New Delhi: A parliamentary panel has flagged “critical vacancy” in the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). The report said 516 out of 763 sanctioned non-teaching positions in the UGC are vacant with a vacancy rate of 67.6% vacancy rate while in the AICTE there was a vacancy rate of 63.6% with 133 posts out of 209 sanctioned posts unfilled. The report comes as The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, which seeks to overhaul higher education in India and repeal the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, the All India Council for Technical Education Act, 1987 and the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993 remains under scrutiny of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).Headed by Congress MP Digvijaya Singh, the Department-related Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth, and Sports tabled its 375th Report on Demands for Grants 2026-27 of the Department of Higher Education on Wednesday (March 18). The committee in its report has said that the vacancies “severely impacts UGC’s capacity to discharge its statutory functions, including monitoring thousands of universities, processing grant proposals, and implementing NEP 2020.”While recommending that the vacancies in the UGC and the AICTE be filled in a time bound manner, the committee has also noted “significant faculty vacancies” across Centrally Funded Institutions (CFIs) and recommended that a “consolidated, annually updated vacancy register of all CFIs be prepared”.The panel has also noted that while UGC fellowship data shows year-on-year increase in Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBC) fellowship holders, the proportion relative to enrolled population in these categories “remains unclear” and recommended that a comprehensive gap analysis be conducted to map the number of eligible SC/ST/OBC/Persons with Disabilities (PwD)/Minority students enrolled in PhD programmes against the number actually receiving fellowships.The report said that the UGC has a vacancy rate of 67.6% with 516 out of the 763 sanctioned non-teaching positions lying vacant and recommended that at least 75% vacancy reduction should be targeted by March 2027.“The Committee notes with concern the critical vacancy situation in UGC – 516 out of 763 sanctioned non-teaching positions are vacant (67.6% vacancy rate),” the report said.“This severely impacts UGC’s capacity to discharge its statutory functions, including monitoring thousands of universities, processing grant proposals, and implementing NEP 2020.“The Committee recommends that UGC should take all necessary steps to fill up vacant positions in a time-bound manner, with a target of at least 75% vacancy reduction by March 2027.”With regard to the AICTE, the committee noted 63.6% vacancies with 133 posts out of 209 sanctioned posts unfilled.“The Committee notes that only 20 posts have been filled up on regular/ permanent basis in the last six years,” the report said.“The Committee is of the view that for an important regulatory body such as AICTE the vacant posts (133 out of 209 sanctioned posts i.e. 63.6%) in critical middle and senior administrative layers may hamper the AICTE’s operations and the broader technical landscape as it regulates over 10,000 technical institutions.“The Committee, therefore, recommends that vacancies may be filled on priority through direct recruitment and lateral entry where appropriate, at the earliest,” it added.The committee’s report comes as the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha in December remains with the JPC.The bill seeks to repeal the University Grants Commission Act, 1956, the All India Council for Technical Education Act, 1987 and the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993. The bill seeks to set up an apex umbrella body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan that will provide direction for comprehensive and holistic growth of higher education, along with three councils for regulation, accreditation and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions (HEI) in India. These will be the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Viniyaman Parishad (the regulatory council), the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Gunvatta Parishad (the accreditation council) and the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Manak Parishad (the standards council).The bill was opposed at the introductory stage itself with opposition members questioning overcentralisation undermines state governments as well as principles of federalism, while questioning the nomenclature of the bill in Hindi. Union parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju said in parliament that as it is an extensive legislation, it will be sent to a Joint Parliamentary Committee.Following the parliamentary standing committee report being tabled in parliament on Wednesday, the Congress on Thursday said that the “shocking” number of vacancies in the UGC and the AICTE has come to light “at a time when there is already a move to restructure the architecture of higher education regulation through the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) Bill, 2025.”Congress MP Jairam Ramesh said that his party has seven contentious against the proposed new legislation including failure to consult state governments, constitutional overreach, bureaucratisation of higher education, dilution of the UGC’s consultative requirements among others.“The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education’s annual Demand for Grants report on the Department of Higher Education presented yesterday revealed a shockingly high number of vacancies in key regulatory agencies like the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India… pic.twitter.com/M7OymfYdXI— Congress (@INCIndia) March 19, 2026The committee report, has in addition also noted that in Centrally Funded Institutions (CFIs) while 16,507 faculty and 11,943 non-faculty posts have been filled in mission mode between September 2022 to July 2025, “significant faculty vacancies persist”.“The Committee recommends that a consolidated, annually updated vacancy register of all CFIs be prepared to keep a track on vacancy positions in order to fill up such vacancies timely,” the report said.While the committee has appreciated the increase in Budgetary estimates between 2025-26 and 2026-27, it has said “actual expenditure in 2024- 25 (Rs. 45,576.52 crore) fell short of the BE by nearly Rs. 4,500 crore.” Further it has also said that India’s total public expenditure on education as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stood at 4.06% (2022-23), “which is significantly below the NEP 2020 target of 6% of GDP”.“The Committee notes with appreciation the 11.28% increase in BE 2026-27 (Rs. 55,727.22 crore) over BE 2025-26. However, it observes that actual expenditure in 2024- 25 (Rs. 45,576.52 crore) fell short of the BE by nearly Rs. 4,500 crore,” the report said.“The Committee is of the view that a robust quarterly expenditure monitoring mechanism should be instituted by the Department to ensure full utilisation of allocated funds for overall development of Higher Education ecosystem and prevent lapse of public resources.”With public expenditure, both Centre and States, on education as a percentage of GDP stood at 4.06% (2022-23), against the NEP 2020 target of 6% of GDP, the committee has recommended that the Government take “concrete, time-bound steps to progressively increase the education budget, with a clear roadmap to achieve at least the 6% target by 2030.”