[Answered]“There are many structural flaws in Indian higher education system.” Examine.

There has always been furore about about the quality of university education. With no university among the ranks of world class universities, India’s higher education system is termed as poor, structurally flawed and underfunded.The latest ‘India Skills Report’ suggests that only 47% of Indian graduates are employable.

Structural issues in Indian higher education system:

1. Teaching quality: National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) in its assessment report pointed out that 68% of institutions in India are of middle or poor quality. Recruitment of undergraduates as teachers, ad-hoc appointments and low pay scale, inadequate teacher training are all factors that have caused a deterioration in the quality of education.
2. Vacancies:Nearly 35% of professor posts and 46% of assistant professor posts out of total sanctioned strength remain vacant across the country.
3. Financing:India barely spends 2.5% of its budgetary allocations on education. This is far below the required amount needed to upgrade the infrastructure at public institutes. Nearly 65% of the University Grants Commission (UGC) budget is utilised by the central universities when the share of state universities in student enrolments is much higher.
4. Privatisation and Regulation: Withdrawal of public sector has left the space open for private institutions that have turned education into a flourishing business. Most of the teachers in private colleges are underpaid and over-worked. There has been a rampant expansion in the number of colleges with scant regard for standards and quality. This phenomenon also shows the lapses in the regulatory structure which are riddled with corruption.
5. Curriculum:There is a wide gap between industry requirements and curriculum taught at colleges. This also renders graduates unemployable lacking in specific skill-sets.
6. Autonomy: Over-regulation by regulators such as UGC, MCI, which decide on aspects of standards, appointments, fees structure and curriculum has further deterred new institutions from opening campuses.
7. Academic research: India has barely 119 researchers per million of the population as compared to Japan which has 5300 and US which has 4500. Besides, in US 4% of science graduates finish the doctorate, in Europe, this number is 7%, but in India barely 0.4% of graduates finish the doctorate.
8. Faculty shortage: Faculty vacancies at government institutions are at 50% on average. The problem lies in increased demand, and stagnant supply.
9. Poor research: Indian universities persist in separating research and teaching activities, depriving students of exposure to cutting-edge ideas. Monetary incentives for academia are practically non-existent, and Indian R&D expenditure at 0.62% of GDP is one of the lowest in emerging economies. It is not surprising, then, that Indian universities rank low in both research and teaching.

Way forward:

1. The goals of the higher education, for that matter any education system of any country is expansion with inclusion, ensuring quality and relevant education. Government must ensure filling up of vacancies through more autonomy to the institutions.
2. To meet these challenges, there is a need for policy to identify the jet issues involved, to build up on the earlier policies, and to take a step ahead.
3. Research cannot be improved merely by regulating universities, instead they need efforts to create enabling atmosphere for which it is imperative to grant more autonomy, better funding and new instruments to regulate work ethic.
4. New initiatives like Hackathon, curriculum reform, anytime anywhere learning through SWAYAM, teacher training are all aimed at improving quality. These need to be effectively implemented.
5. As India wants to transform its universities into world class institutions, it must safeguard the interests of young researchers and thousands of temporary faculty members by expediting the permanent appointments in a time-bound framework and transparent manner.
6. Each state must establish an integrated higher education master plan to provide an excellent education for all its residents.
7. One of the fundamental changes India must institutionalise is a radically new compensation and incentive structure for faculty members. A flexibility to pay differential salaries based on market forces and merit must be part of this transformation.

The government released a Draft National Education Policy (DNEP) in 2019, which proposed ambitious reforms. The DNEP aims to double education spending to 6% of GDP, and close the research-teaching divide in higher education. Experts, however, are doubtful about whether the dramatic increases will be politically feasible, and whether the implementation of such reforms will be implemented successfully or not.