Admitting that higher education is the “sick child” of India’s education system, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh on Wednesday expressed concern for the lack of quality in and access to higher education.

“Higher education is the sick child of education. It is not serving the cause of the young people of India,” Singh said while inaugurating a two-day national conference of vice-chancellors ‘Development of Higher Education: Expansion, Inclusion and Excellence’, organised by the University Grants Commission (UGC), here. He asked the vice-chancellors of various universities to work on a road map for providing quality and inclusive education.
“Keeping the big divide between the rich and poor — in terms of access to education — in view, you should define the content, extent, methodology and basic ingredients of higher education,” the minister said.

Later, responding to the suggestions of the vice-chancellors, Singh said: “Inclusion and access with equity are the core issues that confront us today.” He noted that the resources required for the expansion of higher education were available; he also asked the states to take more interest in education.

Employable graduates
Earlier, Planning Commission Member B Mungekar also expressed concern over the quality of higher education. “Today, not more than nine to ten per cent graduates are employable. This is a diverse economic and social reality. We have to drastically restructure the education system,” he said.

Dr Mungekar said the allocation for education will be increased to five per cent of the GDP by the end of the Eleventh Plan and the proposal for allocating six per cent of the GDP to education will be finalised by the end of the Twelfth Plan.

“We have been talking about allocating six per cent of the GDP for education since 1966, but it is yet to be achieved. In the Eleventh Plan, the allocation will be increased by 19 per cent from what it was in the Tenth Plan to about seven per cent,” Dr Mungekar said.

While government funding will increase, the contribution from students must also increase, he said. Mungekar said the National Knowledge Commission has recommended increasing the fees to upto 20 per cent of the operational cost. “We are now seriously thinking about how to revise the fee structure. The students from public schools should pay the same amount they pay in their schools,” he said.

The revision of the fee structure will be done in a phased manner, he said.