India's opportunity in higher education

Let universities compete their way to quality - with complete autonomy to do so

The last four decades have seen rapid growth in our higher education system, raising the proportion of the relevant age group in higher education from 6 per cent to 26 per cent. In the mid 2000s, when growth peaked, India opened one engineering and management college each day. This growth has been highly skewed: In professional fields, in undergraduate education, and in the private sector.  The net effect of this skew is a massive quality problem.

Consider enrolment in undergraduate engineering programmes, which have grown over 40 times in 40 years.  

To even keep the quality of engineering education level at what