college post, july – september, 2016

1College Post, July – September, 2016

EDITORIAL

The Independence of India from British rule was avowedly fought actively for almost 15 years, i.e. 1930 to1945 to seek freedom from exploitative British Raj, to ensure freedom with democracy to people of India,to remove poverty, to ensure equality, justice and to ensure development of one and all. The economicexploitation of India took place under the model of market economy by the foreign rulers. The logicalfollow up, during the independent India, was to change the role of state from exploitation to welfare ofpeople and from market economy to guided market economy - sort of mix model of both state and marketto play a role in ensuring removal of poverty, distribution of resources equitably, provision of education forall. This was attempted through a planned model of development of economy and society. Societaldevelopment also focused on protective discrimination to undo the past injustices. The model ofdevelopment was state supported five year Plan development model. State set up institutions in varioussectors of economy and society. It set up: Planning Commission, DRDO, Space Research Institute, Agricultural,

Technology Institutions, Central Universities, State Universities, Several Research and Development Institutions in the areas of Physical,Chemical, earth and Biological Sciences as part of this approach. Along side it also attempted to resurrect indigenous knowledgeresources namely, Ayurveda, Unani, Yoga systems of health and preventive care, Sanskrit, Art and Culture by setting up institutions anduniversities at Central and State levels. Under this approach development of economic and political institutions, social systems, governancesystem and education system continued, some time slowly and some time speedily for almost four decades. But the focus was: removalof poverty, development of agriculture, industry, education, health and other segments of economy, democratic processes and researchand development for the development of the country. Development was slow but steady; it was a model of self reliant development.Those economists, who visited US and UK, felt development was slow and termed it Hindu Rate of Growth. Whatever development thattook place, it was largely through its own resources and at its own pace. It developed from poor agriculture, poor industrial base, pooreducational base, poor system of governance and social system to somewhat respectable levels in these areas. Those in politicalgovernance and in administration imbibed the values of national development for all.

In spite of several challenges both from international and home fronts, the so called Hindu Rate of growth was our own. Thechallenges ran as: India's principles of Panchsheel were killed by those who signed it and faced hostile China in 1962, followed by it

CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF LIBERALIZATION OF INDIA :SHIFTING ECONOMIC AND EDUCATIONAL PARADIGMS

CONTENTSEditorialNews

Articles:1. Higher Education for

Meeting Expectations ofIndividuals and Society

2. Factors and Forces thatInfluenced the Changesand Development of HigherEducation in India

3. Challenges of Affordabilityin Private Higher Education

Researches in EducationEducation News AnalysisAcross the GlobeBook Review

EditorG.D. SharmaCo-editorBaldev Mahajan

hostile Pakistan in 1965, 1971, At the home front it faced internal emergency and internalprovocation of Khalistan Movement. One of our Prime Minister was killed in the premises of PMofficial residence cum Office by a guard influenced by Khalistani extremists and another wasbombed and killed at Perumbadur, Chennai supposedly by Srilankan extremists.

In between it also faced severe draught and food shortage in 1960s. It made India to dependon Peace Law 480 of US to get wheat stock. Due to agricultural problem it shifted its Industrialdevelopment plan to Agricultural development. In due course, with the help of AgricultureUniversities and their extension stations, national Irrigation system through Bhakra Canal, IndiraGandhi Canal in Rajasthan, several dams and Hydroelectric generation system it over came thefood problem and ensured food security of India. It was able to set up, presently known as NavRatna companies namely, BHEL, NTPC, and several others.

On education front it set up some of the very leading science and social science universitiesand research institutions. It supported setting up of institutions by Philanthropists through grants.It set up institutions like UGC, ICSSR, ICHR, ICAR, CSIR, Space Research and so on to ensuredevelopment of higher education and research & Development . All these came from support ofstate exchequer. State mobilized resources through taxation of other internal resources andinvested them for these developments. This is a story in brief of four decades of economic andsocial development with clear thrust on state playing a major role in development of economy,society and people and at the same time allowing market to operate without causing harm topeople 's interest. However this tenet/ maxim got distorted and system degenerated under redtape bureaucracy, license Raj and corruption. Unemployment and poverty removal continuedto be a challenge.

Things started changing in late eighties. During this period there was a sort of change incomposition of people in ruling Congress Party and also pressure by opposition, as they differedin thinking on economic model of development. It was around early 1990, India opted for modelof liberalization- the period India is celebrating- the economic and educational paradigm startedshifting.

On the international front also the scene started changing. There was disintegration oferstwhile Soviet Union which worked for a long period on Socialist Model of economicdevelopment and had international acclaim of poverty removal and development of science

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ICF 22ND ANNUAL CONFERENCEIndian Colleges Forum successfully completed its 22ndAnnual Conference of ICF held at Mahila PG.Mahavidyalaya, Jodhpur from 5-7th September, 2016under the auspices of JNV University, Jodhpur , Rajasthan.The theme and sub theme of the conference were:"Higher Education for Bridging the Gap between Rural andUrban India"

Sub-themes: Role of Higher Education in:i) improving knowledge and skills among students tocontribute to rural development;ii) Improving Quality of Primary and SecondaryEducation; andiii) Carrying out problem solving research fordevelopment of rural areas

The conference was inaugurated by Dr. KavitaSharma, President, South Asian University, New Delhi andwas presided over by Dr. R.P Singh, Vice Chancellor ofJNV University, Jodhpur. Dr. Kavita Sharma gavecomprehensive address covering Higher Education andSocietal Expectations. It covered a very large ground ofemployability, contribution to economic development,aspects of equity, relevance, accessibility by women,socially deprived sections and minority community. Shehighlighted the challenges and possible response toaddress issues of development both for urban and ruralareas.

Dr. R.P Singh VC, JNVU, addressing the delegates

Dr. R.P. Singh underscored importance of the themeof the conference, reviewed the issues in the context ofseveral development in the past and recommendationsmade by Dr. Radhakrishanan, Dr. Kothari university andeducation commissions. He also referred to recent effortsin drafting of education policy and recommendations ofSubramaniam committee. He said key aspect ofcontribution of higher education for development is equityand quality of higher education as provided by Collegesand universities. Colleges being close to districts, townsand rural areas can significantly contribute thoughknowledge, skill and value orientation in bridging this gap.

Dr. G.D. Sharma, President ICF, highlighted the roleof Indian Colleges Forum in brining Principals of Colleges

Newsthrough out length and breadth of the country to deliberateon important theme related to the role of higher educationin development of the country. He said it is need of thetime that colleges act as knowledge and skill developmentto bridge the gap between rural and urban areas. Collegescan become hub for research and innovations to solveproblems of development in adopted villages in ruralareas.

Shri PP Srivastave, former Member NEC andChairman North Eastern Regional Education Councilhighlighted the importance of linking colleges with needsof localities in their neighbouring areas and helping peopleand youth through knowledge and skills to enhance locallyproduced quality goods to serve the needs of the area.He also emphasised on value inculcation among studentsfor service to people and commitment for development.

Technical Sessions were addressed by experts anddelegates coming from far off places in India, Namely,Kerala, Karnataka, Assam, Jharkhand, Meghalaya,Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and other places. Dr. Usamanfrom Kerala , Dr. Gogoi from Assam, Dr. Singh and Dr. C.Massar, from Meghalaya, Dr. Prabhakara from Karnataka,Dr. Kiran Arora from Punjab chaired and co-chaired thetechnical sessions and presented paper. Dr. K. B. Vandana,Principal, Rajasthan Police Training Centre, Jodhpur andProfessor Ganga Ram Jhakar, former Chairman, RPSC,Jaipur addressed the delegates and chaired the technicalsessions.

Dr. Chandrakala Padia, Vice Chancellor, MaharajaGanga Singh University, Bikaner, in her valedictoryaddress spoke very frankly on the recent developmentsin higher education and impact of modernization on psycheof people. She highlighted the contribution of India indevelopment of various fields of arts, science, technologyand need for exploring and carrying out research in Indiancontext. She said education system should address theproblems of development indigenously while keeping intouch with world developments. We should avoid apingand show our originality to address the problems.

A large number of Principals of Colleges from differentparts of the country namely, Kerala, Karnataka, Assam,Meghalaya, UP, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Punjab and Rajasthanparticipated actively in deliberations, presented papers andworked in groups. They formulated recommendationspertaining to role of higher education in bridging the gapbetween rural and urban areas.

A very colourful cultural programme was presentedby the students of the college. Delegates also had anopportunity to visit several historical places in Jodhpur andnearby places. Dr. Manorama Upadhyaya, Principal of theCollege, Dr. SP Vyas , Secy and Chairman of the Collegemanagement committee gave an exemplary support forthe conduct of the conference. Dr. B.K Tyagi, Secy, ICFand Dr. S.C Sharma, Vice President SEED steered severalsessions very effectively and proposed vote of thanks fromthe side of SEED-ICF. Dr. Nalini Bhatt presented tokenmemento to Principal from the side of ICF.


The aim of education is two-fold: collective andindividual. At the collective level, the aim is to make anindividual into a good citizen, that is, a person withharmonious relationship with other members of thecommunity, a person useful to society, and one whofulfils his or her obligations as a citizen. At the individuallevel, the student expects an educational institution tohelp him or her to develop a strong and healthy body,build his or her character, attain self-mastery and supplyopportunities to discover and realise natural abilities soas to become gainfully employed and economically selfsufficient.

Both expectations are justified but itis necessary to understand therelationship between the individual andsociety and that the aspirations of thetwo need to be mutually harmonised.The human mind tends to emphasizeone or the other and the currentdominant thought is that individualinterest must be subordinated to societalinterest. Therefore, the collective aim ofeducation has overshadowed theindividual aim and the chief challengefacing educators is how to fit theindividual to the demands of society.

The needs of society are determinedby what society thinks it requires at thatpoint of time. For example, at the time ofwar, society may require defencepersonnel, scientists for arms industries,traders in arms and ammunition, defencestrategists, and others. Such societalaims are usually determined by theperceptions of the ruling class. If thereare powerful patrons of culture, society will produceartists of all kinds. If industrialisation is taking place, thenthe need will be for engineers and technicians.

Education is built on the pillars of access, equity,expansion, relevance and quality. All are interlinked ifequitable opportunities have to be made available to

HIGHER EDUCATION FOR MEETING EXPECTATIONS OFINDIVIDUALS AND SOCIETY

DR. KAVITA SHARMA*

The challenges before higher education has been to meet several competing/complementing expectations ofindividual and society. The paper examines how have these expectations influenced the development of higher

education in India.

* Dr. Kavita Sharma is the President of South Asian University,New Delhi. She has authored several books and papers onHigher Education.

all. Imbalance in any one of these causes disparitiesthat lead to social unrest. Since the liberalisation ofeconomy beginning in the second half of the decade of1980s, Indian economy has opened up a variety of jobsand a shift is gradually being seen away from theagricultural sector to the service industry andmanufacturing. Even agriculture has become moremechanized and demands inputs of new knowledge.The country is now part of a globalized world in whichknowledge is the key to development. Hence bothnational and international organisations like UNESCO

have emphasized that educationespecially higher education is the key todevelopment.

New demands are being made oneducation both in terms of demand andrelevance. Expansion has taken placebut by and large it lacks quality andrelevance. From elite, education hasmoved towards massification and is nowmoving towards universalization. In aglobalized world, knowledge is the keyto development, both its creation anddissemination. Changes are required ata pace that have not happened sinceindependence. It has led to two things:emphasis on research and proliferationof private education.

However, higher education means bothteaching and research. Clear ways onhow to bring teaching and researchtogether within a scholarship paradigmare still unresolved and very oftenuniversities themselves are confusedabout their mission. But usually research

has been privileged over teaching as its applicationsare seen as promoting economic growth. This leads toseveral questions. What kind of research is needed?What is the aim of this research? How can research beincorporated into teaching? At what level should theresearch programme begin? One thought is that theredoes not seem to be an obvious flow from research toteaching at least at the undergraduate level. This couldpartly be because of the way teaching is organised andpartly because research yields such specialised

The needs of society aredetermined by what

society thinks it requires atthat point of time. For

example, at the time ofwar, society may require

defence personnel,scientists for arms

industries, traders in armsand ammunition, defence

strategists, and others.Such societal aims are

usually determined by theperceptions of the ruling

class. If there are powerfulpatrons of culture, societywill produce artists of all

kinds. If industrialisation istaking place, then the

need will be for engineersand technicians.

Articles


knowledge that it is remote from what students need toknow at the undergraduate level. But on the other hand,evidence can also be given to show that there areadvantages to learning in a research-rich environment.For that, however, a conscious and deliberate link needsto be established between teaching and research ineach department.

As Hebe Vessuri points out, the three mainchallenges that face the world in the 21st century are:freedom from want, freedom from fear, and freedom forthe future generations to sustain their lives on this planet.Science, technology and innovation are central tosuccessfully handling these challenges, but in someways, they are also associated with causing them. Theyhave led to the improvement of health, life expectancyand living standards, greater opportunities forinformation sharing and environmental remediation inmany places around the globe. But they are also linked,in complex ways, to the currentunsustainable development trajectoriesand ruthless exploitation of nature thathas led to climate change and disastersboth natural and man-made.

Unacceptable levels of disparityhave been created because researchefforts are unevenly distributed in theworld between different countries andregions. As Jevs Renold points out, it isonly a few industrialised countries thatconduct the greater part of the world'sresearch. This is problematic fordeveloping countries that do not havethe means or the education base to geta large share in the global researcheffort. Quite inevitably most of the research effort isdirected at solving problems and answering questionsthat are related to the needs of industrialised countries,where the research is conducted. Applied to developingcountries, their solutions may not be appropriate. Also,the developing countries may not even have the levelof competency of education, research and technologyrequired to benefit from the knowledge developedelsewhere.

Moreover, the way research endeavour has grown,it has led to the privileging of science, but is this thesurest route to development or is there a need to alsoincorporate other routes? The universalistic scientificapproach without the national, social and culturaldimensions being factored in, can lead to problematicand even tragic results. Therefore, scientific endeavoursshould be linked to social concerns. Scientists have tobe aware of the societal impact of their work if theirresearch and its applications have to bring collectivewell-being and equity in society and salvage the Earth'senvironment.

Science is only a part of a richer whole and spaceshave to be created to bring scientists and differentaudiences together in democratic spaces so that expertknowledge can become comprehensible and morewidespread. This would enable plural perspectives toemerge on the pros and cons of application and increaseinformed awareness among citizens. Without it, thegrowth of higher education will not necessarily reducesocial and economic inequalities. As Vessuri has pointedout, in weaker countries with inadequate capacity, andunstable political and social institutions, higher educationin science and technology may actually widen the gulfbetween the knowledgeable and the ignorant; betweenthe better off who can afford education through its formalstructures and those who cannot.

Therefore, universities cannot just do neutralscience research. They must build a foundation of civicand democratic values to build social cohesion and

purpose. They must create knowledgethat not only leads to economic growth,but also to an understanding of how toovercome racial and ethnic tensions,dogmatism and religious extremism thatoften become concomitant to it becauseof its unevenness. This requiresimmediate attention to cultural diversityin higher education and research withinthe framework of globalisation. This doesnot mean merely increasing thepopulation of the under-representedsocial groups in a campus population. Itimplies building knowledge systems thatgive an understanding of diverse values,policies, practices, traditions, resources

and living knowledge systems outside the formalstructures so that students and faculty, who have beenexcluded up to now, can become part of the knowledgeresource and provide keys and solutions that haveeluded thought and policy up to now.

Teaching and research have to be seen as acontinuum. There is no real dichotomy between the twoif the connection is seen not between research andteaching as between research and learning. Researchcan probably be seen as a process. It is a form oflearning. At one end of the spectrum is informationtransfer that takes the form of lecturing or slidepresentations and at the other end is enquiry into aproblem by individuals or teams. Therefore, integratingresearch and learning is really about inculcating skillsof enquiry and research into students. This is much moreimportant educationally than providing students withcontent knowledge, which is now freely available indifferent media both print and electronic.

The demand for education has led to the emergenceof the private sector. The government itself realizes

Unacceptable levels ofdisparity have been

created because researchefforts are unevenly

distributed in the worldbetween different

countries and regions. AsJevs Renold points out, itis only a few industrialisedcountries that conduct thegreater part of the world's

research.


that it cannot meet all the financial requirements of thedemand and tacitly recognizes the need to involve theprivate sector. Therefore it has allowed privateeducation to enter the public sector universities andcolleges through mechanisms such as self-financingcourses that run concurrently with public-fundedprograms. Also self financing institutions are affiliatedto public universities and they now for outnumber thepublic-funded colleges. Most of them are in the southernstates of India. Many private deemed universities haveemerged, which indicates that the government seeksprivate help and lacking a transparent policy orlegislation, has taken this route to enable privateinstitutions to flourish. Another group of privateinstitutions in the non-university sector is run private andcorporate initiatives like NIIT and APTEC. By law theycannot ward degrees but they attract students becauseof the quality and relevance of their programs and thetraining that they offer.

Historically, private institutions were established asnot-for-profit institutions, like the universities. However,recent private institutions are inevitably profit seeking.Even when for profit institutions are not allowed, privateinstitutions are usually for profit whatever may be theirclaim; and the regulatory mechanism is not able to dealwith them. Further, most private institutions are notuniversities but specialized institutions that providehigher training in some specific fields of study. Researchfacility, especially in basic sciences is usually weak oroften non-existent here, because of the large outlay itdemands. However, in recent times, attempts to gainlegitimacy have prompted them to show some researchactivity but it is largely cosmetic because it is difficult tofind philanthropic sources of funding and theseinstitutions have no access to public research funds.Therefore, whatever finances are required for researchhave to be cross-subsidized from teaching funds; thisinvolves raising tuition fees, which are already highcompared to public universities and therefore not aviable option. As the system matures, some ameliorationmay take place.

Right now, most private higher education institutionscater undergraduate demands, which satisfy the currentneeds of the labor market and bring immediate returns.However, high-end programs demand heavy financialoutlay, which in turn means very high fees. Since thereare no takers for this, either the quality gets diluted orprivate education gets confined to the popular coursesof social sciences, economics, business management,and others.

The issue of quality becomes an urgent one forprivate institutions since they find it hard, if notimpossible, to compete in terms of fees with publicinstitutions. They also face problems of getting goodteachers. Most of them have to rely on part-time teachers

or the retired faculty from public universities. The dearthof faculty disturbs the teacher-student ratio that furtherdilutes the quality of teaching. Moreover, when teachersfrom public institutions moonlight, it creates tensionbetween the two sectors with its own dire consequences.Public angst also rises against them because the lackof quality and high fees means that the employmentreturns do not match the individual investment andexpectations.

At the policy level, expectations from privateinstitutions are usually not met. Given that they havemore flexibility, one would expect that they demonstrateincreased diversification, both in terms of geographicalreach and subjects taught, being more responsive tolabor market demands. But, this does not happenbecause the very nature of private institutions compelsthem to gravitate to capital cities or major urban centers.The subjects get confined to those that are popularbecause of market demand. In fact, it is the publicinstitutions that are geographically diverse because ofthe involvement of local and regional authorities. Theyalso have the wherewithal to innovate if they could onlyget out of their straitjacket.

But whatever may be the constraints on privatehigher education, evidence seems to suggest that theyare set to become a permanent feature on the highereducation landscape. This is because higher educationis likely to persist as an important priority in policy terms.The government may not be able to cope with the risingfinancial demands and expectations, and this will givea push to private higher education. There will also befinancial challenges on how to expand the supply ofhigher education but these will be in both the public andthe private sectors. Unless there is a policy that will takeinto its ambit the concerns of both sectors, the likelyresponse will be the strengthening of marketmechanisms which can increase the unregulated growthof privateness in the system. The consequence will bethe commercialization of higher education and thevictims will be the stakeholders--teacher, students, andparents. Teachers will be underpaid, hired on acontractual basis, with their services being dispensedwith during vacations. They will have careeruncertainties. Students will not get quality education andparents will exorbitant fees in their quest for professionaldegrees for their wards. Therefore, it is vital to have apublic policy with regard to private education in place toavoid the ills of commercialization. But this is a complexand controversial issue especially in countries whereprivate institutions have remained minimal withideological issues and public sentiment to grapple with.

Since private education usually gets a boostbecause of massification initially at lease, it tends tofocus on the absorption of unfulfilled demand butgradually these institutions tend to position themselves


as high quality high cost alternatives to mass/low costpublic higher education. In the course of time, they wouldnot want to be seen as the second choice for thosewho do not get a place in the public sector institutions.In the post-massification phase, the demand absorptionpattern can give way to niche institutions, which presentalternatives to mass higher education rather thanreinforcing it.

Linking higher education to development has led toits being linked to employment. Hence theunprecedented demand for employability after educationand accountability of the education system in this area.No longer does the idea of knowledge for the sake ofknowledge hold good. Higher education is expected tolead to better employment and is seen as an investmentthat must yield returns. However, India's educationsystem at all levels is in crisis. An appraisal of India'sperformance towards millennium development goals,shows that while there has been progress in someareas, other vital areas that pertain tohuman resource development arelagging behind. These are PrimarySchool enrolment (10.8% childrenbetween 6 to 10 years are not in school);youth literacy, child mortality and infantmortality rates; immunisation of children;access to sanitation; and child births inhospitals as opposed to at home. Allthese are essential indicators of humandevelopment and therefore have majorimplications for the economicdevelopment of a country.

While both health and education arevital, for our purposes let us look ateducation and begin with schooleducation because without it, goodhigher education is not possible. Prof.Dayanand Dongaonkar in an AIUoccasional paper (2008) painted a grimpicture of the state of school educationboth for the population in general and for the SCs andSTs. According to the Population Census 2001, theliteracy rate is 65.38 per cent indicating that about 35per cent of the population is still illiterate. According tothe Population Census 2011, the literacy rate jumpedto 73 per cent. However, the dropout rate was 27 percent at the primary level and 41 per cent at theelementary level. Further, at least 13 per cent of studentsdid not even transit from primary to upper primary level.The dropout rates are even higher for SC, ST, OBC andMuslim populations. This is worrying because it throwschildren out of the education system without providinga viable alternative of remedial action or skilldevelopment.

School education therefore, obviously needs to be

strengthened both for the general category and for theless privileged before better access can be provided inhigher education. The approximate passing rate is about45 per cent of those who appear in the 10th and 55 percent of those who appear in the 12th. Therefore, a verylarge number of young students is being pushed out ofthe system with no alternative to turn to. Given the stateof school education, students' capacity to cope withhigher education becomes an important issue that hasbeen completely overlooked. Also, with affirmative actionpolicies in place and strata that were hitherto excludedfrom higher education now finding a place in classrooms,studies are needed on the challenges of diversity inclassrooms, the pedagogical methodology required foreffective teaching, and the actual current outcomes ofaccess. Unless there are successful outcomes, mereaccess or enrolment is not enough as it does not benefitanyone.

Since the dropout at the school is, over 65 per cent,only a very small percentage of studentshave access to higher education. Thedropout level and the failure rate evenat the tertiary stage for those who domanage to enter college, indicate thatwithout good school education therecannot be any meaningful access tohigher education. Pratham, a leadingNGO in education, has pointed out in thetenth annual status of Education Report(ASER 2014), released on 13 January,2015 that for six years in a row, schoolenrolment in India was 96 per cent orabove for the age group of 6-14 yearsand hence India was close to universalenrolment in this age group. The out-of-school children have remained in thisage cohort at 3.3 per cent for the lastthree years. However, the learningoutcomes are a grave cause of concern.About 25 per cent of class 8 students

could not read a class 2 text. Mathematics remains anarea of concern. Such outcomes mean that majority ofthe workforce in India lacks education. Further, theyhave to contend with an out-dated system that involvesrote learning rather than learning skills, understandinginformation and solving practical problems. This alsoimpacts tertiary education.

A large number of students are left out of the system.A study by Dr. Sudhanshu Bhushan in 2004 divides theleft-out students into three categories: left out at theschool level, pre-college level, and college level. In allthese areas combined, there are about 30 millionstudents with little or no alternatives. They need to havea well-developed tier of vocational education that linkswith school education on the one hand and higher

Linking higher education todevelopment has led to its

being linked toemployment. Hence theunprecedented demandfor employability after

education andaccountability of the

education system in thisarea. No longer does theidea of knowledge for thesake of knowledge hold

good. higher education isexpected to lead to betteremployment and is seen

as an investment that mustyield returns.


education on the other. Vocational education is availablein the form of Polytechnics, Industrial Training Institutesand, more recently, Community Colleges. However, allof them suffer from lack of resources and poorimplementation.

The NSSO 61st Round states that while 70 per centof the population completed primary education in the18-22 age group, only 6 per cent completed a diplomacourse; and 97 per cent of the workforce in the country,in the 15-60 age group has no technical education. Theinability of the system to provide continuation ofeducation leads to fewer students going to the nextlevels of education, resulting in an inability to meet theneeds of the job market, lower employability and anaccumulation of people with low skills at the bottom ofthe job pyramid. Similar findings are seen in the Reporton Condition of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods inthe Unorganised Sector (2007). The average numberof years of schooling of workers in the rural, unorganisednon-agricultural sector was found to be4.6 as compared to nine years in theorganised sector, and for theunorganised agricultural sector it was2.8. Mean years of schooling amongcasual workers in the unorganised non-agricultural sector was 3.5, thus denyingworkers access to jobs in the organisedsector and confining them to casual labor

Not only is the education system notperforming, even access to it is veryunevenly distributed. A more equitable distribution isneeded both for regions and communities. Equity issought in higher education in India through admissionsdone according to a rigid quota system of SCs, STsand OBCs. Thorat provided data on some other relevantfactors besides caste and also pointed to the inter-linkages between caste, poverty, location, occupation,gender and religion. While there may be some changesin figures since 2003-2004 when Thorat did his studythe essential problem remains the same. Disparitiesare evident between rural and urban areas. The gapbeing 7.76 per cent and 27.20 per cent, respectively.Hence, the GER in urban areas was four times higherthan rural areas. There are wide inter-State variations.The GER at the aggregate level was 13 per cent. Nowit is around 20-23% depending on varied statistics.However, the numbers hide the disparities. The GERvaries from state to state ranging from about 39% to3% .

Among religious groups the GER is the highest forJains followed by Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindusand Muslims. A recent newspaper report shows thatab out 44% of Muslims are illiterate. Since Muslims arethe largest religious minority of India and constitute thesecond-largest religious community after the Hindus,

the government had set up the Sachar Committee inMarch 2005 to get authentic information about theirsocial and economic status so that specific interventions,policies and programmes could be formulated. This isimportant because Muslims form about 14% in apopulation of 1.25 billion making them the largestminority and a huge number in absolute terms.

According to the Sachar Committee, only about 7per cent of the Indian population over 20 years of agewere graduates or diploma holders, but among theMuslims, the percentage was just 3.6, while only 0.4per cent had technical education. The figures weresomewhat similar to those for SC/ST. Technicaleducation is particularly important for Muslims as asubstantial numbers are engaged in artisanal activitiesin which technical training would improve their economicstatus. The gap in the Graduate Attainment Rate (GAR)between Muslims and 'all others' has widened from the1970s onwards, and while the Muslims initially had a

higher GAR than the SCs/STs, the gaphas been closing, as the GAR for theSCs/STs have been increasing. Thereis a very real possibility, therefore of theSCs/STs overtaking the Muslims. This isalready apparent in some states.

The Sachar Committee pointed out thatone cause of this could be that therewere very few government primaryschools in Muslim areas, and even fewerhigher-level educational institutions.

From those that existed, most were of a very low quality,with high teacher-pupil ratios. This was becauseMuslims found it difficult to get jobs as teachers inschools. Those who did get the jobs were allegedly badlytreated. The main cause for the educationalbackwardness was possibly poverty. The children wererequired to earn for the family from a very early age,and even those who did go to school, could not copewithout tuitions or parental support, resulting in drop-outs after a few years of schooling. Because of theirperception of being discriminated against in getting jobs,Muslim families did not perceive any major gains fromeducation. Difficulty in getting government jobs, evenwith certificates and degrees were brought uprepeatedly, says the Report. The situation in the privatesector was worse.

The low participation in higher education probablyled to fewer job opportunities. This was borne out bythe data presented in the Sachar Committee Reportwhich stated that the Muslim participation in salariedjobs was poor - just about 13 per cent and these weremainly in casual labour. Desai and Kulkarni argued thatgreater opportunities for employment due toreservations for SC/STs resulted in higher economicstatus, was motivating and enabled them to invest in

Not only is the educationsystem not performing,even access to it is veryunevenly distributed. A

more equitable distributionis needed both for regions

and communities.


their children's education. Since Muslims facedimpediments in getting employment, they did not havethe motivation to meet the challenge of improving theireducational levels. The reason for the low participationof Muslims in both higher education and in jobs can,however, be traced to weak school education.

Apart from religion, there are other factors that leadto inequity. For instance, gender impacts the access tohigher education and this is more pronounced in ruralareas where female access to higher education is low.The gender disparity is aggravated by caste and religion.Poverty also creates disparities. In 1999-2000, the GERfor the poor was 2.4 per cent as against 12.91 per centfor non-poor, when the average being 10.10 per cent.Similar disparities were seen for the poor in rural andurban areas.. Poverty is also tied into caste and location,i.e. rural and urban areas. Among the poor, the GER isthe lowest for ST and SC followed by OBC and others.In rural areas, the GER is the lowest for ST - 1.11%,1.35 per cent for SC, 1.13 per cent for OBC, and 1.66per cent for others. A similar pattern follows for the poorin urban areas. Occupation is another factor, and canbe clearly seen across occupation groups in rural andurban areas. In rural areas, the GER was 5 per cent,being generally higher for self-employed householdsengaged in farm and non-farm economic activitiescompared to 1.41 per cent for those who worked asfarm wage labour and 3 per cent in non-farm wagelabour activities. Similarly in urban areas, the GER wasmuch higher for those engaged in business, regularsalaried and other activities compared to casual labour.Occupation can be correlated to caste. The GER isgenerally low for wage labour and particularly low forSC/ST compared to other groups. In short the GER isvery low for both rural and urban poor and is aggravatedby caste occupation.

All the above data shows that in spite of all the effortsthat have been made, the access of SCs and STs tohigher education is low. Caste factors are undoubtedlyimportant but equally important are other factors likeoccupation, gender, poverty and the disparity in the ruraland urban areas of development. Caste also aggravatesthe deprivation caused by other factors.

Linking of higher education with development hasled to its being linked to employment. Hence theunprecedented demand that education must lead to jobsand that the system must be accountable. No longerdoes the idea of knowledge for the sake of knowledgehold good. Higher education is expected to lead to betteremployment and is seen as an investment that mustyield returns.

The strains on the existing system of public sectorhigher education are evident. The system is notconducive to providing skills necessary for employmentand a majority of Indian graduates are actually

unemployable. The vocational sector of education iswoefully lacking and the academic sector is notdelivering the way it should. The problems haveassumed serious proportions and there is an extremeurgency to emphasize skill or career orientation intotertiary education, with linkages with the school on theone hand and the academic stream on the otherbetween which there must be points of convergence.Both these have not happened in India.

The Indian Labour Report 2007, by TeamLeaseServices states that while poverty is declining in India,inequality is rising and 57 per cent of Indian youth sufferfrom some form of skill deprivation. Corporate Indiacannot find skilled employees and much of the labourforce is the 'working poor'. Despite the large humanresource available in the country, employability remainsa key challenge. Pressures on employment arise fromseveral factors including shift in the demographics ofthe population, the inability of an ailing agricultural sectorto support labour and an educational system that is notin sync with the requirements of business and industry.The inadequate interaction between the academics onthe one hand and business and industry on the otherresults in a lack of focus on the skill development ofindividuals. The decision of most individuals to continuewith education depends on their receiving adequatereturns for the efforts made, and the current system doesnot enable them to do so, resulting in dropouts, under-trained and under-skilled labour. Globally, twoapproaches are followed to achieve better employability- educational reforms followed by a focus on lifelonglearning opportunities.

Although the number of colleges and universitieshas mushroomed in the country, they lack the ability toimpart career-oriented knowledge and training; curriculaare outdated; there is little interaction between industryand educational institutes, and only about 10 per centof the colleges show good academic achievement. Thepoor quality of colleges means that students passingout of them would earn low incomes or would be unableto find jobs relevant to the courses pursued by them.This is also one of the causes for the high levels ofdropouts in higher education. When future prospectsare not attractive, the better option appears to be todropout, particularly for the deprived sections of society.

The Half Yearly edition of TeamLease EmploymentOutlook Report for October, 2014- March, 2015, alsoshows that employers need newer and moresophisticated skills while aspirations of candidates forcutting-edge careers was also increasing. The gap thatseparates the two consists of institutional inadequaciesthat empower candidates with technological and market-focused capabilities. Employers are also placing moreemphasis on soft skills and team and collaborative skills,together with technological tools that would lead an


employee to fit into the organisationThere has been resistance among students to

vocational education in India because of the perceptionthat it is meant for those who are not good at academics.But with the opening up of the economy, the demandfor specialised skills has gone up manifold. To meet thisdemand, the focus on vocational education has to bedirected at the school level. It may be argued thatvocational education was attempted earlier and theendeavour failed. It is necessary to analyse why thishappened. One on-going reason is that if a student optsfor a vocational subject at the school level, he or shehas no opportunity to pursue this or an allied subject atthe tertiary level. In colleges and universities, no creditis given for the vocational subject studied at the schoollevel and so it actually becomes a disadvantage to doso. Also, at the time that vocationalisation was attemptedin India, the economy did not have the capacity to absorbskilled human resources at different levels that it hasnow and the demand can only grow.Another drawback is that a person in thevocational stream has little or noopportunity to rejoin the academicstream at any point in his/her life withoutstarting totally afresh. In other words, nocredit is given for either the vocationalknowledge or the work experienceacquired.

While universities may prepareengineers, scientists, industrialists andsocial leaders of a country, a second-tier educationallevel is essential to produce the middle-leveltechnologists who can manage and maintain theindustrial infrastructure. Without such an educated andtechnical workforce, there can be no progress. Stepswere taken during the early 1980s to introduceApplication-oriented Courses (AOCs) within theframework of the graduate courses and in the 1990s,several self-financing institutions sprang up with theapproval of universities and State government to runjob-oriented programmes in fields such as electronic,computer science, accountancy, food science, hospitaland hotel management and others, which have beenpopular with students. The University GrantsCommission also introduced vocational courses as partof the three-year bachelor's degree courses. Thecurriculum was restructured to integrate the vocationalangle. Add-on courses oriented towards skilldevelopment were also allowed outside the timetable.

This appears to be confused thinking as academiccolleges are not oriented towards vocational educationand do not have the wherewithal to do so. Heads ofacademic educational institutions have difficulty inidentifying industries for practical application work andfunding agencies to finance the training. There is still a

considerable gap in what the industry wants andcolleges are able to provide. The country needs differentlevels at the tertiary education system so that a bouquetof options is available. This will bridge the gap betweenwhat the students are taught and the demands of theworkforce. It will also provide opportunities for trainingto the large unskilled workforce available in India.According to an ILO report, 95 per cent of the Indianworkforce has no marketable skills. This vast need forproductive skills cannot be achieved only through theformal sector especially if it is as rigid as it tends to bein India. A parallel informal, flexible system is alsorequired to identify and develop local talent for localneeds.

Vocational and technical training as a means ofempowerment is not a new idea. It has beenrecommended and tried much earlier but with limitedsuccess. The major vocational institutions impartingtraining for middle-level technical personnel were

polytechnics, industrial training institutes,junior technical schools, crafts andhandicrafts schools, and other industrialand technical schools.

The Secondary EducationCommission, in 1953, hadrecommended the setting up of technicalschools, as separate institutes or as partof existing institutes, in industrial areas,which would work in collaboration withindustries. When the Commission

reviewed the situation in 1964-66, it found a shortfall ofmiddle-level technical personnel and recommended anincrease of part-time and full-time vocational andprofessional courses at the lower secondary level andafter Class 12. It also reported that semi-skilled andskilled workers were primarily trained in the ITIs, whiletechnicians were trained in polytechnic. A doubling ofITIs was recommended. Most importantly, it wasrecommended that the courses should allow for studentsto move to the academic stream. This, however, hasnever happened and there are no enabling structuresor systems to date.

Polytechnics were set up to build up the technicaleducation system and there are about three hundredinstitutes, which had an annual intake of around 30,000students. About 70 per cent of the polytechnics wererun by State governments and the rest by privateagencies or autonomous bodies. The institutes havethree-year and two-year full-time courses and sandwichcourses. However, because the machinery forsystematic evaluation of their work and progress wasinadequate, there was little feedback on performance.

A National Expert Committee, Chaired by S.S.Kalbag, was set up in 1987 to appraise the status ofcommunity polytechnics in the country. It stated that for

Vocational and technicaltraining as a means of

empowerment is not a newidea. It has been

recommended and triedmuch earlier but with

limited success.


the balanced development of the country, humanresource for all sectors, both the organised and theunorganised, had to be prepared by the technicaleducation system. The All India Council for TechnicalEducation recommended in as early as 1978 that a fewselect polytechnics that had shown initiative in promotinginteraction with the rural community at large and hadthe necessary capacity to undertake rural developmentwork, could be used as focal points to promote transferof technology to the rural sector and make contributionsto rural development. These polytechnics weredesignated as Community Polytechnics.

Community Polytechnics were to make asocioeconomic technical survey of adjoining villages todetermine the needs of the people. They were then todevelop human resource and training through a widevariety of trade courses, non-formal trainingprogrammes, and entrepreneurial developmentprogrammes. Further, they were to facilitate technologytransfer to rural areas and providetechnical support service to ensure thesustenance of rural technologies. Theywere to also assist local entrepreneursin various aspects of enterprise buildingby disseminating information, creatingawareness about various developmentalschemes and by applying science andtechnology to find solutions for specificproblems. These efforts however, metwith limited success because of theinadequate implementation.

Skills for ProgressLacking effective skill developmentinstitutions, several private initiativeswere being taken to meet the ever-expanding jobrequirements of the country. For example, Skills forProgress (SKIP), an all India association of privatetechnical and vocational training institutions thatcollaborates with the Community Colleges forInternational Development (CCID), USA. CCID andSKIP have been working on programmes focussing oncurriculum and workforce development,communications and electronic education resources.The programmes aim at capacity building of institutionsto stay relevant to the changing needs of vocational andtechnical training so as to enhance employability of thestudents.

Skills Development Initiative of the Confederationof Indian Industry (CII)The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) took the SkillsDevelopment Initiative in 2004, to provide socialinclusiveness and bring the marginalised sections ofsociety into the mainstream economy through

empowerment by skill development. The main featuresof the initiative were its localised and need-basedapproach, practical hands-on experience, training andtesting, accessibility, quality, cost-effectiveness andcentralised certification.

The Eleventh Five-Year Plan had favoured acomprehensive National Skill Development Mission. Asa result, a "Coordinated Action on Skill Development"with a three-tier institutional structure was establishedin 2008. It consisted of a PM's National Council; NationalSkill Development Coordination Board (NSDCB), anda National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). ThePrime Minister's National Council of Skill Developmentwas to lay out the policy, the direction in the form of"Core Principles", and a vision to create 500 millionskilled people by 2022 through skill systems having ahigh degree of inclusivity. Individual States also cameup with plans and policies to face the challenge of skilldevelopment. The National Skill Development

Coordination Board (NSDCB) under theaegis of the Planning Commission wasto coordinate all these activities. TheNSDC geared itself for preparingcomprehensive action plans andactivities that would promote PublicPrivate Partnerships (PPP) models offinancing skill development. Theincreasing emphasis on skilldevelopment and the government'sseriousness on the subject were evidentfrom the fact that in May 2014, a newMinistry was created for SkillDevelopment and Entrepreneurship.The immediate mandate of the newMinistry was to ensure that India meets

the target of skilling and up-skilling 500 million peoplein India by 2022. This is the first time that a separateministry for skill development has been created.

Higher Education and Community CollegesThe Eleventh Five-Year Plan's Working Group on HigherEducation also recommended the setting up ofcommunity colleges. The 12th Five Year Plan alsoaccepted Community College, the model being the US.It was found that community colleges had the uniquerecord of empowering the socially, economically andeducationally backward sections of society during thepast ten years wherever they have been started.

American community colleges are designed ascomprehensive institutions combining liberal arts,vocational, technical and adult education. They havetwo-year duration courses and students accumulatecredits that are transferable to colleges of highereducation. A majority of students complete the first twoyears of junior college at such institutions. They have

American communitycolleges are designed as

comprehensive institutionscombining liberal arts,

vocational, technical andadult education. They

have two-year durationcourses and students

accumulate credits thatare transferable tocolleges of higher

education.


an open-door policy that enables almost anyone seekinghigher education or the enhancement of vocational andtechnical skills to enrol. Today, in the Indian system,barring open universities and schools, and those offeringcorrespondence courses, this is difficult, if notimpossible.

There are three types of courses that such collegescan offer which could suit Indian requirements:• First, vocational and technical courses.• Second, a two-year programme that prepares

students for transfer to a three-year bachelor'sdegree in science, arts or commerce at a traditionalcollege.

• Third, a remedial programme that brings studentsup to the required levels in reading, writing,mathematics and communication so that they canpursue further education. This is eminently suitedto the Indian environment, with a large number offirst-generation learners, who do not have homesupport for their studies and lag behind, frequentlyresulting in dropouts; those who have alreadydropped out of the education system, and couldhave even reverted to illiteracy; and adults who maynot have had an opportunity to study.Since these institutions would all have a general

education component, students who originally joined avocational or remedial course, have the opportunity toprepare for higher college courses, if they come up tothe required standards. Courses could be designed togive diplomas, certificates, and, as in the case of theUS, associate degrees, that could equal a certainnumber of credits, enabling entrance to traditionaluniversities. These could be designed for skillupgradation in collaboration with industrial houses, orfor the development of new skills, particularly in the'sunrise industries'. Therefore, the philosophy of acommunity college is an institution that provides transferto higher education and prepares a student for anoccupation. Being locally based and supported by thecommunity, it is expected to link the aspirations of thecommunity through an education that providesemployment or higher education. It accommodates over-achievers and under-achievers.

In conclusion, in India the stains in the system aremore than evident with only a few research universitiesat the tip while the bottom does not adequately fulfill therequirements of demand and so has little time to devoteto relevance and quality. Skill formation is inadequateand too dysfunctional to meet the requirements of agrowing and diversifying economy. While IITs and IIMsmay be internationally competitive, they are only nicheinstitutions which cater to a very small percentage ofthe student population. One of the fundamental causesof the malaise is, perhaps, what Prof. Altbach pointsout when he says that the mass of institutions of higher

education have no clarity of vision about their purposeand aim. The universities are neither provided resourcesnor do they have the mandate to build a distinctive andinnovative profile, which is essential for successfulacademic systems. So, they continue as anundifferentiated mass repetitively producing more of thesame. If there was clarity on what different institutionsare attempting to deliver, then their funding sources andpatterns could also be diversified.

The accountability in the system is so diffuse anddistributed that no one can be held responsible fordelivery and outcome. This leads to mediocrity. It isonly natural because most academic arrangements inIndia have been derived from British colonialism andwere not meant to be effective or to encourage quality.The most affected is undergraduate education as theaffiliating system puts the undergraduate colleges underthe universities with their highly bureaucratized andcontrolled environment. It impedes innovation as theyhave to follow the common centralized policies withoutany autonomy. The universities, in turn, receive theirfunding from the government. So while they have formalautonomy, they too are basically under the control ofCentral or State governments. Also, they have beenpoliticized which makes them ideologically blinkered andcontentious. All this has made issues of qualityassurance very ambiguous.

Right now higher education seems to be stuck in aquagmire. It is clear that India is affected by global trendsbut is unable to deal with them. It has to meet thechallenges, it has to systematically create aninternationally competitive academic system. For this,it will have to rise above ideological biases and politicsto reform its outmoded structures of academicgovernance and delivery systems and build a nationalconsensus by a continuous Center-State dialogue onhigher education both in the public and the privatesectors. A tall order perhaps but without it, the Indianhigher education system cannot deliver--neithernationally nor globally.

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New Philosophical Approach about Funding ofEducation : From Public and Merit Good to PrivateGood - The Forces of LiberalizationEarly 1990s was a period of change globally. Forces ofliberalization were taking ground. New internationaleconomic order was under process of unfolding. Highereducation was viewed as more of private good againstthe concept of public and merit good. Attempts weremade to term investment in higher education as subsidyto students. Planning Commission paper by Bimal Jalanon subsidy termed public investment in highereducation as subsidy to students along with subsidyby state exchequer on other services. Climate wascreated that students in higher professional educationshould pay for themselves. State should reduceinvestment in higher education. This wasdone in the ninth five year plan period.Thus acceptance of full cost payingstudents or self financing institutionsstarted taking ground. By mid 1990s withsigning of World Trade Organizationcovering both goods, merchandise andservices under GATT and GATS in 1995,(16) the concept of liberalization had itsofficial seal internationally, if notnationally. Forces of liberalization werealso gaining ground within India afterIndia faced problems for repayment ofloan and problem foreign exchangereserve. Under the Prime Minister ShriNarsimha Roa and Finance Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh forces of liberalizationgained ground and steps were initiatedto allow Foreign Direct Investment in Banking,Insurance and services sector and several otherreforms as suggested under conditions of IMF funding.

In the area of higher education as state could notexpand engineering and professional education andthere was pent up demand for professional education,students who could afford to pay for engineering and

FACTORS AND FORCES THAT INFLUENCED THE CHANGES ANDDEVELOPMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN INDIA

DR. G.D. SHARMA*

This part deals with diversification and forces of liberalization influencing the development of Higher Education.

* Dr. G. D. Sharma, formerly Secretary, University GrantsCommission (UGC) Govt. of India, Director, Consortium ofEducational Communication (CEC), Director, Indian Instituteof Education, Pune and Senior Fellow and Head, HigherEducation Unit, NIEPA, New Delhi and Consultant: UNESCO,UNDP, DFID and Ed.Cil., India.

other professional education lined up for admissions inprivate self financing professional education colleges.The government of India also came with a Bill for settingup private self financing universities. This bill wasrefereed to select committee and it never saw the day.Meanwhile state governments became active. Firststate government which passed private university billwas Chhathishgarh. This bill enabled many people toask for university status. In a short span of one year itgave permission to nearly 70 proposals to set upuniversities. Many private universities without havingadequate infrastructure and faculty started their studycenters and were seriously compromising the qualityof higher education. Some eminent person and formerchairman of UGC Professor Yash Pal filed Public

Interest Litigation and sought theSupreme Court intervention in thismatter. Finally the Supreme Court struckdown the Act and forced all of theseuniversities to fold. There was some setback to those educationalentrepreneurs, but it did not deter themmuch. Many state governments cameout with revised Private University billsby taking care of limitations pointed outby the Supreme Court in theChhattishgarh Private University Act.

Self Financing Diploma AwardingManagement Education Institutions -Stand AloneWhen these efforts were going on, evenstate run institutions both universities

and colleges were allowed to diversify through selffinancing courses within public institutions as the policyof full cost recovery in practice was accepted by policyplanners. Many private self financing colleges were alsoallowed by affiliating universities. Some diversificationthrough self financing engineering, medical education,and management education took place through selffinancing colleges and courses. In the managementeducation this change also took as standalone diplomagranting management education. It may be pertinentto mention that management education was diplomagranting institutions. IIMs were granting diploma.Though this diploma is viewed equivalent to postgraduate degree, yet it was diploma and therefore was

Planning Commissionpaper by Bimal Jalan onsubsidy termed publicinvestment in higher

education as subsidy tostudents along with

subsidy by stateexchequer on other

services. Climate wascreated that students in

higher professionaleducation should pay forthemselves. State should

reduce investment inhigher education.


out of purview of the University Grants Commission.Whereas, engineering education was degreeprogramme, these institutions have to be necessarilyaffiliated to a university. The AICTE was to approve andregulate PG Diploma stand alone institutions. Thisprovision of standalone institutions free from universityregulation and state government regulation pushed atremendous growth of management education in earlyand late 1990s. For a long time, management educationwas confined to five IIMs and selected universitymanagement programmes. With setting up of AICTE,Management Education saw a virtual liberation throughstandalone arrangement approved by AICTE. Each ofthem got academic and social recognition though thetag of approved by AICTE. The expansion inmanagement education during two decades i.e. 1990sand 2000 has been very high. Early 2010 saw someset back owing to several complaintsabout deterioration in managementeducation and some issue of corruptionin the AICTE. Nevertheless,management education expanded andprovided opportunity to a large numberof aspiring students. As on 2012 therewere stand alone 380 PGDM institutionsin India. With in management educationsome diversification took place byintroduction of specializations andnewer area of management like HospitalManagement, Forest Management,Agriculture and Plantation Managementand so on.

Impact of Liberalization on Growthand DiversificationThe policy of liberalization which started in 1991 andculminated in 1995 with signing of WTO agreement byIndia had its full impact during one and half decades(2000-2014) of this century leading to severaldevelopments in growth and diversification of highereducation. Since approach towards funding of highereducation by state exchequer changed in favour of selffinancing institutions of higher education, it gavelegitimacy to state government to enact bills pertainingto setting up of private self financing institutions of highereducation. As the liberalization was pushed throughWTO, globalization and liberalization became a buzzword for the development in several nation statesincluding India. Trade in education services was oneof the items in GATS services trade negotiations.

Foreign Education Arrangement and Migration ofStudents for Foreign EducationTo begin with, many institutions of higher education fromabroad started marketing education in India. First they

did so by enrolling students to their universities andsecond by having collaborative arrangements in Indiafor providing foreign university degree programme inIndia. Several debate/discussions took place pertainingto allowing foreign universities in India or not? UGCact did not provide any scope for regulating sucharrangements. Attempt to change the act andincorporate this aspect along with other aspects didnot materialize. The law of the land was silent on thismatter. Discussion on trade in education servicesthough took place in Ministry of HRD and in CABE, butmatter remained inconclusive. Meanwhile ForeignDirect Investment, without any cap was allowed ineducation through automatic route. Taking advantageof absence of law many institutions set up collaborativearrangements hoping this would be regularized in duecourse of time. UPA government even attempted to put

up a bill pertaining to allowing ForeignUniversities in India. This bill is still inthe parliament. The AICTE and UGChave brought out some guidelineswithout having any force of law.Meanwhile, several collaborativearrangements have taken place. Theirnumbers are touching a century. Thuswithin the trade jargon consumptionabroad has been in practice for long andhas increased since 2000 and this hasbeen facilitated by education loanfinancing by nationalized and otherleading banks under the policy of loanfinancing by banks to students forstudying abroad and in India. As far asthe commercial presence is concerned

the matter is uncertain although many arrangementsare operating in India. Logic advanced is that studentsinstead of going abroad for studies, can get foreignuniversity degree education with the same quality andstandard at almost half of the cost. Since under theliberalization many global corporations have startedtheir business in India and they also recruit Indianstudents to man their operations all over the world.There is strong perception that foreign educationdegrees have greater reward. This perception issubstantiated by packages offered to Indian studentsby foreign business corporations. These corporationsalso prefer students who have been groomed in theireducation, culture and ethos. Having said so, it may bepointed out that the diversification through thesearrangements form very small portion of studentsenrolled in larger system of higher education in India.About 100 thousand students are going abroad forstudies. Another 20 thousand or so might be studyingin foreign education arrangement in India. Thesearrangements have provision of part education in India

There is strong perceptionthat foreign educationdegrees have greater

reward. This perception issubstantiated by packagesoffered to Indian students

by foreign businesscorporations. These

corporations also preferstudents who have been

groomed in theireducation, culture and

ethos.


and part abroad. Others have full degree programmein India with a provision for short term exposureabroad.

Self Financing Deemed to be UniversitiesThe policy change in funding of higher education alsohad an impact on change in character of deemed to beuniversities and growth of deemed to be universities inIndia. Most of the diversification in higher educationhas taken place through focused and specializedinstitutions getting degree awarding status throughsection 3 of UGC Act.1956 as amended from time totime. A wide range of studies programme pertaining tospecialized and focused areas were offered by theseinstitutions in the past. This character still continues,but self financing concept has given rise to generaleducation institutes to offer all the programmes ofstudies along with focused programme of educationand research. Institutions given deemed to universitystatus grew fast during the period 2008-14. During2000-08 many focused institutions sponsored by thegovernment and private philanthropists were also givendeemed to be university status. Indian Institute ofForeign Trade, sponsored by Ministry of Commerce wasgiven deemed to be university status. Indian InstituteInformation Technology sponsored by MHRD was giventhis status. Provision was made to give deemed to beuniversity status to de-novo institutions offering focusededucation and research programme in new andemerging areas. During 2008-14 this distinction wasblurred and many self financing institutions were givendeemed to be university status. The fast growth broughtsome public reaction. As a result two Committees wereset to review all the deemed to universities in India.One Committee was set up by UGC and other byMinistry of MHRD. The methodology and findings ofthese two Committees differed. This situations lead toseveral court cases. Finally the Supreme Courthas ordered that the UGC is the appropriate authorityto review and give its recommendations. Thisdevelopment has made many deemed to be universitiesto switch to state level private universities. Neweducational entrepreneurs' preference now, seemsto be for state level self financing private universities.

Self Financing State Level Private UniversitiesAs stated above after fiasco of the Chattisgarh PrivateUniversity Act, most of the state government becamewise to remove the limitations and lacuna in PrivateUniversity Acts. Like self financing deemed to beuniversity growth during 2008-14 there was spurt ofenactment of Private University Acts by as many as 20state governments. During the period of 2010-14 asmany as 190 private self financing /or to say full cost

recovery universities with provision to grant degree atUG and PG programmes and approved by UGC hasbeen set up and are operating. Many proposals ofprivate self financing institutions are in the pipe lineswith many state governments. Educationalentrepreneurs' are seeing great opportunity to enterthis newly liberated system of higher education. Dataavailable for 129 self financing private universities bystates, specializations and the year of establishmentshow that the highest numbers of private universitiesare in Rajasthan(28) followed by UP (18), Gujarat (14)Himachal Pradesh (11). Concentration in terms ofspecialization seems to for General (52%), Technology(17%) and Management and Technology (11%). Thesethree areas accounted for 80 percent of total privateuniversities. The remaining 20 percent were in widerspecialization ranging from Medical, law, agriculture,yoga for disabled people, women and distanceeducation. The beginning of high rate of establishmentof Private Universities started from the period 2001-2005. During this period 21 private universities wereset up. The fastest rate of increase was observed forthe period 2006-2010. During this period 72 privateuniversities were set up. During the period 2011-20014nearly 36 universities were set up. A few more mighthave been added during this year as HaryanaGovernment declared around 7 new private universitiesduring 2014. To address the concern for quality inprivate self financing universities, the UGC has issuedguidelines for assuring quality of these institutions.

Self Financing/Full Cost Recovery CollegesAs stated earlier after acceptance of policy ofliberalization several engineering and medical collegescame up. During early period of liberalization say 1990-95 these Colleges charged full cost from somestudents whereas other were charged normal fees.Followed by this after 1995-96 concept of self financing/full cost recovery colleges were accepted for affiliationby the universities. During 2005-11 the number of suchself financing colleges termed as un-aided collegesjumped to 14,042 in 2012-13 from nil self financingcollege prior to 1991. All private un- aided colleges maynot be self financing/ full cost recovery colleges. Thereare other several thousand colleges that are supportedby the trusts/society and they charge nominal fee asprescribed by the regulatory authorities. The selffinancing -full cost recovery colleges came only afteryear 2000 and more particularly during 2005-6 to 2014.

12th Five Year Plan - Active Response by theGovernment of IndiaNot only private universities came into being in largenumber, but Government of India also recognized the


importance of enhancing the gross participation rate,ensuring quality and equity in higher education. Twospecific developments took place during 12th Five yearPlan. One was to establish quality Indian Institutes ofTechnology and Indian Institutes of Management andCentral Universities in many states of India to meet theequity and quality demands of respective stategovernments. The other was to launch RashtriyaUchhattar Shiksha Abhiyan to enhance GrossEnrollment Ratio (GER) and quality of higher educationin India. UGC also came out with the support forestablishment of colleges in un-served and backwarddistricts. 12th Plan allocations of funds on highereducation increased substantially- approximately ninetimes from the previous Plan. This enhancement mainlywas for creating centrally sponsored Indian Institute ofTechnologies, Indian Institute of Management, CentralUniversities and other centrally sponsored institutions.This push by central government led to, as statedabove, 22 Indian Institutes of Technologies and 14Indian Institutes Managements and 16 CentralUniversities in various states. Six institutes of AIMS.Four Centers of Aligarh University located in Kerala,Bihar, and West Bengal and fourth one has yet to come.These three centers AMU are functional now. FiveInstitutes of Science Education and Research were setup by Government of India. Yet another developmentwas that of setting up of South Asian Counties Universityin Delhi namely South Asian University, 2010.

Having discussed factors, forces and sort of historyof growth and diversification, let us sum up the level ofdiversification in quantitative form by types ofdiversification.

Diversification of University Level InstitutionsThe above developments led to as on 2012-13 higherproportion of State Universities (44%) followed by StatePrivate Universities accounted for 22 % and deemedto be universities (18%). The share of CentralUniversities and institute of National Importance was10% of the total university level institutions (seeTable 2).

Table 2: Type-Wise Distribution of DegreeAwarding Universities/University Level Institutions in

India, 2012-13

Name Number Percentage

Institutes of National Importance& Other University Level Institutions 67 -10%Central Universities 44 -6%Deemed to be Universities 129 -18%Private Universities 154 -22%State Universities 306 -44%

Source: UGC - Higher Education in India at a Glance.

Regional Distribution/Diversification of UniversityLevel InstitutionsAs far as regional/state wise diversification of universitylevel institutions is concerned Six states out of 38 states/UTs, the states of Tamil Nadu (9,5%), Uttar Pradesh(9.4%), Rajasthan (8.15), Andhra Pradesh (7.4%) andMaharashtra (7.1%) accounted for half of the totaluniversity level institutions. Tamil Nadu also had thehighest number of deemed to be Universities (29).Followed by Maharashtra (21), Karnataka (15) , NCT(11) and UP (10). These states/NCT accounted for twothird of deemed to be Universities in India. Tamil Nadualso had the highest numbers state Universities.Rajasthan and UP had the highest number of PrivateState Universities. NCT had five central Universities.UP had 4 central Universities, Andhra Pradesh had-3and Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Assam, J&K and Maharashtrahad two each central Universities. The rest of the stateshad one each

Subject/Specialization-wise Diversification - AllIndia Level InstitutionsDeemed to be Universities: As far as the diversificationin terms of the area of specialization is concerned, asstated above, the diversification through focused areasof education and research( till the start of self financing/full cost recovery institutions) took place through theprovision of deemed to be university status amonguniversity level institutions. This feature of deemed tobe university after establishment self financing - full costrecovery institutions got somewhat modified. As on2012, 41 deemed to be universities were offeringGeneral Education, 13 Medical Education including 1for Veterinary education. 13 deemed to be universitieswere in S&T education. Information Technologyeducation deemed to be universities accounted for (5).One or two deemed to be universities are establishedin the areas of: Yoga (2), Rural (2), Sanskrit (2), SocialWork (2), Education (2), Mathematics (1), Economics(1), Mines (1), Defense (1), Law (1), Tibetan Studies(1).

Central Universities/Institutions: Under this there aretwo categories namely national institutions like IITs,IIMs, and Indian Institute of Science Education andResearch (IISER) and Central Universities. IISERs wereset up in five places in India by Government of India atPune, Kolkata, Mohali, Bhopal and Thiruananthapuramto carry out research in frontier areas of science andprovide quality science education during 12th Plan inthe year 2006 -2007. IITs IIMs and IISERs are focusedon technology and management education where asCentral Universities are general in nature. Yet withinthis there has been some diversification throughestablishment of focused area universities, like NationalLaw Universities, and one each university in English,


Urdu, and Hindi languages, Tribal, Maritime, Agricultureeducation and Open University. One university focusedon inter-disciplinary subjects namely JawaharlalUniversity, Delhi and another meant for students fromSouth Asian Countries - South Asian University.

State Level Universities: General pattern is that mostof the states have General, Agriculture, S&T, Law,Medical and Veterinary universities. A good number ofstates have: Sanskrit, Open and Women Universities.A few states also have focused area universities namely,for Ayurveda, Languages, Yoga, Physical education,disabled education, environment, forensic education.Architecture, Education and Cooperative Managementeducation programmes.

Data pertaining 282 state universities as on 2012,show that nearly half of the universities offer generaleducation programme (49.2%). Nearly one tenth (9.9%)offer S&T education programmes. Little more than onetenth (11.3%) offer Agriculture Education programmeincluding Horticulture and Fisheries. Institutions forHorticulture and Fisheries are 2-3. Law educationprogramme is offered by 5.3% of total universities. Openand Sanskrit Universities account for 4.6 and 3.5percents of total universities. The universities in otherfocused areas range between 1 to 3

State Private Universities: It was expected that privateuniversities would diversify their areas of specializationby focusing on market oriented programmes. Theanalysis of 129 private state level universities revealsthat majority are (55.8%) are general educationuniversities. Followed by this are universities offeringTechnology education (20.9%) and Managementeducation (10.8%). These universities account for90.5% of total private universities. The remaining hasbeen in many focused areas namely, Education,Energy, Trans-disciplinary Education, IT, Health -Homeopathy, Disabled Education, Yoga, DistanceEducation, Bio-Technology and Agriculture educationand Women universities.

State Level Colleges: Most of higher education iscolleges at the state level. Government Collegesaccount for nearly 27 percent of Colleges. The rest aremanaged by Trusts / Societies. Nearly 58 percent arePrivate Un-aided colleges and about 15 % percent aresupported by state government through grant in aidUGC also provides development grant to 6787 collegesrecognized under Section 2f and 12B of UGC Act.These colleges are mainly Arts, Science, CommerceColleges, followed by Engineering and otherprofessional education colleges namely, Law,Education, Architecture, Medical, Agriculture, Music,Fine Arts and culture. Ayurvedic, Unani and other

systems of medicine, These Colleges are affiliated tostate universities.

As far as regional or state level diversification isconcerned the highest number of colleges are in AndhraPradesh (3775).This is followed by Karnataka (3149),Maharashtra (2293) and Tamil Nadu (2243). These fourstates accounted for more than half of the total samplecolleges 21158 for the year 2012. The highest privateunaided colleges were in Andhra Pradesh (81%). Thisis followed by Tamil Nadu (76%), Rajasthan (70%),Punjab (67.9%) and Karnataka (64.9%).

Programme DiversificationThe institutional Diversification also broadly indicate theprogramme diversification in well carved out areas ofeducation and research namely, Agriculture,Engineering , Science and Technology, Medical ,Architecture, Pharmacy, Management, PhysicalEducation, Journalism, Rural Development, Languagesand literature in these languages and so on. Withinthese broad areas there are further diversification interms of specialization and super-specialization. Suchas: Civil, Mechanical, Electronics in engineering.Information Technology, Nuclear Science , ElectronicsCommunication, Chemical Engineering/ Technologyand so on in technology, Similarly in agriculture andother broad area of specialization and superspecialization are in practice. The programmediversification is also found in general universities atthe state and central level institutions. These have alsointroduced specialization and super specializations invarious programmes of studies. In Social Sciencesnamely Economics - specialization like monetary,agriculture, urban, regional, education, finance,mathematics, and econometrics have been introduced.In Psychology specialization introduced waspsychometrics. In management education retail, e-commerce/ e-tailing, marketing, accounts and Finance,Human Resources and data analytics have beenintroduced. Most of state and central universities offerArts, Science, Commerce, Management, Engineering,Information Technology, and many emerging areasprogrammes like environment science, bio-technology,life sciences and so on. With introduction of selffinancing courses many universities have introducededucation and research programmes in emerging andmarket need areas education programmes. Bio-technology, environment sciences, electronics andcommunication, fashion design, hotel management,tourism management have been added. Data regardingthe number of departments offering variousprogrammes in central and state universities are hardto find.

Jawaharlal University offers inter-disciplinaryoriented programmes like regional studies, educational


studies, International Policy studies, Life Sciences andso on. It is matter of concern that universities set afterJNU also did not replicate JNU model, although it wasmore close to addressing the national developmental,and social policy issues.

Most of the colleges are offering Arts, Science andCommerce education programmes. There are collegesnamely, Education, Engineering, Management,Architecture, Pharmacy, Physical Education, Medicinewhich offer these specialized programmes ofstudies.

Level-wise DiversificationMost of Central and State Universities offer Ph.D. /M.Phil, Post Graduate and diploma and certificateprogrammes. Some Central and State universities alsooffer Under Graduate Programmes. Most of thecolleges offer Under Graduate programme. Some alsooffer Post Graduate and Ph.D. level programmes. Somecolleges also offer certificate and diploma programme.Most of the universities have three year UG and 2 yearPG programme. Engineering and professionaleducation programmes have four and five year duration.Some have started integrated five year programmesoffering Bachelor and PG degrees.

Mode of DeliveryMost of the central and state universities are offeringface to face and regular education programmes. A goodnumbers of them are also offering distance educationprogrammes through correspondence courses. Somehave provision for part time students in managementand other demand area programmes. SomeUniversities also allow women students to appear asprivate students by studying at home or in coachinginstitutions. Some universities have also introducedinternet based programmes with distance educationprogramme.

Students' DiversificationModern System of higher education in India wasintroduced by colonial rulers with a view to provideeducation to Hindu and Mosselman gentlemen.Therefore, it was necessarily limited in number andgrowth was also very slow. Students who went for highereducation came from rich, professional and serviceproviders background. Good number of them also wentto UK for their further studies. Number of womenstudying in higher education was also very small. Thesewere daughters of rich and elite families. Howeverduring freedom movement and establishment ofeducational institutions by natives with least amount offees and provision of scholarships many middle andupper middle class started taking advantage of highereducation. It was only after independence that access

to higher education was made available to poor andrich alike. Low fee paying higher education institutionswere started. Government of India and stategovernment also set up universities which charged verynominal fee and provided scholarships to students. Thisenabled poor but bright students to gain access tohigher education. After adoption of constitution of India,provisions were made for protective discrimination tofacilitate participation of students from Scheduled Castsand Scheduled Tribes. Government of India alsolaunched the scheme of Post Matric Scholarship forthe SC and ST Students. Provision was also made forreservation seats for them in professional andvocational education institutions, where competitionwas tough. Subsequently this provision was alsoextended to Other Backward Classes and economicallyweaker section. All these measures led to diversificationin students' participation in higher education. Somestate made free education for women up to postgraduate degree education. UGC also launchedscholarships for single female child so as to encourageparents to send their gill child for higher educationstudies

As far as the participation of students in sciencesubjects is concerned several scholarshipsprogrammes were announced for talented students tojoin science education. For Ph.D. programme UniversityGrants Commission provided Junior and seniorresearch fellowships to students. This encouragedmany poor, but bright students and women to enroll forPh.D. programmes in universities and colleges.

Participation of Students from SCs, STs, OBCs,Women's and All CategoriesThese policy initiatives led to increased in participationof students from SCs, STs and Other Backward Classes(OBC). As on 2012-13 the rate of participation of SCstudents was 12.27 per cent, ST students were 4.43per cent and that of OBC was 33.05 per cent. The GrossEnrollment Ratio for students in the age group of 18-23 years for all categories was 21.1 per cent. This isvery significant increase from 1960-61 where GER wason 1.5 Per cent. This fairly compares with 15.1 per centfor SC and 11.0 per cent for ST. GER for womenstudents as on 2009-10 was 17.1 per cent as comparedto 9.93 percent in the year 2001-2. The gender parityindex in GER for SC, ST and all category students was:SC- 0.89, ST-0.79 and all category students was -0.89.

Minority and Other Minority and Disabled StudentsData for Muslim Minority and other Minority reveal thatparticipation of students belonging to Muslim Minorityaccount for 7.1% and Other Minority students accountfor 3.4 % of the students. Physically disabled studentsaccount for 0.41 % students.


Regional Diversification in Students' ParticipationThe Chandigarh, Union Territory has the highest rateof GER ie., 51%. It has the highest participation ofwomen i.e, 55.2. This is higher than GER for Male ie.,48.5%. The GER was higher for states namely, TamilNadu (42.0%), Pondicherry (42.1%), Delhi (38.5%),Uttarakhand (33.1%) Manipur (30.3%), Andhra Pradesh(29.1%), Maharashtra (25.65%), Karnataka (25..5%),Goa (23.2%), Punjab (22.7%) and Mizoram (21.3%).These states had GER higher than the average for allIndia. GER for women students in Delhi (39.25), Goa(25.6%), Kerala (26.9%), Manipur (30.7%),Punjab(23.8%) and Sikkim (25.9%) was slightly higherthan that of GER for male students in these state Readers interested in getting detailed data on theabove aspects of diversification may write to CollegePost for the same.

Degree Level Participation of WomenParticipation of women in various degree programmesin University Departments/ Constituent Colleges andin affiliated colleges varied. The rate of participation ofwomen in various level was higher in colleges ascompared to their participation in University Departmentand constituent Colleges. This is evident from thefollowing Table No. 3

Table 3: Participation of women in degree and certificateprogrammes in universities and colleges (in percentage)

Name of programmes University department/ Collegesconstituent college

Ph.D. Programme 39.00 48.16M.Phil 50.27 62.60Post Graduate 40.06 50.84Under Graduate 39.61 47.01PG Diploma 19.26 47.34Diploma 25.93 30.35Certificate 39.94 56.56Integrated 36.05 44.12All levels 40.33 47.13

Source: Higher Education Survey, 2011-12, MHRD, GOI

This could be owing to the fact that colleges arelocated near their home towns and they find itconvenient to avail higher education facilities near theirhomes. Besides this, cost of studying in university islikely to be higher owing to cost of boarding and lodgingfor studying in Universities.

Diversification of Students Participation by SubjectArea/SpecializationAs revealed in institutional diversification by subject andareas of specialization that system of Indian highereducation in India has a short of reinforcement of

Macaulay model of general Arts, Science andCommerce Education programmes. The diversificationhas been in very limited areas or at times it is has beensymbolic. The rate of participation in various disciplinesalso reveals this historical reinforcement. The data for2011-12 show that Arts, Science and Commerce andTeacher Education are the four disciplines whichaccount for two third of students studying in highereducation. The women in these four subjects accountfor 82.33%. The rest of enrollment is distributed in theareas namely, Engineering and Technology (16.0%),Medicine (3.52%), Agriculture (0.48 %), VeterinarySciences (0.14%). Law (1.84%) and the rest others(1.07%). Table No. 4, 5 and 6.

This also is the position for M.Phil. and Ph.D.programmes. Students' participation in abovementioned four disciplines namely, Arts, Science,Commerce and Teacher Education account for two thirdof total M.Phil and Ph.D. Students. (75.8%). The ratewas slightly higher for students' doing M.Phil. and Ph.D.in Agriculture (3.6%), Medicine (3.7%) than the overallrate of their participation in these two disciplines.

The InferencesThe story of Institutional, programme and studentsdiversification of higher education in India is markedby following features:1. The colonial model of higher education appears to

have reinforced in the development, growth anddiversification of institutions of higher educationeven after India got independence. Added to thiswas development in Engineering, Science&Technology, Medicine Management pertaining toglobal and modern development in Knowledge andmanpower needs. This addition was, however,much less and general university education systemcontinued to grow. In both the cases historical pushfactor modern development sector -pull factor whichin fact acted as push factor for India so as to be inthe league of developed world.

2. Several attempts to diversify education, so as tolink it with societal needs have been limited.Agriculture and Interdisciplinary educationuniversities attempted to link with needs of society.Some of the need based universities anduniversities catering to special need areas havealso come up, but in a very small way. Deemed tobe university structure has been a major institutionalsystem to enable diversification in the initial stagesof development. Attempt to link education to societythrough autonomous colleges have not succeededmuch.

3. Affiliated colleges were mirror of state affiliatinguniversities. Autonomous colleges which coulddiversify programmes of studies were limited in


numbers. Their attempts to diversify educationalprogrammes were also limited by the university towhich these were associated for award of degrees.Some diversification appears to have taken placewith the start of self financing colleges, but it is also

confined to some standard engineering andmanagement programmes.

4. Diversification in funding of higher education hasbeen influenced by World Bank and IMF policiesto a great extent. Restrictive growth of professional

Table 4: Enrolment by Discipline, 2011-12

Sl. Name of Discipline/Faculty Total enrolment % of total enrolment Women % of totalNo. enrolment women enrolment

1 Arts 7839495 37.09 3634876 41.912 Science 3789967 18.64 1662128 19.173 Commerce/Management 3571083 17.57 1414804 16.314 Education 732627 3.6 428660 4.945 Engineering/Technology 3261590 16.05 959105 11.066 Medicine 715706 3.52 350301 4.047 Agriculture 97313 0.48 24808 0.298 Veterinary Science 28504 0.14 6979 0.089 Law 373246 1.84 107825 1.2410 Others 217947 1.07 82945 0.96

Total 20327478 100 8672431 100

Source: UGC Annual Report 2011-12.

Table 5: Enrolment in Research Degree programme

Sl. Name of Discipline/Faculty 2009-2010 2010-2011No.

M.Phil Ph.D. M. Phil Ph.D. %

1 Arts 5054 4862 4739 5037 31.32 Science 5447 4619 4451 5232 32.53 Commerce/Management 1814 980 1549 1259 7.84 Education 458 588 483 645 45 Engineering/Technology 8 1449 119 1682 10.56 Medicine 12 386 47 601 3.77 Agriculture 11 652 75 586 3.68 Veterinary Science 7 162 24 165 19 Law 25 146 17 220 1.410 Others 879 633 1045 666 4.1

Total 13743 14477 12549 16093 100

Source: UGC Annual Report-2011-12.

Table 6: Enrolment of Students by Educational Level, 2011-12

Sl. Level Student Enrolment byNo.

University College Total Percentage Percentageto Total in AffiliatedCollege

1 Graduate 1853109 15602420 17455529 85.87 89.382 Post-Graduate 693864 1798608 2492472 12.26 72.163 Research 127780 33092 160872 0.79 20.574 Diploma/Certificate 132620 85985 218605 1.08 39.33

Grand Total 2807373 17520105 20327478 100.00 86.19

Source: UGC Annual Report 2011-12


higher education in late seventies and eightiesunder the advice of international expert created asort of pent up demand for professional education.With the change in approach for funding of highereducation, private initiatives attempted to fill the gapbetween demand and supply through full costrecovery professional educational institutions. Fullcost recovery programmes in public universitiesalso helped some diversification in programmes ofstudies. With acceptance of policy of liberalizationunder WTO -GATS regime private self financinguniversities, deemed to be universities and privateself financing colleges came into existence and theirnumbers increased significantly after the year2005. Some foreign institutional arrangements werealso set up in collaboration with Indian partner.

5. State sector also became active after 10th planwhen it had a pressure for enhancing GrossEnrollment Ratio and quality improvement of highereducation through the policy of inclusive growth andquality enhancement. This inclusiveness was alsotranslated into providing quality branded institutionslike Central Universities, IITs and IIMs. Thisbranding seems to be more owing to adequateresources and all India based selection of studentsfor admission. It was more of replication of existinginstitutions without considering nature ofdiversification needed keeping in view the needsof several economic and social sectors of society.IITs and IIMs mostly supplied manpower needs ofdeveloped parts of the world. There is generalsaying soul of IIT students migrate to developedcountries the day he /she is admitted to IIT. He /She physically migrates on completion of theprogramme of studies. It may be mentioned thatUNESCO policy (1998) for active state participationalso helped in state making special provisions forhigher education during 12th five year plan andenabling many Central Universities, IITs and IIMsto be established in various states. Thus generaland progessional education both under public andprivate sector has followed standard format ofdiversification ignoring needs of different climatic,regional, economic, social diversity exiting in thecountry.

6. The attempt to resurrect institutions of indigenousknowledge and education has been relatively week.It has been limited to Sanskrit, Languages, Art,Music, Ayurveda, other alternative systems ofmedicines more as symbols. The vast areas ofIndian system of Architecture, Town and CountryPlanning, Economics, Mathematics, Astronomy,Sociology, History, Political Science & PoliticalSystems, Psychology found in Sanskrit, Pali andother languages and practices being followed by

people of India even during the present periodremain unexplored and un verified for the use bymodern systems of development.

7. The study programme diversification andinstitutional diversification broadly correlate, but forspecialization within broad areas of the mainprogramme. These also reflect the developmentsin subject areas taking place all over the world.These, however do not relate much to the kind ofspecialization emerging from the need of socio -economic development of the country at large. Forexample India is largest democracy in the world.Democratic practices have changed over period,but no theory of democracy in developing worldlike India based on Indian experience has beendeveloped and taught in the degree programmes.Similar observation is made about other subjects,except for on in-depth study of caste system inIndia. This is also dated. The Contemporary socialchange and conflict of social values of past andpresent is not explored and theorized nor ofeconomics and psychology based on deep Indianexperience and processes have been theorizedand taught. The specializations also tend to followwhat is being attempted in developed part of theworld. This is again owing to desire to be in leaguewith the developed part of world ignoring knowledgeneed of developing parts of the world.

8. Students' participation in higher education alsobroadly reflects the supply of higher educationthrough institutional and programme diversification.Trend of large number of students participation inArt, Science and Commerce programme alsobroadly reflect colonial time higher participation inthese three disciplines. These also reflectavailability and nature of jobs which could befetched through these disciplines degreeprogrammes. Growth of Central and Statesystems of administration absorbed thesegraduates initially. Later on significantunemployment is observed for students trained inthese disciplines. Yet the pressure for enrollmentin these disciplines continues as administrativejobs offer secured wage , promotion, pension andpower. Rush is such that for every vacancy inIndian Administrative Services there may be tenthousand aspirants jostling to secure a position.Now rush is partly shifting to similar administrativejobs in private and corporate sector throughadditional degree in management.. A study doneabout IIT graduates also reveal that the knowledgegained during their study is hardly useful in theirpresent employment as most of them wereengaged in non-technical jobs or coordinatingtechnical jobs and marketing rather than engaged


in production of technology or technologyequipments. The article of graduate unemploymentin India also makes the point of hiatus /disconnectbetween education and economic systems of India.Recent report of Census of India also pointstowards high rate of graduate unemployment.There is a view that Indian education is a factory toproduce professional workers for developed partsof the world at the least cost to them and a highcost to Indian populace.

Future Challenges and Course of ActionThis brings us to question- whether diversification ofhigher education has responded to the needs ofdevelopment of economy and society? If yes, than therate of graduate unemployment is a matter of concern..One might say it is due to slow rate of growth of typesof employment market. If not,, then there is a questionof relevance of higher education system and types ofdiversification that has taken place so far. It seems thatgrowth and diversification that has taken so far has fellshort of expectations and needs of economy. There isa disconnect between education, economy and thesociety.

The issue of relevance of higher education hasbeen raised time and again and policies have beendrawn to make the system more relevant to societalneeds. Yet, the system does not seem to have movedtowards this. This is evident from the poor response inmaking colleges autonomous, as also commitment ofthe system to liberate colleges so as to enable them torelate to societal needs. Questions are also asked -Are we clear about what our society needs? This ismore particularly so as the present system seems tobe helpful to modern and organized corporate economicsystem and system of administration and enforcementof law and order, external security and system ofjudiciary. This system seems have helped developmentin these fields. Yet, Indian economy lags behind andmore than one third population of Indians is belowpoverty line - still struggling to meet both ends. Thereis trade deficit for almost for a decade or so. There iscontinuous decline of value of rupee in internationalmarket since seventies. This scenario is perpetual inspite of emerging modern dazzling buildings and carsin metros of India. Is the present model of developmentof economy - centralized percolation model- will helpsolving the problems of poverty and squalor? Or weneed a different decentralized model of developmentto help solving this problem and help Indian economyto develop truely and inter-dependent rather thanappendage economy? Is it necessary to introspectfollowing the thought process of Gandhi and througheducation and higher education make India the nationof independent and innovative thinkers and doers in

contrast to imitators and subordinate minds? All thesequestions lead us to debate and discourse towards anew inclusive diversified model of education andeconomic development, so as to harness the energyof vast young population. For this if we have to developa new diversified structure of higher education andeconomy we should not hesitate to do so in the largerinterest of posterity.

References(1) MHRD (2013), All India Survey on Higher

education 2011-12. New Delhi.(2) Ministry of Education (1962). The Report of the

University Education Commission, (December1948 - August 1949), Vol.I, Government of India,New Delhi.

(3) Ministry of Education (1966). "General ProblemsEducation and National Development", Report ofThe Education Commission, (Vol. II) 1964-66.New Delhi.

(4) Ministry of Education (1968). National Policy onEducation, Government of India, New Delhi.

(5) Prakash, Ved. (2013). "Diversification ofcampuses, widening of curricula and equity inIndian higher education are the main challenges",UGC, New Delhi.

(6) Rizvi, Fazal & Gorur, Radhika (2011). "ChallengesFacing Indian Higher Education " Australia IndiaInstitute, Winter, Vol. II.

(7) Sharma, G.D. (1980). Institutional Cost of HigherEducation, AIU, New Delhi.

(8) Sharma, G.D. (1986). Elite in Making, AIU, NewDelhi.

(9) Sharma, G.D. (2000). Indicators on Quality ofHigher Education, Higher Education Unit, NIEPA,New Delhi (mimeo).

(10) Sharma, G.D. (2000). Internationalisation ofHigher Education, Issues and Policy Suggestions,Higher Education Unit, NIEPA, New Delhi.(mimeo).

(11) Sharma, G.D. (2001). Higher Education during10th Five-Year Plan - A Proposal. HigherEducation Unit, NIEPA, New Delhi (mimeo).

(12) Sharma, G.D. (2001). India's Response to Tradeon Education Service under WTO Regime, HigherEducation Unit, NIEPA, New Delhi (mimeo).

(13) Singh, Amrik and Sharma, G.D. (1988). HigherEducation in India: The Social Context and theInstitutional Context (2 Volumes). Konark, NewDelhi.

(14) UGC (2003). "Higher Education in India, Issues,Concerns and New Directions", New Delhi.December.

(15) University Grants Commission (2012), AnnualReport 2011-12. New Delhi.


The question is: Given the needs of expansion due toadditional enrolment target and increasing cost of publichigher education, has necessary state appropriationsaccompanied rising financial requirement? As the stateappropriation per student has not kept pace withrequired public expenditure per student, the additionalenrolment target was largely met through the expansionof private higher education institutions. The expansionof private higher education institutions has been largelyseen as a residual effect of state appropriation perstudent falling short of required public expenditure perstudent.

The effect of the expansion of private highereducation institutions raises the problem of affordabilityof higher education. Private institutions charge theamount of fees that recover the entirecost of higher education. From the pointof view of household the entry of eligiblesecondary graduate to the institutionsof higher education depends on theaffordability. If the cost of highereducation charged through the fees ishigher in relation to the income of thehousehold, the eligible graduate may notbe able to make an entry into highereducation on account of higher fees inrelation to the income. This creates theproblem of realizing the enrolment targetof 30% gross enrolment ratio by 2020.Exclusive reliance on privatization, therefore, runs intointernal contradiction to meet the plan enrolment target.

The paper throws light on challenges of affordabilityin private higher education. The paper discusses theconcept of affordability in section 1. Section 2 usesmedian approach to affordability and examines theaffordability of higher education in India. Section 3 usesanother concept - impoverishment approach - tomeasure affordability in higher education and section4 presents conclusion.

CHALLENGES OF AFFORDABILITY IN PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATIONSUDHANSHU BHUSHAN*

In the scenario of growth of full cost charging institution of Higher Education, the author explores the extent ofaffordability among people of India to participate in Higher Education.

* The paper was presented at a seminar on Developing aCredit Market for Higher Education in India on August 4, 2016.Sudhanshu Bhushan is Professor and Head, Department ofHigher and Professional Education, NUEPA. Email [email protected]

Section 1: Concept and Measurement ofAffordabilityConcept: Affordability may be empirically defined asthe proportion of annual family income required to payfor educational expenses. In descriptive terms the ratiomay be used to convey information on expenditurepattern across different households along social andeconomic groups. The ratio, however, may give us afalse impression of ability to pay. Ratio does not tell usanything about ability to pay. Higher or lower ratio doesnot tell us higher or lower ability to pay. Ratio is used inthe negative sense to form idea about affordability. Itmay tell us financial stress incurred by individuals inpaying for the cost of education. This measure thusgives an indication of what portion of people's current

disposable income remains for otherhousehold expenditures aftermandatory education costs. However,the real difficulty arises to infer anythingon the affordability from the ratio, asaffordability is subjective and may varyacross social and economic groups andeven between individuals in a social oreconomic group. For example, lowersocial/economic group may devote alarge proportion of income on education.On the other hand, higher social/economic group may devote a smallerproportion of income on education. This

gives an idea that lower social/economic group is leftwith a smaller residual income to pay for other expensesand higher social/economic group is left with largerresidual to pay for other expenses. It is this knowledgeand understanding of different positions of differentsocial/economic group that is conveyed by the use ofthe ratio. It would be wrong to make a sweeping claimabout affordability in terms of ability to pay. (Hulchanski,J. David, p.4, 1995)

Measurement: Median approach to measureaffordability is the most simpler and convenient way todevelop affordability index. It uses the ratio of educationexpenditure to income across large number ofhouseholds. A standard is thought in terms of median(or average) income and median (or average)expenditure on education. A median ratio of medianexpenditure on education to median income is then

First time programme ofaction for implementation

of policy was drawn. In thearea of higher educationthe programme of actionalong with other things

suggested for setting upautonomous colleges so

that colleges can link theirprogrammes of studies

with societal needs.


calculated. It is assumed that because households onan average actually spend this percentage of theirincomes for education, it is thereby justified as astandard of what it is reasonable to spend. Once weknow the median ratio as standard then it may beasserted that if a household pays more for educationthan a certain percentage of income (median ratio), thenit will not have enough left for other necessities. Thusfor example, any household who is spending abovemedian ratio is cutting back its expenditure on food,housing, health and so on. Expenditure on educationin this sense is unaffordable for that category ofhouseholds.

It may be realised that affordability raises thequestion of standard. Standard is intended to measurewhether education costs make an undue claim onhousehold income in relation to other needs. Canmedian ratio be uncritically accepted as a standard?The principle behind median ratio suffers from theproblem of aggregation and the heterogeneity of thehousehold's preferences and need is ignored. Theattempt may be made to think of other standard as well.It is possible to argue that the first quartile may betreated as a standard. Any other percentile may beassumed as a standard. The principle behind the choiceof a standard, therefore, rests on the judgement andlacks a sound theoretical reasoning. In fact, in thechoice of a standard the social context andconveniences within locality may assume a greatimportance. Inconsistency in the choice of a standardwith different approaches is analysed by Michael E.Stone in the context of housing affordability.

In spite of theoretical difficulty to define a standard,Median approach to affordability is normally used todevelop the affordability index.

Section 2: Median Approach and Affordability inHigher Education3

A sample of 2284 students from higher educationinstitutions in India reported income of the householdand the student's expenditure on education. In a sampleof 2284 students the household income and fees paidto higher education institutions were collected. Themedian fee to median income ratio is 25 percent. If thisis treated as standard then affordability of regularprogramme (fully funded by the government) and selffinancing programmes (non government funding) maybe compared. Average fees per student in a regularprogramme in 2005 was estimated to be Rs. 1759.Indeed with fully subsidised regular programme feeaffordability is 99%. Self financing programme fee was

estimated to be Rs. 10428 in 2005 and the level ofaffordability has come down to 71%. NSS has carriedout an educational survey in 2007-08 and the averagefee per student was estimated to be Rs. 14091. Withan average fee of this size affordability is reduced tothe level of 61%. If we include all other expenditureincurred by the student, the average private expenditureper student was Rs. 22,267 in 2007-08. If all privateexpenditure on education is included then affordabilityis reduced to 47%. In a sample of 2285 studentscollected in 2012 average fee was found to be Rs.45,288 which only 27% of the households could afford.

Result

Discipline wise AffordabilityAffordability is inversely proportion to the fees (and othereducation related expenditure) paid by the student. 64thNSS round (2007-08) provides us information on thefees and other education related expenditure perstudent for different disciplines. Affordability is beingexamined for different disciplines. Chart shows that inarts and humanities discipline 69% of the students canafford higher education. In disciplines such ascommerce, Law and science affordability range is 54to 52%. The least affordable discipline is Management,Engineering, Medicine and CA where average fee perstudent is considerably high.

Affordability by Management Types64th NSS round provides us information on the feesand other education related expenditure per studentfor institutions under different management. Affordabilityis being examined for management types. Chart showsthat in government managed institutions 56% of thestudents can afford higher education. In private aided

3 See for a detailed methodology under the median approachto affordability Lynn M. Fisher, Pollakowski and Zabel, 2007;also Bieri David S.


institutions affordability is 49%. The least affordableinstitutions are privately managed and fundedinstitutions where average fee per student isconsiderably high.

Section 3: Impoverishment Approach to MeasureAffordabilityThe "impoverishment" method considers the absolutequantity of available resources before and afterpayment for some services such as education. If thehousehold is initially above the poverty line but dropsbelow it after paying for the commodity, it can be saidto have been "impoverished" by the payment. (LMNiëns, et.al 2012) The method is clearly morespecifically focused on the poor within society. Thisapproach has been commonly used to study housingaffordability (Stone, 2006; Kutty, 2005) and has alsobeen applied to health care. (Xu K, 2003; Wagstaff A,van Doorslaer E, 2003). Niëns et al. have recentlycalculated the affordability of medicines in 16 low- andmiddle-income countries using this impoverishmentmethod. (WHO, 2008)

Using 66th NSS round, we can measureimpoverishment, first by estimating proportion of

population below the poverty line and then measuringhow many more percent of people further falls belowpoverty line after paying for the price for highereducation. Additional percent of people who fall belowpoverty line are impoverished. NSS 66th round (2009-10) provides the following information on average percapita household consumption expenditure.

Impoverishment Effect in Rural Area

Average Consumption Expenditure Curve inDifferent Deciles in Rural

Affordability in Rural AreaPlanning Commission has reduced poverty line to Rs28.65 per capita daily consumption in cities and Rs22.42 in rural areas. An individual above a monthlyconsumption of Rs 859.6 in urban and Rs 672.8 in ruralareas is not considered poor, as per the controversialformula. Rs. 762.8 in rural area falls in the decile group20-30.

General equation of a linear straight line joining thepoints (15, 584) and (35, 760) is as follows:

The value of C in the above equation can be foundout by solving two equations:

Solution gives the values as follows: m = 8.8 and c= 452. Putting the value of c in equation 1, for a givenvalue of 672.8 in rural area the value of X, the proportionof people below poverty line in rural area can beestimated. Equation 1 can now be written as:

For Y = 672.8, the X is 25.1. Hence we can saythat on conservative measure of poverty line asdetermined by the Planning Commission of India theproportion of people below poverty line in India isestimated to be 25.1%.

Average per capita Monthly ConsumptionExpenditure (Rs.)


As per the NSS 64th round (2007-08) the averageper capita monthly expenditure on general highereducation is Rs. 527 in rural area. If the rural householdsare compelled to pay Rs. 527 on general education ina month, they are worse off or impoverished to pay forother expenditure.

We need to calculate what is percentage of peoplebelow poverty line after Rs. 527 is paid for generalhigher education? The new equation is then as follows:

For Y = 672.8, X can be calculated. X = 85. It means85% of people fall below poverty line after paying forgeneral higher education. It means around 60% ofpeople are impoverished by making expenses forgeneral higher education and paying to the tune of Rs.527 in every month for general higher education.

The problem with the above estimate ofimpoverishment may be noted. The estimate was madewith the linear straight line joining the points (15,584)and (35,760). However, impoverishment effect due topayment for higher education has caused the percentof population below poverty line in the 80-90 decilegroup. Therefore, it would be necessary to estimatestraight line joining two points (15, 584) and (85, 1470).Following the previous procedure the revisedimpoverishment effect due to payment of Rs. 527 permonth for general higher education may be noted. %population that fall below poverty line withoutimpoverishment and due to the payment for generalhigher education are 15.7% and 20% respectively.Impoverishment effect is merely 4.3%. Thus we noticethat impoverishment differs significantly dependingupon which straight line is estimated? What wouldhappen to impoverishment if estimated straight linesdiffer? The result is tabulated below in following cases:

Effect on Impoverishment with DifferentEstimates of Line (Rural)

As shown in the table the degree of impoverishmentdiffers significantly in different cases. Barring the lastcase, the impoverishment is huge in all cases if paymentfor general higher education is made. It varies from43% to 60% with different estimates of straight line.The mean value of impoverishment, barring the lastcase, is 52%. It means Indian higher education cannotafford to be charging higher fees. It will significantly

adversely affect the affordability to higher education inthe rural area.Sensitivity Analysis: It would be interesting to measureaffordability in terms of above approach for a givenestimated straight line in response to different amountof expenditure on higher education. In the analysispresented above we have taken as per the NSS 64thround (2007-08) the average per capita monthlyexpenditure on general higher education to be Rs. 527in rural area. What will be extent of impoverishment interms of percentage of people below poverty line aftermonthly payment for higher education of differentmagnitudes? This is captured through what may becalled sensitivity Analysis. Assume that the straight linejoining the points (25,675) and (45, 848) are consideredfor sensitivity analysis. We assume the three caseswhen the payment for higher education is Rs. 100, 200and 300. Sensitivity analysis enables us to considersmall changes in payment and its effect onimpoverishment.

Sensitivity Analysis: Change in Impoverishmentdue to change in Expenditure on Higher

Education

Sensitivity analysis shows the response to a smallchange in expenditure on higher education on theextent of people below poverty line. While expenditureon higher education is Rs. 100 impoverishment is tothe extent of 11%. A small change in expenditure onhigher education from Rs. 100 to Rs. 200 has increasedimpoverishment from 11% to 23%. Further if Rs. 400 isspent on higher education impoverishment increasesto 46%. Given the pattern of average monthlyconsumption expenditure in rural India, impoverishmentis highly sensitive to even small increase in expenditureon higher education.

On the other hand, if higher education is completelyfree and further subsidy of Rs. 100 and Rs. 200 permonth is made available to the students theimpoverishment (measured in terms of percent peoplebelow poverty line) is reduced to 13% and 1%respectively. Hence not only higher education shouldbe free rather subsidy to students will substantiallyreduce impoverishment and enable students to joinhigher education.


Impoverishment Effect in Urban Area

Average Consumption Expenditure Curve inDifferent Deciles in Urban

As noted above, an individual above a monthlyconsumption of Rs 859.6 in urban areas is notconsidered poor, as per the controversial formula ofPlanning Commission. Rs. 859.6 in urban area falls inthe decile group 20-30. Following the procedure notedabove, the percent people below poverty line can beestimated.

As per the NSS 64th round (2007-08) the averageper capita monthly expenditure on general highereducation is Rs. 706 in urban area. If the urbanhouseholds are compelled to pay Rs. 706 on generaleducation in a month, they are worse off orimpoverished to pay for other expenditure. After payingfor higher education higher percent of people may fallbelow poverty line. Table shows the effect ofimpoverishment in urban area. With three alternativeestimates of straight line the impoverishment is to theextent of 38 to 40 percent in urban area. Estimated 54to 57 percent people fall below poverty line with thepayment for higher education to the tune of Rs. 706 inevery month in the urban region. With higherexpenditure in urban area, as compared to the rural,the impoverishment effect in urban is less as comparedto the rural.

Effect on Impoverishment with DifferentEstimates of Line (Urban)

Sensitivity Analysis: Change in Impoverishmentdue to change in Expenditure on Higher EducationSensitivity analysis shows the response of a smallchange in expenditure on higher education upon theextent of impoverishment i.e. percentage of peoplebelow poverty line. Sensitivity analysis has been carriedout with the estimated straight line joining the two co-ordinates (25,1012) & (55,1633). While expenditure onhigher education is Rs. 100 impoverishment is to theextent of 5% in urban area as opposed to 11% in ruralarea. A small change in expenditure on higher educationfrom Rs. 100 to Rs. 200 has increased impoverishmentfrom 5% to 10% in urban as opposed to 11% to 23% inrural area. Further if Rs. 400 is spent on highereducation impoverishment increases to 46% in ruralas opposed to 40% in urban. Given the pattern ofaverage monthly consumption expenditure in urbanIndia, impoverishment is highly sensitive to even smallincrease in expenditure on higher education,nonetheless smaller in magnitude as compared to rural.On the other hand, if higher education is completelyfree and further subsidy of Rs. 100 and Rs. 200 permonth is made available to the students theimpoverishment (measured in terms of percentpopulation below poverty line) is reduced to 13% and8% respectively. Hence not only higher educationshould be free rather subsidy to students willsubstantially reduce impoverishment and enablestudents to join higher education.

Section 4 ConclusionThe expansion of private higher education in Indiaraises the question of affordability. The concept ofaffordability is difficult to understand due to non uniformpreference of different individuals. Yet empiricalmeasurement of affordability can be attempted tounderstand the affordability with the rising cost of highereducation. In the paper two measures , namely, medianand impoverishment methods - were used to examinethe effect of higher cost of education on affordability. Itwas noted that even a slight increase in cost affectsaffordability very significantly. Therefore, subsidisedhigher education is necessary to achieve the expansiontarget.

ReferencesLM Niëns, et.al (2012) Practical measurement of


affordability: an application to medicines Bull WorldHealth Organ 90 (3):219-27 (2012)

Stone ME, 2006, What is housing affordability? Thecase for the residual income approach. HousingPolicy Debate 2006; 17: 151-84 doi:10.1080/10511482.2006.9521564.

Kutty NK., 2005, A new measure of housing affordability:Estimates and analytical results. Housing policydebate 2005; 16: 113-42.

Xu K. Household, 2003, catastrophic healthexpenditure: a multicountry analysis. Lancet 2003;362: 111-7 doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(03)13861-5pmid: 12867110.

Wagstaff A, van Doorslaer E. 2003, Catastrophe andimpoverishment in paying for health care: withapplications to Vietnam 1993-1998. Health Econ2003; 12: 921-34 doi: 10.1002/hec.776 pmid:14601155.

WHO, 2008, Measuring medicine prices, availability,affordability and price components. 2nd ed.

Geneva: World Health Organization & Health ActionInternational; 2008 (WHO/PSM/PAR/2008.3).Available from: http://www.who.int/medicines/a reas /access /OMS_Medic ine_pr ices .pd f[accessed 13 September 2016].

Lynn M. Fisher, Henry Pollakowski, Jeffrey Zabel, 2007,Amenity-Based Housing Affordability Indexes(2007) available on http://mit.edu/cre/research/papers/wp92_Nov07.pdf [accessed 13 September2016].

Bieri David S., Housing Affordability, Real EstateProgram, Urban & Regional Planning, Universityof Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48019, USA availableon http://www personal.umich.edu/~bieri/docs/QOLHousingAffordability_Bieri_Springer.pdf[accessed 13 September 2016].

JD Hulchanski, 1995, The concept of housingaffordability: Six contemporary uses of the housingexpenditure-to-income ratio, Housing studies, 1995- Taylor & Francis.

and technology. But it, started to have degenerated under weightof cadre and corruption and scuttling of individual freedom. Theother similar model of socialist development changed its heart byallowing state to privatize, but seriously suppressing individualfreedom. Capitalist model of economic development in Europe,USA pushed for liberalization and search for new markets indeveloping economies in a uni-polar world.

At home front, those in position of power had good groomingin IMF, World Bank model of development and believed inliberalized model of development. In fact it was more of allowinginternational market access rather than internal liberalization,more of reducing state role in development of economy andsociety. Thus the shift in economic and educational paradigm ofIndia began with even though Congress Party, stated to be havingleft of the centre approach, was in power, but with set of newpeople who had grooming in IMF, World Bank philosophy. It wouldbe clear if one looks at composition of cabinet of that time, eventhough PM Mr. Rao, had no such grooming, but seems to be havingadvisors with IMF, World Bank philosophy to advise him. Althoughreasons advanced for liberalization was that, India was facingserious crunch of payment of international commitment, hence ithad to take support of IMF/ World Bank and therefore it had tofollow the conditions of such support. Accordingly, India devaluedits Rupee. The rupee started sliding, market access by internationalcompanies started increasing. Although, liberalization of trade wasdone to increase the exports, but imports started increasing andthe trade gap started increasing. Government resorted todisinvestment of and shifted economic entities in the hands ofprivate sector. Reasons advanced were poor performance of theseunits. Slowly economic power of state (which is power of peopleat large) started shifting in favour of private sector. New investmentunder plan process was truncated and Planning Commission startedspeaking the language of World Bank and reducing support givento production, consumption, education and health using market

terminology of subsidies. Since there was high unemployment inrural sector and poverty continued to loom large, concept of safetynet in term of schemes to support poor was launched. MahatmaGandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme wasone of them to provide 100 days of employment to rural needypeople.

The pressure of opening of education sector to private peoplewas mounting and many colleges of professional education namely,Medical and engineering started with full cost+ recovery fees fromstudents. Hence shift was from state supporting the education ofpeople to students financing their own education through theirparents or loan. To begin with the model was to allow meritstudents with low fee and others with paid seat or full cost +. Slowlythis model also changed in favour of all students paying full costfees +. There was shift in financing of public institutions. First stepwas to stop the new recruitment in colleges & universities andallowing self financing courses. Hence the model shifted in favourof privatization and self financing programmes in higher education.At school education where both private and public sector hadoperated for long, here also full cost recovery model startedwith state refusing to give grant to private philanthropistsupported schools. Though education, as per the constitutionalprovision is not for profit, yet full cost + recovery was viewed as -not for profit.

Effort of New Economic Order to liberalization and free tradepolicy promoted by developed countries made many developingcountries to change its course and join the New Economic ordermovement and finally it led to setting up of World TradeOrganization in Mid 1990s i.e., 1995, and General Agreement onTrade in Services- GATS. On the Intellectual front World IntellectualProperty Organization was set up. This multilateral arrangementswas signed by many countries including India which internationallycommitted India to the policy of liberalization. In 1996 CongressParty was replaced by BJP/Janta and its alliance-NDA. The NDAparties had faith in liberalization; some of its members had deepsense of national interest thereby putting breaks on all out

continued from page 1


liberalization. India resisted opening of agriculture sector, and non-Agriculture Market Access to some extent in WTO. India also facedhostilities from Pakistan during 1999 Kargil war which impactedeconomic processes. However, the progress of liberalization wasslow but continuous.

During 2004-14 Congress party with its allies came into powerand started second phase of liberalization with new vigour withDr. Manmohan Singh in the position of Prime Minister of India.The second phase of liberalization led to high increase in privateeducational institutions. From 2005 to 2014 as many as 24 statesenacted the bill for setting of private self financing universities.University Grants Commission also, which was so far very selectivein granting self financing deemed to university status, gave newthrust in allowing setting of self financing deemed to universityunder the Congress regime. In a short period of five years, it gaveapproval to a large number of self financing deemed to beUniversities. State governments gave approval to nearly 300 selffinancing private universities. Number of Self financing collegesaffiliated to universities increased in almost all the states underevery university, all these development gave opportunities to lakhsof students to pursue subjects of their choices that are havingpotential for better employment. Many students migrated to othercountries with liberal loan funding through government supportedpolicy of educational loans. Even government under pressure fromvarious states expanded centrally funded universities, IITs and IIMsand National Institutes of technology. Students are stated to bestill queuing for such institutions, but universities and colleges inprivate sector gave rise to a concept of students' counsellors, whosejob is to get students on commission basis for admissions in theprivate institutions. Parents' expected, since heavy fee is being paid,their wards to get better grades. Examiners from affiliatinguniversity knew about it and demanded their pound of flesh forhigh grades. Some of the universities are found to be giving Ph.Dsto more students than they could enrol. Some universities facedthe problem of de-recognition yet, a large number of them areworking and some of them boast of more than 30 to 40 thousandstudents on their campus. This is without the affiliation of collegesby these universities. It is not known who is regulating the qualityof processes and outcome of both public and private universitiesand colleges. The National Assessment and Accreditation Councilis very poorly equipped to perform this role.

Privatization has its own strength and weaknesses. So also istrue of an economy-market has its strength and weakness.Privatization has great sense of time and profit. It works for profitand time is key factor in this. So expansion has to be doneovercoming all the hindrances. If need be through bribe or speedmoney. It is a different matter if it could be recovered fromconsumers in the absence of price regulations or text book "perfectcompetition". Those who had greater access to power that be, andskills to manage the system, advanced greatly. This made othersand those in opposition to talk about corruption and cronycapitalism. The strange characteristic of capitalism is that itintroduces corruption and it also questions the corruption.

Second phase of liberalization for market was stated to be aboon. But this boon during the second term of the Congressgovernment became a bane with the charges of corruption andcrony capitalism. Matter of fact is that the Indian economy, sincetagged with world economy was trailing, as world economy was

trailing. Indian economy was also losing its base in manufacturingmostly in non-formal sector, as imports started wiping thesemanufacturers. Manufacturing in the public sector wasundermined and private sector did not pick, in spite of lot ofschemes for small and medium enterprises. Trade gap startedincreasing again, foreign exchange reserve became precarious.Current account deficit increased. Congress Party was thrown outof power after decade in power, during second phase ofliberalization. Reason advanced was the corruption, but it was moreof slow growth of economy, increase in unemployment andincrease in income inequalities, increase in trade gap, increase innumber of farmers committing suicide and decrease in value ofRupee.

During the last two years with BJP in power, liberalizationstated to have been strengthened by way of dismantlinginstitutions which worked for planned growth. Access ofinternational brands to Indian market has increased. New brandsof cars in India has increased, some of the malls and products inthem are of same brands which are consumed in developedcountries, hence access to such product has increased. PlanningCommission has been dismantled by changing its role fromplanning to thinking and making it a Think Tank. There is greateremphasis on use of digital technology, all international hardwareand software technology brands, like MS, Face book , Whats App,Apple, Google and others are hoping to have great business inIndia, All e-tailing and physical international brands like Amazon,Wall Mart and Indian E-tailing brands hopes to have great business.Sad part is manufacturing has not picked up. Exports have notincreased, trade gap has not reduced. Unemployment has notabated. Recent NSSO round has revealed that unemployment hasincreased. Recent report on Index of Industrial production has notgiven any happy news. It has shown a decline.

When we are celebrating 25 years of liberalization, challengebefore those who are wedded to doctrine of liberalization of thekind being practiced in India, is to eradicate poverty, reduce suicideby farmers, reduce trade gap, reduce inequality of income andincrease employment. Whether another 25 years of Liberalizationwill be able to do that is a big question mark.

We are of the view that present economic and social/educational development model is in for serious crisis. As socialistand capitalist models have not delivered, this appendage capitalistmodel will also not deliver. This appendage Indian economic modelis suffering from the same problems as the American Economy.The difference is that American economy is a high Per capita incomeeconomy and has introduced several safety valves to let the steamout. But in India the pot is simmering to explode.

Scenario of Indian Economy since 8th Nov., 2016 has changedfor worse with demonetization of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 currencynotes, which constituted more than 80 percent of Indian economy,mostly operated in cash. Without adequate and timely replacementof lower denomination currency than what is circulated, theeconomic activities have come to halt. Pain experienced by people,agriculture, SMEs and small business to replace and draw newcurrency notes has far exceeded any imagination. The damage likelyto be caused to economy would be far more than the propagatedgains. The simmering pot is gaining the speed and it may explodesooner than thought about, unless urgent steps are taken to letthe steam out.

29College Post, July – September, 2016Researches in EducationDear ScholarsWe have introduced a new column in College Post titledResearches in Education. A guideline about how tosubmit the briefs of Research Completed, Research inProgress was published in previous Issue of CollegePost. Research in Education Analysis of researchescompleted and in progress was also published in thatissue. We would request the scholar / readers to submittheir research completed and in progress as perguideline. Research Briefs submitted will be publishedin the next and coming issues of College Post. CollegePost is also available on www.seededu.org website.Research briefs submitted by you and communicatedto wider readers in higher education will help informedpolicy decision and it will also help peer group mutuallearning and networking. Please take advantage of thisopportunity to reach out with your contribution throughthis column.- Editor

Ph.D. CompletedTitle of Thesis - A Study of the Effectiveness of SelfLearning Material such as Work Card, ProgrammedLearning and Cal in the Subject of Social Science inStd. VIIIth. Researcher - Chauhan, Mrunali C, GuideJoshi, ML, Dept. of Education, University- Kadi SarvaViswavidyalaya, Completion date 2012

Method of Analysis of the DataThe analysis of the scores of the students of each groupon pre-test and unit test i.e post-test is done usingmeans, SDs and t values.

Key Findings of the StudyFindings related to self learning material among threegroups A, B, C" looks like:1. Educational achievement of the students of group

A of programmed learning material was equal ascompared to that of work card material.

2. Educational achievement of the students of groupA of CAL material was equal as compared to that ofwork card literature.

3. Educational achievement of the students of groupA of CAL material was equal as compared to that ofprogrammed learning material.

4. Educational achievement of the students of groupB work card material was significantly high ascompared to that of CAL material.

5. Educational achievement of the students of groupB of the Programme Learning material wassignificantly high as compared to that of the CALmaterial. 13

6. Educational achievement of the students of groupB of the Programme Learning material was equalas compared to that of work card material.

7. Educational achievement of the students of groupC of the CAL material was as equal as compared tothat of work card material.

8. Educational achievement of the students of group

C of the Programmed Learning material was equalas compared to that of the CAL material.

9. Educational achievement of the students of groupC of the Programmed Learning material was equalas compared to that of the work card material. Itcan be said that all the three self learning methodsas well as self learning materials has same effecton the achievement of the students of all the threegroups.

Title of the Thesis - Education of Tibetan Refugees inIndia: Issues of Culture, Ethnic Identity andOpportunity. Researcher - Mallica, Guide - NambissionGita, School of Social Sciences, Jawahar Lal University,New Delhi Date of Completion 2007

Some FindingsTibetan youth identity and educational and occupationalaspirations in exile is therefore, to be understood asprocesses of negotiation and mediation and not assomething given or fixed in time and space. As seen inthe study, Tibetan youth in India, have diverse ways ofdefining and interpreting ways of 'being Tibetan' in theirown lives.

They are not passive, disempowered, recipients ofdiverse cultures in exile. They are actually straddlingdialogic forms of Tibetan and/or 'mixed', multiculturalidentities, rather than living out one, uniform, monolithicway of 'being Tibetan'.

In conclusion, it can be said that identity andaspirations of all refugee groups (especially the youth)in an asylum country are open-ended phenomena,subject to multiple changes. To adapt to these changes,alongwith preserving culture and tradition and buildingan education system that balances 'ligatures' and'options', is a problem specifically faced by refugee anddiasporic communities the world over. There are no clearanswers to this dilemma. In the final analysis, therefore,it is for the leadership of the refugee communities to tryto be sensitive to and accommodate both needs,enabling preservation of native language, culture andidentities as well as realization of educational andoccupational life-chances in exile.

Ph.D. Thesis submitted *1. A study on the skill development under-graduate

programmes of Dibrugarh University.Researcher - Dutta, Leela, Research Guide Dr.Neeta Kalita Barua, Department of Education,University-Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh.

* Source : University News, Delhi

Ph.D. in Progress1. Determinants of Entry to Higher Education in

India- Researcher- Rashmi Wadhwa, ResearchGuide- Dr. Rashmi Diwan, University- NationalUniversity of Educational Planning andAdministration, New Delhi.

30College Post, July – September, 2016Education News AnalysisWorld Class Universities -10 in Public and 10 inPrivate SectorsRuffled through announcement of list of ranking ofuniversities in the world by Times higher Education andAcademic Ranking by Shanghai group has made manygovernments in developing countries to raise issue fornot finding in the ranking list. Some have attempted togive more autonomy and more funds to universities,but India has been brooding over to prepare 10 worldclass universities in public sector and 10 in privatesector. The idea is to free these universities from anyregulation and national policy prescription so that theycan become world class universities and find their placein the World University Ranking (WUR). There seemsto be objection by Ministry of Law on the national policyaspect and may be the very concept and approach toaddress the issue of WUR. It sounds quite intriguingthat out of 600 universities several institutes nationalimportance in the country, government is thinking takingout 10 each in both the sectors to make them worldclass universities. MHRD has put draft bill for creatingWorld Class Universities. The idea lacks basicunderstanding of what makes a university world class.It is academic culture, rigorous research and search fornew ideas and innovations which makes a universityworld class. And that happens through rigourousacademic processes and support for research anddevelopment over several years. Simply announcingworld Class University by a panel and proving extrafacilities or funds does not make them World Class. Priorto this, the previous government was planning to createa Research& Innovation Universities by giving themextra funds and setting them though executive orderand keeping them out of any regulation. This wasdiscussed in Parliamentary Standing Committee and itseems did not pass through this stage. Earlier lot offunds and autonomy was given to IITs , IIMs and severalcentral universities were set up. But IITs did not engagemuch in research and remained at B. Tech levelprogramme largely. IIMs too did not engage in researchand remained at preparing Business ManagementDiploma holder graduates. Some Deemed and Centraluniversities did engage in research and build its base.Some are finding their place in such ranking. But let usbe clear WUR by any of the four ranking agencies arenot true representative of world University Ranking.These suffer from several methodological and approachproblems.

RTE Act - The Policy of No Detention till 8th StandardThe policy of no detention of children up to 8th Standardis being seriously debated in CABE and by many states.General feeling is that this policy has deteriorated thequality of primary and upper primary education. Somecommittees are suggesting it should be applicable up

to 5th standard, yet others feel that this policy shouldbe changed. Even NEP Policy Drafting Committee hasalso suggested for review of this policy and keeping nodetention up 5th standard. There is a view that if anattempt is made to change the RTE Act, since presentgovernment does not have majority in Rajya Sabha, itwill not pass through. One group feels that the changein policy can be effected through ordinance. Somestates, Rajasthan in particular wants to introduce classappropriate level of learning, and if one is not found upto that level one can be retained. Other feel they can beallowed to re-sit instead of making them to waste a year.The concern for quality sounds to be valid and genuine.But to link with the policy of detention and no- detentionsounds to be quite untenable in the context and spirit ofRTE Act. We had all through detention policy beforeRTE Act was passed, was the quality good. Manystudies on Minimum Levels of Learning at Primary levelhave showed that it was otherwise. There linking it withdetention or no detention is somewhat naive. What wasthe intention and spirit of the RTE Act. What was theconcept - Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation? Thisconcept offer scope and possibility of mid coursecorrection and remedies. Question should be askedwhether schools have implemented the conceptseriously and if so what are the research findings. Arethe teachers full aware and prepared for this concept?Are the implementing it? What are the results of theimplementation? How many Research studies havebeen conducted on implementation of RTE Act. This isdifferent from continuous review meetings at SSA levelor CABE level. NCERT has taken a view and rightly so,that we should focus on implementation rather thanreview the policy. We need to take the task ofimplementation much more seriously than it is today.We need to conduct rigorous research studies beforearriving at policy decisions on anecdotal basis. Thedetention policy empowers the teacher to behave asgiver of education and student a receptor of education.Thus problem of poor quality is solely due to receptorand does not show what teacher wants him to show, heshe is not up to the level and therefore need not bepromoted. This is quite old colonial concept of education.New concept envisages that the teacher is equal partnerin achievement of students and he/she should ensurethat proper teaching and learning takes place and midcourse correction, remedial measure are taken to ensurethat one attains the level required. This means teacheris engaged in encouraging and answering the questionin the minds of students. He/She also learns withstudents while responding to the questions that are inchildren's mind. This is what is equality and democraticsystem of teaching and learning as distinct from colonialhierarchical rot system of schooling. Our concern forquality is valid and genuine, but answers attempted aremisguided and untenable.

31College Post, July – September, 2016Across the GlobeWedge between Teaching and ResearchThe Teaching Excellence Framework attempts to drawa wedge between teaching and research. Though it iswell known that in higher education teaching andresearch go together, yet some people world over areattempting to see these two activities as separate. TheTEF attempts see teaching excellence as separate fromResearch. However, Professor Paul Blackmore ofKingston College, London feels the government is"driving wedge between research and teaching " withthe TEF likely to stand in opposition to researchexcellence framework. TEF may not affect the researchuniversities as students would prefer to study in wellreputed research and teaching universities as they offerbetter opportunity for employment. According to PaulBlackmore "that, even if a robust method of judgingteaching standards could be developed, it would "notnecessarily guide many students' choices". This isbecause many students know that a degree from aprestigious research-intensive university is likely to getthem a good job, regardless of how good the teachingis.

According to Mr. Paul instead of further separatingteaching and research, the better solution is to link themmore. He suggested that the government shouldconsider creating single funding body for research andteaching rather than two separate bodies for teachingand research as envisaged by Higher Education andResearch Bill.Source & Courtesy : Chris [email protected]

Uberification of Higher EducationIn a book The Uberfication of the University, publishedby the University of Minnesota Press in September 2016.Professor Hall says as report by Jack , that " much likeUber customers, who are asked to rate the serviceprovided by their taxi driver, today's students are nowobliged to score the performance of lecturers via internaland external surveys.

According to him "You are going to see highereducation professionals become much more like thestudents who use it," he claimed - a trend that is likelyto undermine efforts to make the academic workforcemore ethnically and socially diverse" He further addedthat "Some will be allowed to operate in this sharingeconomy, and some will find it much more difficult,"

China-EU Education Silk RoadChina Government and Governments of EU countriesare coming together for higher education cooperationand mutual agreement. According to Ministry ofEducation of China "student exchanges and otherimportant areas such as expanding cooperation

between universities and enterprises and cultivatingstudent entrepreneurs and innovation" China signedagreements on the mutual recognition of degrees with19 EU member states, including the UK, France andGermany, There has been significant increase in numberof Chinese students studying in Europe. It accounts fornearly one fourth of Chinese students studying abroad.Similarly, about 11.3 percent of foreign students studyingin China come from EU. The total number of studentsfrom EU studying in China are 45,000 students in 2015.European commissioner for education, culture, youthand sport, Mr. Tibor Navracsics in a meeting said"Education helps us to understand each other betterand build economic and social progress together " Hefurther stated that "We have a solid base to build on:proven initiatives that have enabled us to boostacademic cooperation, to foster student, teacher andresearcher mobility, and to find a common language forthe modernisation of our education systems"Mr Navracsics stated that the support for studentand academic mobility between Europe and Chinavia the EU's Erasmus+ programme, as well as jointcourses being offered by Chinese and Europeaninstitutions.Source & Courtesy : THE [email protected]

UNGA- International Law Commission - Rajput, anIndian gets highest votesUN General Assembly voted for experts on InternationalLaw Commission from various regions. From SouthPacific Region, Mr. Aniruddha Rajput - a 33 year oldSupreme Court Lawyer from India and presentlypursuing Ph.D. got the highest votes for selection to theUN ILC. Rajput got 160 votes, topping the Asia Pacificgroup in the election, which was held through secretballot. Mr. Rajput told to Times of India that, "This is areal honour for me and I want to thank the ministry ofexternal affairs (MEA), especially India's permanentrepresentative to UN Syed Akbaruddin, for their support,"Mr. Shinya Murase from Japan got the second highestnumber of votes in the Asia-Pacific group at 148. Mr.Mahmoud Daifallah Hmoud from Jordan got 146 votes.Mr. Huikang Huang of China got 146 votes. Mr. Ki GabPark from Korea got 136 votes. Other elected to panelare Mr. Ali bin Fetais Al-Marri of Qatar with 128 votesand Mr. Hong Thao Nguyen of Vietnam with 120 votes.The International Law Commission situated in Genevaworks for promotion of International and Its codification.Mr. Rajput has been a prolific writer on Issues of lawand published books , several research and seminarpapers. College Post congratulates him on hisachievement.Source & Courtesy: Times of India News.


ADDRESSING THE ISSUES OF INEQUALITY ANDSUSTAINABILITY OF CAPITALISMRe-writing the Rules of the American Economy-Anagenda for growth and shared prosperityJoseph Stiglitz , published by W.W. Norton & Company,Ic., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York Pp237

The book sets its premises in the introductory chapterwhere the author points out that income of one percentAmerican population has skyrocketed while wages foreveryone has stagnated. He says American Economyrewards gaming and risk rather than hard work andinvestment and has created more inequality than otheradvance countries. Opportunities have beenundermined and the American dream increasinglyappear a myth. He further says "roots of dysfunctionlie deep in the values and power dynamics that haveprioritized corporate power and short term gains at theexpense of long term innovations and growth. Thissituation is not of days making. According to him last35 years have pulled the rug out from under many ofthe traditional conceptions of economic theory andtrajectory of growth." Simon Kuznets -the Nobellaureate was right when he says that: in the initial periodof development inequality would increase, buteventually decrease as the economy becomes moreadvanced. Stiglitz says "While Kuznets observationaccurately described the dramatic decrease ininequality for several decades after world war II, historysince 1970s contradicts his hypothesis. During last fewdecades, the benefits of growth has disproportionatelygone to top 1 percent of the population, the share ofnational income going to bottom 99 percent has fallen."

The chapter on Current Rules begins withstatement that Inequality has been a choice. He says"Beginning of 1070s was a wave of deliberateideological, institutional and legal changes toreconfigure the market place". There were three basicchanges - first - de regulation of market, which wasbelieved to free the economy to thrive, Second-Lowering of tax rates on top incomes so that moneycould flow to private savings and investment instead ofgovernment. Third cut in social welfare to spur peopleto work. It was believed that least governmentintervention, ingenuity of financial sector would helprevitalize the society. Stitglitz says it did not work thatway. America faced financial crisis in 1989 which ledto 1990s recession and how 2008 financial crisis hasled America to deep recession. In fact state had tointervene to save the situation, market did not correctitself. Toll of these reforms, he says was "slower growththan in preceding 30 years and an unbridled increase

Book Reviewin inequality". The deregulation was in fact writing ofnew rules for governing economy which" favoursspecific set of actors". The book analyses rules underdifferent sections which have led to this current situationnamely, more market power, less competition, thegrowth for financial Sector, the end of full employmentmonetary policy, the Stifling of Worker Voice, Sinkingfloor of labour standards, Racial Discrimination, GenderDiscrimination, with greater depth.

The chapter on rewriting of the Rules begins withto quote " To fix the economy for average Americans,we need to tackle the rules and institutions that havegenerated low investment, sluggish growth, and runwayincomes and wealth accumulation at the top andcreated steeper hill for the rest to climb." The authorsuggests re-writing rules in the following broad areastitled as - Taming the Top. There are slew of suggestionfor re-writing. To mention a few : make marketcompetitive, restore balance to Intellectual propertyrights- here his research reference shows that morethan IPR it is DNA of innovations, which hardly botherfinance reward has caused innovations than the IPR .Restore balance to global trade agreements, ControlHealth Care Cost by allowing government bargaining,Balance the rule of bankruptcy by expanding coverageto home owners and students, Fix the financial sector,End too big to fail - this is to avoid damage to economy,regulate the shadow banking sector and end offshorebanking, bring transparency in all financial markets,reduce credit and debit card fee, enforce rules withstricter penalties, reform federal reserve governance,incentivise long term business growth, RestructureCEO Pay, Empower long term stake holders, RebalanceTax and Transfer System , Raise the top marginal rate.Enact a Fair Tax. Encourage U.S. Investment by taxingcorporations on global income and finally Enact progrowth, pro- equality tax policies. In the last chapterGrowing the Middle the author has focused onempowering middle class. His suggestions are : Makefull employment the Goal, Reform monetary policy toprioritize full employment, Reinvigorate publicinvestment.

The report converted into book has tackled issuesof American Economy very effectively and seems tohave moved from theory of supply side economy todemand generated economy, at the same timeattempting to remove middle class discontent.

The book is a must read for economic researchers,policy makers, legislators -who frame rules for peopleslife. The style of communication of Stiglitz is direct andvery persuasive.

GD Sharma SC Sharma

college post, july – september, 2016

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