Overhaul system

In terms of sheer numbers, India’s university system is very impressive. We have over 150 Central varsities, over 300 state varsities, 91 private ones and another 130-odd deemed varsities.

It is the third largest in the world. But the impressive part of our higher education system ends there. Not one Indian researcher from our universities has won a Nobel Prize after Sir C V Raman won it over 80 years ago. As President Pranab Mukherjee has repeatedly said in recent times, others like Amartya Sen and Har Gobind Khorana, who have won the coveted prize, have done so while working in universities outside the country. As per a reputed international survey done recently, not a single Indian university is among the top 200 universities in the world. It is certainly a sad state of affairs in our higher education system.

The numbers mentioned above would suggest that not all the ills facing our university education system can be attributed to financial constraints. As more and more universities are established in recent years, an acute shortage of qualified teachers is witnessed. What is more worrisome is not the shortage in numbers, but a dearth of quality teachers in our universities. But the problems go far deeper.

 Nothing short of a thorough overhaul would effectively help remove the maladies in the country’s university system. At the very outset, the apex regulator, the University Grants Commission, must be empowered to play an effective role to transform our higher education system. A competent and empowered UGC ought to have enough leeway to discipline our universities, help them to update outdated curriculum in various disciplines emulating the best from the best of universities around the world, introduce a dynamic credit system to evaluate students and researchers, and align the higher education.

In top Western universities, science research is closely linked to, and often funded by industries and other economic establishments. It is a win-win arrangement for the university in question, the industry and the students and researchers. Instead of quarrelling over and politicising such issues as annual/semester/ trimester systems, it is high time that all competent authorities at the Centre, in the states and regulatory bodies collectively address the need for the overhaul. Further, a continuous quality control system should also be put in place by way for a national accreditation of universities and its periodical review.