HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA – POLITY
News: Rankings, and the realities of higher education
What's in the news?
● The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) recently released the India Rankings for 2023.
Key takeaways:
● This is the eighth consecutive edition of rankings of higher education institutions in five categories such as
○ Overall
○ Universities
○ College
○ Research Institutions
○ Innovation
● Eight subject domains such as
○ Engineering
○ Management
○ Pharmacy
○ Medical
○ Dental
○ Law
○ Architecture and planning
○ Agriculture and allied sectors.
● The NIRF evaluates institutions on five parameters such as
○ Teaching
○ Learning and resources
○ Graduation outcome
○ Research and professional practices
○ Outreach and inclusivity, and perception.
● Ranks are assigned based on the sum of marks secured by institutions on each of these parameters.
Indian higher education system:
● India’s higher education system is the third largest in the world, next to the United States and China.
● The Higher Education sector has witnessed a tremendous increase in the number of Universities/University level Institutions & Colleges since Independence.
● Some institutions of India, such as IITs, NITs, IIMs have been globally acclaimed for their standard of education.
Issues in Higher Education:
1. Lower enrolment ratio:
● There is a huge gap between those who move out from school and those who enroll in higher education systems, which really need to be bridged.
● India’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is around 27.1 percent which is 6 percent lower than the world average and it is 50 percent lesser than countries such as Australia and the US.
● India has the largest population of young people (100 million) between 17 to 19. When around 27% students enroll into higher education institutes which translates to 20 million, which is very low.
2. Issues in regulation and autonomy:
● In India, apart from UGC (University Grants Commission) there are several regulatory bodies like AICTE, MCI, BCI, NCTE and those under state governments.
● These individual bodies move in different paths, creating various hurdles like exams, teaching methods for students. So, we need to bring all important regulatory bodies on a common platform and develop a common understanding and strategy for managing the change.
3. Lack of research centric approach:
● Most of the Indian higher education system lacks a strong teaching-learning process and research.
● This is the reason why no higher education institution of India figures in the global top 200 higher education institutes around the world.
● India has barely 119 researchers per million of the population as compared to Japan which has 5300 and US which has 4500.
4. Lack of good faculty:
● Shortage of quality faculty is proving to be a great stumbling block in the transformation of higher education in India.
● According to a government report, there is a massive need for expansion in higher education, but there is also a lack of deserving Ph.D. candidates for faculty positions in higher education.
● This has created a shortage of almost 54 percent in the faculty talent pool in higher education, such a deficiency will greatly prove to be a stumbling block, which is mainly due to the bad decisions taken by policymakers, bureaucrats, and university administrators.
5. Lack of new teaching methods:
● The Indian higher education system has been following the lecture drive method for several years. This has turned ineffective and not sufficient in many areas.
● Besides, there is a lack of teacher's learning and development areas which should be in the form of educating them. There are no approaches like mentoring, spot visits, practical educational tours and involvement in research projects with peers.
6. Increase in profit making institutions:
● Though private players in higher education contribute significantly to the growth of the sector, the profit intent of these institutions has threatened the very basic foundation of social development goals.
7. Stagnant curriculum:
● There is a wide gap between industry requirements and curriculum taught at colleges.
● This also renders graduates unemployable lacking in specific skill-sets.
8. Financing:
● India barely spends 2.5% of its budgetary allocations on education. This is far below the required amount needed to upgrade the infrastructure at public institutes.
● Nearly 65% of the University Grants Commission (UGC) budget is utilized by the central universities when the share of state universities in student enrolments is much higher.
9. Inclusiveness and equal access:
● Inter-caste and tribal disparities are prominent in Indian higher education, For Scheduled Castes, Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is 19.9% and for Scheduled Tribes, it is 14.2% as compared to the national GER of 24.5%.
● Muslims have the lowest rate of enrolment in higher education. Caste-based discrimination in universities leading to suicides e.g. Rohit Vemula case.
10. Unemployable workforce:
● The educated youth in India are not employable since they lack the necessary industry-level skills.
● The Indian education system does not give priority to the basic foundation.
● Skill development programs cannot succeed without a basic foundation.
● The government measures to address the unemployment crisis like PMKVY have shown poor results because of this reason.
Revamping higher education system:
1. Filling up vacancies:
● Government must ensure filling up of vacancies through more autonomy to the institutions.
2. Creating an enabling atmosphere:
● Research cannot be improved merely by regulating universities, instead they need efforts to create an enabling atmosphere for which it is imperative to grant more autonomy, better funding and new instruments to regulate work ethic.
3. Implementing initiatives:
● New initiatives like Hackathon, curriculum reform, anytime, anywhere learning through SWAYAM, teacher training is all aimed at improving quality. These need to be effectively implemented.
4. Permanent appointments:
● As India wants to transform its universities into world class institutions, it must safeguard the interests of young researchers and thousands of temporary faculty members by expediting the permanent appointments in a time-bound framework and transparent manner.
5. Incentive:
● One of the fundamental changes India must institutionalize is a radically new compensation and incentive structure for faculty members. A flexibility to pay differential salaries based on market forces and merit must be part of this transformation.
6. Investment:
● Adequate investment in the higher education sector is needed. Gap in investment to be filled by private sector
7. Revamping curriculum:
● It is important to make curriculum industry-oriented, updated and practical focusing on skill development. More focus is needed on critical thinking, analytical reasoning, problem-solving rather than memorizing and writing skills.
8. Autonomy:
● UGC should act as a facilitator rather than a regulator. More autonomy to universities to be provided.
9. NEP 2020:
● Regulation in Higher Education: Higher education would also be reformed by setting up Higher Education Commission of India (HECI), a single regulator for the four verticals to take care of all aspects of higher education:
○ National Higher Education Resource Centre: For regulating the higher education sector.
○ National Assessment and Accreditation Council: To provide accreditation to higher education institutions.
○ Higher Education Grants Council: For funding academic and research activities.
○ General Education Council: For standard setting of academics in the higher education sector.
● Increase GER to 50 % by 2035:
○ NEP 2020 aims to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education including vocational education from 26.3% (2018) to 50% by 2035. 3.5 Crore new seats will be added to Higher education institutions.
● Holistic Multidisciplinary Education:
○ Broad based multi-disciplinary, holistic UG education with flexible curricula, creative combinations of subjects, integration of vocational education and multiple entry and exit points with appropriate certification.
● Multidisciplinary Educational Research University (MERU):
○ The policy also envisages phasing out of single stream colleges and instead, transforming them into multidisciplinary Higher Education Institutions called Multidisciplinary Educational Research University (MERU).
● The National Research Foundation will be created as an apex body for fostering a strong research culture and building research capacity across higher education.
● An Academic Bank of Credit is to be established for digitally storing academic credits earned from different HEIs so that these can be transferred and counted towards final degree earned.