Access to Higher Education in India

Access to Higher Education in India
Access, Equity, and Quality are the three key aspects of the new education policy emerging from the Minister of Human Resources Development Kapil Sibal in New Delhi in 2010. Access to higher education is perhaps the most important to build an educated society and a knowledge economy. Post-Independence India has the distinction of continuing to build an extensive modern education system with greatly expanded educational opportunities at the elementary and secondary level throughout India.
Education, however, on the average had only about three percent of the annual budget of India in the first sixty years from 1947 to 2007 with the intent to spend six percent; only 13 percent of that or 0.04 percent of the central government budget went to higher education. This small amount has created an extensive network of universities in each state. The result is that about 5 percent of India’s population (60 million or so) has received college degrees in a large variety of subject areas. One-fourth of the five percent (around 15 million) are now enjoying among the highest standards of living outside of India; three-fourths or 45 million are pulling India up and enjoying high standards in India as it grows at more than double the historical annual rates of GDP growth. Benefits of growth are accruing mainly to this educated group of 45 million or so in a population of more than 1.2 billion.
The story of the Indians educated in Indian universities and mow living in the US and other high income countries is even more dramatic as they enjoy the highest per capita incomes in their new adopted countries. The dramatic high returns on investment in the private and public higher education in India is remarkable at home and abroad.
It is therefore significant that the government has finally understood this point and plans for a major expansion of the higher education system in the Five Year Plan from 2012 to 2017. Plans include new national universities, engineering and business schools, medical schools, vocational schools, etc. This effort and additional budgetary resources devoted to higher education will no doubt further expand access to more young men and women to get higher education. But the expansion plans are not enough to remove great bottlenecks and shortage of institutions of higher education. Unfortunately this will keep the rationing and quota systems in place to allocate limited seats on non-rational and non-merit criteria of caste, religion, geography, etc.
India’s higher education goals should be to achieve the average Western levels of access to and achievements of higher education levels such as 25 percent of population (300 million people at the current population level) or 50 percent of the college age population. Access should be expanded much more and much faster than envisaged in current plans if India wants to continue to sustain current high rates of economic growth of more than 6 percent a year. The stock of scientists (college graduates in all subjects) should double to 10 percent of population in the next thirty years so that there are about 120 million Indians with higher education. This stock of scientists will make India a knowledge-based economy with balance in agriculture, industry and services in terms of employment and output unlike the imbalance today when agriculture creates most jobs while services create most incomes.
There has been a bias in favor of urban universities versus rural colleges and universities as urbanization itself has increased in medium and large cities. There need to be many more universities and colleges in rural India to give knowledge base to villages for a sustainable population and economy in the long-run. There should also be expansion of women’s universities and colleges by having a policy and goal of at least one women’s university/college in every district of every state in India by 2017. Eventual goal should be that 25 percent of all men and women have higher education in the college age population.
One way to do this, in addition to expanding government investment in education equal to 8 percent of GDP, is for the government to encourage, support, subsidize and partner with the not-for-profit private sector. The thriving private sector should be appreciated for creating an environment of educational competition for the two other sectors while also being innovative in its course offerings and modalities of delivery of education. This is good for the country and its growth. If growth is good for the economy as a return on invest in education (“profit”) in the public sector on government investment then private profit seeking colleges and universities are perfectly consistent with national goals. Together, public, not-for-profit, public-private partnerships and for-profit institutions can supply the needed human capital for a better than 6 percent growth on a sustainable trajectory for the foreseeable future.
Education –higher education is the source of progress and great prospects for India in the footsteps of Europe, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
Surendra K. Kaushik is professor of finance at the Lubin School of Business of Pace University in New York and founder of Mrs. Helena Kaushik Women's P.G. College in Malsisar, Rajasthan, India.