Higher Education In The Twenty-First Century

The education sector in general and higher education in particular are undergoing profound changes in India. Enrolment in higher education has been growing to meet the needs of a larger and globalizing labour market. The rapid expansion of the Indian higher education system is due to opening up of the higher education sector for private participation during the 1980s and the economic liberalisation that started in the early 1990s. This research paper is an informative type of paper which will present information regarding the governance and management, some of the recent reforms in the higher education in 21st century done by the government of India and what are the tasks ahead for improvement of the education system in India.

1.     Introduction:
Man is neither mere intellect, nor the gross animal body, nor the heart or soul alone. A proper and harmonious combination of all the three is required for the making of the whole man and constitutes the true economics of education.
Mahatma Gandhi

India’s renaissance, which began in the last decades of the 19th century, has been marked by multisided awakening, creativity, renewal and reconstruction enabling the country to make valuable contributions in the services of her people and the peoples of the world. Our culture has always stood for universality and common fraternity of the entire human race, and our aspirations are reflected in the educational field in creating, strengthening and developing a national system that should be geared to the highest ideals of universal peace, unity and harmony.
Education is a dialogue between the past, present and the future, so that the coming generations receive the accumulated lessons of the heritage and carry it forward. In the words of Sri Aurobindo, the foremost philosopher and sage of our times, “The past is our foundation, the present our material, the future our aim and summit”. Each must have its due and natural place in a national system of education.
2.    History: Ancient records of the Indian tradition testify to the search of the Rishis and sages for higher knowledge (para vidya), and their discoveries have been continuously transmitted to posterity and kept alive through its long history, marked by periods of expansion, specialization, decline and renewal. This theme of higher knowledge informs and inspires even the latest developments in the Indian educational system. It has been a significant component of the country’s struggle for freedom, attainment of independence and an awakening from the slumber in which people were cast during the British rule.
2.1    A Very Large System: Despite serious handicaps of means and resources, the country has built up during the last 50 years a very large system of education and has created a vast body of men and women equipped with a high order of scientific and technological capabilities, robust humanist and philosophical thought, and creativity.


Student, Pioneer Institute of Professional Studies, Indore

Though riddled with explosion in the growth of population, a large illiterate population and problems of economic poverty affecting one-third of the people, modern India is still set to forge a bright future and to contribute significantly to the higher goals of world peace, human unity and universal welfare. Much credit for this goes to the ancient but ever-young spirit of the nation and to what higher education has striven to fashion in terms of determining great objectives and implementing them under very difficult conditions.
3.    Beginnings of Modern Higher Education: The modern higher education system is only 140 years old, when the first three universities were set up in 1857 under the British Rule. To begin with, colleges set up in India were affiliated to British universities. In 1857, for the first time, universities were set up in India. Existing colleges got affiliated to these universities.
The period 1857 to 1947 was the period of slow development of institutions of higher education in India. They were set up mostly in administrative headquarters and port towns. They provided education in literature, history, philosophy, political science, social science and natural sciences. The thrust of development was mainly on liberal arts education. Science education occupied a very small proportion. The rate of development was slow as in a period of 90 years only 18 universities were set up in the country. Most of these followed the model of the three leading universities at Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. Along with liberal arts, some engineering and medical colleges were also set up. Most of the colleges imparted education as formulated by the universities. The universities also acted as examining and degree granting bodies.
4.    Development after Independence: After independence, India adopted the approach of planned development of the country. The First Five Year Plan focused on agriculture, the Second Five Year Plan on industry and the Third Five Year Plan again attempted to focus on agriculture and agro-based industry for the development of the country. This approach for development called for development of the education system in the subsequent Five Year Plans, to meet the challenges of development and the needs of agriculture, industry and society in general. At Independence in 1947, India inherited a system of higher education which was not only small but also characterized by the persistence of large intra/inter-regional imbalances. Determined efforts were made to build a network of universities, and their affiliated colleges which provided tremendous outreach to a country of vast diversities in language as also in the prevailing standards of education at the lower levels. When India became independent, it had only 20 universities and 500 colleges located in different parts of the country. It enrolled around a hundred thousand students in higher education.
In the post-independence period, higher education has expanded fast, and it is mostly public in nature. Today, India ranks very high in terms of the size of the network of higher education institutions, with 6.75 million students enrolled. The teaching force numbers about 321,000. Student enrolment increased from 263,000 to 6,755,000 by 1996-97. It grew at an estimated rate of 7 per cent between 1987 and 1993 but has now declined to 5.5 per cent. The University Grants Commission (UGC) 2002-03 estimates states that there are 92,27,833 enrolments in various Universities & Colleges, out of which 36,95,964 (40.05%) are women students.
•    Total Recognized Universities: 196
•    Premier Colleges: 8,111
•    Polytechnics: 887
•    Students Enrollered in Regular University-level courses: 4.7 million
India’s higher education system compares favourably with the other countries of South Asia and Africa in its enrolment, while our South East Asian neighbours show much higher enrolment such as in the Philippines (27.8%), Thailand (19.0%), and Malaysia (10.1%). Hence, in spite of the rapid expansion of the system in 50 years, access to higher education still remains an issue as the pressure of India’s very youthful population continues to bear on it.
5.    Recent Reforms in Higher Education: Various interventions taken in the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12) to leverage higher education:
•    Admissions on Common Entrance Test, Curriculum to be revamped, Semester system to be introduced.
•    Accreditation of institutions through multiple rating agencies.
•    National Eligibility Test to be restructured, Academic Staff Colleges to be revamped.
•    Establishing an Inter-University Centre.
•    Academic, governing and financial autonomy for institutions.
•    Quantitative expansion in  ecognize.
•    Promoting inclusive education.
•    Setting up of an ‘Equal Opportunity Office’.
•    Quality improvement in course, domestic and global linkages, faculty.
•    New Central universities in 16 uncovered states. Indira Gandhi National Tribal University to be set up, 14 new Central universities, aiming at world class standards. 
•    Supporting 6000 colleges and 150 universities for UGC assistance.
•    New central scheme, with a Central–State funding pattern, for increasing GER.
•    Technical education institutions to be strengthened and upgraded.
“No plan for the future development of the country can be deemed to be complete which does not provide for technical and scientific training. This is the age of Machine and it is only those countries in which technical and scientific training has risen to the highest pitch that will survive in the struggle that will commence when the war is over, for maintaining decent standards of living for their people.”
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar
6.    Governance and Management: Significant progress has been made in recent years not only in the development and strengthening of higher education in terms of improved student access, strengthened research and postgraduate programmes, more equitable representation of different social groups, renewed curriculum and adoption of new teaching and delivery methods, but in enhanced institutional management and strategic planning capacity as well. The higher education system has been experimenting with management approaches to deal with challenges arising from internet factors, such as changes in academic disciplines and new instructional methods, and external factors such as population growth, diverse clienteles and changing labour market requirements. Non-university institutions and establishment of open universities and distance learning system have been particularly important initiatives.
Higher education in India is coordinated by several agencies. While the university system falls within the jurisdiction of the UGC, professional institutions are coordinated by different bodies. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is responsible for coordination of technical and management education institutions. The other statutory bodies are Medical Council of India (MCI), Central Council of Indian Medicine, the Homeopathy Central Council, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Indian Nursing Council, the Dental Council, the Pharmacy Council, the Bar Council of India, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), etc. There are also bodies at the state level, such as State Councils of Higher Education that were established recently. There is yet another type of coordinating agency called Association of Indian Universities (AIU), which was earlier known as Inter-University Board of India. All the universities and other equivalent institutions of higher education are members of the AIU. The AIU has no executive powers, but plays an important role as an agency of dissemination of information and as an advisor both to the government and/or UGC and universities.
7.    The major initiatives taken by the UGC in improving the quality and standards of higher education are:
    Improvements in the quality and standards of teaching and research through programmes for setting up Centers of Advanced Study and Research, improvements in college teaching, strengthening research and infrastructure, etc.
    Periodic review and renewal of curricular content of courses in various disciplines, and special schemes for introduction of emerging areas of education and training.
    Establishment of common facilities for research networking of resources for information and documentation.
    Induction of electronic media in higher education.
    Provision of scholarships and fellowships to students.
    Launching of special programmes for greater participation of women, disadvantaged groups and the weaker sections in higher education.
As far as universities are concerned, the UGC took the initiative and established a mechanism called National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) as an autonomous council under the aegis of the UGC to carry out periodical assessment of universities and colleges in the country.
8.    The methodology developed by NAAC for assessment involves:
    A self-appraisal by each university/college on the basis of specified parameters and documenting its performance with reference to each of them.
    An assessment of the performance by an Expert Committee on the basis of probes identified in respect of each parameter;
    A peer review of the self-appraisal and expert’s evaluation; and
    A judgment of the performance.
The NAAC has developed the instruments for carrying out the evaluation studies and several universities and colleges have offered themselves for this assessment. This council needs to be strengthened.
Institutions of higher learning can be classified into the following categories:
    Universities which are established by an Act of Parliament or State Legislature and are of unitary or affiliating type;
    Institutions of national importance — such as the Indian Institutes of Technology — which are established under Acts of Parliament and are empowered to award degrees.
    Institutions deemed to be universities, which are given university status under a provision in the UGC Act. Some of these institutions offer advance level courses in a particular field of specialization, while many of them award general degrees.
    Institutions which award only diplomas and are not established by legislation or not declared as deemed to be universities. The Indian Institutes of Management are in this category.
9.    Pertinence and Quality: In this age of a techno-scientific revolution, when the sheer quantity of knowledge and information is expanding exponentially, when the needs of a constantly growing and increasingly varied student population are burgeoning, the quality of training for teachers and the quality of teaching in higher education institutions demand top priority.
The University Grants Commission [UGC] was set up in 1956 as an agency for coordination and maintenance of the standards of teaching examination and research in universities. During the last 40 years, the UGC has taken a number of measures to improve quality and to introduce innovations.
Quality improvement through infrastructural development: Here the policy is to ensure a minimum level of facilities such as laboratories, libraries, classrooms and hostels, by the provision of development grants. Special grants have also been provided to improve in quality humanities, social science and science streams.
Financial support has also been provided for creating new inter-disciplinary oriented universities such as the Jawaharlal Nehru University.
10.    Curriculum, human resources and research development: Another quality assurance measure is the provision of resources in the form of Research Fellowships for M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes undertaken by university and college teachers, University leadership programmes (ULP) for college teachers, and Seminars, workshops, summer schools in various subjects so as to help the teachers upgrade their knowledge.
Such programmes reach a large number of teachers in the system. In 1987, Academic Staff Colleges (ASC) were set up to provide opportunities for general orientation and subject refresher programmes for academic staff. Under the scheme, more than hundred thousand teachers have received orientation and subject refresher programmes of 3-4 weeks duration. Such measures are expected to have greater impact on the quality of teaching and learning in the system of higher education in the country.
11.    Research and Development: Research is promoted by encouraging students to do M.Phil. and Ph.D. research. The UGC provides financial assistance to those who are meritorious and propose to pursue research. Meritorious students are selected through National Level Test. Nearly 50,000 scholars are receiving Fellowships for conducting research. Those who are enrolled for research programme account for 74,000, i.e. 1.1 per cent of total enrolment in higher education. Nearly 10,000 students are awarded Ph.D. degree every year.
Teachers are encouraged to do research through award of minor and major research projects. Nearly 500 major research projects and 650 minor research projects were awarded during the last year. Besides, there are schemes of Research Associateship, Scientistship, Emeritus Fellowship, Teacher Fellowship and Career Awards through which research work is supported by providing financial assistance to teachers. These Fellowships are available for Science, Social Sciences, Humanities and Engineering & Technology. Besides UGC, support for major and minor research projects is provided to teachers in higher education by Department of Science and Technology and various Councils related to Social sciences, History and Philosophy.
12.    Training for Teachers: Training of teachers is an important component of any policy, which aims at maintaining high standards of teaching in the universities and colleges. The review of Educational Policy (1992) stressed upon a comprehensive programme of professional development of teachers through Academic Staff Colleges. The scheme of Academic Staff Colleges was started in 1986-87, under which 45 such Colleges have been set up so far. These colleges conduct four-week orientation programmes for training new teachers with innovative techniques and also three to four week refresher courses in various disciplines for in-service teachers to enable them to update their knowledge.
 Since these Academic Staff Colleges cannot cater to the needs of all the teachers, 72 departments of universities and  ecognized  institutions have been selected to conduct refresher courses, in addition to the Academic Staff Colleges. These centres have prepared reading material for the use of teachers. The Academic Staff Colleges also conduct seminars of two to three days’ duration for the Principals located under the catchment area. The Academic Staff Colleges sensitise the teachers about students’ expectations and perceptions and provide them an understanding of the academic context of higher education.
To enrich the quality of higher education, a Country-wide Classroom scheme was launched. Under this scheme, special films on various subjects were prepared and broadcast for the benefit of students and teachers. To carry this out, institutional audio-visual research centres and educational media research centres were set up throughout the country. Such Centres already number 21 and are likely to increase. These centres are producing a large number of video tapes
that are transmitted on the national TV network.
13.    Structural Reforms: The regulatory system was introduced as early as in 1857 along with the establishment of the modern university in India. The main purpose was to ensure the  ecognized tion of curriculum in undergraduate programme, as well as objective and impersonal evaluation of students. The system of affiliated colleges involved determination of curriculum by the university. Implementation of this curriculum was carried out by the affiliated colleges and university departments and evaluation of students through comprehensive examinations. So long as the system remained small in size, it worked reasonably well.
But, with the expansion in the number of institutions and students, this system has become counter-productive and has caused serious damage to the process of teaching and learning; diversification of higher education, social relevance of the curriculum and evaluation of students. In order to remedy this situation, the following steps have been taken:
    Scheme of Autonomous Colleges: These are intended to ensure quality relevance and appropriate assessment of students. Under this arrangement, teachers in the colleges decide the curriculum and conduct the evaluation of their students through systems of continuous evaluation. At present, there are 119 autonomous colleges.
    Critical inputs and recognition: Other regulatory measures, such as creation of minimum level of infrastructure, the specified number of qualified staff and well-defined administrative procedures, are insisted upon before any institution is affiliated to a university, or before a university can be  ecognized by the UGC for financial assistance. These measures discourage the opening of substandard institutions.
14.    Evaluation and Monitoring: UGC review committees and visiting committees oversee and assess the quality of university programmes. These committees are constituted for different areas and disciplines and for all the universities which receive financial assistance from the UGC.
Another UGC measure is the National Educational Testing (NET) programme. The UGC and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) conduct tests in science subjects twice a year for Junior Research Fellowships (JRF) and an eligibility test for the teaching profession.
Universities and colleges are required to consider the candidature of only such persons who have qualified for teaching jobs. Those who qualify for JRF tests are awarded Junior Research Fellowships of Rs. 5,000/- per month. These tests have proved to be important indicators of quality of students engaged in the teaching and research profession. As a part of coordination and maintenance of standards of higher education, the UGC has set up an Inter-University Institution of quality assessment and accreditation. This is named as National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and it was set up in 1994 under Section 12 CCC of the UGC Act.
NAAC’s responsibility is to assess and accredit institutions of higher education that volunteer for the process, based on certain criteria which can be applied to the functioning of the institution in totality. NAAC’s process of assessment and accreditation involves the preparation of a self-study report by the institution, its validation by the peers and final decision by the Council. Though assessment and accreditation is voluntary on the part of the institutions, UGC has already indicated that its plan-based development support to educational institutions will be related to the outcome of assessment and accreditation. It has already extended financial support to the extent of Rs. 5 lakhs to each university to meet the expenses involved in undergoing the accreditation process. Likewise, the autonomous colleges are provided with financial support for this purpose as a part their annual grant from the UGC.
15.    Share of Higher Education: Higher education in India is in financial stress. However, it should be noted that huge investments have been made in higher education in independent India. Total expenditure on higher education has increased remarkably during the post-independence period. At the inception of planning in the country (1950-51), India was spending Rs. 172 million on higher education. Government expenditure alone was of the order of Rs. 42,035 million in 1996-97, and it has risen Rs. 55,145 million in 2006-07. This impressive growth is, however, considerably offset by increase in prices, and increase in population, more particularly student numbers in higher education. Inflation has had an adverse effect on education.
The share of higher education doubled in the total education outlay from 9 per cent in the first Five Year Plan to 18 per cent in the second Five Year Plan, and increased to an all time peak of 25 per cent in the fourth Five Year Plan, and ever since it has been consistently declining, and was about 15 per cent in the seventh Five Year Plan. The share of higher education in the total education outlay in the eighth Five Year Plan was estimated to be 8 per cent.
16.    Sources of Funds: The various sources of finances for higher education in India are: (a) government sector — central government, and state government; and (b) Non-governmental sector— students/parents (or families), e.g., fees, and other maintenance expenditure, and the rest of the community at large, e.g., donations and endowments.
17.    Vision and Tasks Ahead:
•    India realizes, like other nations of the world, that humanity stands today at the head of a new age of a large synthesis of knowledge, and that the East and the West have to collaborate in bringing about concerted action for universal upliftment, and lasting peace and unity.
•    Higher education to undergo vast changes in respect of objectives, contents and methods. It will be required to set more exacting standards of excellence and perfection.
•    The world is entering into an Information Age and developments in communication, information and technology will open up new and cost-effective approaches for providing the reach of higher education to the youth as well as to those who need continuing education for meeting the demands of explosion of information, fast-changing nature of occupations, and lifelong education.
•    A most difficult task ahead is to conceive certain new objectives of higher education. It will not be enough to promote specialized knowledge and skills of professional excellence; a deeper and subtler aim will be to develop abilities to think globally and to resolve emerging tensions between rationalistic, ethical, aesthetic and spiritual elements of personality.
•    Appropriate courses have to be designed so as to achieve a proper blending of wide general knowledge and such   specialization, which would have in-built facilities to renew relevant knowledge and skills at increasingly shorter intervals  and even on a continuous basis Student-Centered Education and Dynamic Methods
•    Methods of higher education also have to be appropriate to the needs of learning to learn, learning to do, learning to be and learning to become.
•    India recognizes that access to higher education will have to be so broad-based that the system of open universities has to continue to grow and it will not only have to be extended vastly but also to be so designed that it can foster among students constant motivation to learn and to develop not only academic abilities but also practical skills and talents that are being demanded by the modern world.
•    Higher Education system needs Major Changes in System of Governance and Greater Investment.
18.    Conclusion: India looks upon the future with realistic optimism, despite difficult challenges and world-wide crises through which humanity is passing today. Major efforts are required to cross over the present transitional period, during which negative forces will try to outweigh the positive forces. Future advances in research will affect the theme of higher knowledge centrally, the country is getting ready to strengthen the system of higher education and to adopt strategies that will provide new dimensions to the delivery system that will help change society and prepare young people to shoulder the heavy responsibilities of a difficult but fascinating future.


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