Introduction:
India’s higher education system has expanded rapidly in the last couple of decades and now is one of the largest in the world.
But it is also a substantiated fact that higher education requires latest developments in research and quality doctoral programmes along with a well-established body of knowledge through indigenous and empirical research. And it is possible to transform universities into research universities.
The present higher education system is a two-tier one universities and colleges.
Very few universities in India do good quality research and publish it in reputed international publications.
Therefore, we must have stronger research support and good quality PhDs through research universities.
Present Leading universities: To turn professions into business propositions
At a time when the demand for quality education and research in leading universities in India and advanced nations is on the rise, the staggering tuition fees demanded by universities of repute, besides deterring the meritorious from pursuing their degrees from world-class universities, create compulsions to turn professions into business propositions rather than opportunities to serve and excel.
Carving out a niche in the annals of the global education architecture, New York University’s NYU Grossman School of Medicine announced that from the 2021–22 academic year, it will pay the tuition fees for all its students admitted in its MD programme, regardless of their financial needs, thereby becoming the first major American medical school to do so.
In India too, the burden of tuition fees in professional courses is becoming unbearable.
Besides, it is causing a serious concern of reducing quality professional education to a commodity rather than the noble service that it ought to be.
Educational loans, even with government collateral guarantee, are no answer, as the mounting debt of educational loans will cripple the economy of development and public welfare.
What we need is a university system that fosters an environment of learning in which world-quality education can be provided without taxing learners with the burden of tuition fees.
The Nordic model: Free higher education to their people:
- The Nordic countries — Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden – provide free higher education to their people, and overseas students were able to study for free until recently.
- In Denmark, however, tuition fees were introduced for international students from outside the European Union and the European Economic Area, in 2006. Sweden followed suit in 2011.
- Only Finland, Norway, Iceland, and Germany do not charge international students tuition fees.
- This ensures that students receive quality education in the streams that they desire rather than pursuing streams that allow them to earn highly so as to repay their student debt.
- In January 2022, the Nordic model has attracted a significant amount of attention from other nations.
- Many people wonder if it provides a template for smaller countries where citizens are more homogeneous in terms of their opinions and experiences, yet live in poverty or repression as a result of government policies.
- Despite some attempts to impose fees, all these countries are outliers in a world where international students are frequently a valuable source of revenue for institutions.
- Last year, the topic resurfaced in Finland when the government recommended that institutions be allowed to charge tuition for international students from outside the European Union.
- Following a heated public debate, the Finnish government opted not to proceed with the proposals.
- All Nordic countries have a strong legacy of equality, extending to equal opportunities in the education system.
- The Nordic countries have measures in place to promote gender equality and assist students from lower socioeconomic categories to gain access to higher education.
- It is no wonder that these countries continue to figure in top of the world happiness index (Finland at No.1, Denmark at No. 2, Iceland at No.4, Norway at No.8 and Germany at No.14, as per the World Happiness Index 2022).
Objectives of Higher Education:
The Radhakrishanan Commission (1948) comprehended the objectives of higher education a:
1.Discovering the innate qualities of individuals and developing them through suitable training,
2.Creating the sentiments of national discipline,
3.International awareness,
4.Intellectual development, justice, freedom, equality and brotherhood,
5.Developing an intellectual attitude towards things and
6.Encouraging growth of knowledge among the youth,
7.Emphasizing social reform through the creation of sighted,
8.Intelligent and courageous leadership and making endeavor for the success of democracy.
In the same way, the National Policy on Education (1968) gauged the objective of education as “promoting national progress, a sense of common citizenship and culture and strengthening national integration”.
Reviving philanthropy and community support:
- Universities need funds for education and research. Education is a noble service and an investment to charter a bright future for humanity.
- If students pay for education, they would be forced to earn from the degrees they acquire.
- The profession then becomes a privilege to earn rather than a privilege to serve and excel, as it ought to have been.
- There is a strong case for reviving philanthropy and community support for higher education in India.
- Corporates, generous alumni, and people at large can join in to create strong philanthropic support for higher education and make quality education tuition-free.
- The government, for its part, should be generous enough to declare such philanthropic donations to the cause of higher education and research tax-free, now that the treasury is full of funds from the ever-growing list of income tax and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) payers.
What India needed now?
- What is required is to cultivate good work ethic, good quality research work and rewards system, sponsored project programmes and to encourage contribution and collectivism.
- Internationalization of higher education, indigenous and empirical research and innovation and movement of students globally needs to be encouraged so they learn and then return to their own society.
- Institutes need more autonomy and the size and scope of interdisciplinary subjects needs to be increased.
- Acceptance of PhD theses should not be based on how much is written but on quality and the contribution to knowledge pedagogy.
- In India, usually a PhD thesis is more than 300 pages long. But in Western universities, it is even okay to write a thesis in 70 pages. We need to focus on quality of research.
- Also, India needs to increase Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education from the current 26.3 per cent to at least 50 per cent by 2035.
Way Ahead:
Investment in education is made with the expectation that it will lead to a brighter future in terms of professional and personal growth.
However, it is time to retire the misplaced notion that a degree equals knowledge.
We need to ensure that the institutes of higher education provide a breeding ground for creativity, allowing individuals to explore their potential.
It is even more important in the Indian context to get this right to benefit from the demographic dividend rather than it acting as a trigger point for massive unrest down the line.
Conclusion:
Education has long been touted to play a key role in reducing socio-economic inequalities.
Multiple studies, both in India and abroad, have reaffirmed the belief that higher education leads to better financial outcomes.
An entire generation was raised on the premise that education would be their ticket to financial independence.
Fuelled by massive public and private funding, gross enrolment ratios increased significantly across the globe.
The ultimate purpose of higher education is to produce more qualified human resources, building positive kinds of teaching-learning environments and creating good researchers.
