Hike varsity fees, says Montek

Stop subsidising higher education and increase the fees. That is the recipe of Montek Singh Alhuwalia to improve the quality of education. The Deputy Chairman of India’s Planning Commission was addressing students at the University of Mumbai’s 150th convocation ceremony on Sunday.

Alhuwalia directed the universities across the country to generate additional funds through the fees and asked to stop depending on the government to generate funds.  He strongly refuted the idea of subsidising higher education by charging meagre amount of fees for the degree and diploma courses and suggested the provision of scholarships and education loans for students from the weaker section of society. 

By increasing the fees, he said, a corpus fund can be created to improve the infrastructure at colleges and overcome shortage of research faculty in science and engineering.

“Today, the quality of higher education across the country is in bad state as compared to the higher education provided by developed countries. More number of universities should be given autonomous status and the management of the educational institutions should be depoliticised,” said Alhuwalia. 

Elaborating on the structure to be adopted at the school education and higher education level, Alhuwalia said, “It’s only the fee structure of primary and secondary education that should be subsidised, but students should be prepared to shell out extra-penny for pursuing higher education. Today parents spent almost five per cent of their expenditure on their child’s education, however, the spending should be increased by 15-20 per cent to procure quality education.” Alhuwalia used the  occasion to brief the students about the country’s growing economy and the job market scenario.

“India’s growth target in terms of its economy for the next five years is to grow rapidly from eight per cent to 10 per cent. Students have the option to work with the Indian multi-national companies or directly with the MNCs abroad,” said Alhuwalia.