By Arun Kumar Shrivastav
Last week, the University Grants Commission (UGC) released draft regulations for reputed foreign universities to open campuses in India. In other words, India’s higher education sector is opening up to foreign direct investments. In the past, similar attempts met with stiff opposition. As per a study, Indian students would spend $75-85 billion annually by 2024, from $28 billion in 2021. The number of Indian students going abroad for higher education is expected to rise to 1.8 million by 2024.
There is a consistent growth in the number of Indian students going overseas for higher education. Given this background, it makes sense for the UGC to let foreign universities open their campuses in India. This would allow students to have access to foreign education and degrees without leaving India.
The UGC has uploaded the draft on its website for the general public to make comments and suggestions and after incorporating constructive suggestions, the regulations would be officially adopted. These regulations allow the top 500 universities and reputed universities offering education in specialized areas to run full-time regular programs. However, they are not allowed to offer online or distance education. Finally, these universities can decide the tuition fees and other costs but they need to be transparent in these matters and overall adhere to the education not-for-profit motto.
For a long time, a void is felt in India’s higher education system. State government-run universities and colleges are economically unviable, especially because of the grand legacy and vision that the idea of higher education conjures up in our minds. Take, for example, professors earning a six-digit salary for taking a few classes in a week! How many such professors can a government afford on taxpayers’ money? So, state government-run universities are mostly dysfunctional. Then, we have central universities that receive funding from the central government through UGC. For the same reasons, their numbers are also limited.
Today, the Indian higher education system is mostly geared toward technical education, with medical and engineering being the top choices. Those who choose other streams are largely preparing for government jobs. For admission to top engineering and medical colleges, there is fierce competition among students. The same is the case for students in other streams who study with the sole objective to land a government job. Here again, the competition is very tough.
What makes the competition even worse is the presence of hundreds of top coaching brands. They enroll hundreds of thousands of students for training to beat a competition where available seats are a few hundred to a few thousand, at most.
It’s so ironic to see that top private education brands in India are tutorials. From BYJU’s to Aakash and ALLEN, these institutes teach and train students to take the bar higher in competitions at the school level. They serve no purpose to India’s higher education sector, which is primarily responsible for training students for the job market.
The casualty of this lop-sided focus on technical education and government jobs is the very idea of education. Indian higher education system has stopped producing poets, philosophers, political scientists, linguists, and even economists. It’s not producing even B or C-grade experts, with the result that we have, on the one hand, a completely illiterate population and, on the other hand, only technology professionals. There are very few academically equipped to talk sense.
What makes the situation even more alarming is the presence of private universities. The standards of education in these universities are reported to be so poor that graduates even from top-brand universities struggle to find placements. If their parents can afford the fees, we can safely assume they do not have the time to monitor their children’s academic progress. With glitzy infrastructure and average academic staff, the presence of private universities has only added to the decline of India’s higher education. They try to push the idea that quality education is nothing but quality infrastructure.
These thoughts and trends need to be countered. The introduction of top foreign universities on Indian soil should bring a sober moment for all of us. Should India be producing only engineers, doctors, and MBAs, or should we also have great poets, great philosophers, and great mathematicians? And, what about gardeners and agriculturists? What about fine arts and folk music?
India’s higher education is in dire straits. It needs thoughtful interventions. This sector can attract both domestic and foreign investments. But UGC and the country’s policymakers must ensure the direction of higher education is in line with India’s legacy in this field. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and computer technology dominating American universities, the world is witnessing an acute shortage of academicians and researchers in humanities. India has an opportunity as well as an edge in this space. (IPA Service)
