Education in general and higher education in particular, is the prerequisite of social and economic development. It‚s because this linkage has been proven beyond doubt that every country is now pouring money into education. To their credit the industrial nations of the first world became aware of this linkage almost a century ago, and are reaping the advantages of their sound educational systems and high quality research capabilities which convert knowledge into wealth. Therefore they attract the best brains from around the world into their education systems and research programmes, which converts into human capital. On the other hand the developing nations of the third world are struggling because they lack good education systems and/or research and development (R&D) capability. Consequently they are out of the race to build ‚Ëœknowledge economies‚. Indian education is at the crossroads, confronted with divergent issues. At one level mass access to education has to improve and at the other, the education being delivered has to be relevant and qualitatively superior. The attainment of either or both these goals requires considerably greater investment in education. The Kothari Commission had recommended government (Centre plus states) spending at a minimum of 6 percent of GDP in 1966. But it remains less than 4 percent. Meanwhile discussions and debates in Indian academia centre around whether education should be a ‚Ëœmerit‚ or ‚Ëœnon-merit‚ good; at what level and how much foreign investment should be allowed into the education sector, and what should be the modalities of participation by private education providers. The absence of any clear and well-defined long-term policy and debating of half-hearted proposals based on political expediency is compounding the confusion. In reality it‚s a free-for-all situation across the entire education spectrum ‚ primary to tertiary. Private education providers are ubiquitous in primary, secondary and higher education with little control over the cost or quality of education provided by them. The late 1990s witnessed the transformation of a growing number of private professional colleges into deemed-to-be (or deemed) universities, which promised to promote teaching and research in emerging disciplines such as IT, biotechnology and genetic sciences. Instead a large number of self-financed engineering, medical and pharmacy colleges were granted deemed-to-be university status. These mainly family-run deemed universities admit students from across India, and a recent judgement of the Supreme Court allows them to charge ‚Ëœreasonable‚ fees determined by them. Consequently capitation levies and ‚Ëœreasonable‚ (high) tuition fees have been legitimised and are the prerequisite of admission into deemed universities. Indeed the Central government is creating favourable conditions for the promotion of private colleges as witnessed by recent decisions of the Union HRD ministry and University Grants Commission (UGC) on promotion of deemed universities. Earlier promoters had to have a record of involvement in charitable and social work to establish a deemed university whether of de novo status or by clubbing educational institutions affiliated to a public university. But currently under a new law, UGC can exempt organisations from establishing a separate trust or society to promote a…
