T he public discourse on higher education often expresses concern about Indian universities not appearing amongst the top ranking universities of the world. It has attracted greater attention in the recent past as people are gradually becoming more and more conscious about the quality of higher education that stands the test of international comparison. Global experience shows that the key features of the top ranking universities are visionary leadership, outstanding infrastructure, first-rate programs, concentration of talented students and faculty, institutional autonomy, inspiring learning and living environment and an abundance of resources. Currently, Indian higher education is passing through a critical time due to swelling aspirations, rising costs, fierce competition, diminishing returns and declining allocations. It urgently requires higher order schedules of reinforcement which is possible only when higher education is accorded the first and foremost priority.
The concern for achieving higher positions in the world rankings continues to be strong. While world-class higher education institutions can be created ab initio, with a focus on world-class infrastructure and programs, it takes time for the institution to establish a world-class stature in terms of exceptional teaching and research output. But the seed must be sown for some such institutions to harvest everlasting pickings. Enabling some of our existing institutions to emerge as world-class centres of academic excellence can be successfully achieved over a period of time by strengthening them in all possible areas of teaching and research. The National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, which has laid emphasis on developing world-class universities, has provided a wonderful opportunity to realise this long-cherished goal.
Modern societies cannot do without high-quality institutions of higher learning. The current practice for the selection of a university by the parents and students is based on multiple criteria, including the ones that are essentially used by both national and global ranking systems. Thus, global ranking has become one of the necessities for universities. There are multiple agencies which are in the game of global rankings. However, the most prominent amongst them are the QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. It is observed that more than 1,500 universities from across 93 countries participated in the Times rankings during the current year and around 1,000 universities from about 85 different countries in the QS rankings. Though there are about 25,000 universities in the world, hardly six percent of them seem to have participated in these global rankings. However, it is increasingly becoming a symbol of national prestige. Consequently, global rankings are putting enormous pressure on the university system and more so on tierone universities. There are countries which are placing so much of a premium on global rankings that they are providing considerable incentives to their faculty and staff with the view of achieving ace positions on global rankings. Then there are others, who keep dreaming for a good return without significant investments of any kind.
The time has come when the government should seriously work on a long-term policy for higher education funding, without which Indian universities would not be able to register a significant presence in global rankings. The current policy outlined in the annual budget does not cut much ice. The Indian higher education system has been facing a perennial problem of under financing as the public funding support is not keeping pace with the expansion needs of the sector. Starting from the Kothari Commission Report in 1966 and the National Policy on Education in 1968, it had expected that the public expenditure on education will be 6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 1986. But it has remained a distant dream even after the long haul of 64 years. Regrettably, the actual allocations, which invariably fall much short of basic requirements, are not realistic to provide an extra push to Indian universities among global rankings.
It is amply clear from the example of one of our most prestigious research intensive central universities. Stretching over a campus of over 2,300 acres, this university offers only Masters’ and Doctoral level programmes to about 5,000 students under the tutelage of 400 distinguished members of the faculty. The tuition fee for six of its 25 programs is just Rs 510 per semester, and for 13 other programmes, it is in the range of Rs 1,000. It receives an annual grant of about Rs 280 crore from the federal government to meet recurring and capital expenditure. In addition, the university mobilises around Rs100 crore per annum through research grants. It means that the university has to manage its annual operating expenses within Rs 400 crore. As against this, an American researchintensive university situated on a sprawling campus of over 8,000 acres with about 16,000 students and 2,200 faculty members incurs an expenditure of around $1.3 billion on its annual operation. This comparison may not make sense under every possible interpretation due to lack of semblance, but it gives an idea how difficult it is for an Indian university to get into the game of global competition, let alone capture the ace position.
There are different public funding models available across the globe. There are countries where the allocation of public funds is made on the basis of multiple criteria like the number of programs, students, teachers, size of the campus, type of the university, research output, etc. There are others where public funding is linked with performance indicators in terms of the quality of teaching, research, innovation, extension and students’ results. Such a system also ensures a certain amount of stability of resources on a year-to-year basis. There are also models available wherein public funding is determined on the basis of national priorities and specific research grants are provided on a competitive basis. There are some countries which provide specific grants under different heads of expenditure while others allocate block grants to enable universities to determine their own priorities.
In order to face the challenges of globalisation in higher education, the UGC in 2002 had introduced the scheme of Universities with Potential for Excellence (UPE) in order to provide additional financial grants to promote research in focused areas relevant to the socio-economic needs of the country. Five universities were identified on the basis of their research potential. Of them, three were central universities, namely JNU, Hyderabad and NEHU, and two were state universities, namely Jadavpur and Pune. Ten more universities were identified during the second phase of the scheme. These universities were provided additional grants of Rs 75 crore. Some of them were elevated to the second rank as University of Excellence (UE) during the 12th Five-Year Plan with a provision of Rs 100 crore. These universities were also supported through another scheme which was launched in 2005 to give a fillip to Basic Scientific Research (BSR). These schemes, among others, made a significant difference in the academic standing of these universities in global rankings. Had these schemes continued as conceived, these universities would have steadily increased in their rankings. The overwhelming desire to see Indian universities finding respectable positions among global rankings is here to stay. However, the fact remains that our universities lose out heavily on certain parameters like alumni and faculty winning Nobel Prizes, international faculty and student ratio, student-to-faculty ratio, employer reputation, etc. It signifies that besides overcoming these inadequacies to the extent possible, Indian universities need to make concerted efforts to augment the research output which warrants considerable research grants over a protracted period of time.
Some of the ideas like creating a central agency to provide soft loans to educational institutions might cut no ice with public universities as their foundations are not laid on such basic tenets. Moreover, the governance structure of public universities and realms of responsibility and accountability are such that they would rather act as deterrents. It is, therefore, necessary to identify a couple of research-intensive universities and support them to the hilt with no strings attached.
There is a need to have a new strategic policy on higher education funding to provide substantial financial support to research-intensive universities so that they can capture ace positions on global rankings. Since the costs of scientific instruments and operation of research facilities are rising exponentially, earlier research support schemes, which have either been shut down or are on the brink of collapse, need to be revived on an urgent basis. Besides, the government may consider constituting an empowered committee of eminent experts to identify at least 30 to 35 research-intensive universities on the basis of their research potential and academic standing on the NIRF, NAAC and global rankings, and to recommend the quantum of sustainability research grants consistent with the real assessment made by the scientific community. Today’s India is far more resourceful from every standard but it has to be more decisive in its resolve to ensure long-term sufficient financial support to research-intensive universities.
The writer is former Chairman, UGC. The views expressed are personal.