internationalisation, pursuing two degrees simultaneously in physical, online, hybrid mode and Indian Knowledge System and universal human values, among others."