Emerging Challenges and Thrust Areas of Indian Higher Education System

The path of liberalization and globalization has had enormous ramifications and reflections on several facets of the economy. The education sector has been no exception. Indian higher education system has grown significantly since independence. There were 16 universities with over 2.3 lakh enrolment of students and 591 university and affiliated colleges. Today there are more than 600 universities with over 20 million enrolments of students and around 30 thousand plus colleges in India. The inclusion of higher education as a tradable commodity under GATS (general agreement on trade in services) and the rapid advancements ICT (information and communication technology) has been largely responsible for the spurt in this sector. The present paper tries to track the odyssey of higher education from its genesis to the present day. It also tries to explore the emerging trends, thrust areas and challenges emanating there to.

Click Here to view full research paper.