Book review

Meager literature on Higher Education in India

By

Randeep Wadehra

After China and the United States, India's higher education system is the third largest in the world. The main governing body at the tertiary level is the University Grants Commission which enforces its standards, advises the government, and helps coordinate between the centre and the state.  Accreditation for higher learning is overseen by 12 autonomous institutions established by the University Grants Commission.

India has 20 central universities, 215 state universities, 100 deemed universities, 5 institutions established and functioning under the State Act, and 13 institutes which are of national importance. Other institutions include 16000 colleges, of which 1800 are exclusively women's colleges, functioning under these universities and institutions. The emphasis in the tertiary level of education lies on science and technology.

However, the system is in urgent need of overhaul. For far too long all the three tiers – Primary Education, Secondary Education and Higher Education (aka Tertiary Education) – have been neglected, more so the last named. Consequently, the rot has set in. As Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh has rightly observed, “Our university system is, in many parts, in a state of disrepair…In almost half the districts in the country, higher education enrollments are abysmally low, almost two-third of our universities and 90 per cent of our colleges are rated as below average on quality parameters… I am concerned that in many states university appointments, including that of vice-chancellors, have been politicized and have become subject to caste and communal considerations, there are complaints of favoritism and corruption.”

The PM’s statement, in retrospect, seems to be a precursor to the ongoing reforms initiated by the HRD Ministry, of which the recent de-recognition of 44 deemed-to-be universities is one of the overdue steps. These “universities” were nothing more than money churners for fly-by-night operators and sham educationists enjoying politico-bureaucratic patronage. Regulatory authorities like UGC and AICTE have been trying very hard to weed out private universities of dubious credentials which have been running courses without any affiliation or recognition. Students from rural and semi urban background often fall prey to these institutes and colleges.

Reforms in the field of education have been rather tardy thanks to low priority given to quality education during the pre-globalization era. In the post-globalization atmosphere, suddenly, the nation had to face the reality check. The industry badly needed skilled entrepreneurs, managers, technicians and highly skilled labor force – something that our educational institutions were ill-equipped to provide. Even the much hyped IITs and IIMs could not provide skilled personnel of adequate quality in adequate numbers. This gave rise the demand for better educational facilities. Consequently, young people are going abroad in the quest of quality education. Foreign universities too have been making a beeline for India to take advantage of the yawning gap between demand and supply of suitably skilled labor force. 

This sorry state of affairs could have been avoided had there been sustained scrutiny of our education system, with timely evaluations, feedbacks and effective corrective actions. Here, it would be facile to blame the government alone. Our opinion makers are equally culpable. For six long decades education was never a preferred field of investigation and debate in our media. Apart from the tepid interest shown by the print and electronic media, there has been poverty of ideas among our educationists too. Whatever literature is available – meager as it is – does not throw up any workable idea that would promote excellence in the various centers of higher learning. The following are some of the books that deal with the subject:

Indian Higher Education: Envisioning the future by Pawan Agarwal. Sage. Rs. 895/-

This book is rich in data. It delineates the size, structure and growth of higher education in India while taking note of the trends regarding Indian students going abroad for education. The growth of private sector in education, the disappearance of elitism, funding patterns vis-&agr

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