EDUCATION SPECIAL...What Ails Higher Education?

What Ails Higher Education?

The greatest collateral damage of a non-functioning Parliament is the lack of discussion of some important Bills pertaining to reform of higher education in India. In particular, I commented on the lack of an overall regulator for this sector. A crucial feature of reforms is the need to replace governmental control of activities with an independent regulator. Typically, in any reforming economy, the first regulators set up are those where consumer interface is immediate: the so-called sectoral regulators like Sebi, the power tariff regulator, the CERC, the telecom regulator, Trai, etc. Overall regulators of competition like the CCI tend to be set up at a much later date because the consequence of losses to any specific consumer are small though societal losses can be large.

This is what economists call the ‘free rider problem’. The failure of an independent regulator to emerge in the higher education sector can be traced to this ‘free rider’ problem. It is not too much to say that the societal losses in this case are probably much larger than in almost any other sector.

The most important need is autonomy of institutions. Here, the main issue is political non-interference by the state. While non-interference is largely true in central universities, state-run institutions are highly politicised, particularly in appointments. The process starts with the appointments of vice-chancellors who then ensure political correctness of subsequent appointments. This has serious longterm consequences. Wrong choice of faculty, for example, perpetuates mediocrity: an unqualified teacher will only replicate himself. One consequence, usually, is inbreeding: where faculty appoint their own students in junior positions and the process continues ad infinitum. It can take generations to undo the negative impact of such appointments.

The second issue is accountability. The problem is of definition. Higher educational institutions today face the charge of churning out ‘unemployable graduates’. It is reasonable that not every student can (or should) go on for a PhD. The remaining must have sufficient skills to be absorbed in the private sector, in the burgeoning NGO sector and in specialised government departments. Why are the students ‘unemployable’? Part of the problem is the lack of selfimprovement by teachers in courses/curriculum precisely because there was no system to ensure this. An apathetic government, unconcerned students and nontransparency in internal appointments in universities have combined to lead to this unfortunate situation.

Faced with criticism, educational institutions are responding in the worst manner possible: compulsory attendance. This is happening around the country and even in premier institutions like Delhi University. But accountability must be measured by teaching, research output and publications. So, one consequence will be (as in administrative work) adverse selection: those close to the chief administrators will show ‘100% attendance’. The new method of getting an autonomous body to bring in some accountability via the National Assessment and Accreditation Council seems to be the right way. No self-respecting university uses ‘attendance’ as a measure of accountability.

Many universities are also inflexible in their functioning. Here, it is unfortunate that most are considered extensions of the ministry. So, rules applicable to government officials are often extended to them. For example, some time ago, the CAG castigated a major central university for misuse of funds. The misuse was of funds given for capacity building of teachers used for travel to conferences, etc. However, globally, one of the principal methods of faculty improvement is interaction with other institutions around the world precisely in such conferences! This inflexibility is then extended to other issues like rules of admission, leave, selection committees for faculty, etc.

What kind of role can the government play? Universities must be publicly funded as they are the principal source of research. It is well known that 95% of a country’s R&D (public and private) is based on unmotivated research publications in universities. Particularly in a market economy, the role of government funding to ensure unbiased research is critical. It is also well known that while universities must charge a reasonable fee from students, there is no evidence (even from developed countries) that converting universities into ‘for-profit’ units leads to any improvement in their functioning. The opposite may well be true.

Many of these issues are dealt with in some of the Bills pending in Parliament. Let us hope they see the light of day and an autonomous regulatory body for higher education becomes a reality in the near future.


• An independent regulator for the higher education sector is a crucial part of reforms
• Political interference, lack of accountability and inflexible functioning dog universities
• Parliamentary paralysis has stalled some Bills that address these vital issues

MANOJ PANT ET121012