Higher Education in India: the Need for Change, Pawan Agarwal, June
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Working Paper No. 180 HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA The Need for Change Pawan Agarwal June 2006 INDIAN COUNCIL FOR RESEARCH ON INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC RELATIONS WORKING PAPER NO. 180 HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA: THE NEED FOR CHANGE PAWAN AGARWAL JUNE 2006 JEL CODES: I20, I21, I22, I28, O32, J44 Key Words: India’s higher education sector, reforms in education, financing of India’s Education, Quality assurance in education, funding of higher education, regulating higher education The views expressed in the ICRIER Working Paper Series are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). For comments, contact – [email protected] i Foreword Higher education is critical to India’s aspirations of emerging as a major player in the global knowledge economy. The global competitiveness of Indian industry and also its employment generation potential is clearly dependent on availability of required skills and trained personnel. But as several recent studies have revealed the overall state of Indian higher education is dismal and therefore poses a severe constraint on the supply of qualified manpower. Despite remarkable progress in reforms covering a number of sectors and sub-sectors of the economy, there is little informed debate on reforms in higher education. This paper tries to fill this gap and lays down an agenda for reforms in the higher education sector in India. The paper relates the growth of higher education in India to the changing funding pattern and suggests ways to ensure that higher education remains both affordable and accessible to all. The author emphasizes the need for greater adaptability in the higher education system so that it continues to provide the needed skills and trained workforce to the economy as it integrates with the world economy. Policy measures required to promote, sustain, and enhance world-class research are also included. Considering the weaknesses in the prevailing regulatory and quality assurance environment, the paper provides a roadmap for reforms towards improved accountability of the system. The author, Mr. Pawan Agarwal has undertaken this work during his attachment with ICRIER as a part of the Fulbright New Century Scholars (NCS) Programme, wherein the author is collaborating with thirty other scholars from all over the world for understanding the challenges faced by higher education globally and the national response to them. He also brings to this work his professional experience of working in the Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India and the University Grants Commission (UGC) for over seven years. It is expected that this paper will serve as a useful input for setting an agenda for change in higher education, shaping the prevailing opinion and mobilizing new constituencies to bring about the much needed change. Rajiv Kumar Director & Chief Executive (ICRIER) June, 2006 ii Acknowledgement I am extremely grateful for the valuable comments and suggestions received from several eminent people related to higher education in India and abroad. I would particularly like to acknowledge the insights that I received from Mr. B.S. Baswan (former Education Secretary, Government of India), Prof. M.Anandakrishnan (Chairperson of the Madras Institute of Development Studies), Prof. Philip G. Altbach (Director of the Centre for International Higher Education at Boston College), and Prof. Stephen Heyneman (formerly Lead Educator-World Bank). I also benefited from the suggestions received from Prof. Arun Nigavekar (former Chairman-UGC) and Prof. Shashi Shrivastava (World Bank). Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Director, ICRIER has been a constant source of inspiration in course of the work on this paper. Dr. Arvind Virmani gave me the opportunity to work at ICRIER. I am grateful to both Dr. Kumar and Dr. Virmani. I shared the research findings with a number of academicians, educational administrators, researchers and professionals from higher education and research institutions in a seminar held on March 2, 2006 at ICRIER. I would like to thank the participants, who gave very useful inputs. I am thankful to Ms. Suchitra Tanwar at ICRIER for providing valuable research assistance. I would like to thank Dr. Rashmi Banga, who provided useful insights from economic theory on market clearing process as applicable in higher education. Finally, I am grateful to my colleagues at ICRIER, and also those in the University Grants Commission and the Ministry of Human Resource Development for the support I got from them. But for the help and guidance of all the people that I mention and many others not even referred to here, this work could not have been completed. Pawan Agarwal June, 2006 iii Abstract Higher education in India suffers from several systemic deficiencies. As a result, it continues to provide graduates that are unemployable despite emerging shortages of skilled manpower in an increasing number of sectors. The standards of academic research are low and declining. Some of the problems of the Indian higher education, such as – the unwieldy affiliating system, inflexible academic structure, uneven capacity across various subjects, eroding autonomy of academic institutions, and the low level of public funding are well known. Many other concerns relating to the dysfunctional regulatory environment, the accreditation system that has low coverage and no consequences, absence of incentives for performing well, and the unjust public funding policies are not well recognised. Driven by populism and in the absence of good data, there is little informed public debate on higher education in India. Higher education in India has expanded rapidly over the past two decades. This growth has been mainly driven by private sector initiatives. There are genuine concerns about many of them being substandard and exploitative. Due to the government’s ambivalence on the role of private sector in higher education, the growth has been chaotic and unplanned. The regulatory system has failed to maintain standards or check exploitation. Instead, it resulted in erecting formidable entry barriers that generate undesirable rents. Voluntary accreditation seems to have no takers from amongst private providers and apparently serves little purpose for any of its stakeholders. Despite, its impressive growth, higher education in India could maintain only a very small base of quality institutions at the top. Standards of the majority of the institutions are poor and declining. There are a large number of small and non-viable institutions. Entry to the small number of quality institutions is very competitive giving rise to high stake entrance tests and a flourishing private tuition industry. The stakes are so high that quota-based reservation of seats in such institutions in the name of affirmative action has come to occupy centre stage in electoral politics. Despite some merit, it has resulted in fragmentation of merit space and further intensified competition for the limited capacity in quality institutions. While public funding declined (in real terms), enrolments in higher education institutions grew to meet the surge in demand. This further deteriorated academic standards. As a result, the institutions were forced to raise their tuition fees to sustain themselves. Emergence of private providers and increase in tuition fees in public institutions without any substantial programme for students’ financial aid has made higher education beyond the reach of the poor. The paper discusses feasible strategies to overcome this and make higher education affordable and accessible to all. This paper takes a comprehensive look at the various facets of higher education in India. It adopts a systems approach for achieving policy coherence and multi-level coordination required to address genuine concerns in the Indian higher education on a long-term basis and uses the experiences of other countries to suggest measures to tackle its various systemic deficiencies. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword............................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgement............................................................................................................ iii Abstract............................................................................................................................. iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................... vii List of Annex Tables ....................................................................................................... vii List of Figures................................................................................................................. viii List of Boxes...................................................................................................................... ix Introduction....................................................................................................................... 1 Structure of the paper ...................................................................................................... 4 1 Higher education system in India......................................................................... 5 1.1 Level and type of higher education institutions.......................................... 6 1.2 Academic structure..................................................................................... 6 1.3 Mapping the growth in