By NVR Jyoti Kumar
India has the second largest higher education system in the world next to China, in terms of student enrollment in absolute numbers. However, India’s Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) remained low at 28.4 in 2021-22 compared to the global average of 36.7%. India aimed to achieve an ambitious target of 50% of GER in higher education by 2035 as envisioned by the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.
With over 1,100 universities and 45,000 colleges across the country, India is able to serve 4.33 crore students in higher education. It would be a herculean task to expand access to higher education without sacrificing the quality and equity concerns in the next ten years.
Against this backdrop, NITI Aayog has recently released a policy report titled, "Expanding Quality Higher Education through States and State Public Universities." The report is a first-of-its-kind policy document in higher education specifically focusing on States and State Public Universities (SPUs). It provides the summarised essence of the insights gained from extensive stakeholder consultations held with over 20 States and Union Territories, Vice Chancellors, senior academicians of 50 SPUs etc.
Faculty Shortages and Outdated Infrastructure SPUs are the backbone of India's vast and wide-reaching higher education system. With 81% of India’s higher education taking place in SPUs, reforming them is crucial for creating human capital and establishing India as a knowledge hub in the context of the implementation of NEP and India’s vision for 'Viksit Bharat' 2047.
The NITI Aayog’s report confessed that over 40 per cent of faculty positions remain vacant, leading to a poor student-teacher ratio. The student-teacher ratio is 30:1, far from the recommended 15:1 standard. Over 60 per cent of SPUs do not have sufficient hostel and accommodation facilities, making higher education inaccessible for students of rural areas. Not even 25 per cent of SPUs have active partnerships with the industry for research and employability training. Only 10% SPUs have well-equipped research facilities, significantly impacting learning outcomes. The report warns that access to digital resources remains a challenge, with only 32 per cent of SPUs having fully functional digital libraries, making it difficult for students and faculty to access global research databases.
In the States of Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Telangana, the situation of many SPUs appears to be further deplorable as being reflected in declining NIRF rankings in recent times. A severe shortage of regular teachers, declining admissions in many academic programmes, and lower employability of the passed-out students have become the common features of SPUs.
In respect of filling up of vacant faculty positions in SPUs, both the state governments could not achieve any progress, except confining to merely issuing of the Notification. Since the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, no recruitment has been taken up in both the states. This severely dented the teaching-learning process, research ecosystem, and morale of the teachers. Due to the lack of recruitment, the workload of existing teachers has gone up manifold.
How to Revitalise SPUs?
Though the NITI Aayog report has provided nearly 80 policy recommendations across the four domains of Quality, Funding and financing, Governance, and Employability, the political will on the part of the state governments would be a prerequisite or a game changer for transforming SPUs into hubs of top-quality talent, research and innovation. Of these four domains, funding and financing, and governance would play an important role. India’s spend on education has been in reality only half of its commitment of 6 per cent of GDP as enunciated in NEP.
Many educationists reiterate that lack of autonomy, more regulation and political interference in the day-to-day functioning of SPUs obstructed their performance. Hence, universities should be self-governed and self-regulated to propel quality and excellence.
SPUs have a proven track record of providing affordable education for the lower and middle-income strata of society for many generations. For example, SPUs account for 48.2% of enrollment of women in 2021-22 which is 5.5 percentage points higher than the women enrollment in the university system as a whole. Also, the SPUs have significantly enhanced the enrollment of students from socially disadvantaged groups such as SC, ST, OBC and minority communities. The number of these students in SPUs have gone up from 99.5 lakh in 2011-12 to 229.7 lakh in 2021-22. In other words, the share of these disadvantaged groups in the total SPU enrollment rose steeply from 42.5% to 70.7% during the period. Therefore, it need not be overemphasised that the vision of making India a developed nation in the next two decades would remain a mere rhetoric by neglecting SPUs which are known for ensuring inclusive higher education.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of ETV Bharat)
