Higher Education in India: Emerging Issues and Challenges

 

Rattan Lal

Department of Political Science, Govt. College, Mandi (H.P.)

 

ABSTRACT:

It has been globally realized that the education system is one of the significant factors to economic development of a nation. A Developed nation is inevitably an educated nation. So the education system should be transformed as per the need of hour and the changing global scenario. Indian Higher Education System is the third largest in the world, next to united state and China. Since Independence, India as a Developing nation is contentiously progressing the Education field. India Higher Education System has witnessed an appreciable growth in the number of Universities and Colleges since independence. The involvement of Private Sector in Higher Education has been a drastic change for such phenomenal growth. The Right to Education Act has brought a revolutionary change in the Education System of India. Although there have been lot of issues and challenges to Higher Education System of India but equally have lot of opportunities to overcome the challenges and make Higher Education System much better. It needs greater transparency and accountability, the role of Colleges and Universities in the new millennium, and emerging scientific research on how people learn is of utmost important. India need well skilled and highly educated people who can drive our economy forward. According to a study only 25% or Engineering graduates are directly employable, the quality of education delivered in most Institutions are poor. No Indian University has given place in world’s top 200 Universities. This paper examines the scenario of Higher Education in India and also identify emerging issues and challenging in the field of Higher Education in India. At last this paper suggests the possible solution in Higher Education to response the emerging issues and challenges.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Education is general sense means, the process of transforming habit, ideas and thought to the next generation. In particular it is the formal process by which society transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills customers and values from one generation to another. Education plays a vital role in giving proper equipment to lead a gracious and harmonious life. It changes the behavior of individual and help in giving proper meaning of life, it plays a important role in shaping individual mind and country¹. Education is the vital element in the process of re-building shattered social and economic infrastructure. To have better future after independence the Govt. of India declared its policy statement on higher Education which have guided action since mid 1980, the National Policy on Education 1986, and program of action 1986 as updated in 1992².

The Institution of Higher Education have played a fundamental role in societal transformation behind every nation building process there are Universities and Institution of Higher learning. Higher Education is one of the best instruments of nation building since it offers highly skilled labour and refined ideas and thoughts. Moreover, one of the great ends of higher Education is to discipline and train citizens to fulfill their own potential and potential of the country on the whole which can explicitly understood with the Chinese proverb, “If you are thinking one year ahead sow seeds, if you are thinking ten years ahead plant a tree, if you are thinking hundred years ahead educate the people.”

 

The institutions of higher education are places where mind and hearts are simultaneously refined. Faculty should try to focus on value education so that universal eternal values of unity and integrity of nation could be maintain of which will be beneficial her the economy and society on the whole. The progress of society and future of any country depends on the quality of human capital, India is the largest population with high percentage of youth populations, thus can be referred as a young nation’

1.     B. Mohan Kumar, Personal Values, social maturity and Patriotic Attitude, Luxmi books Publication, 2015, Solapur.

2.     Sukhadeo Thorat, A blue print for higher education in Hindu, 11 Aug 2015, New Delhi.

 

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY:

On the basis of available literature related to the status of higher education in India, the following specific objectives are framed to present this study. The proposed study attempts to documents the emerging issues and challenging in higher education in India. The main objectives of the present study are to analyze the historical background the Indian Education System and to assess the various issues and challenging in Indian higher education system.

 

To achieve these objectives the study is based on secondary data. It has used documents and reports with Government and Private sources to collect information on the main issues in Indian higher education system. Data sources used include books, anuual reports of U.G.C., Education Department of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Newspaper and Websites. The present paper has basically descriptive study in nature. 

 

Present Scenario of Indian higher education system:

The current status of higher education system in India is complex and challenging. With the increase in population, there has been surge in number of students seeking admission in these universities and colleges for higher education. Beside that Indian higher education system is not compatible with the developed countries of the world. According to London Times Higher Education (2009) - World universities ranking, No Indian Universities features among the first hundred but universities of East Asia have been included in hundred. Hong Kong has three ranked 24, 35 and 46, Singapore two ranked at 30 and 73, South Korea two ranked 47 and 69 and Taiwan one in the 95^th position. Notable China’s Tsinghua University and Peking University are ranked at 49 and 52 respectively. There is no Indian University in the ranking from 100 to 200³.

 

There are currently around 1.30 billion people in India, making its second most populous nation on the planet and most populous democracy. The population of the country to predicted to grow around 1.69 billion people by 2050, over 50% of India’s population is under 25; by 2030 around

 

3.   J.D. Singh, Higher Education India – Issues, Challenges and Suggestions, Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, 2011, pp. 93-103. ISBN-978-3-8465-17536.

 

140 million people will be in higher education age, only 25% of the higher education age group was enrolled in higher education in India as of 2013, in comparison to the UK or France where the number is around 60% or Brazil, another BRICS Country where the rate was around 36% in 2009⁴.

 

India has a very high level of poverty, with 69% of population living on £2 a day. Currently the Indian middle class makes up 5% of population, however it is predicted that this will grow rapidly in next two decades. India has a relatively low inbound student rate, with on 20,000 foreign students coming to the country in 2012/2013, compared to around 200,000 Indian students studying in aboard the same year. The higher education in India has procedure a troubling estimate that only around 30% of Indian graduates are currently considered employable⁵.

 

In the constitution of India, the right of education is recognized as a fundamental Right⁶ and as a Directive Principles⁷. However, the right to education does not include right to Higher Education. The power to make law has been distributed between centre and states⁸. Education is given place in concurrent list⁹ and the Parliament and state legislature both can make law or it. In

 

case of conflict, law made by Parliament shall prevail over the state legislature. The department of higher education, MHRD, is responsible for the overall development of the basic infrastructure of higher education sector, both in terms of policy and planning.

 

4.     http://www.qs.com/10-quick facts about India. last vised on 21/03/2019

5.     Ibid

6.     Article 21A of the constitution of India .

7.     Article 41 of the constitution of India.

8.     Article 246 of the constitution of India.

9.     Entry 25 of the concurrent list as given schedule 8^th of the constitution of India.

 

Under a planned development process, the department looks after expansion of access and qualitative improvement in Higher Education, through world class universities, colleges and other Institution¹⁰.

 

Higher Education in India provided by five groups of Institution: Central, State, Private, Deemed Universities and “Institutions of National Importance.” There are 91 such Institutions. They predominantly consist of the Indian Institute of Technology, National Institution of Technology and prominent Medical Colleges, including the All India Institute of Medical Science. There are 47 central Universities, 399 State Universities, 330 Private Universities, and 123 Deemed Universes in India as listed by the university grants commission¹¹. Accreditation for Higher Learning over Universities under the aegis of UGC is overseen by these fifteen autonomous statutory Institutions All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), Distance Education Council (DEC), Indian Council of agricultural Research (ICAR), Bar Council of India (BCI), National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), National Council for teacher Education (NCTE), Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI), Medical Council of India (MCI), Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), Indian Nursing Council (INC), Dental Council of India (DCI), Central Council of Homeopathy (CCH), Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM), veterinary Council of India (VCI)¹². All the University groups are legally entitled to grant degrees. State Universities are the only Institutions that are allowed to affiliate private as well public colleges under them. However, these colleges are allowed to operate only with the individual featured state boarders. Affiliated college are provided grants by the U.G.C. There colleges are called 2f and 12b Colleges. According to the latest figures, there are more than ten thousand such affiliated colleges in India supported by U.G.C.

 

10.    http://mhrd.gov.in/overview last visted 15/03/2019.

11.    https://www.ugc.ac.in/# last visted 15/03/2019

12.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/higher education in India last visted 16/03/2019

 

Emerging issues and Challenges:

The role of Higher Education in emerging scenario of knowledge economy is very crucial and multifaceted for only country in general and India is particular. There are many basic problems faced by Higher Education system in India. These include lower level of teaching quality, financing of Higher Education, more concentrated on theories and rather than practical knowledge, traditional methods of teaching, privatization, inadequate facilities, infrastructure and quota system.

 

·         Lower level of teaching quality:

Our education system is degraded by issues of quality in many of its Institutions and Universities many of the issues like lack of faculty, poor quality teaching, traditional teaching method, lack of accountability are raise questions on Indian Education system.

 

·         Poor Government Budget:

Low budget is a serious challenge in the field of higher education. Very meager amount of fund is allocated for the education system. And the matter is that most of the allocated fund is spend on school education, very less amount is spend on higher education sector.

 

·         Poor Infrastructure:

Through India has tremendous development in higher education, still there are large number of colleges, institutions and universities where even the basic facilities are not available. Old class room are there; lack of sufficient building, staff room, library or resource rooms, laboratory, technological facilities, instruments for practical classes, toilet and drinking water facilities etc are there. The poor infrastructure of Institutions directly throwing challenges to the quality of higher education. This problem is found basically in rural areas.

 

·         Gap between Demand and supply:

India has a huge growing young population. They demands education after finishing their higher secondary education. But it fails to meet the demand of the people. According to a study conducted by ASSOCHAM, 93 percent MBA graduates are unemployable. It is because the availability is not up to the demand of industry.

 

·         Inadequate number of faculty members:

Another serious challenge is higher education is insufficient number of faculty members in colleges and universities. Without the teachers the intended learning outcomes cannot be achieved. Even the single teacher has to teach number of different subjects to large number students along with the other works load.

 

·         Low performance of the Teachers and Principals:

In India a, large section of teacher community does not perform their duties well. The moment they have been appointed to the colleges, they thought that their learning is complete. They just perform their daily duties to come to the colleges make the attendance continue.

·         Privatization:

In the present scenario, privatization of higher education is emerging. The higher education in India is being imparted through private institutions, involves high cost. Private institutions wants to earn more and more profit. However, the situation is not so simple. Private providers, in the interest of maximizing profit, have every incentive to minimize cost by compromising on the quality of education provided in their institutions. Quality and quantity of teaching staff in private institutions and universities are considerable issues for higher education sector to sustain in future. Recently, out of ten thousand, seven thousand five hundred teachers found bogus in self finance colleges¹³

 

·         Poor quality of primary and secondary education

In India, the quality of primary and secondary education is pathetic. When a student after passing 12^th exam takes admission in graduation, inspite having facilities and infrastructure, they are not able to get education due to poor quality of primary and secondary education.

 

13.    The times of India, Feb.10, 2018 available at https://Times of India.com/city/Agra/Agra university-cancel appointment of eight thousand teachers in self financed colleges.

 

·         Lack of monitoring system:

Government colleges, Government aided college, state universities, private colleges, private university are badly affected by Lack of monitoring system. Teachers remain absent or they come late to the institutions. Government and state universities have not been able to develop and implement a system to monitoring them.

 

·         Poor Gross Enrolment Ratio:

The gross enrolment ratio (GER) of India in higher education is only 15% which is quite low as compare to the developed as well as other developing countries. With the increase in the enrolments at school level, the supply of higher education institutions is insufficient to meet the growing demand in the country.

 

Suggestions for improvement in Higher Education system:

There are some suggestion and expectations from government, industry, educational institutions parents and students for improving quality of higher education.

 

·         Student centered Education and Dynamic method:

Method of higher education should also have to be appropriate to the needs of learning to learn, learning to do, learning to be and learning to become. Student centered education and employment of dynamic methods of education will require from teachers new attitudes and new skills. Method of teaching through lecture will have to subordinate to the methods that will lay stress on self study, personal consultation between teachers and pupils, and dynamic session of seminars and workshops.

 

·         Examination reforms:

Examination reforms, gradually shifting from the terminal, annual and semester examination to regular and continuous assessment of students performance in learning must be implemented.

 

·         To increase quality of universities:

We need more universities become we are more in number and present number of universities to too less, on 13^th June, 2005. Govt. of India constituted National Knowledge commission to advise the P.M. about the State of Education in India. N.K.C. has recommended setting up 1500 universities by 2015 so that gross enrollment ratio increase to 15% we need world class universities to fulfill the desirable goal.

 

·         World class Education:

India must aspire for the international Standard in higher education. Many national universities like in U.S.A. UK, Australia etc, allows studies in higher education for foreign students in their countries and through correspondence courses as well. In the same way Indian universities of world class education can also offer courses of studies to foreign students taking advantages of the globalization process.

 

·         Personality Development:

Education must be for the flowering of personality but not for the suppression of creativity or natural skill. In the globalised world opportunity for the educated people are naturally ample in scope. As a result business process out sourcing activities have increased competition in the world trade leaving toward the production of quality goods and their easy availability everywhere in the world market.

 

·         High-tech libraries:

In India 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 the of international standards.

 

·         To provide need based job-oriented courses:

All round development of personality is the purpose of education. However, the present day education is neither imparting true knowledge of life nor improving the talent of a student by which one can achieve laurels in the field one is interested. So, combination of arts subjects and computer Science, Science and humanities or literature should be introduced so that such could be useful for the student to do jobs after recruitment in some companies which would reduce unnecessary rush to higher education. The program must be focused on graduate studies and research and developing strategies and mechanism for the rapid and efficient transfer of knowledge and for its application to specific national and local condition and needs.¹⁴

 

·         Industry and Academia Connection:

 In the era of globalization, Academia should ensure curriculum and skills in line with requirement of industry. Skill building is very crucial it ensure employability of academia to understand and make sure jobs. Industry and students are expecting specialized course to be offered so that they get the latest and best education.

 

·         E. Learning:

The new technologies should be introduced in higher education. As, it offer opportunities for economic growth, improved health, better service delivery, improved learning and socio–cultural advances. Though efforts are required to improve the country’s innovative capacity.

 

·         Entrance Examination

A student in graduation should be admitted through entrance exam and some minimum criteria of marks in entrance exam (such as 45%) must be fixed to get admission.

 

·         Action plan for improving quality

Academic and Administrative audit must be conducted every year in colleges by external experts for ensuring quality in all aspects of academic activities. Its report should be made on college or university website.

 

14. J.D. Singh, Higher Education in India, Issues, challenges and suggestions, Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, 2011.  

 

CONCLUSION:

We know the importance of higher education in the development of Nation. It directly influences the all aspects of development of a country to stand higher in the global platform. In India during the period of seventy years, the higher education developed a lot in term of quantity. However we are still lacking of quality higher education as expectation. To improve the quality of higher education concerned authorities have to concrete on the parameters (such as a sufficient infrastructure, updated curriculum, trained facilities, financial help, learning resources as well as planned policies), of quality of higher education.

 

India is one the biggest higher education system. However, the situation of higher education in India is pathetic. It has many issue and challenges such as teaching method, gross enrolment ratio (GER), finance, lower standard of teaching quality, out dated curriculum, political interference in the educational institutions, privatization, Lack of accountability etc. At present India is emerging economic power of the world. It needs international standard of education system, which could produce professional and expert of international standard. In this paper, some suggestion has been given that may prove helpful to higher education system. India can become the leader of the world community in 21^st century only with the quality of higher education.

 

REFERENCES:

1.      Chahal Mukesh “Higher Education in India: Emerging issues and challenges”.

2.      International Journal of Business Quantitative Economic and Applied management Research (ISSN 2349-5677) Vol-I, Issue -11, April 2015.

3.      Jahan K.K. and Dr. Christy Selvarni “ Higher Education in India: Issues and Challenges”. Available at http://icehm.org/upload/8262 ED0115098. pdf last visitdd 16/03/2019.

4.      Kumar B. Mohan, Personal Values, Social Maturity and patriotic attitude, Luxmi book Publication, 2015, Solapur.

5.      Singh J.D., “Higher Education in India: Issues, challenges and suggestions”. Lamber Academic Publishing, Germany, 2011.

6.      Thorat Sukhadeo, A blue print for higher education, The Hindu, 11 Aug 2015, New Delhi.

7.      http://www.qs.com/10-quick facts about India. last vised on 21/03/2019.

8.      Constitution of India – Articles 21A, 41, 246 and 25

9.      http://mhrd.gov.in/overview last visted 15/03/2019.

10.   https://www.ugc.ac.in/# last visted 15/03/2019

11.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/higher education in India last visted 16/03/2019.

12.   The times of India, Feb.10,2018 available at https://TimesofIndia.com/city/Agra/Agra university-cancel appointment of eight thousand teachers in self financed colleges.

 

 

 

Received on 24.04.2019         Modified on 10.05.2019

Accepted on 27.05.2019      ©AandV Publications All right reserved