Higher education regulation in India: Problems and Prospects

Higher education regulation in India: Problems and Prospects

• 1.
  Higher Education Regulation inIndia: Problems and Prospects ANUP K SINGH, PHD
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  New Realities  Emergenceof middle class with high aspirations for higher education  Consequently, substantial increase in Graduate Enrolment Ratio  Professional education increasing faster than arts, humanities and social science education  Post 1991, significant increase in private, self-financing institutions  Most professional education takes place in private, self-financing institutions than in government institutions  ICT as a great enabler of learning  Focus on employability  Return on investment as a major concern for students and parents
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  Complexities of HigherEducation  Higher education leads to both public and private good; therefore, the government has an interest in higher education both as the provider and as the regulator  The government controls educational institutions tightly  Information and power asymmetry between the providers and consumers  No exit from educational service once a student has taken admission in a long term programme  Profiteering by many private, self-financing institutions in spite of constitutional provision that education is for charity  Lurking suspicions of all private, self-financing institutions; real charitable institutions thus suffer  Government’s expense on higher education not increasing; thus, it depends on private institutions to achieve its social objectives  Accreditation is made mandatory but requisite infrastructure is missing  Difficulties in balancing access, equity and excellence  Regional and state disparity in higher education
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  Monopolistic Competition inHigher Education  Product differentiation (Educational institutions differentiate partly on curriculum, student experience, return on investment, etc.)  Many firms (700 universities and over 36,000 colleges)  No entry and exit cost in the long run  Independent decision making (Universities and colleges hardly coordinate among themselves; even if there are some associations, they are fragile)  Some degree of market power (Ranking, accreditation and word of mouth)  Buyers and Sellers do not have perfect information (Imperfect Information)
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  Corruption in Education A large number of people perceive the educational sector as one of the most corrupt sectors in India  Bribe to provide license to establish an educational institution  Capitation fees; high admission fees; under-payment to faculty and staff; siphoning out money from the institutions; personal use of institutional resources; sundry charges from students  High on promise, low on performance  Fake degrees; low academic rigour; non-adherence to regulatory norms and standards  Land grabbing; whitening of black money  Regulatory bodies are seen lethargic, inefficient and unscrupulous
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  Governmental Control ofHigher Education  Both central and state government control education  Different state governments differ in their regulation and administration of higher education  There are multiple regulatory bodies, like UGC, AICTE, BCI, PCI, etc.  Sometimes, there are conflict among them  High control, low on support and facilitation  Government acts as a protector of students and parents at the cost of being the promoter of excellence in education  State and national outlook; no aspiration to upgrade to international standards  Lack of clarity to deal with new educational realities  Educational regulations more driven by political exigencies than by high standards
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  Law and HigherEducation  The Constitution of the country allow impart of knowledge to the student as an occupation; however, it does not allow profit creation  Private institutions are allowed full autonomy; however, they are required to follow merit in admission  However, the State can provide for reservation in favour of financially or socially backward sections of the society  Each state is required to found a fee regulatory committee that will fix fee for a period of three years for colleges
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  Contd…  Private institutionsare expected to conduct an admission test through their association; the admission is to be supervised by a retired high court judge  Most state governments have developed a common private university act under which an institution can apply for the status of a university. The act is generally restrictive and provides limited autonomy to the university  However, the UGC demands that for a university to be recognised by it has to be established by a separate Act rather than by a common Act. It created a serious problem for many private universities  The entry of foreign institutions is still a grey area
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  Suppliers of HigherEducation  Central government (Chiefly MHRD, other ministries, government enterprises)  State government (state universities, state colleges, grant-in-aid colleges)  State private universities and colleges (Diversities among promoters, varying from philanthropists to politicians to businessmen, to religious trust, to minority organisations to state government enterprises)  Deemed universities (government and private)  Non-profit company (For example, Indian School of Business)  For profit company (NIIT, School of Inspired Leadership)
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  Related Industries  Coachingindustry  Admission agencies  Admission portals  Print media, including education magazines  Ranking organisations  Soft skill providers  Testing industry  Placement agencies
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  Market and HigherEducation  Market of higher education becoming mature. There is monopolistic competition in the market  Accreditation has failed to create awareness about quality institutions among various stakeholders  UGC and AICTE have made it mandatory for institutions to keep some vital information on their websites  Information about different institutions is available through ranking agencies  There is more supply for many programmes than demand  Therefore, the power of students and parents is not as low as it may seem  Competition among institutions is heating up  Several institutions are being closed, while new institutions are also being established
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  Regulation of HigherEducation  State governments directly monitor and control higher education institutions through licensing, admission and fee regulations  UGC and AICTE are two main regulatory bodies  They are responsible for both assurance of standards and disbursement of grants  There are other professional bodies, controlling professional education like MCI, PCI, BCI, etc. (These are purely regulatory bodies)  Most of these bodies were established pre-90s; therefore, they are not fully geared to address new educational realities and institutions  A recent committee on higher education headed by Dr. Hari Gautam recommended the scrapping of the UGC
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  Accreditation  It isa mechanism of quality assurance  Besides following higher education regulatory mechanisms, institutions need to undergo accreditation  Accreditation can be in terms of both accredited/not-accredited or grading  It should inform general public and different stakeholders about the quality of an institution  As India is a large country with over 36,000 colleges and 750 universities, there is a need for several general and discipline-specific accreditation agencies
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  Contd…  Accreditation shouldfocus on student learning and outcomes  Outcome measures (Learning, employability, initial salary, exposure, career progression, student satisfaction, soft skill development, etc.)  It should also reflect Indian realities  There should be strong mechanisms to ensure that accreditation agencies do not indulge in malpractices  It should focus on both assessment of quality and assessment for quality  It should also work for upgradation of quality
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  Ranking of Institutions Ranking besides accreditation provides additional information about the quality of institutions to students, parents and employers  In the last two decades, the ranking of institutions have picked up  The ranking of universities in India is recent and is in a nascent stage  The rankings of business and engineering schools are most popular and mature  There is mushroom growth of ranking agencies; many of them are spurious  There is a need for ranking of ranking agencies  The Government of India is considering to rank institutions for public at large
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  Regulatory Authority ofHigher Education & Research  It may set norms and standards for different disciplines of higher education, including government institutions, grant-in-aid institutions and private institutions  It may monitors adherence to those norms and standards by various institutions  It may penalise institutions for non-adherence and malpractices  Another body may be responsible for funding and financial support to institution  The different regulatory bodies need to coordinate among themselves to facilitate the functioning of institutions and universities. There may be a body to coordinate them