Policy review

Among the first action of the new human resources development minister Kapil Sibal is to give a public assurance that private institutions which were granted the ‘deemed-to-be-university’ status earlier will now be reviewed. This will include private medical and engineering colleges which charge huge amounts by way of capitation fees, and which are run by politicians themselves and by businessmen with strong political connections. There are good institutions that deserve to become autonomous and get this status, but the review is a good idea, so that the wheat is separated from the chaff. The web of corruption that pervades this system is there for all to see. This is but an aspect of the big problem that higher education in India faces.

With the demand for higher education ever on the rise, it will be impossible for the government to create and sustain all the universities to meet the national demand. There is thus need for private universities. There is however a great paradox here. In the United States, it is the well-endowed private universities that are the beacons of excellence in higher education. But in India the best universities are those run by the government. This is what happens in many countries in Europe, but there the size of the countries is, well, manageable. But the government, especially in a large country like India cannot and should not be the sole custodian of institutes of higher learning. Alas, the few feeble attempts in India have been shabby and many if not most of the private “universities” or higher educational institutions in India have turned out to be poorly managed degree shops set up just to earn money or wield influence.

The solution does not lie in sticking to the government-run institutes and creating more of them. We need the private university model but alongside that we need a strong regulatory mechanism that will ensure private institutions provide quality higher education, are run transparently and do not become vehicles for collecting huge capitation fees. The regulatory agencies must do their job well. The government’s own accreditation organisation for higher technical education, for example, has become a byword for inefficiency. What is clearly needed is new thinking and stringent norms. There is no doubt that entrenched interests like bureaucrats, entrepreneurs and politicians will oppose change of any kind, but Sibal has a golden opportunity to bring order to this vital sector which has gone awry.