Are we producing an increasingly greater number of educated unemployables? That seems to have been a major factor in the recent recommendations by the Yash Pal Committee on higher education. That higher education in India, despite a few worldclass institutes, is mired in just about every shortcoming, as the recent arrest of the AICTE chairman on bribery charges shows, seems endemic to the issue. Consider this: between 2000 and 2005, 26 private-sponsored institutions received the deemed university status. Since 2005, the number of private deemed universities has increased to 108. In Tamil Nadu alone, the number of private deemed universities increased from 18 in 2007 to 35 in 2008 with many more in the pipeline.
There is not just a massive shortfall in the number of institutes, a huge proportion of these existing ones also churn out graduates who have to be re-trained. As Yash Pal puts it, ?Our current system ?cubicle-ises knowledge?, currently our universities are similar to the caste system in India wherein ?steel walls exist between universities and between disciplines?. This needs to break and an interdisciplinary system needs to be encouraged so that students? curiosity and creativity can be harnessed.?
As the disconnect between education and skill sets widens, the system is in dire need of reforms. Higher education in India has largely concentrated on academic pursuits. Not only has skill-based training been looked down upon as ?vocational?, institutes for such courses have also ever been given the priority over general universities. IITs and IIMs have been honourable exceptions here. Now, there is even a call to make them include other courses, however outlandish the idea of a literature specialisation at the institute of technology may seem!
Higher education institutions in India can accommodate only 7-8% of our college students. India, thus, has a gross enrolment ratio of only 11% in higher education as compared to about 60% in the US and Canada, and 21% in the Bric countries. The state?s role as the regulator is not as prominent as its role as a provider of education ? in the form of schools, colleges, universities and other institutes. As the AICTE episode reveals, the regulatory role is hardly satisfactorily performed.
The state stranglehold over higher education is just beginning to be challenged. A look around the societies that India wants to emulate will show the private sector has shown the way. The government has had an almost unrivalled run, especially in higher education. Whether its institutes can match the private sector, which look to fill the demand gap, is a question for the future.