The Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) of the Government of India states on its website that, “The quantum growth in the Higher Education sector is spear-headed by Universities, which are the highest seats of learning.”
The content on the website, which was last updated on 19 May 2015 at the time of writing this post, provides facts and figures on the state of higher education in India, with a special mention on the growth of Indian universities since 1950. It goes something like this:
“Higher Education sector has witnessed a tremendous increase in the number of Universities / University level Institutions & Colleges since Independence. The number of Universities has increased 34 times from 20 in 1950 to 677 in 2014. The sector boasts of 45 Central Universities of which 40 are under the purview of Ministry of Human Resource Development, 318 State Universities, 185 State Private universities, 129 Deemed to be Universities, 51 Institutions of National Importance (established under Acts of Parliament) under MHRD (IITs – 16, NITs – 30 and IISERs – 5) and four Institutions (established under various State legislations). The number of colleges has also registered manifold increase of 74 times with just 500 in 1950 growing to 37,204, as on 31st March, 2013.”
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This should be very good news for our Indian students who are graduating from high schools this year to seek admissions in colleges and universities as a prelude to their career plans. Yet, a couple of days ago, the Indian media released some disconcerting news while quoting a recent ASSOCHAM study on Skilling India: Empowering Indian Youth through World Class Education which, apparently, presented facts and figures supporting a ‘brain drain’ from the country as far as college or university education is concerned.
One such news report from Business Standard ran the headline Lack of quality higher education, limited seats forcing 6.8 lakh students to study abroad: ASSOCHAM study and went on to state that, “In search of quality of higher education and growing competition for limited seats available in the existing institutions compel nearly 6.8 lakh Indian students to study abroad, reveals ASSOCHAM recent study.”
The news report explained:
“An important reason for many Indians choosing to study abroad is the lack of good institutions in India and growing competition for limited seats amongst the existing institutes. Very few universities in India provide good quality education and thus the challenge of securing admission in them becomes more daunting each year said ASSOCHAM Secretary General Mr D. S. Rawat.”
The ASSOCHAM study, titled Skilling India: Empowering Indian Youth through World Class Education, is available for purchase from ASSOCHAM. You can access the Business Standard news report here.
[Citation: Department of Higher Education. MHRD, Government of India website; Lack of quality higher education, limited seats forcing 6.8 lakh students to study abroad: ASSOCHAM study, Business Standard, 26 June 2015.]
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