The document discusses the dual nature of higher education in India, detailing the roles of government and private institutions. It highlights the rapid growth of private higher education institutions (HEIs) due to government limitations and inefficiencies, while also addressing the challenges faced by state-run institutions, such as poor funding and politicization. Recommendations for a more balanced regulatory framework and support for both sectors are provided to enhance the quality and accessibility of higher education.

1. Two Sides of Indian Higher
Education: Government and
Private Education
Anup K Singh, PhD

2. Major Providers of Higher Education
 Government institutions
 Non-governmental institutions

3. Government Government
institutionsinstitutions
 Central government institutions
 MHRD institutions
 Other ministry institutions
 Research institutions
 State government institutions
 Universities
 Colleges
 Other institutions funded by the state

4. Why Non-Governmental Institutions
 Indian citizens have a right to promote educational institutions to serve the society
 The government also facilitated the growth of non-government institutions because it felt
that it would not be in a position to meet the burgeoning demands of higher education
 The governments thus off loaded their responsibility to provide free education to their
citizens
 After premier government institutions, like IITs, NITs and IIMs, private institutions are
preferred over traditional government universities and colleges
 Private higher education institutions are growing faster than government higher education
institutions
 Private HEIs respond faster to their environments compared to government HEIs

5. Advantages of Private Education
 Access to a large number of students
 Efficiency in provision of education
 Faster adaptation to the emerging needs

6. Government’s Handling of Government HEIs
 The budget allocation for higher education is insufficient in both central and state
governments
 The central government has promoted some important educational institutions;
however, their governance and management are not robust. They are at best
mediocre by international standards
 State governments depend highly on central funding for higher education. State
government HEIs suffer from poor quality, insufficient resources and staff. Moreover,
they are highly politicised
 The government closely monitors and controls higher education institutions;
however, it does not have sufficient manpower and skills to perform this function

7. Government’s Handling of Private HEIs
 The government has love and hate relationship with the private HEIs. It loves them because
they meet national demands, but hates them because they are suspected of corruption,
irregularity and profiteering
 Governments treat government HEIs as their institutions (Apna), while they handle private
HEIs as others’ (Paraya)
 Thus, there is often step motherly treatment to the private HEIs
 The discrimination is evident in the application of norms and standards to private HEIs.
Accreditation criteria and measures are also developed keeping the government HEIs in mind
 The UGC also discriminates blatantly. It grants 12(b) to the government HEIs easily, while it
is impossible for private HEIs to get it
 Governments fail to realise that there are market mechanisms governing HEIs

8. State Governments and Higher
Education
 State governments depend largely on central government for the funding of higher
education
 State governments spend less amount on higher education
 They hardly promote institutions of excellence. Their objective largely remains access
 Government dispensations closely control the HEIs
 The state government education system is becoming smaller vis-à-vis the private education
system
 State Departments of Education regulate higher education, but they lack the expertise to
manage the higher education system
 The political dispensation tends to curb excellence in quality education to meet the
interests of vote bank

9. Typical Problems of State Governments
 Senior bureaucrats get transferred quite fast; therefore, they are unable to address
systemic problems of education
 Political leaders are more interested in access issue than in quality issue
 Thus, junior bureaucracy gets an upper hand in managing the education system. However,
it lacks expertise and competence to do so
 Governmental system is more directed at uniformity in controlling institutions than in
promoting excellence
 The dispensation is more interested in reducing the fees than in promoting quality
 The government provides little amount for scientific research
 Bureaucrats and leaders hardly make efforts to create an eco-system in which quality
education would flourish

10. Fee Fixation and Admission
 As per the Supreme Court, each state is required to have a fees committee, to be
chaired by a High Court judge, to fix fees for educational institutions for a period of
three years
 Similarly, as per the Supreme Court, private institutions can have an arrangement to
conduct a test to admit students on the basis of merit. Generally, the State
government has constituted a body to admit students both in government and
private institutions
 Thus, a private HEI neither has a right to fix its fees nor a right to admit student

11. Good, Bad and Ugly Private HEIs
 India has a tradition of private HEIs. Many freedom fighters opened such
institutions
 DAV institutions, BITS Pilani, Manipal, Nirma are some names to be reckoned with
 New institutions promoted by corporate houses, such as Nirma University, Shiv
Nader University, BML Munjal University, OP Jindal University among others, are likely
to emerge as national institutions
 However, there is a host of institutions that are interested in profiteering
 Many politicians, contractors and petty industrialists promote HEIs to whiten their
black money and indulge in all types of unethical practices

12. State Government HEIs
 State universities are highly politicised and are starved of funds
 Focus on access and equity is so high that no state university has national status
 State universities are affiliating universities with a large number of colleges. Thus their
energy is totally spend in managing colleges than in promoting excellence
 They have PG departments that are too small and they don’t have vibrant research
programmes
 Their infrastructure is poor. Whatever is available infrastructure, there is hardly any
maintenance of it
 Most significantly, state universities suffer from faculty shortage
 In terms of quality education, they are not better than average private HEIs

13. Agenda for Regulating Private HEIs
 There is a need for an independent education regulator that would regulate both government and private HEIs
 Both government and private HEIs have to be accredited
 Minimizing political and bureaucratic interference in regulation
 Let institutions pursue different types of mission, research, teaching, teaching supported by research, international
impact, national impact, professional education, liberal education, etc.
 Research funding should be available to faculty on the basis of merit than on the basis of institutional affiliation
 National tests should be the basis for admission in different programmes
 Institutional, government or private, should have right to fix fees on the basis of their mission and quality service
 Private institutions should be allowed to generate sufficient surplus (say 20%)
 Government should incentivise donation to educational institutions
 Strict punishment for dishonest institutions