Poor quality, increasing privatisation and politicisation have been chronic problems that our education system faces.
There currently seems to be some positive churn, but much remains to be done to usher in significant progress.
What is the current state of affairs?
Since independence, it has been a challenge to build a quality higher education infrastructure with limited funds.
While excellence is possible, as the IITs and IIMs show, it is limited to a tiny segment of a system that enrols 35 million students.
Internationalisation is central to academic success in the 21st century — and India has been notably weak.
India has shown academic innovations over the years, but on a limited scale and never in the comprehensive universities.
In recent times, things seem to be changing, at least at the top levels of our higher education eco-system.
What are the new changes?
NIRF - “National Institutional Ranking Framework”, implemented in 2016, is India’s first government-supported ranking of colleges and universities.
It demands the participating institutions to submit data on critical areas and also makes a distinction between universities and colleges.
NIRF may in the future guide government financial support for higher education and also aid in education related policy making.
IoE project - Institutions of Eminence (IoE) project seeks to identify 10 public and 10 private institutions as IoE, to enable their further development.
It has been proposed that the identified IoE will be provided enhanced autonomy and financial support (funds only for public institutes).
Graded Autonomy programme (GAP) - This is an initiative that plans to give participating institutions considerable freedom in certain domains.
The vision is to promote “Academic, financial and administrative innovations” in these institutions by liberalising them (if they fulfil certain conditions).
Given the often stifling bureaucracy of higher education, GAP will be a significant stimulus for innovation in both public and private institutions.
How is our system opening up to foreign collaborations?
Traditionally, colleges and universities have been restricted from international collaboration, which is proving to be an obstacle to excellence.
People - Emphasis on attracting international students has been poor and only 47,000 foreigners study in India, in comparison to China’s 4 lakhs.
The new “Study in India initiative” seeks to attract international students mainly from a group of African and Asian countries.
It seeks to improve India’s share of “global student mobility” from the current 1% to 2% in the near future.
The Graded Autonomy programme makes it easier to hire international faculty, which was very difficult to do earlier.
Degree - India is moving towards signing a pact on mutual recognition of academic qualifications with 30 countries.
Recently, a government-to-government MoU was signed between India and France to mutually recognise academic qualifications.
What are the challenges?
Upgrading 20 or more Indian universities to world-class quality is big task and will take time and way more consistent funding than currently estimated.
Further, autonomy will need to be greatly increased, which might be difficult as freedom from bureaucratic shackles of the government is not easy to attain.
Innovative ideas from within top universities are another vital factor needed for ushering in progress, but there has been little evidence of this till now.
Ensuring that universities have imaginative leaders within their ranks and deriving ideas from foreign models are other aspects that need attention.
What is the way ahead?
The national ranking initiative needs to be extended throughout the higher education system and requires simplification for enhancing its ambit.
The “Study in India initiative” and proposals relating to relationships between Indian and foreign institutions are useful beginnings.
But more thinking must go into these ideas, and the focus on attracting students needs to be broadened beyond just Asia and Africa.
Innovation in course design is vital to attract students as students and post-docs from western countries might prefer taking up shorter-duration course.
Significantly, unlike China, India has the advantage of using English as the main language of higher education, an advantage that needs to be capitalised.
