What’s ailing India’s Higher education (IHE) system?

Developed nations are leaders in high quality education system, where research creates wealth and professional create corporations. In rest of the world, ‘Education’ system is developed to create skilled manpower to fulfil economic agenda. India falls into the group of nations where agenda of education is sub-optimal.

With >900 universities and 130 ‘Institutions of National Importance’ and >350 private universities and catering to around 4 crore students, India could not create a single institution worth of being rated anywhere near among the world’s top 50/100/150 universities.

Recent attempt by GoI instituted panel of experts struggled to identify 20 institutions/ universities worthwhile and ready to be given ‘Institute of Eminence (IoE)’ tag that allows some autonomy to operate globally. Though the idea is good but too late and too little. There are still lot of restrictions in going global - in deciding fee to be charged, in admitting foreign students and faculty recruitment etc. This exercise got further embroiled into unnecessary controversy over the selection of yet to be born ‘Jio Institute’ in the list. It raised some uncomfortable questions over how strictlly important criteria were applied ie as per criteria set, an institution to be eligible for IoE status, should have an established credentials for offering wide variety of interdisciplinary teaching and conducting cutting edge research. Further, having presence of international students and faculty is certainly a bonus but, the campus amenities is required to be world class comparable with the globally-reputed institutions. Jio Institute has none of these. This further posed question mark on the sincerity of the government towards pushing Indian institutions/ universities attain global prominence. 

But why, at first place, we are looking for ‘only few’ institutions to be chosen and facilitated (by regulation and resources) to operate globally? This is unheard off elsewhere in other developed nations, where every university is free to operate globally they decided to do so. Restricting scale and scope of institute/university operation is very regressive idea. It paints a very poor state of affairs at a time when NEP-2020 is being unfolded. ‘Eminence’, however, a title, cannot be given overnight. World class institutions are about passionate journey of great minds coming from diverse places across the globe and form an assembly of intellectuals in university campuses whose confluence create knowledge and knowledgeable being – who build corporations, societies and nations! Story of attaining ‘Eminence’ is very fascinating. It takes several years to reach that pinnacle.

Deterioration in India's higher education system is noticeable on multiple dimensions.

University campuses have turned into ideological crossings, not for academic advancement, but for nurturing political interests. This trend, though started in early 1970s, moderated a bit over a period of time, but never ceded. The recent happenings in few campuses do not raise hope of any correction.

In the course, our universities lost the vibrancy of a place which used to be more identifiable by assembly of intellectuals bringing diverse ideas and create an environment of genuine discourses. We, though, were never near creating a university setting to the standards of Oxford and Cambridge but the journey could have been set towards that. Diversity of talent makes a place powerhouse of innovation where quest for excellence is a very normal thing. MIT is an example, which is ranked top in the world not only in technology but also in Social Science as well.

Sadly, search for talent pool among faculty is less proactive. It is seen finding more favour from within than the outlook of attracting talent from all over the country, forget outside of country. Criteria and processes are suitably used or tweaked if necessary to serve the self-purpose. It’s all over my friends, my acquaintances, my students. We seem to dread merit and talent, which, unfortunately, lie in abundance outside-elsewhere. As a result, campuses become more homogenous than diverse, resulting into setting-in a culture of complacency over quest for excellence.

This has not left unaffected even top rated IITs and IIMs.

As a consequence, we now see a new trend where meritorious Indians seeking education are bypassing the nation’s higher education system. Instead, they prefer overseas university. There are plenty of better options available. Top rated universities have more to offer – in terms of educational value and global work place opportunity than its counterpart in India. Affordability is not an issue as their degrees command premium in the job market.

Though a non-show in world ranking seems to bother all of us, our attempt to review via committees/Working Groups appears a mere tick mark – a non-serious exercise. These are trivial to tangential, hence inconsequential. Our internationalization sphere has not gone beyond Nepal, Iran & Sri Lanka and there are barely few takers of ASEAN fellowships. India is not the first choice of international students.  

We need to do more. That is to render them ‘Full autonomy’ to operate globally instead of restrictive ‘Institute of Eminence’ title. Nobody understand what ‘autonomy’ means to an institution aspiring to come up on the world stage. Power of ‘autonomy’ and freedom to operate globally help create world class universities – this is amply clear from world top ranked universities – MIT, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge..etc. In the tone of famous saying ‘It’s the economy, stupid’ – we can definitely say- it is ‘autonomy’ stupid- yes full ‘autonomy’! The subject of ‘Autonomy’, however, couldn’t receive exclusive heading in the NEP-2020 policy document as it deserved. NEP 2020 talks about graded autonomy in few dots and commas. Graded autonomy may work well for evolving institutions. Panacea for established institutions like IITs/IIMs is not graded autonomy but full autonomy. Else, forget dreaming India having an Oxford or MIT anytime 100s of years in future. So far, the 130 ‘Institutions of National Importance’ still operate in parent-child mode. It would be prudent for GoI to set them free to operate in a Grand Father-Father relationship mode. In other words, empower their Board of Governors (BoG) or Board of Trustees (BoT) comprising of accomplished experts and command high reputation to set the goals and agenda, by-laws and governance structure to operate and compete globally.

Our poor showing in global ranking offers a clear and timely message for some serious introspection. Time is up for some bold decisions. Questioning or cast aspersions on the rankings themselves is tantamount to avoiding global competition. National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), an 'Indian' way to ranking universities was invented in response. Is it not a self-satisfying exercise, shielding Indian institutions away from nursing global aspirations? This will take us nowhere if we have sincere global dreams.

From global statistics, India is found wanting in scholarly publication. This is more to do with ‘Library to Library’ incremental research culture and less connected to lacking in facilities. PhD program across the board is abysmally low in quality due to inadequate supervision. ‘Garbage in-Garbage out-garbage in’, thus, has cascading effect here - the same PhD graduate becomes faculty somewhere and culture of sub-optimal work continues.

Adopting global standards and best practices is only way to bring cultural changes. There are many ways to do – acting upon global ranking feedback, associating with global bodies, participating in global accreditation process, collaborating globally etc. Ignoring global norms on the pretext that India being unique require separate standards - will not take us anywhere. Then we should not have global aspirations at all.  

If India wants its universities/ institutions to be seen in the club of Oxford and MIT, the higher education system has to be revamped first. Otherwise, we keep blissfully occupied in endless debates but we remain where we are.