International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development

International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development

Online ISSN: 2349-4182, Print ISSN: 2349-5979, Impact Factor: RJIF 5.72
www.allsubjectjournal.com
Volume 4; Issue 2; February 2017; Page No. 188-191

A study on higher education in India: Issues, challenges and directions

1
Sharanabasappa CB, 2 Basavaraj Nagesh Kadamudimatha
1
Assistant Professor in Department of Economics S.G. Arts, Science and Commerce College, Koppal, Karnataka, India
2
Lecturer in Commerce S.G. Arts, Science and Commerce College, Koppal, Karnataka, India

Abstract
India’s Higher Education system is the largest in the world in terms of number of institutions. Higher education in India has
undergone rapid development after post-independence era. Every society gives importance to education because it is a panacea for
all evils. It is the key to solve the various problems of life. Education has been described as a process of waking up to life also.
This article attempts to examine the scenario of higher education in India. Besides the university departments of education and
their affiliated colleges, government and government aided institutions; private and self-financing colleges and open universities
are also engaged in education. This paper discussed the issues of higher education and direction to improve the higher education in
India.

Keywords: development, higher education, post-independence, university

Introduction Total 1: Number of Universities in India (As on 25-05-2016)

Higher education is of vital importance for the country, as it is Universities Total Number
a powerful tool to build knowledge-based society of the 21st State Universities 347
Century. With the growing size and diversity of the higher Deemed to be Universities 123
education sector particularly in terms of courses, management Central Universities 47
and geographical coverage, it has become necessary to Private Universities 237
develop a sound database on higher education. Existing data TOTAL 754
base on higher education is inadequate and out-of-date. Source: http://www.ugc.ac.in/oldpdf/alluniversity.pdf
Collection and dissemination of data on higher education
suffers from incomplete coverage, inordinate time lag etc. Due Issues in Indian Higher Education System
to this, Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER), which is being The National level enrolment into high education is a mere
calculated on the basis of available data, does not reflect the 20%.The access to education among various groups such
correct picture of the country’s development in respect of as castes, religions produces a dismally poor picture. While
Higher Education sector. Government has set a target of Upper castes, Christians, jains fare significantly higher
increasing the GER from the present level of about 12% to than others. Muslims, SC, ST rank way below national
15% by the end of XI Five Year Plan and to 30% by the year averages. The poor among all groups are the worst affected
2020. Various new initiatives have been taken during XI Five with abysmal enrolments. The rural-urban, female-male
Year Plan to increase the GER. Reliable and comprehensive divide are staking too. Private un-aided universities are out
data-base is an immediate requirement to measure the actual of reach to majority of Indians.
GER and efforts taken to improve the GER. A sound database Corrective measures should aim at spreading,
on higher education is also required for planning, policy strengthening of central, state university regulating the
formulation, fulfilling International Commitments, Research exorbitant fee charged by private university. Providing
etc. credible financial assistance to economically weaker
sections and encouraging higher education among SC, ST,
Methodology Muslims are the need of the hour.
Nature of Study Rankings of our university on Global, Asian level reflect
The study is mainly descriptive in nature. Secondary data are the poor state of quality in education. Lack of quality
used for the purpose of the study coupled with poor access forms a vicious cycle for
students.
Secondary Data Leveraging technology to provide Massive open online
Secondary data was collected from websites, various articles courses by IITs, IIMs can normalise quality levels.
and journals Improving infrastructure, teacher-student ratio,
strengthening regional language resources and building
Limitation of the study global network of academicians such as recently launched
Lack of primary data GIAN project to bring world class teachers to India can
Time consuming point to a bright future
As the research mainly depends on secondary data, it may Knowledge, skills should also translate into employability.
not be hundred percent accurate. Pursuing the objectives of National Skill Mission and
The study is restricted to India only
188
International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development

encouraging industry-classroom relations can go a long teaching through lectures will have to subordinate to the
way in making students industry ready and relevant. methods that will lay stress on self-study, personal
consultation between teachers and pupils, and dynamic
Challenges Faced By Education System in India:- sessions of seminars and workshops. Methods of distance
Enrolment ratio less than 20% education will have to be employed on a vast scale.
Disparities on access to education based on, Caste,
religion, class, gender etc Public Private Partnership:
Lack of relevant teachings PPP is most essential to bring in quality in the higher
One teacher for 98000 schools. education system. Governments can ensure PPP through an
Only 722 universities for higher education should be at appropriate policy. University Grants Commission and
least 1500. Ministry of HRD should play a major role in developing a
No reliable data available regarding education status. purposeful interface between the Universities, Industries and
No review of education policy in last 50 years. National Research Laboratories (NRLs) as a step towards PPP.
Increase in self-financed private institutes. Funding to NRLs by the government should ensure the
involvement of institutions of higher education engaged in
New Direction of Higher Education in India. research activities to facilitate availability of latest
Move towards a Learning Society sophisticated equipment. There has been some effort both by
As we move towards a learning society, every human activity the government and the private education institutions to
will require contributions from experts, and this will place the develop the teaching staff at various levels. However, this
entire sector of higher education in sharp focus. Although the needs to be intensified with appropriate attention to all the
priorities, which are being assigned today to the task of aspects related in order to prepare quality and sufficient
Education for All, will continue to be preponderant, the number of educational staff. Such efforts need a very serious
country will have to prepare itself to invest more and more on structuring for the research base institutions. We have to be
higher education and, simultaneously, measures will have to optimistic that private-public partnership and the Industry
be taken to refine, diversify and upgrade higher education and interface will take place in the field of education at all levels,
research programmes. and particularly in the backward regions, which is the need of
the hour. To achieve excellence, we thus need to create a real
Incentives to Teachers and Researchers partnership between government, educators and industry–
Industry and students are expecting specialized courses to be Partnerships that can provide our high-tech industries with
offered so that they get the latest and best in education and skilled workers who meet the standards of their industry.
they are also industry ready and employable. Vocational and
Diploma courses need to be made more attractive to facilitate To Provide Need Based Job-Oriented Courses
specialized programs being offered to students. Incentives All round development of personality is the purpose of
should be provided to teachers and researchers to make these education. But the present day education is neither imparting
professions more attractive for the younger generation. true knowledge of life and nor improving the talent of a
student by which one can achieve laurels in the field one is
Innovative Practices should be involved interested. So, combination of arts subjects and computer
The new technologies offer vast opportunities for progress in science and science and humanities or literature should be
all walks of life. It offers opportunities for economic growth, introduced so that such courses could be useful for the
improved health, better service delivery, improved learning students to do jobs after recruitment in some companies which
and socio-cultural advances. Though efforts are required to would reduce unnecessary rush to higher education. The
improve the country’s innovative capacity, yet the efforts programme must be focused on graduate studies and research
should be to build on the existing strengths in light of new and developing strategies and mechanisms for the rapid and
understanding of the research innovation-growth linkage. efficient transfer of knowledge and for its application to
specific national and local conditions and needs. Meritorious
To mobilize resources doctoral students should be recognized through teaching
The decline in public funding in the last two plan periods has assistantships with stipends over and above the research
resulted in serious effects on standards due to increasing costs fellowships. Finally, based on knowledge only vision of the
on non-salary items and emoluments of staff, on the one hand, future life and work can be had; based on this vision only a
and declining resources, on the other. Effective measures will broad ambition can be fixed for oneself; and based on this
have to be adopted to mobilize resources for higher education. ambition only one can lead interesting life doing satisfying job
There is also a need to relate the fee structure to the student’s to do remarkable achievements in some field in the world.
capacity to pay for the cost. So that, students at lower
economic levels can be given highly subsidised and fully International Cooperation
subsidised education Universities in India have been a primary conduit for the
advancement and transmission of knowledge through
Student-Centred Education and Dynamic Methods traditional functions such as research, innovation, teaching,
Methods of higher education also have to be appropriate to the human resource development, and continuing education.
needs of learning to learn, learning to do, learning to be and International cooperation is gaining importance as yet another
learning to become. Student-centred education and function. With the increased development of transport and
employment of dynamic methods of education will require communication, the global village is witnessing a growing
from teachers new attitudes and new skills. Methods of emphasis on international cooperation and action to find
189
International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development

satisfactory solutions to problems that have global dimensions achieve that goal it should adopt uniform international
and higher education is one of them. syllabus in its educational institutions.

Cross Culture Programmes Personality Development

After education, tour to all the places in India and world as far Finally, education should be for the flowering of personality
as possible with the cooperation of government is necessary so but not for the suppression of creativity or natural skill. In the
that one can understand about people, culture, arts, literature, globalized world opportunities for the educated people are
religions, technological developments and progress of human naturally ample in scope. As a result business process
society in the world. outsourcing (BPO) activities have increased competition in the
world trade leading towards the production of quality goods
Action Plan for Improving Quality and their easy availability everywhere in the world market.
Academic and administrative audit should be conducted once That is the way the world can be developed for peace,
in three years in colleges by external experts for ensuring prosperity and progress by able and skilful men.
quality in all aspects of academic activities. The self-finance
colleges should come forward for accreditation and fulfil the Status of Academic Research Studies
requirements of accreditation. Universities and colleges should If we see the number of researchers engaged in Research and
realise the need for quality education and come forward with Development activities as compared to other countries we find
action plan for improving quality in higher educational that we have merely 119 researchers, whereas Japan has 5287
institutions. and US has 4484 researchers per million of population. Even
in absolute terms, number of researchers in India is much
Privatization of Higher Education smaller compared to US, China, Japan, Russia, and Germany.
In any nation education is the basic necessity for the socio- Numbers of doctoral degrees awarded in all subjects are 16,
economic development of the individuals and the society. In 602 out of which 6774 are in Arts and 5408 in science and rest
reality only 20% of the population is educated in India. So, in others (professional subjects). India has a little over 6000
improved standard of education as first priority should be doctorates in Science and engineering, compared to 9000 in
offered to the majority by the govt. authorities with sincere China and 25000 in US. It increased rapidly from a little over
political will. Also, privatization of higher education is 1000 in 1990 to over 9000 in recent years in China. In
absolutely necessary in a vast country like India as comparison, there has been a modest increase in India.
government alone is helpless to do so. National Science Foundation (NSF) - Science and Engineering
Indicators (2002) shows that in the US, about 4% of the
Quality development science and engineering graduates finish their doctorates. This
Quality depends on its all functions and activities: teaching figure is about 7% for Europe. In India this is not even 0.4%.
and academic programs, research and scholarship, staffing, Data on doctorates particularly in science, engineering and
students, building, facilities, equipments, services to the medicine suggests that only a few institutions have real
community and the academic environment. It also requires research focus. In engineering there were merely 650
that higher education should be characterized by its doctorates awarded in 2001-02. Of these 80 percent were from
international dimensions: exchange of knowledge, interactive just 20-top universities. In science, 65 percent of the
networking, mobility of teachers and students and doctorates awarded were from the top-30 universities.
international research projects, while taking into account the
national cultural values and circumstances. The level of Stipends to Research Fellows
education and knowledge being imparted by many colleges...is The number of Ph. Ds from Indian Universities should
not up to the mark. Instead of concentrating on quantity, these increase with proper standards. This should be seen in the
institutions should concentrate on quality. The approach of context of extremely low fraction of Ph. Ds in India in relation
doctoral research in social sciences needs to be more to M.Sc. /B Tech., as compared to what it is in USA, UK,
analytical and comparative and be related to society, policy Germany, Japan etc. Meritorious doctoral students should be
and economy. A study conducted on Social Science Research recognized through teaching assistantships with stipends over
Capacity in South Asia (2002) showed that the share of the and above the research fellowships Identifying talented,
Indian universities in the special articles published in the meritorious students and encouraging them through
Economic and Political Weekly was only about a 25 percent. recognition is very important to attract students into research
This too was dominated by only three universities, namely and teaching.
Jawaharlal Nehru University, University of Mumbai &
University of Delhi. Fair Quality Assurance System
Colleges and Private institutes should set up Internal Quality
World Class Education Assurance Cell and must follow a minimum standard to give
Indian government is not giving priority to the development of degrees. The quality assurance system must be independent of
Standard in education. India should aspire for the international political and institutional interaction and it must have a basis
standard in education. Many national universities like in the in the legislation. There should be operational, financial and
USA, UK, Australia, etc. allow studies in higher education for academic autonomy coupled with accountability. There is a
foreign students in their countries and through correspondence need of an independent accreditation agency with a
courses as well. In the same way India Universities of world conglomerate of government, industry, academia, society etc.
class education can also offer courses of studies to foreign means all stakeholders of the education to ensure that the
students taking advantage of the globalization process. To stakeholders particularly the students are not taken for a ride.
190
International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development

They should be able to know whether a particular institution

delivers value or not, then things can be under control to some
extent. It is also important that all institutes of higher learning
must make public the acceptability of their courses and
degrees. (i.e. the status, recognition and acceptability of their
courses by other institutions)

To increase Quantity of Universities

We need more universities because we are more in number
and present number of universities is too less. On 13th June,
2005 Government of India constituted a high level advisory
body known as National Knowledge Commission (NKC) to
advise the PM about the state of education in India and
measures needed to reform this sector. It was headed by Sam
Pitroda and submitted its report in November 2007. NKC has
recommended setting up of 1500 universities by 2015 so that
gross enrolment ratio increases to 15 percent. It has also called
for establishing an Independent Regulatory Authority for
Higher Education (IRAHE) to monitor the quality of overall
higher education in India.

Examination Reforms
Examination reforms, gradually shifting from the terminal,
annual and semester examinations to regular and continuous
assessment of student’s performance in learning should be
implemented.

High-tech Libraries
Our university libraries have a very good collection of books,
but they are all in mess. A library must be online and
conducive for serious study. Indian universities should
concentrate more on providing quality education which is
comparable to that of international standards.

Reference
1. Annual Report, 2009-10, Department of Higher
Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development.
2. Ballal HS. FICCI-Higher Education Summit, Nov 6,
2009, New Delhi, 2009.
3. Barnett, R. Improving Higher Education. Total Quality
Care. Buckingham. SRHE/Open University Press, 1992.
4. Bhattacharya I. & Sharma K. 'India in the knowledge
economy – an electronic paradigm', International Journal
of Educational Management. 2007; 21(6):543-568.
5. Carl Dahlman and Anuja Utz, India and the Knowledge
Economy: Leveraging Strengths and Opportunities World
Bank Report No. 31267- IN. Washington, DC: World
Bank, 2005.
6. Agarwal R et al. Higher Education and Quality
Improvement: A challenge for India. Indian Journal of
Applied Research 2014; 4(10).
7. Mishra Sharda, UGC and Higher Education System in
India. Book Enclare, Jaipur. 2006,
8. Arunachalam P. Higher Education Sector in India: Issues
and Imperatives. Journal of Global Econom 2010; 6(4)
9. Padhi SK. ‘Issues, Challenges and Reforms in Higher
Education for a Knowledge Society, 2011.
10. Higher Education in India: Issues, Concerns and New
Directions http://www.ugc.ac.in/pub/heindia.pdf

191