Strengthening higher education

NITI Aayog focus on raising quality of state public universities is welcome, but it must not neglect support to self-financed higher education institutions

- FURQAN QAMAR

regional development. The report has many suggestions to improve the quality of education in SPUs. The most critical ones involve creating and maintaining quality infrastructure and augmenting teaching-learning, research resources, and facilities. It argues that SPUs suffer from insufficient government financial support for maintenance, establishment, development, research and innovation. This leads to faculty shortages, deteriorating student-teacher ratios, and appointment of faculty on a contractual basis, which are the banes of SPUs. Deficiencies in leadership, management, and governance must also be addressed to improve curricula, pedagogy, industry interface, placement, and career progression.

Universities can learn a lot from one another, and this is where the NITI Aayog report is of immense value. It shares the experiences of many states with strategies, plans of action, and road maps for improving quality and promoting excellence in public universities. It assesses ground realities, takes a balanced view, and argues for enhancing public funding of higher education. It also candidly admits that allocation for education, including higher education, has failed to increase, although the viability of funds with state governments has grown a lot.