The current debate on higher education has centred on privatisation, reservation, control and governance of India’s universities and colleges. There is little discussion on education quality. Yet some questions need to be posed: Do India’s 21,000 colleges and 430 universities deliver quality education appropriate for a growing and rapidly changing economy? Do college students acquire the skills that would equip them for productive employment? These issues have not yet entered most conversations on higher education reforms, even though numerous studies and surveys in recent years have given our ivory towers average-to-failing grades for the services they deliver.
In 2005, a survey conducted by the National Association of Software and Service Companies and the McKinsey World Institute found that 75 percent of India’s 350,000 engineering graduates who are certified every year, are unemployable in global-standard IT companies. Another study published in the McKinsey Quarterly showed that only 10-25 percent of arts, science and commerce graduates are suitable for employment without further training. These shocking statistics depict how inefficient, static and inert our institutions of higher educa-tion have become, and how utterly ill-equipped and unwilling they are to adapt to the needs of the new economy.
Approximately 80 percent of colleges in the country fall within the purview of the University Grants Commission (UGC). Yet as UGC chairman Sukhadeo Thorat admitted in a 2006 Nehru Memorial lecture, 60 percent of these colleges have never been assessed for accreditation by the commission. In 1994 UGC established the National Assessment and Accreditation Council to evaluate the performance of universities and colleges in the country, but only 18 percent of India’s 21,000 colleges have been accredited by the council. Likewise thus far, UGC has assessed half of India’s 430 universities, and has acknowledged a mere 4 percent as “universities with potential for excellence”.
In short, both internal and external evaluations don’t give even pass marks to India’s colleges and universities. Yet curiously the student community isn’t outraged. Why don’t students demand quality education? It’s amazing that although every college and university in the country has a student union, their representatives rarely demand academic excellence.
Student ‘leaders’ use election to unions as a stepping stone for careers in politics, and thus have little incentive to improve education quality. On the contrary, student unions across the country pride themselves on their politicking abilities and can get exams postponed, classes canceled, and force strikes very effectively. Moreover they are quick to turn belligerent on the issue of raising college tuition fees. But they seem to have no sense about the value of the time that students spend in acquiring college education, and there is no outrage within the student community that by settling for low quality education, their futures are shortchanged. The point is that there is an amazingly low level of concern within student organisations about academic excellence.
It seems to me that Indian society has decided to settle for a low-price, low-quality equilibrium in education. Since tuition is a small fraction of the actual cost of college education, students feel they don’t have the right to high quality education. Indeed student unions seem to have relinquished their right to academic excellence in exchange for low tuition fees. Moreover teachers’ salaries are so low that it’s not a profession of choice for the brightest.
True, India boasts IITs, IIMs and a few law and medical colleges that produce world class engineers, managers, lawyers and doctors. However, the quality of education dispensed by the second tier of colleges and universities is rock bottom.
Education is a long term investment. despite promises to raise investment in education to six percent of GDP, over the past six decades, government (Centre plus states) expenditure on education has hovered around 3.5 percent. To be fair, higher education has received more than its share, adversely affecting primary and secondary education. But even so, it isn’t enough. India’s colleges and universities enrol barely 10 percent of the college-age population of 18-24 years, as against 20 percent in China, over 15 percent among ASEAN countries, and about 60 percent in the US.
Indian academia needs to think outside the box and learn from the experience of other countries. One clear option is to allow and encourage public universities to raise funds so that they can operate independently. Wealthy alumni often provide huge funding for student scholarships, and for infrastructure such as buildings, libraries, technical equipment, and endowing chairs for professors.
For Indian colleges and universities to fully exploit this potentially rich source of funding, they would need to hire professional fund raisers and hold fund raising events. Most people have a special feeling towards the colleges they graduate from, and are usually willing to contribute to their growth and development. Indian colleges and universities need to be allowed to tap this deep pool of resources.
(Neeraj Kaushal is associate professor of social work at Columbia University, USA)