Govt's big push to infuse dynamism into higher education

In the humdrum of electoral politics, a significant initiative taken by the Union government to transform the state of higher education in the country bypassed serious discussion.

On October 3, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the RUSA (Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan), touted to be a Centrally sponsored flagship scheme for higher education in India. It is worth noting that the scheme was prepared and approved by the CCEA and not the committee on Human Resources Development.  It is recognition of the role higher education plays in harnessing the economic potential of the human resources in contrast to the primary and secondary education sector which contribute to social development. 

Concern has been mounting vis-à-vis abysmal state of higher education despite new private universities mushrooming all across the country. India has the third largest higher education system in the world after China and the US with 27.5 million students on university rolls currently. But there rest the limit for all superlatives. The nation’s General Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education is currently pegged at 19.4 per cent which is significantly lower than the world average.

There is a marked potential for increasing the GER and the government has set 32 per cent as the desired target for 2020 under RUSA. The 12th Five-Year plan targets to create an additional enrolment capacity of 10 million in higher education of which about 6.2 million is expected to be created in the private sector.

We have now 700 universities and 35,000 colleges, 63 per cent of which (i.e., colleges only) are in private sector. Sixty eight per cent universities are medium and below average.  Economy derives strength from youth coming out of institutions of higher learning.Currently, 13 million students are entering annually into the age of higher education in the country. But enrolment capacity in the existing institutions is only three million thereby grotesquely rupturing the continuum of education. 

In other words, while 49 per cent of those in 15-16 group come up to secondary level annually, only 17 per cent of 16-18 group are enrolling for higher education. Share of public expenditure on higher education is only 0.6 per cent of GDP in India while it is 2.6 per cent in the United States.

Given this picture, one may hastily conclude that expansion of the base of higher education holds the key to the problem. But any such assumption will be simplistic. The RUSA has looked at three key challenges of improving access, equity and quality in higher education through planned development. It envisages roping in the State Governments in the planned development in a big way as most universities are funded by the States and inadequate financing remains the major issue.

RUSA, an umbrella scheme to be operated in mission mode, therefore will be funding even those institutions which do not comply with physical facilities, infrastructure and quality of faculty etc. Funding will however be channellised through State Higher Education Councils and will be linked with performance.

Each state will have to set up such a body for monitoring of higher education. Impetus will be given to filling all faculty position lying vacant. It is guessed that universities all across the nation, suffer from nearly 40 per cent faculty shortage with certain State governments having imposed ban on recruitment. It stipulates that at any given point of time not more than 15 per cent positions can remain vacant.

RUSA would also support endeavours by the states to create universities for purely research purpose. It also proposes setting up ‘Model colleges’ in each district. State Higher Education Councils will even place limit on number of colleges that can be affiliated with each university to bring down administrative burden. More flexibility would be offered in introduction of semester system and choice-based credit system (CBCS).

Similarly, it is proposed to decentralise accreditation system with creation of state level accreditation agencies with accreditation becoming mandatory instead of optional. It is pointed out that merely 15 per cent of colleges and 31 per cent universities have so far gone for accreditation.  Finally, the document (i.e., RUSA) proposes creation of enabling conditions to attract investments aimed at mobilizing 50 per cent of the state contribution through private participation.

The initiative has come about at a time when grave worries were being expressed with regard to the moribund state of higher education in the country. Universities in several emerging economies are playing greater role in research and innovation. But planners in India are disillusioned at the outflow of genius to the West due to brain drain besides heavy outgo of forex—two billion dollars annually—on Indian students going abroad for education. China has allocated $200 billion for 250 universities to bring a few of them into the Global 200 Best List. It is pointed out that there are a dozen Indian teachers in each of the three of the South East Asia’s universities that figure in Global 200 list.

The question then is why India cannot have such universities at home. Similarly, India’s share in attracting overseas students—currently there are merely 27,000 of them studying in about 20 universities—has been miserable. A country like Australia earn $15 billion annually and the universities in the US have 8.5 lakh foreign students on its rolls. Yet another query that India needs to address is that MNCs have established 800 R&D institutions in India during the last 20 years. These employ 175,000 researchers and enhance their profitability.  Why the Indian universities fail to tap the very same research potential of the Indian scientists?

By involving the states, the major stakeholders in higher education, with respect to funding by the Central government, the RUSA signals a significant shift in development of higher education in India.