Day 46 – Q 3.What are the current bottlenecks in India’s higher education sector that act as severe impediments to the potential that Indian universities possess. What measures has the government taken to address those impediments? Discuss.

3. What are the current bottlenecks in India’s higher education sector that act as severe impediments to the potential that Indian universities possess. What measures has the government taken to address those impediments? Discuss.  

भारत के उच्च शिक्षा क्षेत्र में मौजूदा अड़चनें क्या हैं जो भारतीय विश्वविद्यालयों के लिए संभावित बाधाओं के रूप में कार्य करती हैं। उन बाधाओं को दूर करने के लिए सरकार ने क्या उपाय किए हैं? चर्चा करें।

Introduction:

India’s higher education GER (calculated for the age group, 18-23 years) increased from 11.5 per cent in 2005-06 to 25.2 per cent in 2016-17. However, we lag behind the world average of 33 per cent and that of comparable economies, such as Brazil (46 per cent), Russia (78 per cent) and China (30 per cent). Korea has a higher education GER of over 93 per cent. 

Body

Bottlenecks in India’s higher education sector that act as severe impediments to the potential that Indian universities possess

• Outdated and multiple regulatory mechanisms limit innovation and progressive change.
• Outdated curriculum results in a mismatch between education and job market requirements, dampens students’ creativity and hampers the development of their analytical abilities.
• Quality assurance or accreditation mechanisms are inadequate.
• There is no policy framework for participation of foreign universities in higher education.
• There is no overarching funding body to promote and encourage research and innovation.
• Public funding in the sector remains inadequate.
• There are a large number of faculty posts lying vacant, for example in central universities, nearly 33 per cent of teacher posts were vacant in March 2018; faculty training is inadequate.

Measures taken by the government to address those impediments

Recognizing the need to improve access, equity and excellence in higher education in the country, the government has taken significant steps, including the following:

• Implementation and continuation of the centrally sponsored scheme, Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) – This scheme seeks to improve access, equity and quality in state higher education institutions through a reforms-based approach and links funding to performance.
• National assessment and accreditation reforms – While making accreditation of higher education institutions mandatory, the reforms move away from an intrusive system to a more enabling, mixed method of assessment and accreditation. The process of accreditation has been fast-tracked and made more transparent. The emphasis is more on self-assessment, data capture, validation by third party evaluation and objective peer review.
• Regulations for graded autonomy to universities and autonomous colleges – A three tiered graded autonomy regulatory system has been initiated, with the categorization of institutions as per their accreditation score by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) or other empanelled accreditation agencies, or by their presence in reputed world rankings. Category I and Category II universities will have significant autonomy. 
• SWAYAM MOOCs portal ( (Study Webs of Active learning for Young Aspiring Minds) is an indigenous MOOCs portal that provides high quality education – anyone, anytime, anywhere at no cost- has been made operational. 
• Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission on Teachers and Teaching scheme has been launched to address the issues of supply of qualified teachers, attracting talent into teaching profession, raising the quality teaching in schools and colleges.
• Global Initiative of Academic Networks (GIAN) is an initiative launched on 30th November 2015 to garner best international knowledge and experience into the country’s higher education so as to enable Indian students & faculty to interact with best academic and industry experts from across the world
• Government has embarked on building 20 Institutions of higher learning – 10 public and 10 private institutions as “Institutions of Eminence” (IoE), so that they are related among the global best institutions.
• IMPRINT India is an effort to direct research in the premier institutions into areas of social relevance. 10 such domains have been identified which could substantially impact the living standards of the rural areas.
• Smart India Hackathon initiative is to promote innovation in the students by encouraging out of the box solutions for common problems faced by the society at large.

Conclusion

Our goal to be a world power, the resolving and restructuring of higher education is must, then only we will be able to harness the human potential and resources of nation to the fullest and channelize it for the growth of the nation.

Education is the basis of human establishment and hence should be treated with profound seriousness. Maintaining the education standards will satiate the concerns of youth which is looking for opportunities within the nation. Not only economic fronts but education fronts should be dealt prudently in order to usher as a powerful nation in coming years.