Year: 2019 | Month: December | Volume 8 | Issue 4
Higher Education in India: History, Nature and Challenges
DOI:10.30954/2249-6637.04.2020.4
Abstract:
Higher education plays an important role in the economic development of a Nation and the sustainable earning of people’s livelihoods. India’s Higher Education system is the world’s third-largest education system after China and the United States, but in terms of Gross Enrollment Ratio it is only 25.8 percent. In the last decade, the gross enrollment rate has gone up sharply in 2016-17 from 2005-06 to 25.8 percent from 8.1 percent. The government wants to increase the share of higher education from 25.8 to 30 percent by the year 2020. Even then it will be less, as the percentage is above 80 in the US and UK. India educates about 20 percent of its youth in the age group of 17–23 who enroll in higher education, compared to 30 percent in China and 91 percent in South Korea. Several new initiatives are being taken by the state and central government to increase the gross enrollment ratio in higher education. Higher education of India is managed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and various councils. The UGC, established under the UGC Act 1956, is empowered to promote and coordinate university education in India and also approves grants. The UGC is responsible for coordinating, determining, and maintaining standards and issuing grants for universities and research organizations. Rapid growth in both enrollment and number of institutions has given rise to new challenges of maintaining the quality of higher education. When the UGC was established in 1956, there were barely 28 universities, 578 colleges at that time, which has now grown to 851 universities and 41012 colleges. The 62-year-old structure of the UGC is unable to meet India’s higher education needs in the 21st century. This is the reason that recently the Ministry of Human Resource Development has released a draft Act to dissolve the UGC and replace it with the Higher Education Commission of India, on which opinion has been sought from academics and general public till 7th July 2018. Rapid growth in both enrollment and number of institutions has given rise to new challenges of maintaining the quality of Higher Education. Today we need such a form of higher education, which can work at National and International level to ensure the right development of the country.
Print This Article Email This Article to Your Friend
