Future of Higher Education

So, i will be continuing with the topic of Higher Education, but this post is about its administrative aspects an the role of government in it...

The role of any government in education must be restricted to a very active role in providing primary education to the entire population of this country at any cost and in case of higher education, to only don a regulatory role. Providing quality primary education will provide adequate mental maturity to the children, from where on they can in consultation with parents make their own choices on higher education. The government of course can continue to provide financial assistance to poor students. However, funding higher education endeavours of a substantial number of students irrespective of whether they need financial assistance or not, by funding several institutes of higher education, without at the same time making them accountable to produce students who serve the nation is unwarranted and unacceptable.

All higher educational institutes currently funded or managed by the government like IITs, IIMs, NITs, IIITs and state funded universities such as OU or SVU in Andhra Pradesh, Anna University in Tamil Nadu, Delhi University, etc. must be privatized with immediate effect. No funding must be provided to the institutes themselves, and FDI must be welcomed in the higher education sector. The collective brand name on which these institutes have banked for so long would then cease to exist. This will lead to competition among domestic institutions (hopefully privately owned) and also competition with other foreign institutions which will force the institutes to come out of their shell, rapidly expand and dramatically improve the quality of faculty and infrastructure. This move will also relieve the institutes from the shackles of bureaucracy, inefficiency and corruption (The bureaucratic environment prevailing in these “autonomous” institutes is well exemplified by the recent death due to negligence of hospital authorities in the IIT Kharagpur campus).

One might ask, what of those students who cannot afford to fork out lakhs of rupees every year in order to avail such education. It is well known that foreign institutions of similar calibre charge tuition fee around $5000 per semester for bachelors and masters programmes. Withdrawal of government funding owing to privatization along with the profit making motive and the expansion overdrive into which these institutes would fall would result in a similar fee structure in India as well which would mean that it would cost students 2-3 lakh Indian rupees per semester in order to cover their tuition expenses for graduate programmes.

Here is where the government can play an active role. On the basis of the financial circumstances of a student and his family, the government themselves must provide educational loans to these students with minimal strings attached. The government can either directly provide cash to the students to pay their fee or issue government securities to them which can be encashed in banks or sold in the bond market for cash. The students of course will have to provide proof that this money is being used for the payment of fee. The students who wish to avail such a loan will have to sign a bond which requires repayment of the loan in EMIs starting 2 years after they complete their education. This would churn out profits for the governments akin to banks since the government would charge interest on the loans offered. If students fail to repay the loan within a stipulated time period they will have to work on a government job for a nominal salary for a stipulated period of time in return of the loan waiver.

In order to ensure, however, that these individuals perform well on the government job, they should be provided with a performance based incentive system ensuring more money and access to government loans at low interest rates for competent individuals. This way no student who is smart enough to receive admission into these institutes will be denied education due to financial constraints. At the same time, the institutes themselves would be much better off as they would work towards profiting, work against competition, to provide high quality education. Not brand name but results delivered on the ground will then be used to judge these institutions. Their profitability and survival would be determined by their performance and competence. The government can still play a regulatory role ensuring smooth and corruption-free administration in these institutions, while also capping their profit margins at a reasonable level in order to avoid exploitation and exorbitantly high cash reserves. A separate regulatory authority can be set up to regulate the functioning of the higher education system in India. This way, the government also can effectively use the human and monetary capital otherwise used to fund and monitor these institutes in other areas of social governance.

Considering the fact that most students from such prestigious institutes land in high paying corporate jobs, the number of defaults in loan payments, one would expect, would be considerably low. Also, the government sends out a clear message that one needs to be accountable when one expects to receive generous help from the government. The inclusion of such educated talent in the government execution machinery, if they fail to repay the loan offered, can do wonders for the corrupt and inefficient bureaucratic system which currently prevails. The message being sent out to the educated youth of this country by adopting such a stance would be that the state is more than willing to offer generous help to any individual in need, however the individual would also be expected to be accountable and reciprocate by offering his services to the state whenever and wherever necessary. One of the greatest world leaders in human history, John F Kennedy, once said “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. The message to send out today to the youth of this country would be “Demand from your country for whatever you need and offer to do for your country whatever you can”. Signing blank cheques to these institutes of higher education without making them accountable to the nation for providing leaders to serve this country is absolutely unjustifiable and must stop immediately.

Well, we will be going a bit off-topic in the next post, which i thought was necessary.