Academic standards call for broad based reform

Academic standards call for broad based reform

India would create 20 world-class universities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a rally in Bihar. The ambition to create excellence in higher education is welcome. However, it is not clear that Rs 500 crore each on average over five years for a university and freedom from regulations would do the job. Delhi University’s annual budget already runs to Rs 930 crore a year and an additional Rs 100 crore would not suddenly boost performance. And freedom from restrictive regulation is something that all universities, and not just a chosen few, deserve. Exemption from all regulation can be a disaster, without strong institutional mechanisms to avoid the tendency for autonomous institutes to become small tyrannies without accountability of their organisational bosses to internal or external stakeholders.

Poor standards of tertiary education are a drag on India’s competitiveness. At one level, this means few work at the cutting edge of science and technology, advances in which constantly revolutionise the production process. Indian industry plays catch-up, rather than leading change.

At another level, mediocre colleges raise costs. Industry estimates only a fifth of those graduating from universities to be employable. This makes for high salaries, high attrition and insufficient incentive for those already employed to keep upgrading their skills. India needs a determined drive to upgrade the quality of higher education across the board. School education must produce better-quality students, so that universities do not have to start from scratch when it comes to expanding young minds. Indian industry must show greater ambition and undertake R&D partly through universities. State funding for research in social sciences and humanities must go up in tandem.

Faculty strength in colleges across the country is pathetic, in terms of both quality and quantity. The state cannot bear the entire expense entailed, so tuition fees must go up sharply, complemented by expanded scholarship, freeship and student loan schemes, so that no student is deprived of education for want of funds.