Wide discussions are held on the state and concerns of Indian
higher education. What really is the issue here? Let us take a look!...
Though
the problems associated with this sector are multilayer-ed, I had
divided it broadly in to administrative and academic problems, with few
subtitles under these as I feel that all other problems like, social,
psychological etc. associated with this sector comes in the backdrop of
these broad problems. Let us first look in to these problems before
going in to the reforms required.
CONCERNS
I) ADMINISTRATIVE-
i)
Reservation- Reservation and Privatization are perhaps the most debated
topic in our higher educational sector, and hence I have listed it
first in the list. Increased concern over reservation has negatively
affected our higher educational system as it has taken away lime light
from many other major concerns. Reservation in any sector
(&especially I educational system), causes loss to society, as the
brightest do not reach better institutes; but we still continue with it
thinking it would bring more good to the society than its losses. Though
the need for a reservation still exists it is time to think of its
re-allotment for more effectiveness. Sam Pitroda, the chairman of
National Knowledge Commission, "Reservation has probably set us back
several years in our ability to carry out the reforms we need to."
The
popular support that reservation gets had prompted many of our
politicians to o on further with reservation (with a need for Supreme
Court to intervene in the matter and cap reservation limit to maximum of
50 Percent). The social tensions faced by the authorities against this
policy is mainly managed by increasing the total number of seats and
also because many among the upper class pursue foreign education.
The
proper implementation and gradual reduction of reservation in a
democratic country like ours need strong political will, free of
prejudices.
ii) Political intervention in universities- This takes
place both in policy formation and implementation. Bureaucratic
sluggishness, misconceptions and prejudices retard the growth of our
higher education sector. The denial of visa for prominent global
educationalists to come to India, the slow moving files in government
offices on matters concerning collaboration of industry and institutes,
the delays in allocation of new courses etc. are the finest examples of
this aspect.
Among the policy matters too, the absence of
Political visionaries had been a problem while there were 5 IITs
established during Nehru's period, only 1 IIT was established prior to
the recent establishment of5 new IITs. Unhealthy political among the
teaching and the student community and the inefficient funding has also
retarded the growth of this field. A prominent educationalist tells,
"Our deans and administrators now hang on the spoken word of our
politicians, and student unions and teachers beat to their drum. It's so
entrenched that asserting independence in appointments and day to day
decision turns you in to a radical, a rebel in the system."
As
political elite and the government receive benefits of these negative
aspects, they prefer a status-quo. Thus, in our higher educational
system, we have this uncomfortable condition, as Nandan Nilekani puts it
"the state interferes, rather than guiding; (play) politics rather than
policy".
iii) Regulation- In the regulatory aspect of higher
education, we have a dual problem. On the one hand, we have a confusing
array of different regulatory bodies like UGC and AICTE and on the other
hand, neither the government, nor UGC or AICTE has an effective control
over our Universities. The rating system of the UGC and AICTE is also
one with many loop holes.
Due to absence of good legislation, UGC
and AICTE had reduced to regulatory bodies that stand helplessly by, as
India's university system crumbled, and thus half of India's expanding
colleges, as a Vice-chancellor remarked, "are intellectual and social
slums".
iv) Funding- India spends only 1.9 percent of its GDP on
higher education, the lowest among any nations with GDP higher than $500
billion. Its spending on research activities at universities is also
very low compared to both the developed and the emerging nations. Even
the funds that are presently allotted are not efficient enough. But, it
should be noted that higher funding or investment in higher education
can lead to better results only with reforms in the total system.
II) ACADEMIC-
i)
Quality of the Higher education- India is the 3rd largest in the number
of higher educational institutes after China and USA and is one of the
largest degree producers in the world.
But, quality of these is
quite unsatisfactory. No worthwhile invention has been made here. Rote
learning can identified as one of the factor behind this. India's
engineering and medical colleges, management schools and universities
are facing a serious shortage of quality academic faculty by about 20
percent. Global competitiveness of Indian students is comparatively
small and is still smaller if the top 10 institutes of India are taken
out. India does not have more than 5 universities in the top 500 bracket
of the academic ranking of world universities.
ii) Number of
Institutions for higher education- Though India is one of the largest in
terms of number of institutes for higher education; it is still short
of them. This shortage is expected to be more by 2015, thanks to the
efforts to improve the enrollment ratio. By 2015, we need at least 1500
universities, against 350 we have today.
iii) Research- The
research standards of our country has been poor, both in terms of
quality and quantity. If we consider a particular area, say Computer
Science, where we are assumed to be strong, we can see that annual PhDs
in this field in our country is 25, while it exceeds 800 in USA and 2500
in China. IIT is granted 3-6 patents in a year, where as it is 64 for
Stanford and 102 for MIT! We haven't seen any technological adaptation
after 1970s and 1980s and not a single major invention emerged from
India over past 50 years!!!
iv) Employability- "75 percent of the
Indian graduates are unemployable for the work they are trained for",
was said by Shri. Narayana Murthy of Infosys. Many people prefer
sub-standard engineering degree than good vocational skills, where as 90
percent of the employment opportunities require vocational skills.
McKinsley estimates that only 10 percent of Indian students in arts and
humanities and only 25 percent of Indian engineering graduates are
globally competitive. 12 percent of the 41 million unemployed are either
a graduate or a postgraduate!
REFORMS
It is an agreed fact
that reforms are required in the area of higher education. Many
suggestions on this matter address many of the problems mentioned
earlier. Some of them are a panacea for more than one of those problems.
A
'super regulator' which forms a single independent regulatory body
would eliminate the confusion prevailing over multiple arrays of
regulatory bodies. This would also bring more transparency, setting up
of uniform controls and better quality in higher education. We need
independent regulatory body free from government or political
intervention.
Private participation, if properly propelled can
bring out both qualitative and quantitative improvement in our higher
educational sector. It is neither possible nor sensible for the
government to invest the huge amount that is required for, in our higher
educational sector. Private participation, from both inside and outside
the country should be encouraged to make more institutes in our
country. This will take away the deficit between the demand for higher
education and the availability of institutes. This will avoid the
instances like that which happened in Delhi University this year, when a
100percent cut-off was announced in a college under the university.
Institutes like TISS, BITS, Lady Sriram College, Sriram College of
Commerce, Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), CMC Vellore, St.
Stephen's College, etc. has taken away our doubts on the quality of
private institutes.
The interactions between industries and
institutions should be encouraged, taking necessary precautions, as this
can increase the employability of the students.
Reforms have
taken in our country when visionaries came in to action, like it
happened during Nehru's times. When visionaries like M.S. Swaminathan,
Vikram Sarabhai, Sam Pitroda, Verghese Kurien etc. acted, reforms
required happened with direction. In the higher educational sector of
our country, we have "a Niagra of reports and a Sahara of actions".
Reforms required in higher educational sector requires controversial
steps, as we are in a democracy. In fact, the market economy has been
pushing us to the necessary reforms, to an extent. The question is,
whether India can bring about these reforms fast enough to avail the
opportunities that the country has today- domestically and globally???
