Challenges before Indian Higher Education in the era of Globalization.

Globalization essentially means  intensive inter-connectedness among the learners and providers of education, particularly in the domain of higher education including technical and management education in the world as a whole. As a consequence, comparative skills and excellence in the learners  are necessary to interact with the peers and to find a place in the world of jobs. As the interfacing  with  the  Institutions across countries increases, the management of Indian Institutions are required to adjust their policies and governance mechanisms so that the competitive standards are not diluted.

With new regulatory arrangements and focussed action in key areas, as described below, we hope to build a robust higher education system that would sustain rapid economic growth, promote international competitiveness, while at the same time meet the rising

expectations of the young enterprising Indians.

 In India, the challenges in the frontier of higher education are many but speaking broadly, these are two-fold, namely, Access and Quality.

Access

Access needs to be increased significantly because  the GER is quite low. It is about 13% at the end of XI Plan much below the global average of 24%. A holistic and balanced expansion approach is needed to target under-represented sections of society who have traditionally have very low GER. Thrust should be on consolidating and improving the capacity  of the existing institutions. New institutions may be set up to bridge regional imbalances and disparities across disciplines and to address special economic, social and technological needs of the country. Further, traditional education should be supplemented with skill-based studies and institutional differentiation should be encouraged so that institutions grow along their own growth trajectories without being clones of each other. Open and distance education methods could be deployed to augment capacity optimally. In addition, the concept of Meta University aimed at collaborative and multi-disciplinary learning that redefines knowledge-creation and knowledge-sharing in the twenty-first century, could also be explored.

Quality

Regarding quality assurance of education,  there must be a strategic shift  to improvement in quality of higher education. For this, the focus should be not only on larger enrollment, but also on the quality of the expansion. The governance mechanisms should be reviewed and  overhauled for proving strength te curricular work by learning from the good practices of best institutions across India and elsewhere. Several other measures are also needed , for example,

accreditation should be at the core of regulatory arrangements and must have clear incentives and

consequences. This would require multiple strong and independent accreditation bodies. Governance system needs to be revamped by balancing institutional autonomy with accountability and developing institutional leaders. Full implementation of examination reforms, choice-based credit and semester system must be ensured to enhance flexibility and provide greater choice. The affiliated college system should be improved by deploying advanced technology and restructured so that a reasonable number of colleges are affiliated to each university and a ‘hub and spoke model’ established to foster curricular and

pedagogic reforms.

Research

 We need to create an ecosystem that encourages research and innovation in a self-sustaining manner. We must bring back the ‘lost’ research culture of Indian Universities so as to create new knowledge and improve teaching standards. Collaborative research, setting up industry incubation parks in Universities and institutions providing more research fellowships, promoting innovation through interdisciplinary research in new and emerging fields, strengthening Inter-University Centres etc., need to be emphasized. This would require more funding for university-based research and funding policies that create right incentives for quality research and promote collaboration among institutions. Related to this is the issue of faculty shortages which can be tackled through innovative ways such as technology-enabled learning and collaborative information and communication technologies (ICT). A complete overhaul of the Academic Staff Colleges that are used to provide refresher courses for teachers is also necessary.

Initiatives to improve the quality and availability of teachers in higher education need to be launched in a mission mode. 

More Resources and Better Utilization

There is an urgent need to step up both public and private investment in higher education   (including technical education)  and increase in the efficiency of its utilization. About 18.0 % of all government education spending or about 1.12 % of GDP is spent on higher education today. This should be raised to 25.0 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively. An increase of 0.38 per cent of GDP means an additional allocation of about Rs. 25,000 crore to higher education for the Centre and the States taken together.

State Universities

The  State universities and their affiliated colleges that account for more than 90.0 per cent of the

enrollment suffer from severe fund constraints and poor governance leading to poor quality. Strategic central-funding based on State higher education plans should be leveraged to stimulate more state funding linked to academic and governance reforms which may include norm-based funding for State universities and colleges. Allocation of operating budget should be based on objective norms and new investments based on competitive grants and performance contracts. Institutions should be encouraged to raise their own funds through various legitimate means. Reasonable tuition fees in higher education need to be supplemented with appropriate publicly-funded financial aid. The scale and reach of scholarship schemes and student loans need to be enhanced. Government guarantees for student loans could be considered. The central principle should be that no student who is eligible to be admitted should be deprived of higher education for financial reasons.

Enhancing Employability

 There is a need for a clear focus on improving the employability of graduates. Indian higher

education is organized into ‘General’ and ‘Professional’ streams. General education which is an excellent foundation for successful knowledge based careers, often fails to equip graduates with necessary work skills due to its poor quality. On the other hand, professional education is often expensive, lengthy and usually imparted in narrowly specialized private institutions, with little emphasis on liberal arts, which is essential for the development of intelligent able-minded citizens. For both ‘General’ and ‘Professional’ education streams, integrated curriculum with greater flexibility in choice of subjects and innovative pedagogic practices are needed to improve the quality and hence employability. Graduates now require the skills beyond the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic (the ‘3Rs’). Skills such as critical thinking,  communication, collaboration and creativity (the ‘4Cs’) are now important in more and more jobs.

Accordingly, there is need to focus on the ‘4Cs’. Special emphasis on verbal and written communication skills, especially in English would go a long way in improving the employability of the large and growing mass of disempowered youth in a globalised world.

 The Vocational Education and Training sector in the country is small and this limited capacity is

under-utilized due to poor quality and lack of social status. There is an urgent need to develop a large sector offering short-cycle qualifications in the form of associate degrees catering to

intermediate skills in the higher education space within the National Vocational Education Qualifications Framework. Such degrees would carry with them social prestige, would be less expensive and academically.

Encouraging Private Participation

 Private sector growth in higher education (including technical) should be facilitated and innovative Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) should be explored and developed in the Twelfth-Plan. Private higher education accounts for about four-fifths of enrollment in professional higher education and one-third overall. This growth trend is likely to continue in the coming years. Currently, this growth is restricted to specific areas and there are concerns about quality and use of unfair practices. A clear policy is, therefore, required to manage private education and a statutory and transparent framework needs to be established for its operation for driving private growth further in a legitimate and balanced manner. The ‘not-for-profit’ tag in higher education sector should, perhaps, be re-examined in a more pragmatic manner so as to ensure

quality without losing focus on expansion and equity. Deserving private institutions could benefit with access to public funds in the form of loans, financial aid for students and competitive funding for research.

 Partnerships

 Higher education is an increasingly global enterprise; hence Indian institutions should embrace

internationalization that could provide them with new opportunities. Country’s rationale for

internationalization would be to enhance its soft power, improve standards of domestic provision and produce graduates with international competencies and skills. This can best be achieved by having more and more innovative partnerships. Given the historical advantage of India  in higher education (particularly among emerging market economies), the wide spread use of English language and low cost living, India can potentially become a global hub for higher education. We need to provide greater autonomy to our centres of excellence to enter into collaborative partnership with the best universities abroad.

10.34 In sum, with new regulatory arrangements and focussed action in key areas, particularly expansion

and quality improvement, we hope to build a robust higher education system that would sustain rapid

economic growth, promote international competitiveness, while at the same time meet the rising

expectations of the young enterprising