A Vision for Higher Education Reform (original) (raw)

HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA: NEED OF REFORMS

India has emerged as a global leader and a strong nation. Education is the key to the task of nation building as well as to provide requisite knowledge and skills required for sustained growth of the economy and to ensure overall progress. According to the Census Data 2011, India is overpopulated with a population of 121,01,93,422 which means India today is a powerhouse of talent of 121,01,93,422 plus. In order to convert the population from a challenge to an opportunity, the area that requires immediate attention is education and training. An academic revolution has taken place in higher education particularly in the past half century marked by a paradigm shift in scope and opportunity. Over the years higher education system has become an enterprise having much of business orientation with all its exposure to fierce competition at different levels of stakeholders. Indian education system considered as one of the largest of its kind in the world also faces/encounters enormous challenges in the new millennium. These challenges are diversified and manifold stretching from contemporary curriculum development, quality assurance and accreditation and ethical value propositions to policy planning and governance. In a technology driven society knowledge rewrites the fate of a nation and so does higher education. One of the major reasons for India’s performance for being not that encouraging was due to suboptimal investment on higher education in the recent past. With unprecedented growth of knowledge typically in the area of information and communication followed by globalization shrinking the world into a global village, competitiveness has become a decisive force of growth. This necessitates massive investment on higher education so that availability of internationally acceptable highly skilled manpower can be ensured. But, this drive for internationalization of higher education is a highly ticklish and delicate move and should not be accomplished at the cost of identity of the nation as rightly quoted “Internationalisation of higher education is one of the ways a country responds to the impact of globalization yet, at the same time respects the individuality of the nation (Knight and Dewitt, 1997)”. As a part of India’s integration into the world economy the role played by potential foreign participants need a special mention. The impact of potential entrants on Indian higher education system can be felt in most of the functional areas like access, equity and quality. Moreover, in view of the inherent lapses in the regulatory structure of the system, unregulated foreign participation may lead to unfair and exploitative practices; to mention a few high capitation fees, misrepresentation of courses and corruption in admission process which may further accentuate the functional and ideological differences. Thus, in order to ensure excellence and reasonable match between demand for and supply of globally acceptable labour, striking balance has to be restored between accessibility to world-class educational system and model exemplifying national value ethics and standards.

Indian Higher Education – Opportunities, Shortcomings – A Roadmap to Reach

Abstract: Although there have been challenges to higher education in the past, these most recent calls for reform may provoke a fundamental change in higher education. This change may not occur as a direct response to calls for greater transparency and accountability, but rather because of the opportunity to reflect on the purpose of higher education, the role of colleges and universities in the new millennium, and emerging scientific research on how people learn. These disparate literatures have not been tied together in a way that would examine the impact of fundamental change from the policy level to the institutional level and to the everyday lives of college and university administrators, faculty and students. Now the time has come to create a second wave of institution building and of excellence in the fields of education, research and capability building. We need higher educated people who are skilled and who can drive our economy forward. When India can provide skilled people to the outside world then we can transfer our country from a developing nation to a developed nation very easily and quickly. The authors attempted to introduce the concepts of Higher Education in India.This paper contains the core of ideas towards reform initiatives in highereducation. Keywords:Transparency,accountability,Higher education

Reforms in higher education in India

International journal of health sciences

The world is transforming quickly, with it, the requirement for universal access to top-notch higher education. The present shift toward higher quality is the most effective way of developing and maximizing our country's vast talent pool. The new National Education Policy is being created to address the challenges of making every higher education institution a reputable and best institution for higher education. It is in shambles, and there is a lack of emphasis on cognitive skill development and learning outcomes. Higher education helps to shape a nation that is enlightened, socially conscious, ethical, knowledgeable, and skilled in devising and implementing effective solutions to its problems. The proposed reforms in India's Higher Education System, regulatory structure, and teaching pedagogy are analysed in this paper. The expenditures of various countries on education, including SAARC and BRICS, were also compared to their respective GDPs.

Three Solutions for Reforming Indian Higher Education

Indian higher education has expanded at a clipping rate and policy framework has failed to adapt and change its complex system. The system has remained embroiled in politics of policymaking and suffered in terms of quality. Given the pace of growth and unmet demand, the success of Indian higher education lies in adaptable and innovative solutions. A focus on enforcing higher standards of transparency, strengthening of the vocational and doctoral education pipeline, and professionalization of the sector through stronger institutional responsibility would help in reprioritizing efforts and working around the complexities.

Reforming Higher Education in India: In Pursuit of Excellence

6th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'20), 2020

Higher education has emerged as one of the most critical factors for the Nation’s economic, political, social and cultural growth and development. Reforming the higher education sector has become an emergent norm across the globe, especially in the developing world. India is one such emerging nation, witnessing a major shift in its ideological, pragmatic and policy directions in the last few years. The higher education sector in India has witnessed unprecedented expansion. However, given the distinctive social-political-economic context and its complexity in India, expansion in higher education is often linked with ensuring equity and access. Whereas in the developed world, expansion is often associated with quality or excellence in higher education i.e. creating world-class universities. Further, excellence in higher education is arguably the most critical component for the survival, sustenance and growth of the sector. To this end, the paper examines the convergence and divergence...

HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

In India, the higher education scene has swiftly evolved, especially in the past two decades. This rapid progress has been primarily attributed to the various initiatives, undertaken by the private sector. However, these advancements have also been a matter of concern, regarding their standard and exploitation. The government has been repeatedly contradictory and inconsistent, in defining the role of private sector in higher education. Such an approach has resulted in chaotic and unplanned growth. The attempts to uphold standards and check exploitation, by the regulatory bodies have proved futile. Nevertheless, the system is responsible for the numerous formidable entry barriers, which have resulted in underside results. Private players in the education sector are reluctant to undergo voluntary accreditation, and are therefore, pointless for its stakeholders. Since independence, the higher education system in India has escalated new heights. [1] By 1980 itself, the number of universities and colleges in the country grew to 132 and 4738, respectively. These institutions catered to around five percent of the eligible age group population. Today, it has grown by leaps and bounds. In terms of enrollment alone, India ranks third in the world (after China and the USA). India ranks first, with regard to the number of institutions, with 348 universities and 17625 colleges. The types of universities and colleges catering to higher education, vary with the country. The variation may be academic, administrative or financial. Universities are permitted under an Act of Parliament (central universities), or by the state legislatures (state universities). In addition, a few higher education institutions are granted the 'deemed university' status, by the central government, through gazette notifications. The Parliament/state legislatures may also designate certain institutions, as having national importance. However, all these institutes of higher learning are permitted to grant degrees. The higher education system in India, has developed in a chaotic and unplanned manner. The drive to make higher education, socially inclusive has led to a sudden and dramatic increase, in numbers of institutions without a proportionate increase in material and intellectual resources. This has resulted in a drop in academic standards. In addition, there is an inadequacy with regard to infrastructure and facilities. Higher education institutions, have large vacancies in faculty positions, employ poor faculty and use outmoded teaching methods. This has resulted in declining research standards, unmotivated students, overcrowded classrooms and widespread geographic, income, gender and ethnic divides. Most institutions do not receive financial support, from either the government or the society. This is more, so among colleges established in rural areas, as they are non-viable, are under–enrolled, have poor infrastructure and facilities and employ only a few teachers. The system of higher education has met further impediments within its regulatory framework. The much debated and controversial move of privatization of higher educational institutions, has also been a stumbling block to its flourishment. These fundamental concerns are identified and addressed in the paper.

Higher Education in India: Striving for Excellence

IJIRMPS, 2018

Although there have been challenges to higher education in the past, these most recent calls for reform may provoke a fundamental change in higher education. This change may not occur as a direct response to calls for greater transparency and accountability, but rather because of the opportunity to reflect on the purpose of higher education, the role of colleges and universities in the new millennium, and emerging scientific research on how people learn. These disparate literature have not been tied together in a way that would examine the impact of fundamental change from the policy level to the institutional level and to the everyday lives of college and university administrators, faculty and students. Now the time has come to create a second wave of institution building and of excellence in the fields of education, research and capability building. We need higher educated people who are skilled and who can drive our economy forward. When India can provide skilled people to the outside world then we can transfer our country from a developing nation to a developed nation. This paper covers the issue regarding quality of higher education and to improve the same in the present scenario.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA: CHALLENGES AND INTERVENTIONS

Scholarly Research Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies, 2023

The world has witnessed the dynamic changes in the society of every country in these modern and postmodern eras. This rapid change in the society is due to the spread of education in almost every corner of the world. The country may be develop or developing but the progress of any nation is highly dependent on the quality of education it is providing to its citizen. The education system of India started from the ancient era and it has witnessed many changes in the education system of the nation. Today India stand as the third largest in the world in terms of Higher Education system. The Indian Higher Education system took long journey to arrive to the present status. India overcome many challenges to provide quality higher education to the deserving citizen of the country. The role of education is very vital for the prosperous development of the nation. Therefore, the government of India is al trying its level best to make the education fulfilled the social needs of the nation. The nation has introduced National Education Policy 2020, which outlines the vision of new education system in India. The India as a country has huge potential to emerge as develop nation with strong political wills backed by visionary education system.