Higher education at cross roads!

A university should be a place of light, of liberty, and of learning. - Benjamin Disraeli

The country’s higher education has come a long way from mere hand full of universities to more than 300 and the number is growing. Colleges, teacher, students has shown a phenomenal increase in number since 1947. Higher education registered a sixteen-fold increase in the number of universities, 20-fold increase in number of colleges since independence. Indian universities have grown in number, but witnessed rapid downslide in all spheres of their operation. Higher education in plagued with overcrowding, in adequate staffing, deteriorating standards, poor insufficient equipment and declining public budgets. Only three Indian universities figure among the list of 500 best universities in world shows the pathetic state of our higher education. The word ‘Universitas’, from which the idea of university was born signifies that sectarian, religious, caste, and political considerations have no place. But such narrow tendencies rule roost in our universities. With politicians extending their tentacles into the grooves of academics, Universities instead of being centers of excellence have become centers of influence, corruption and nepotism. Starved of funds state run universities are in doldrums.

Higher education serves two purposes. One is creating knowledge, and transferring this knowledge from one generation to other. In fulfilling this aims our universities need to go a long way. A nation’s progress is judged on the basis of its advancement in science in technology. The state of research in Indian university is less said the better. Higher education does not get the priority it deserves; our universities confine themselves to teaching only and do very little research. India has the third largest technical manpower, but year after year Nobel prizes goes for American and European universities. Shortsighted planning hampered the growth of science and technology in India. Since independence the biggest blunder we have committed is setting up autonomous research institutions whereby neglecting research in universities.

Compared to advanced countries students pursuing higher education in the age group of 17 to 23 is less than 8 percent. In advanced countries like US, UK and France it is 15 percent. To achieve this target we need another 1500 universities. When majority of the universities lack basic infrastructure to carry research, Is it prudent on the part of the government to go for more number of universities? We are faced with a tricky problem of widening the base of higher education without dilution in standards. There is growing consensus among academicians that higher education needs to be remodeled to meets the needs of the economy.

In the backdrop of Knowledge Commissions recommendation, there is an urgent need for overhaul of the higher education to meet the countries future challenges. If India is to develop socially and economically, funding for higher education must be increased. The knowledge Commission has recommended a higher allocation from a GNP of 0.34 to 1.5 for higher education. Is the government with its meager resources in a position to fund so many universities? Where will the money come from? This is where Investment from private sector comes in handy. Higher education is one area, which has remained unaffected by winds of liberalization. In the post-liberalized economy, broadcasting and telecommunication has witnessed phenomenal growth and the government with a cautious optimism can allow private investment in higher education sector. The government has do a tight rope walk in view of Supreme court judgment in 2005, squashing the establishment of several private universities under Chattisghar universities Act 2005. Fee structure in universities has remained almost same for the last fifty years, for fear that any hike in fee may lead to backlash form student community. Students who pay thousands of rupees as school fees should be made to pay the actual cost of higher education. There is a need for rationalizing of the fee structure keeping in view of the realities and inflation. The days of free meals are over.

Primary education holds key to education system in any country. Even after six decades of independence shamefully we have not be able to achieve universalisation of primary education. The government with its scare resources needs to concentrate on primary education and allow private participation in higher education. This is not to suggest, private sector be given unfettered freedom. In country plagued with social inequalities education cannot be left to market forces. The state must ensure a good regulatory mechanism to make sure that private institutions adhere to certain norms and standards, there by creating a level playing field for government and private universities. In the changed economic scenario market forces dictate research. Symbiosis between the industry and universities will accelerate all round development of the economy. Higher education transcends physical barriers; with the integration of the world economy, we need to work on education framework that creates trained human power, which is at par with global standards. The WTO’s new Trade in Education Service (TES) Practices, declaring education as tradable commodity, we need to tone up our higher education to make it fit to be marketed abroad. A globalizing economy would presumably need skills of a much wider variety than those offered at our Universities where even the existing syllabi are hopelessly out of date.

The expansion of educational infrastructure must be coupled with emphasis on faculty development programme to man these institutions. Teaching is no more the first choice of the present generation, with MNCs and software industry attracting the best people with good pay packs academics have suffered with teaching posts remaining vacant for want of suitable candidates in many universities. The biggest challenge before our policy makers is to attract the best brains for teaching and research. Higher education plays a dominant role and is an integral part of development in every sphere of life. It ensures faster economic and social development and plays a vital role in building national character. We need to take a re-look at the educational system, which failed to address the problems of the country. Higher education as vehicle of economic growth has brought in new dimension in the education sector. There is an urgent need to re-define the structure and objectives of higher education in the context of our shift to market economy. We need to discard the present education system a ‘legacy of colonialism’ and have an education system based on Indian values and ethos.