The Crisis in India's Higher Education





The government is keen to create world-class universities. It must understand that world-class institutes are not created; they evolve over decades and centuries, nurtured by respect for knowledge, policy and adequate funds. Contrary to the global trend, pioneering educational institutions of India languish and decay , instead of evolving to greatness.Take the Gujarat College, one of India's earliest, established in 1860. It is a shadow of its original self. When it celebrated its first centenary , it had 1,139 students and a 103-strong teaching staff. A College of Arts and Commerce branched off in 1992.The data it supplied to the National Assessment and Accreditation Council for 2014-15 show a student intake of 2,500, and a faculty strength of 26. Of the faculty members, only 19 are permanent and no ne is a professor. The student strength has more than doubled while the number of those on hand to teach them has dwindled to a quarter. Quantity affects quality in such matters. The felicity of expression in the principal's message to students is a good guide to the standards of quality now maintained at one of the country's oldest institutions of higher learning in a state that is economically one of India's most advanced. This is a shame in itself. More, it mocks India's ambition to become a modern, knowledge economy .
Knowledge creation and dissemination are crucial for the economic growth and development of a country . Colleges and universities are central to this enterprise. However, the institutions that should have paved the way , given their pioneering role in the country's higher education system, have been allowed to wither and the country's youth, badly let down. It points to policy and regulatory failure on a massive scale. India's higher education system needs a reboot.
Source: Economic Times, 1-11-2016