By 2020, India needs to provide 40 million university spots.
By Syed Iqbal Hasnain
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his US trip appealed to corporations to invest in India for manufacturing. He has promised fast track legislative changes to place new policies. At all stops, he reminded the American leadership and Indian American community that India is fortunate to have its 60% population under 35 years age.
Modi argued that young and skilled human resources will be a great asset and main driver of economic growth. Nevertheless, the reality is scary as India has low rate of enrollment in higher education, at only 18%, compared with 26% of China and 36% in Brazil. By 2020, the Indian government aims to achieve 30% gross enrollment, which will mean providing 40 million university spots, an increase of 14 million in six years.
The upfront challenge is to increase enrollment in higher education without compromising equity and excellence. India can surely quadruple its GER (Gross Enrollment Ratio) if it decides to open at least 500 US type community colleges across the nation.
They can be established as autonomous colleges accredited by national agencies. Therefore, a national network of community colleges can play a key role in increasing the number of college graduates and helping more Indians get the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in an increasingly interconnected world.
US type community colleges with their open-access model and low tuition fees are gateways to opportunities whether a student’s goal is to transfer to a four-year institution or to immediately join the work force.
Community colleges provide the preparation, training and service that are needed for success. Under this system, students can enroll part-time or full-time. Many have jobs, families and other obligations. They offer flexibility to earn a degree or certificate at rapid pace.
Underprepared students can take developmental courses to prepare for college level work. Students also have opportunities to earn a degree entirely online. Community colleges are flexible to design their curricula to match local labor market condition and relevant to today’s economy and job market.
They are committed to providing job relevant educational opportunities to a broad population of students in their local communities. And their graduates are finding that they are able to participate in a knowledge-based economy, which demands a far level of credentialing and skill development than ever before.
Modi should push hard academic bureaucracy and give a time-line to establish a network of community colleges in order to meet workforce demands to sustain future economic growth. First, it will relieve the pressure on state colleges and universities with burgeoning enrollments of qualified students.
Second, it will standardize the first two years of a bachelor’s degree in the State – in Arts, Sciences and Commerce – and the curriculum for that degree at each institution. This allows for student mobility.
Third, it will democratize higher education to the masses and allow either a seamless transition to work upon completion of the two-year degree or, based upon the student’s marks, to any college or university in the State or center for the completion of the four-year degree.
The globally respected Indian higher education system was systematically destroyed during UPA’s first rule by Arjun Singh when was allowed to open many new Indian Institutes of Technology without minimum infrastructure facilities. Students admitted during the first couple of years were routinely transferred to old IIT campuses, down grading their academic and laboratory facilities.
More than 300 deemed to be universities were also given permission to be full-fledged universities during Singh’s time, disregarding basic norms. Many are on paper even to this day.
Similarly, UPA two signed MOU with American Association of Community Colleges to start 200 community colleges across India. The Ministry of Human Resources Development identified All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) as a nodal agency to implement the scheme. AICTE conveniently decided that all approved polytechnics will act as community colleges by introducing few courses for community development.
In reality all institutes approved by AICTE are closed system. Whereas, US type community colleges are open-access institutions.
It’s a huge challenge for Modi to change mind-set of the Ministry of Human Resource Development and University Grants Commission for his forward looking agenda.
(Syed Iqbal Hasnain is former Vice-Chancellor, University of Calicut, Kerala and Professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi).
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Not only would this program boost the ratio of the numbers of students completing at least two years of college, either technical or academic, but it will also increase the standard of living for the millions of Indians unable to either gain admittance to a Central (national) university or afford the cost of attending one of the many private (sometimes marginal) colleges and universities. This is the way to lift millions out of poverty in India, and to help India compete globally in the long-term. If Modi can do this, there will be monuments erected in his honor – even in the primarily Muslim towns and villages of India.
Not only would this program boost the ratio of the numbers of students completing at least two years of college, either technical or academic, but it will also increase the standard of living for the millions of Indians unable to either gain admittance to a Central (national) university or afford the cost of attending one of the many private (sometimes marginal) colleges and universities. This is the way to lift millions out of poverty in India, and to help India compete globally in the long-term. If Modi can do this, there will be monuments erected in his honor – even in the primarily Muslim towns and villages of India.