Recently, government has proposed to grant autonomy to 8 more private universities, which inherently runs the risk of precipitating a fee hike.
This could exacerbate the financial exclusion that is defining the education landscape for long and lead to further marginalisation.
How did the proposal come up?
The current events have been created through a simulated politics of urgency that followed a report that ranked no Indian university in the global top 200.
All of a sudden, the government jumped into action and “speed seems to have become a substitute for efficiency and progress, a substitute for social justice”.
While the hollowness and superficiality of reform is startling, it is being projected as decisive action deserving applause.
Problems - The organic evaluation for creativity and technological prudence seems lacking and institutions are being ranked based on facilities.
The current ranking framework merely involves a number game that attempts to coat the desire for profits (autonomy in fees) with a social justification.
Hence, in the name of autonomy, the public good called education is being privatised and being made traded free market commodity.
The government is merely divesting itself of its responsibility and this is being disguised in creating a few narrow entitlements for a few institutions.
What are the shortfalls in the deal?
Autonomy - This is being celebrated as some new invention while it was always a part of the public university tradition to a considerable extent.
In fact, even in state run universities, the rules of the craft were always largely at the hands of the practitioners.
Quantifying Knowledge - Bureaucracy is defining the university setup, which puts the entire education system and culture of innovation at risk.
Hence, quality is getting reduced to quantifiable output, while seeing research as a learning craft through experimentation is being sidelined.
Costs – Government is clearly withdrawing from education.
Institutions can now change admission rules, or charge more fees on their own.
India is a split-level world where the majority of institutions suffer from lack of funds, while a few parade their affluence (richness) as superior quality.
Hence, the rich can now create captive institutions while the middle class watches helplessly as quality education in democratic spaces empties out.
The idea of university as a public space, where subsidies are provided to allow the marginalised to participate with dignity, is being lost.
