Learning to grow: India needs greater investment in higher education

The NITI Aayog’s policy report entitled “Expanding Quality Higher Education through States and State Public Universities” tackles head-on the key problem that has contributed to the dismal state of academic standards in such institutions. Its broad recommendations are for a greater degree of fee autonomy, a draft research policy, a dedicated infrastructure-finance agency, tax exemptions, and encouraging corporate social responsibility for state public universities (SPUs). NITI Aayog Vice-Chairperson Suman Bery pointed out that in advanced countries public universities set the standard for excellence. This is certainly true of public higher-education institutions in the US, Germany, and China. In India, outside the Indian Institutes of Management and Indian Institutes of Technology, and some notable central universities and specialist institutions, the quality of public higher education leaves much to be desired. Given that 80 per cent of India’s higher education takes place in SPUs, it would be no exaggeration to say that there is a crisis of quality in this critical branch of the Indian education system.

 

The principal problem, as the report makes clear, is not just inadequate investment in higher education but also the poor quality of spending. High-literacy states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana top per-youth spenders on higher education, but the divergence among states is wide. Remarkably, the study found that in terms of higher-education expenditure as a percentage of gross state domestic product, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, and Manipur ranked among the highest. Since these states are not reputed for the quality of their institutions of higher education, it is worth wondering how productively this money is being spent. The question that the NITI Aayog attempts to address is how states can achieve more bang for the buck spent on higher education. The 80-odd policy-detailed recommendations set out short-, medium-, and long-term goals, implementation strategies, the actors responsible for implementing the recommendations, and over 125 performance-success indicators. These recommendations have been compiled after stakeholder consultations held with state-government officers of higher- and technical-education departments from over 20 states and Union Territories, vice-chancellors and senior academicians of 50 SPUs, and chairpersons of several state higher-education councils.

 

The broad focus on stepping up research capabilities and “improving pedagogy” is unexceptionable. Creating centres of excellence aligned to a National Research Policy and building multi-disciplinary education and research universities to bridge gaps between research and education are also sound suggestions. The issue comes down to whether states have the monetary and institutional resources to make such ground-breaking changes that aim to transform universities from being mere teaching shops to turning meaningful research institutions. Though states’ expenditure on education has been falling as a percentage of GSDP over the past decade, the fact is that more than 85 per cent of public education spending is covered by the state governments. Overall public expenditure on education (Centre plus states) is also woefully short of the National Education Policy target of 6 per cent of GDP. Flexible fee structures may partially address this problem but could have the unintended consequence of excluding less affluent students. Given the demands on state finances, the Centre may need to take the lead. The demographic dividend and global competitiveness that India can hope to derive from its youth population are critically dependent on the quality of higher education it delivers.