With only 10 per cent of the degree colleges in the country being of good quality standards, the goal of achieving the status of “knowledge superpower” by the next decade might well remain a pipedream for India.
The quality gap between the good colleges and the rest is so huge that according to the University Grants Commission three Five-year plans with a total allocation of Rs 22,000 crore would be required to bring the “B” and “C” grade colleges at par with the “A” grade ones.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already expressed concern over the lack of excellence in higher education and has specially directed the Planning Commission and the UGC to prepare a joint strategy to overcome this problem.
The decline of standards in institutes of higher education has been attributed not only to lesser allocation of funds, but also to neglect of such important aspects like recruitment of qualified faculty. 
For example, in real terms the public expenditure per student on higher education has declined from Rs 8,961 in 1993-94 to Rs 7,117 in 2003-04. On the other hand ban on recruitment, less funding in faculty research and much less funding for research fellowship have led to shortage in the potential supply of qualified teachers.
Maintaining that quality gaps indicated huge under-investment in higher education, UGC Chairman Sukhdeo Thorat said the commission had proposed that an additional grant of Rs 4,000 crore per year should be made available to the commission to take schemes for employing more qualified teachers, increasing funds for research and similar measures.
Out of the total 123 state universities accredited by the NAAC about 32 per cent are of A grade, another 52 per cent B grade and the remaining 16 per cent low grade. Of the total 2,956 colleges assessed, about 10 per cent are A grade, 66 per cent B grade and 24 per cent C grade.
Poor show by State too
Karnataka has only 28 colleges with A gradation from the NAAC.
“The quality gap is estimated as the difference between A and B and C grade institutions in physical terms like the number of teachers, number of books in the libraries etc and converting that into value form,” Prof Thorat said.