This presentation analyses the problems of higher education system in India as regards regulation, financing, governance, privatisation and commercialisation.

1. WHAT IS AILING THE
INDIAN HIGHER EDUCATION
SYSTEM
ANUP K SINGH, PHD

2. ROILING ISSUES
• Complex and confusing regulation of higher education institutions
• Policy hung between State control and market forces
• UGC’s inability to regulate a huge educational system
• Lack of quality framework; accreditation is given just lip service
• Poor Graduate Enrolment Ratio (18%) compared to developed and BRICS countries
• Lower government (Both central and state) spending on higher education
• Exponential growth of higher education in last one and a half decade, resulting in numerous quality issues
• Sudden growth of private higher education, mostly for profit purpose
• Lack of scholarship, research and innovation on the campus
• Lack of qualified and well-trained faculty
• Education and employability link is weak

3. COMPLEX AND CONFUSING REGULATION
(GOVERNMENT)
• Education is in the concurrent list of the Constitution
• Several central professional bodies controlling education
• States differ in their control of higher education institutions
• Several educational bills hang fire in the Parliament
• Ambiguity about the treatment of education as any other service
• Foreign HEIs are hardly welcome in India
• Lack of modern, coherent and consistent education policy

4. COND…
• UGC and AICTE are two main regulatory bodies, often working in isolation and sometimes causing
confusion through contradictory directions
• Then there are a host of professional bodies regulating professional education. Some of these are: BCI,
PCI, CoA, etc. These professional bodies are sometimes at cross purpose with the UGC and AICTE. There
are conflicting norms and standards between the two types of institutions
• Once in a while, there are conflicts between norms and standards of state government and
professional bodies
• Professional bodies sometimes may have dated curricula and educational standards
• There are allegations of corruption in professional bodies in the regulation of professional education.
Some examples are: MCI and DCI
• Weak interaction between professionals and academics in professional bodies

5. FINANCING HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM
• Central government as the major provider of funds for education and research through the MHRD, DST, DBT,
UGC, AICTE, etc.
• State governments also provide funds for education and research
• Central governments help students through scholarships, loans and other facilities
• In government HEIs, the main source of funding is financial assistance (Indirect payment)
• Private entrepreneurs and trusts start the HEIs
• They also provide scholarships and other supporting facilities
• However, their main source of funding is fees (Direct payment)
• Few private HEIs operate for philanthropic purpose. Mostly they operate for profit purpose. Hence,
government institutions are quite wary of the private HEIs
• Innovative models of financing higher education system are the need of the hour

6. POLITICIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION:
GRANT-IN-AID INSTITUTIONS
• Political leaders and social activists established a host of HEIs to protest against the British raj, such as Gujarat
Vidyapeeth, AMU, BHU, DAV Colleges, etc.
• Even during the British Raj, the grant in aid system to private system was initiated
• This system continued after independence
• Controlling colleges provide prestige, power and pelf to politicians
• The political masters also control land and treasury of the HEI
• These politicians command high prestige among their constituencies due to their governing roles
• Politicians can influence selection of faculty and staff
• Then they can also make money through such selections
• They also influence admissions in the HEIs, favouring students close to them
• Such students, faculty and staff also promote the political interests of their patrons

7. TRADITIONAL STATE UNIVERSITIES
• A large number of state universities are traditional universities. In principle, these universities are governed
by senate
• A senate consists of ex-officio, elected and nominated members
• A senate is a large body. It can have 100 to 200 members
• It is a highly political body. The members jockey for power to attain their political objectives than to
contribute to institutional excellence
• The political chaos and uncertainty of Indian society is reflected in the senate
• The executive body of a traditional university is Syndicate that is the smaller version of the senate. It also has
elected, nominated and ex-officio members
• Unfortunately, academic and support staff members are also divided along political lines
• The university functionaries waste a lot of energy in managing political dynamics

8. SELECTION OF VICE CHANCELLOR
• Vice Chancellor is the chief academic and chief administrative officer of the university
• The Vice Chancellor is often appointed by the governor, on the advice of the state government
• In some universities, the governor has free hand to appoint the Vice Chancellor
• In both cases, political factors affect the selection of the incumbent
• In a large number of cases, Vice Chancellor is selected on the basis of his political ideology than on the
basis of academic excellence
• Once a politically committed VC is selected, he promotes and protects political ideology on the campus
• In addition, he selects and promotes faculty and staff who are closer to his political inclination
• Hence, meritocracy goes for a toss

9. CONTD…
• Even if the Vice Chancellor is not politically committed, his financial dependence on the government, thus
ruling party and bureaucracy is quite high
• State universities have a few ways through which they generate financial resources; even a small increase in
fees creates uproar and strong protest from different stakeholders
• Hence the university system, including him, is deprived of autonomy. Sometimes academic autonomy is also
restricted
• A case in point is the Vice Chancellor of Delhi University, who was forced to roll back four year liberal arts
bachelors programmes
• The duration of a Vice Chancellor is short. It is only 3 years. He takes six months to understand the academic
and administrative issues. He can hardly work for 2 years. In the last six months, he just withdraws and looks
for another opportunity
• On the other hand, his counterparts in IITs and IIMs have a duration of five years

10. STUDENT UNION
• The university is a microcosm of the society. It is also considered as the place where students learn about the polity and
participate in the political process
• Historically, student politics and activism were prevalent; several student organisations were formed in the British Raj
• All major political parties have their student wings
• There is a student union in most government universities. It is supposed to protect student interest and is treated as an
important stakeholder in the management of a university
• There are several student political groups in a university. They represent national level political parties
• National parties want to rule student union so that they can influence the electorate
• The student leaders are more interested in making their future political careers than in promoting academic excellence
• They take advantage of administrative inefficiencies of the university and help the students to get certain benefits that
anyway they should have got
• Elected student union leaders influence the functioning of a university
• More often than not many student organisations adversely affect the normal functioning of the university on petty issues

11. QUALITY AND ACCREDITATION
• The whole education system suffers from quality problems; the supply of quality students in the higher
education system itself is poor
• There exist a few quality HEIs; the rest suffer from mediocrity and poor quality
• The government HEIs are more interested in expansion and access, while private ones are more
concerned about money making
• Although the UGC recommends that accreditation is a must for colleges and universities; there are only
two accreditation agencies – NAAC and NBA
• Accreditation bill is pending in the Parliament
• The quality and standards of accreditation agencies are questioned by many

12. CONDT…
• India has been accorded signatory status of Washington Accord in the meeting of International Engineering Alliance held on
13th June 2014 in Wellington, New Zealand. The other signatories are Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong China,
Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United
States
• NAAC has been established in the year 1994 is headquartered at Bangalore
• It is an autonomous body of the UGC
• NAAC’s working is governed by the General Council (GC) and the Executive Committee (EC) on which University Grants
Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Universities and other professional institutions are
represented
• The National Board of Accreditation (NBA) was established by All India Council of Technical Education) as an autonomous
body under section 10(u) of AICTE act, 1987
•

13. ECO-SYSTEM OF ACCREDITATION
• Accreditation of HEIs in any society, especially a large society with rich diversity of institutions like, requires a
robust and dynamic eco-system
• On the top to the pyramid, there is national accreditation body, responsible for framing accreditation
regulations and monitoring the functioning of different accreditation body. It is also responsible for the
accreditation of different accreditation bodies
• Below that, there are general purpose accreditation bodies that are involved in the overall accreditation of
universities and colleges, especially multidisciplinary colleges. These accreditation bodies can be national
level agencies. There number can be anywhere between 6 to 12
• At the bottom of the pyramid, there are equally important discipline-based accreditation bodies, specialising
in accreditation of professional colleges, such as medicine, law, engineering, management, etc. It is also
desirable that for each professional discipline, there should be at least two accreditation bodies
• Further, international accreditation bodies can also be allowed to accredit professional institutions to help
them achieve their goals of globalisation

14. INTEGRITY AND PROFESSIONALISM IN
ACCREDITATION
• It is a common knowledge that corruption is rampant in the Indian society
• The educational sector is equally infected by the disease of corruption
• Therefore, there is high likelihood that corruption may vitiate the accreditation system
• It is highly desirable that proper checks and balances are created in the accreditation system and processes from the very beginning so that quality is not certified through
unfair means
• All efforts therefore should be made to increase transparency. The names of accreditation peer team should be made public after accreditation, the SSR should be
uploaded on the website of concerned institution and the accreditation body, the accreditation report should also be made public
• The size of accreditation team should be at least 5 so that there is sufficient diversity in the team. It is difficult to corrupt a diverse group
• The peer team members should be highly trained. In addition, there should be periodic training. A code of conduct for different role holders should be evolved
• The guidelines for peer team members should be highly elaborate. They should also be required to write their reasons for rating. Scope for subjective rating should be
reduced
• The accreditation should be a peer supported process rather than an inspection based process
• Each accreditation body should have an integrity committee to examine the cases of dishonesty, corruption and unprofessional practice

15. EDUCATION AND EMPLOYABILITY LINK
• The purpose of an HEI is not only knowledge dissemination but also enhancing the employability of
students
• The HEIs are generally inward-oriented and are less driven by the industry demands
• Lesser involvement of industry professionals in curriculum design, development and delivery
• Less project learning and internship in the curricula
• Most faculty members have scant industry exposure
• Industries also do not take pains to connect with the academe
• Competency-based curricula are not ubiquitous

16. LACK OF QUALIFIED AND WELL-TRAINED FACULTY
• Exponential growth of educational institutions, creating a huge demand of faculty, while the supply
side is poor
• Central HEIs that were supposed to be research-oriented did not work hard to promote PhD
programmes
• Academe pays lesser than the industry and professions. Therefore, it is unable to attract talent
• When faculty join an institution, they are pushed into teaching straightaway. Faculty development is
not given due importance
• UGC and professional regulatory bodies differ in their norms for faculty sufficiency and productivity
• Performance management system (Appraisal, rewards, training, penalty) is weak in the HEIs

17. LACK OF FACILITIES
• Apparently it seems that most institutions, especially new ones, have high quality facilities. But the truth is
otherwise
• They do not have sufficient space in the classroom. Reading areas are hardly there
• Library are poor. Low quality, low cost books are produced. In addition, many issues of the same book is
procured to show large number of books in the library
• Quality journals are not bought
• Databases are temporally subscribed for inspection purpose. Then they are discontinued
• Library hours are short
• Laboratories do not have required equipment. Often consumables are not available. Modernisation is not
done from time to time
• sufficient technical staff is not available

18. LACK OF SCHOLARSHIP, RESEARCH AND INNOVATION
• Most institutions lack funding, skills and motivation for scholarship, research and innovation
• Higher education has become elevated school education
• As UGC has stressed the importance of PhD in the selection and promotion of faculty, a host of
institutions have started PhD programmes that allow low quality doctoral work
• As institutions vie for ranking and prestige through publications, many faculty indulge in plagiarism and
academic dishonesty
• Most institutions do not value research and remain a teaching institution
• Research project management skills are unavailable in the institutions
• Office of Research is not constituted in the institutions

19. PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR
• Most private HEIs entered higher education for investment and profitability
• There is corporatization of private HEIs
• They charge more fees, pay less to the staff and cut costs on library and research
• Unfortunately, good private HEIs are treated at par with profit making HEIs and are not allowed to excel
• Only 5 per cent private HEIs can excel. Therefore, one should not be too optimistic
• The state is ineffective in controlling errant HEIs; therefore, market forces should be allowed to control
them
• A strong regulatory body is needed that does not differentiate between government and private
institutions on quality dimensions. More than the UGC and AICTE, the sector needs a power
accreditation framework

20. COMMERCIALISATION
• The Constitution of India allows people to impart education through trust and society. Later, non-profit
company was added to this category
• The Constitution and several Supreme Court judgements have clearly proscribe profit-making through
an educational venture in any form, such as exorbitant fees, capitation fees, bribery, etc.
• However, the Supreme Court has allowed private institution to generate reasonable surplus for their
future growth and development
• Most de jure non-profit educational institutions are de factor for-profit educational institution
• They find out innovative methods of siphoning out surplus from the institution
• Even if the government decide to fix their fees, they first feed the promoters then others things are
done