There are 200 foreign universities waiting to come to India while 7-13 million students go out to study every year according to various sources
The age-old, industry-institute demand-supply inconsistent higher education in India is under the scanner currently and wide changes are being discussed by HRD minister Kapil Sibal to make the country move to a knowledge economy.
A book discussion session was recently held at the Indian Chamber of Commerce.
The book, Indian Higher Education: Envisioning the Future is written by Pawan Agarwal, an IAS officer, on issues pertaining to higher education system in India with data and its analysis, as opposed to the “loose statements made by others without any data”.
“There needs to be an informed policy debate on this issue. India stands two decades behind the rest of the world in terms of accrediting higher education, financing it and regulation,” said Agarwal.
Prof Subimal Sen, chairman, West Bengal Council of Higher Education, raised the issue of capability of graduates. “In any discussion of higher education system, the question of employability of large number of graduates and postgraduates coming out is raised. In my opinion, a far more important question is, how many of them are turning out to be good human beings, with a head which can think independently, two hands which not only do, but can also create, a heart which throbs not only for self but also for others,” said Sen.
Regulation of educational institutes is an important issue which experts present raised, with none of them supporting tight regulation of some institutes, and non-regulation of others. Integration of vocational and higher education system is also needed according to Agarwal.
Dr Giri Dua, chairman and MD, TASMAC showed confidence in the current HRD minister, Kapil Sibal to liberate the education sector to transform India in a knowledge economy.
“The current system does not need any changes, but needs to be totally abolished,” said Dua. “I would like to see students get to chose what they want to do. If it means they want to study music with engineering, options should be available. Foreign institutes should be freely allowed to open in India, and the choice pursue international programs should rest with the individual. There are 200 foreign universities waiting to come to India while 7-13 million students go out to study every year according to various sources. These students certainly want foreign institutes in India,” explained Dua.
The institutes are not integrated with the industry which produces the mismatch of student supply and industry demand pointed out Krishnendu Sarkar, deputy director, NSHM Knowledge Campus.
While pointing out that institutes of two types – for merit and not-for-merit exist parallel in India, Sarkar said “Today is the time when we should raise our hand and say education is all for profit because when we talk of business economy the three P’s are very important- people, planet and profit. Profit, here, necessarily need not be cash. A large chunk of this profit is in kind, indirect, contributing to planet.”
Suggesting that organisations like ICC have a lot of space for advocacy to raise questions on government’s education policy from the perspective of economic security of academic staff, Sarkar ended with “Just like happy married is an oxymoron, not for profit education is an oxymoron too.”