Independent regulation needed in Higher Education

The growth of Higher Education is India has been phenomenal but perhaps not enough. Thus, it can be said that India’s Higher Education Sector is in dire need for mid-course correction. The issues associated with quality control, accreditation and funding need to be looked afresh.

In India both public and private institutions coexist. For example, of the 13072 higher education institutions in 2000-01, there were only 58% in the public domain and the remaining 42% were privately managed. Currently a rapid growth in private unaided colleges is being witnessed.

In so far as universities are concerned, only central or State Governments can open a university and that too by legislation. The UGC can however grant institutes of excellence, deemed university status. UGC has also developed National Accreditation & Assessment Council (NAAC) and AICTE has also established is own accreditation mechanism by setting up National Board of Accreditation (MBA).

For inclusive growth, open and Distance higher Education is an area of great debate and policy direction requirement. Despite its large pool of technical manpower institutions, India in it’s strive to achieve the desired results, seems to have missed the bus. The regulation mechanism is being worked out to establish and regulate new colleges and Universities at different levels.

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Skewed teacher-taught ratio cause for worry

LUCKNOW: The state government has hiked 25% seats in state universities and degree colleges but the process of appointing teachers for the vacant posts is going slow, resulting in an acute crisis of teachers in the higher education. Hence, the decision might enable more students to get admissions but it would not ensure quality education. This crisis of teachers is also a major hurdle for colleges to go for assessment by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).

Sample this: Of about 14,000 teaching posts in 345 government-aided colleges, nearly 3,000 have been vacant since long. Government had appointed 1,000 teachers on contract basis in 2006 as a stop-gap arrangement. However, now contractual appointments are being cancelled, which will aggravate the crisis further as number of students will increase because of increased seats.

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