OPEN FORUM

New Delhi, 4 January 2008

Higher Education

ENSURE STANDARDS, EXPAND REACH

 By Dhurjati Mukherjee

The Centre plans to set up 30 universities across the country. It wants to make available higher education to a larger segment of the population and raise the standards in the country. This follows the Government’s decision to have more specialized institutes on science and technology. The Prime Minister too stated that the Government was committed to setting up a Central University in each State and would lend a helping hand to ensure that each district got a college.

Addressing the 150th anniversary of University of Mumbai recently, Manmohan Singh said that modalities for setting up of these universities had begun and that the Human Resource Development Ministry, University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Planning Commission were working together. He wanted these universities to be symbols of excellence, models of efficiency, examples of academic standards and university governance for other State universities to emulate.

India has presently 20 Central universities --- 18 funded by the UGC are spread over 9 States, Delhi and Pondicherry. One Central university would be located in each of the remaining 16 States and 14 new ones would come up in States which provide free land in attractive locations. The Centre would also help the States to start 370 new degree colleges and strengthen 6,000 others in districts where the gross enrolment ratio was low.

Meanwhile, the Planning Commission has proposed a Seven-Year Special Plan (2007-14) which includes setting up 8 new IITs, 7 new IIMs, 20 NITs, 20 IIITs and 50 centres for training and research in the frontier areas. Of the IITs, three have already been cleared and one IIM at Shillong has been shown the green light. Plans are afoot to have five Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research, of which one has already been set up at Kolkata.

In the field of technical education, expansion and upgradation of 200 technical institutions in various States has been envisaged. The plan for higher and technical education will start in the 11th Plan and should spill over to the next without being diluted. The Plan panel has proposed a funding of Rs 1.31 lakh crore for the seven-year Plan.

There has been a marked development of higher education in the country since Independence with a steady expansion of colleges and universities, setting up of distance education system and several initiatives to promote access and equity. Annual growth has been estimated to be around 3.5 to 4 per cent per annum.

Moreover, though India is known for its higher education quality and research its expansion has not kept pace with its requirements. The enrolment ratio is not satisfactory and is estimated at 9.1 per cent. The Government hopes to raise this ratio to at least 15 per cent by 2012. However, it is still way behind the 40-50 per cent in the developed countries.

True, the country has not been lagging behind in quality education but its reach has been limited because of ever-increasing population growth. Once regarded as one of the premier centres of scientific and historical research in Asia, India can boast of the best universities like Chennai University, Calcutta University and Mumbai University and Central universities like the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Viswa Bharati University and Benaras Hindu University where students from various neighbouring countries come to study.

Then we have specialized institutions for scientific and technical educations like the IITs, which are world famous. Management institutions like the IIMs and private colleges like the ICFAI in Sikkim, Manipal University, Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University have also attracted foreign students. In fact, our engineering education is of such a high standard that India has recently been made a provisional member of the Washington Accord, a 10-member global apex organization.

In recent times, induction of new disciplines for study and research such as environmental science, disaster management, computer applications/engineering, informatics, hotel and tourism management, religious studies and, of course, biotechnology. Centres of higher education are attracting more students. With changing times, courses now need to be formulated for which there is need and demand.

For example, environmental science, computer applications or even biotechnology are highly sought after courses because of their sheer importance in today’s society. However, the problem is that only few colleges and universities are equipped to teach these subjects but private institutions are showing initiative. It is time that private participation in higher education be welcomed so that one segment of the population can meet the costs involved in such institutions.

However, there can be no denying that there is very little effort to maintain departments and colleges of excellence and hold them as models worthy of emulation. Instead, in most cases, the attempt has been to drag down the high achievers to the level of the masses.    Kolkata and Chennai’s Presidency College and the Delhi School of Economics, are three such cases in point.

True, specialized universities are now coming up. The South Asian University is expected to come up shortly with students and faculty from all the SAARC nations. The Government is also considering the setting up of a Workers’ Technical University, a unique institution of its kind, which would ensure that the country’s working population is able to meet the rapidly growing needs of the industry. Thus, the 40-crore strong workers’ population, of which 98 per cent is in the unorganized sector, is able to continuously upgrade its skill.

Proposed to come up in Hyderabad with 13 regional centres in different parts of the country, the entire network is expected to cater to nearly three lakh workers/students a year. About Rs 500 crores are needed to set it up, Rs 100 crores annually to run it and that trade unions, big, medium and small industries and the Government would help fund it.

Another major development is the proposed revival of the 800-year-old Nalanda University with seven schools (with 4530 students and 453 faculty members), offering integrated post-graduate and research programmes in informatics, development studies, social sciences etc. according to a report prepared by Educational Consultants India. The international character of the university would partly flow from the international 46 faculty members. A “mentor group” chaired by Prof. Amartya Sen and including Harvard historian, Sugata Bose, Singapore’s Foreign Minister, George Yeoh, and scholars from Japan and China, would chart out the way ahead.

Advancement of knowledge and human resources is now critically acknowledged as the pre-requisite for social and economic development. We thus need to check the ongoing brain drain and require more qualified scientific and technical personnel to sustain the 8 per cent plus growth momentum in the coming decade. Higher education has to be expanded with creation of more universities and specialized institutes for scientific and technical education. It has also to be ensured that the quality of education imparted should be relevant to social and economic needs and meets the desirable standards.

The existing university system has to develop further and adopt strategies to maintain its reputation and standard. To augment the quality of education, several commissions were constituted by the Government since Independence, including the Radhakrishnan Commission, Kothari Commission, Rastogi Commission, whose recommendations have been implemented.

To sum up, we need to do the following to make education more purposeful to the changing socio-economic order: induce innovativeness in teaching-learning processes; bring professionalism and relevance; design course/study material to  practical experiences, social and economic requirements and needs; modernize higher study through national and international developments and experiences; and lastly free the system from any parochial or dogmatic outlook so that organizational management of a high order could be ensured.

The steps taken so by the Government have got a further boost with the budget for the 11th Plan pegged at Rs 2.5 lakh crores, i.e. nearly four times the outlay under the 10th Plan. The share of education in this will be 19.4 per cent, a massive leap of over 7.7 per cent, which is necessary to keep pace with the rapid growth in the economy.

As the country moves ahead, the Government is rightly giving due priority to higher education. No doubt, more universities and centres of excellence of technical education are needed, but  setting up of new and upgradation of existing universities is an important decision. This would go a long way in taking education to all regions and sections of the community in the country. ---- INFA

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)