India’s higher education system is the third largest in the world, next to the United States and China. India’s focus on expanding the higher education sector to provide access has led to a situation where research and scholarship have been neglected.
Challenges faced by Indian Higher Education
Funding issues:
- The Central government’s slant toward premier institutions has continued ever since the Eleventh Five Year Plan where in spite of a nine-fold increase in Budget allocation.
- Investment by State governments has been also dwindling each year as higher education is a low-priority area
- There has been a demand to take spending on education to 6% of gross domestic product for decades.
Low enrolment:
- The gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education is 24.5 meaning out of every 100 youths eligible for higher education, less than 25 are pursuing tertiary education.
- Desired levels of research and internationalization of Indian campuses remain weak points
- Only 1.7% colleges run PhD programmes and a mere 33% colleges run postgraduate-level programmes.
Regulatory issues:
- The country has a poor record with both the University Grants Commission (UGC) and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)
Lack of autonomy:
- All aspects of academic life, including admission norms, syllabus design, and examination were controlled by the affiliating university.
- In colleges set up and run by the government, recruitment of faculty was the state government’s prerogative.
- Autonomy to function through their own structures of governance first began to diminish in many provincial or state universities in the sphere of appointment of vice chancellors.
Ranking systems:
- Additional autonomy granted on the basis of NAAC rating and status in NIRF begs questions about these systems of evaluation. They are neither authentic nor valid.
Roots of Vulnerability
- Currently there is a dominant ideology of commercialisation of knowledge and teaching.
- Higher education is not leading to graduates entering the work sector as the education is not in sync with the needs of the companies.