India’s public universities deserve a chance

For about a year now, Delhi University has been trying to push for a semester system. Given that students leave the country in droves every year seeking the flexible and dynamic university education system in the West, you would have thought that the move would have gone through smoothly.

But no, it stays stuck in a logjam: union protests, the intimidating task of overhauling a fossilised exam department, and a body of practices that have gotten so deeply rooted over eight decades that they have to be decimated before anything new can be attempted.
Delhi University may be able to afford the luxury of staying bubble-wrapped in time a little longer. “Our older system is quite strong too, so we want a debate before we start anything new,” says proctor Gurmeet Singh. “But the smaller, less robust public institutions will need to get their act together quickly.”

Singh has a reason to sound the warning: the Foreign Education Institutions (FEI) Bill which will allow global varsities to set up
shop in India will bring in systems far more alert to the needs of a changing world. And the worst hit will be the public universities in India that have been chugging along for decades without feeling the need to incorporate advanced practices. Even the mushrooming of private universities — be they deemed or doomed — did not shake them up.

Foreign universities, however, may create an uneven playing field. They will reportedly be governed by another regulatory agency, will not have to deal with prickly issues like reservation, and can charge fees that will help make up for the hefty corpus they need to set aside as guarantee money. All this while desi universities have to stick with the fees, salaries, calendars and admission policies dictated centrally by the UGC.

“Our state and central universities function under several restrictions, pertaining to the nature of the programmes they conduct, the salaries they pay, the fees they can charge, how much they can expand, the number and kind of students they take in. If you allow foreign universities to establish, grow and function with great flexibility and individuality while clamping down on the Indian universities, they will slide further still,” says Rajashekhar Pillai, vice chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University.

The need for university education is humongous and going to get even bigger. The country needs another 269 universities, as per the Knowledge Commission, to cater to the needs of its very young population.

This could mean that there is room in the country for all kinds of institutions — public, private and foreign depending on what students need and can afford.  Those who can cough up the money needed will continue to seek degrees abroad for the kind of cultural experience it brings with it. Those who top the merit chart will get to the reputed Indian universities. And those who cannot make it to these will settle for the private institutions.

 The foreign universities that will come to India then will cater to students who fall somewhere between these slots, given that they are bound to charge high fees but offer perhaps qualitatively better education than the private universities and the weaker public universities of India. 

“There is a spectrum of quality of institutions and students. In this spectrum there will be a set of students who would forego study abroad plans and choose a branch campus. I expect that students from smaller cities would find the local branch campuses most appealing. These students face constraints of financial resources, information availability or academic preparedness and hence this opportunity may fit in well with their aspirations,” says Dr Rahul Choudaha, a US-based education specialist.

Private universities are in fact best placed to capitalise on the arrival of foreign universities in India by offering partnerships that could benefit both parties. They are better placed to adapt and collaborate by offering foreign universities existing infrastructure and resources if they do not wish to invest 100 per cent in a branch institution. There are already around 150 private institutions that have some kind of a tie-up with a foreign universities. Some offer twinning arrangements or dual degree programmes. 

Those who feel passionately about the public universities of India built on idealism feel that they deserve a better chance at pulling themselves out of the quagmire of complacence. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, member of the Supreme Court committee on Indian Universities, says that they too deserve a liberal regime to survive, expand and grow.

“Apart from the IITs and IIMs, we have around 15-20 excellent public institutions. But if we have a two-tier regulatory system, one for the Indian universities and another for the foreign, can they compete? Why not give them the freedom too?” asks Mehta.
Amitabh Jhingan, who heads Ernst & Young’s higher education division, believes that nine out of 10 public universities are already facing huge challenges. But given their dependence on government funding there is so much and no more they can do to raise resources.