Name: Nargas

Roll No: CA654031

ASSIGNMENT: 2
COURSE CODE: 8625
Subject: HIGHER EDUCATION
PREFFERED TEACHER: FARHAD ALI
TEACHER CONTACT NUMBER: 03065974605

Q.1 Critically discuss the system of Higher Education in India. How would you compare
this system of Higher education with Pakistani Higher Education System?
Ans.
Higher Education in India
The higher education system in India has based on solid framework .it is on the way of rapid
development. The basic aim of present higher education system is to develop intellectual,
economic and social value in student. It has very important as it has giving easy access to low-
cost high quality education for higher level students.

According to Joshi,(1980) India has a highly dynamic, progressive and appropriate system
of education at higher level. Its objective is to create intellectual awareness in the economic
and social growth of the country. Work experience and practical training at undergraduate
level could bring in a new dimension to Higher Education;

India has been home to the institutions of higher education. At the time of independence, it
has twenty universities and five hundred colleges. But it has become the largest higher
education system in the world having 42000, institutions of higher education. It has
spreading student cantered education system and providing it rapidly to its youth. Student
cantered education system is very helpful to increase students enrolments as well as learning
outcome.

Indian Higher Education system is third largest system in the world. The university Grant
Commission is main governing body to handle the matters of higher education .it is monitor
the standard of Education , advises the Government and co-ordinate between the centre and
state. Higher Education in India is provided by five groups of institutions, central state,
private, deemed universities and institutions of national importance. Accreditation for higher
learning is overseen by autonomous institutions established by University Grants
Commission.
In India; the labor market has determined student preferences. Legal, medical agricultural,
arts, science and commerce education has been preferred at different times. The Govt has
done some manpower studies in technical and medical fields and has tried to influence
educational trends in some area. There has been lack of balance with labor market and it has
led to unemployment. In arts, people trend is strong while government is moving this trend
towards science. The state has balance control towards technical and medical studies.
According to market demands, it has been observed that students are shifting from
engineering to medicines and from science to arts and commerce.

Indian Higher Education particularly plays an important role in realization of Indian

potential and aspiration towards economical and technological advancement. It has put great
emphases on science and technology in teaching at higher education level. There are large
numbers of higher education institutions in India. It has put great emphases on science and
technology. Distance and open learning is feature of Indian higher educational system.
Distance education council look after the matters of these Institutions. India Gandhi National
Open University is the largest university in the world.
Universities in India have evolved divergent streams and it has been monitored by an apex
body which is controlling authority by Ministry of Human Resource Development funded
by State Government. Besides these institutions, there are several hundred state
universities .there is network of research institutions that provide opportunities for advanced
learning up to PhD in branches of science, technology and agriculture. Indian Institute of
Science and Technology is renowned institution. There are several thousand colleges that
offer undergraduate courses of science, agriculture, commerce and humanities. These
provide a Postgraduate course to PhD. The private sector is strong in Indian higher
education. It has been providing facility of Indian student to access of higher education at
divergent level. Realization of national goals is main objective of Indian Higher Education
and it brings cause of progress of country and fulfils the needs of individuals as human
beings.

Higher education in India will face the burning issue of rapidly increasing 600 million of
people under 25 years old. The system is under tremendous pressure to expand opportunities
of higher education to this group. By2020, India will the largest territory – age population.
Low quality teaching and learning is another issue. Shortage of faculty for higher education
is main cause of low quality.30-40 % of faculty positions are unfilled, absence of employer
engagement in course content and skill development, very few opportunities for inter-
disciplinary learning. Pedagogies and assessment are focused on rote learning and little
opportunity to develop critical thinking, analytical reasoning, problem solving and
collaborative working. Separation of research and teaching is very critical issue at higher
level.

The overall scenario of Indian higher education does not meet required global quality
standard due to insufficient infrastructure and facilities, poor faculty, detoriating research
standards, out –dated curriculum, un motivated students, overcrowded class rooms, gender
issues and ethnic imbalances. There is inadequate financial support towards the Government
for Post Secondary Education.

The central government is taking steps to address these issues. Priority issues include
improvements in teaching and learning, and a focus on learning outcomes;

faculty development to improve teaching; increased integration between research and

teaching; more international partnerships in teaching as well as research; better links
between industry and research to stimulate innovation; and connecting institutions through
networks. It is need of hour that Scaling up capacity in existing institutions, rather than
creating many new government-funded institutions; enabling discipline diversity,
counteracting the skewed growth towards engineering and other technical subjects; enabling
flexible and skills-based learning; ensuring a more even spread across the country;
alignment to the needs of the economy; and encouraging private investment. Indian higher
Education is needed for radical reforms in terms of high standard transparency, strengthen
the institutions of higher institutions, curriculum reforms, vocational education, it is needed
to give more opportunities for students to explore their passions. Collaborative efforts are
needed in broaden students’ choice through liberal arts education.

Self-Assessment Questions
1. Discuss the role of higher education in economic development of India.
2. Describe the major issues facing higher education in India

Q.2 Explain the reasons of wastage in Higher Education. Also explain the
implication of Cost-effectiveness analysis for higher education in Pakistan.

Ans.
Cost Estimation
The costs of an intervention are defined as the value of the resources that are given up by
society to effect the intervention. These are referred to as the ingredients of the intervention,
and it is the social value of those ingredients that constitute its overall cost. At a later stage
the distribution of these costs among the decision-making agency and other entities can be
assessed. Accordingly, the method sets out systematically to identify and ascertain the value
of the ingredients that are required for each alternative that is under consideration.
Combining into Cost-effectiveness
Once each of the ingredients is these can be added to obtain a total cost for the intervention.
The next stage entails the use of these costs in an analytic framework.

The two most important concerns for cost summary and analysis are:
(a) The appropriate unit for expressing costs
The question of the appropriate unit for expressing costs depends upon how
effectiveness is measured and the nature of the decision. Usually, educational
effectiveness is measured in terms of achievement gains per student or some other per
student measure. In that case, it is necessary to convert total costs to a per student cost
figure for comparing cost effectiveness of alternative interventions. Cost-effectiveness
ratios are usually based upon the average effects and costs per student. However, it is
possible to do an analysis on total project or program costs and effects. In other cases it
may be the additional or marginal costs versus additional or marginal effectiveness that
is the subject of scrutiny. For example, one may want to ascertain the number of
additional students who will graduate from high school relative to the additional costs
of alternative approaches for reducing dropouts.
(b) Who Pays the Costs?
The overall cost-effectiveness ratio may be irrelevant to a decision-maker who pays
only part of the costs for one intervention, but all of the costs for an alternative. For
this reason, it is important to ascertain total costs of an intervention and to separate out
those that are home by the decision-maker in considering different alternatives.
However, it should be remembered that since different decision-making units have
different opportunities to obtain volunteers and contributed resources, it is
inappropriate to assume any particular cost subsidy to the decision-maker. The basic
estimate of costs that is used for all subsequent cost-analyses is the overall cost of the
intervention. Subsequent analyses can distribute the costs among those who will bear
them to ascertain the implication of that distribution for decisions. The most common
measure of cost-effectiveness is the cost-effectiveness ratio, namely, the effectiveness
of an alternative divided by its cost. When this is done for each alternative, it is
possible to see which of the alternatives yields the best outcomes per unit of cost. For
example, one might wish to examine different alternatives for raising student
achievement by comparing the cost per additional achievement gains. In principle, the
alternative with the lowest cost per achievement gain would be the most desirable.
However, it is important to know if differences in cost-effectiveness ratios are large or
small. If the differences are small, it is probably wise to weigh more fully other criteria
in making the decision such as the ease of implementation or previous experience of
staff. If the differences in cost-effectiveness are large, it is important to place greater
weight on the cost-effectiveness criteria while still considering other factors that were
not considered in the analysis. Finally, it is important to mention the issue of scale, In
general, those alternatives with high fixed costs such as those with large investments in
facilities and equipment will require a high enrollment or utilization
to reach their best cost-effectiveness ratios. The reason for this is that fixed costs
represented by a building or an educational television network of transmitters and
receiving stations cannot be readily adjusted to demand and must be fully utilized to
obtain the lowest level of cost per unit of output. In contrast, alternatives that are
constituted largely of variable costs such as personnel will have costs that are less
 sensitive to the scale of output. Variable costs are derived from inputs or ingredients
that can be readily increased or decreased. Thus, a comparison of costeffectiveness of
alternatives that differ in terms of their intensities of fixed versus variable costs may
produce very different results depending upon the scale of enrollment or output.
Accordingly, estimates should be made among the alternatives for the specific levels
of output that are pertinent rather than assuming a general pattern from cost estimation
at only one level of scale.

Q.3 Explain the major advantages of internal assessment. What are the possibilities
and issues for this assessment system in Pakistan?
Ans.
The Assessment

Assessment is formally defined as a measure of performance (Gagne et. al., 2005).

Educational assessment is the process of documenting, usually in measurable terms,
knowledge, skills, attitudes and beliefs. Assessment is a mechanism for providing instructors
with data for improving their teaching methods and for guiding and motivating students to
be actively involved in their own learning.

As such, assessment provides important feedback to both instructors and students.

Assessment gives us essential information about what our students are learning and about
the extent to which we are meeting our teaching goals. But the true power of assessment
comes in using it to give feedback to students. Improving the quality of learning in a course
involves not just determining to what extent students have mastered course content at the
end of the course; also involves determining to what extent students are mastering content
throughout the course.

Thus, in addition to providing the instructors with valuable information about our students'
learning, assessment should assist the students in diagnosing their own learning. That is,
assessment should help students become more effective, self-assessing, selfdirected learners.
Assessment is the process of gathering data. More specifically, assessment is the ways
instructors gather data about their teaching and their students’ learning (Hanna & Dettmer,
2004). The data provide a picture of a range of activities using different forms of assessment
such as: pre-tests, observations, and examinations.
There is considerable evidence showing that assessment drives student learning. More than
anything else, our assessment tools tell students what we consider to be important. They will
learn what we guide them to learn through our assessments. Traditional testing methods
have been limited measures of student learning, and equally important, of limited value for
guiding student learning. These methods are often inconsistent with the increasing emphasis
being placed on the ability of students to think analytically, to understand and communicate
at both detailed and "big picture" levels, and to acquire lifelong skills that permit continuous
adaptation to workplaces that are in constant flux. Moreover, because assessment is in many
respects the glue that links the components of a course - its content, instructional methods,
and skills development - changes in the structure of a course require coordinated changes in
assessment

Reasons for Assessing

Many different purposes underlie assessment, which in practice overlap. The purposes of
assessment are:
• Selection
• Certification
• Describing  Aiding learning
• Improving teaching.
Detail is given below.
Selection
Assessment helps in selection, for example when choosing students for a further course
or for employment. Assessment in this context is used for prediction, for instance
which students will be able to benefit from further study or how the individuals might
perform in employment. Selection can help the learner make a choice about his career.
Selection has historically been linked to the ranking of students and, thus, as presented
in a later section, with “norm referenced assessment”. Assessment in this form has
been a means of positioning students in order of merit or achievement.
Certification
Certification indicates conforming that a student has reached a particular standard.
This may be in the form of simple “pass” or “fail” (as the driving test) or
“Competent” or ‘not yet competent”. Assessment in these and similar circumstances
certifies that a particular level of performance has been achieved.
Describing
Sometimes the outcome of assessment is a simple statement – a certificate, grade,
mark. There is move, in recent times, towards describing what a student has learned or
can do in greater detail. This can be done in the form of a profile.
Aiding Learning
Assessment can be used for learning, serving a very important purpose. Assessment
can stimulate learning in many different ways:
i. Prompting or otherwise motivating students
ii. Giving students practice so they can see how ell they are achieving learning outcomes
iii. Following the practice with feedback to help students diagnose their strengths and
areas that need to improve
iv. Providing information that helps students plan what to do next
v. Helping students, and others concerned with their learning, to track progress
Improving teaching
Assessment information can help a teacher to review the effectiveness of all
instructional arrangements. If students regularly find the assignments difficult, it
might suggest to the teacher that it is too demanding and he needs to change the
instructional methods, revise the competencies, or help the students gain some relevant
technical skills. Assessment results can also inform wider institutional decisions
regarding which units/modules should be continued to be offered and which staff to
recruit.

Q. 4 Explain the pros and cons of student politics at higher education level?
Ans.
Practical Problems
The broader goal of higher education in any country is developing human resource that is
well equipped for practical life and graduating students must be prepare to embark to new
venture in real life situation. They need to know about the subject matter they have studies
and they need to have skills which are required to perform in any organization relevant to
their discipline. These graduates must be aware of challenges and issues of their subject
areas in society and they required to have some solid ideas and plans how to deal and
address these challenges. Some practical problems prevailing in higher education institutions
of Pakistan that are mentioned below:

Lack of Internship Facilities for Students of Higher Education Institutions and

Universities
At universities faculty can develop students understanding of concept in the classroom, they
can discuss and explain context and concepts relevant to course/syllabus but students’ need
hands on experience to apply what they have learn in the classroom through interaction with
faculty and peers. Hands on experience can be gained through internship program that
universities can plan by collaborating with industries and service providing organization. In
the context of Higher Education in Pakistan, the link between higher education and
industries and institutions is missing where students can get opportunity to implement their
learning and understanding to develop critical thinking skills and experiential knowledge
and skills.

Financial Problems
The funding of higher education is a large and complex topic. It is complex in part because
of the multiple sources of revenue and the multiple outputs, or products that are only loosely
connected to these different revenue sources. It is further complex because these revenue
and expenditure patterns vary significantly by types of institution (university, four-year
college, two-year college), mode of governance (public or private), and by state. Within the
private sector, expenditure levels as well as patterns of pricing and price discounting vary
greatly by institutional wealth and by the depth, demographics, and family affluence of the
applicant pools. In the public sector, these patterns vary as well according to state funding
levels, tuition policies, and enrollment limits set by state governments or by public multi-
campus governing boards.

The topic is also large because finance underlies so much of the three overarching themes of
contemporary higher education policy: quality and the relationship between funding and
quality in any of its several dimensions; access, or the search for social equity in who
benefits from, and who pays for, higher education; and efficiency, or the search for a cost-
effective relationship between revenues (particularly those that come from students, parents,
and taxpayers) and outputs, whether measured in enrollments, graduates, student learning, or
by scholarly activity of the faculty.

Within these broad themes lie public and institutional policy issues that are better informed,
if not definitively answered, by economic and financial perspectives. How, if at all, can
costs especially to the taxpayer and to the student be lowered without damage to academic
quality or to principles of access and participation? What are appropriate ratios of students
to faculty and to professional and administrative staff at various kinds of institutions, and
what are reasonable conceptions and expectations of higher educational productivity? How
can institutional aid, or price discounting, be used to maximize net tuition revenue in the
private sector? Is taxpayer money in the public sector best used to hold down tuition, or
should they go toward expanded need based aid, with public tuitions raised closer to the full
average costs of undergraduate instruction? Is public aid money best used for grants or loan
subsidies? What of public aid based on academic promise or performance rather than family
need? And what is the appropriate response by institutions and governments to the pervasive
condition of severity in higher education, whether brought on by declining enrollments,
declining state assistance, or runaway costs? Higher education in Pakistan has problems of
budget allocation and some of the relevant problems are highlighted bellow:
Inadequate Funding
Research has shown that education can make a lasting difference in children’s lives,
enabling them to understand their surroundings and challenges to their quality life. Only
education is making a difference in children lives which they are taking at different levels
and particularly quality education matters for them. Enhancing quality education in
classroom and schools requires investment to improve classroom infrastructures as well as
teachers’ competencies for better delivery of content and concept through updated
pedagogy. Education can put people on a path towards good health, empowerment and
employment. It can help to build more peaceful societies. And the benefits of girls’
education extend to their own children who are often healthier and more educated because
their mothers went to school. Hence, investing in education is significant to increase
economic output at individual and national level but in Pakistan education is given least
priority and hardly 2.0 percent of GDP is allocating for education. Similarly, funds for
higher education is not encouraging to address the needs and requirement of current
competition, particularly allocation of funds for research projects is alarmingly low.

Fee Structure of Private Universities

Another problem of higher education in Pakistan is, higher rates of fee structure in private
universities that discourage parents and students to enroll in private institution to acquire
education of their interest and market required disciplines, for example project management,
human resource management which are not offered in public sector universities.

No Share of Foreign Direct Investment in Education Sector

Increasing access to education and enhancing quality education must be the priority of any
country and to achieve enrolment targets and quality, countries are strive to developing
partnership and collaboration with international universities and donors so that investment in
education is encouraged but in Pakistan, investment in higher education by foreign
institution is not appreciate and given opportunity. In recent years, some initiatives are taken
to improve higher education in Pakistan, for examples B.Ed. (hon) was designed with
support of foreign support which is very strong pre-service teacher education program,
another initiative was strengthening and developing capacity of university faculty. Such
partnership and collaboration can make a positive difference in higher education of Pakistan.

Faculty Experience
The quality and value of an undergraduate education in the past decade received, and
continues to receive, scrutiny by various stakeholders associated with the higher education
community. Much of the energy surrounding the undergraduate experience and student
learning was placed on the two major responsibilities of faculty, teaching and research (Fair
weather, 1996, 2002; Marsh & Hattie, 2002). The regulation of time allocated to these two
roles was quickly becoming one of the most salient issues in higher education.
Unfortunately, much of the debate about the nature of faculty work was covered in myth,
opinion, and conjecture (Fairweather, 2002). Myths, such as a faculty member being highly
involved in teaching undergraduate experience resulting in greater student learning gains
were important to debunk or substantiate. As a result, assessing the impact that faculty
behaviors and interactions with students in the classroom have on the undergraduate
classroom experience was suitable for examination in the current study. Conducting
empirical research that focus on faculty behaviors and interactions with students in the
classroom will advance the literature on the role faculty play in student learning. Barr and
Tagg (1995) suggested a paradigm shift to improve the quality of graduate education (i.e.,
from providing instruction to students, to producing student learning) that would create
learning centered campuses and maximize students’ learning. However, creating a student-
centered campus necessitates knowing how students learn, understanding barriers to student
learning, and developing classroom techniques that promote learning among college
students (Stage, Muller, Kinzie, & Simmons, 1998). Several national reports have echoed
the call for studying the graduate experience. An American imperative turned improving the
quality of undergraduate education to a conversation on how to place student learning at the
core of the academy (Wingspread Group on Higher Education, 1993). However, doing so
requires a better understanding of variables that contribute, both positively and negatively,
to what matters most to learning. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher
Education concluded in Measuring Up 2000 and Measuring Up 2002 that a lack of
information permitting systemic or systematic comparisons on the impact of college on
students has resulted in little knowledge about student learning. As a result, the authors of
Measuring Up 2002 called upon national and state efforts to create more powerful measures
of educational performance by assessing student learning (National Center for Public Policy
and Higher Education, 2002). Where the traditional “quality measures” (e.g., selectivity in
admissions, the number of PhDs among the faculty, library holdings, financial resources,
and institutional prestige from faculty research) used to articulate an undergraduate
education were once accepted, they have become increasingly suspect in terms of their
validity to measure excellence in undergraduate education (Kuh, 2001; Pascarella, 2001). A
1995 report by the Education Commission of the States, Making Quality Count, criticized
these often used “quality” measures, stating that these factors say nothing about how and
why students were actively engaged in the learning process, the extent and nature of student
interactions with faculty, the focus and intensity of academic experiences, and the overall
level of student engagement (Pascarella, 2001).

Q.5 Describe the practical issues in using technology in classroom and issues in
designing online learning in higher education.
Ans.
Technology in Higher Education
Technology is having impact on internationalisation of higher education by exploring the
new way to embed it in the teaching learning process. Reports and findings of the research
focused upon the future of technology in higher education argues that technology has
become an inevitable element of effective teaching and learning process in present era.
Therefore, teacher educators and educational technologists are more inclined towards the
planning for the integration of technology. Following are the major trends in Integration of
Technology in Higher education.

Mid-Term Trends
1. Major midterms trends are related to redesigning of learning space: in order to
maximize active learning technology has remodeled learning space to ‘smart rooms’.
Smart classrooms are accommodative for deeper learning approaches.
2. Measuring learning: another important mid-term trend is continuous and error free
assessment and evaluation of learning. In this regard some technology tools alike
learning analytics and visualization software are used to facilitate accurate
measurements.

Short-Term Trends
1. Blending learning designs: Innovative online learning approaches and strategies for
example flipped classroom can be used to align instructions with diverse needs of
learners.
2. Collaborative learning approaches: Technology helps in using collaborative learning
approaches through online communication. These approaches encourage both learners
and teachers to use an interactive environment for working together on real-world
challenges.

In strategic planning of short term and long term strategies for integration of technology
there are many challenges affecting the adoption of technology in higher education? We
start here with the challenges such as improving digital literacy and the integration of formal
and informal learning. The challenges like achievement gap and the advancement of digital
equity are to be addressed by enhancing competence of the teachers/instructors. There might
be unforeseen challenges, that may be addressed as per situation arises.
These may include managing knowledge and rethinking the roles of educators. Working
through these challenges will open up current barriers to advancing educational technologies
in the future.

The researchers have also highlighted the technologies we are already beginning to explore
and employ. Some of the mainstream technologies used by the educations and maybe seen
in educational setup in future as reported by Weimer (2017) are:
1. Adaptive learning technologies: software and online platforms that adjust to an
individual learner’s needs and progress.
2. Mobile learning: smart devices that make learning portable, such as educational apps.
3. Internet of things: the physical world we live in, including classrooms, can be
connected to the internet through technological gadgets.
4. Next-generation learning management systems (LMS): software and web applications
that create a flexible and personalised online community for course materials, faculty
engagement and student participation.
5. Artificial intelligence (AI): it has the potential to further personalise the student
learning experience by enhancing online learning and adaptive learning technologies.
6. Natural user interfaces: allow users to interact with technology by using natural
physical gestures such as taps, swipes, body movements, facial expressions, etc.

While technology continues to shape international higher education, it’s important for
practitioners to keep on top of future advancements. Therefore it is imperative for the
learners and the teacher educators to keep them updated about the recent advancement and
discuss them for integration in teaching learning process for enhancement of the learners’
engagement.

Engaging and Empowering Learning through Technology

By the use of we have an opportunity to make learning more directly relevant by aligning
both content and learning approaches with the immediate and long-term needs and interests
of learners, and the situations in which they will need to use what they have learned. For
example, technology allows learners and instructors to identify and utilise resources and
expertise anywhere in the world. This ability can be particularly helpful inexpanding
opportunities for historically disadvantaged students by providing equity of access to high-
quality learning materials, expertise, personalized learning experiences, and tools for
planning future education or career pathways. The flexibility of the time and space in
learning leads towards the empowerment and enhanced engagement of the learners with the
content and concepts.

Technology-Enabled Learning in Action

Technology has potential to improve and enhance learning in the following ways.
1. Technology enables students to access learning opportunities apart from the traditional
barriers of time and place. This is especially important for adult learners and
traditional students with conflicting priorities who need flexible learning opportunities.
Instead of assuming all students will adjust priorities such as work and family
obligations around course scheduling constraints, institutions can establish schedules
that allow students to access courses in the evenings, provide flexible degree pathways
so that students can complete a degree program outside the traditional semester-based
framework, or work with alternative and online education providers to develop courses
as series of shorter learning modules that can be engaged remotely or on mobile
devices.
2. Technology allows learners access learning opportunities outside of formal higher
education institutions, such as at their workplace or in community settings. Learners
 may employ technology to validate their experiences, demonstrate their learning, and
get credit that helps them in promotion at workplace or getting opportunities for
further education. Technology allows students to access highquality learning
resources, regardless oftheir institution’s geographical location or funding.

Institutions with limited access to equipment, laboratory supplies, and other learning
resources may be assisted to address these shortfalls by providing high-quality online
resources that align with requisite learning outcomes. Some institutions also focus on
development of materials that are openly licensed and/or free to use, thus significantly
reducing the cost of access for learners. In these cases, institutions need to also prioritize
providing their students equitable access to devices and the Internet. When they do, students
can also participate in discovering and sharing relevant open resources.