Autonomy Oils the Wheels of Higher Education Excellence : Daily Current Affairs

Date: 12/11/2022

Relevance: GS-2: Issues Relating to the Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, and Human Resources.

Key Phrases: QS world university ranking, higher educational institutions, Times Higher Education (THE) ranking, Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), University Grants Commission (UGC), Autonomy of institutions, National Education Policy 2020.

Why in News?

None of India’s institutions of higher education appears in the list of the top 100 universities of the world.
The best universities in the world are flush with funds. Critically, they insist and get a great degree of academic, administrative, and financial autonomy.
Autonomy is regarded as a necessary and sufficient condition to attain excellence. In tandem, they allow a fairly high degree of autonomy to institutions under their jurisdiction.

World rankings and India:

The 2023 edition of the QS world university ranking reckons that three of India’s higher educational institutions are among the top 200 in the world.
Another three are counted among the top 300 whereas two more are in the top 400.
The Times Higher Education (THE) ranking places only one Indian institution among the top 400 of the world. It is the same as the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
Ranking of best universities in India:
- Barring one of the most eminent public-funded deemed universities of the country, all the rest are Institutions of National Importance (INIs) — the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), to be specific.
- They are not only better funded but also generally self-governed, enjoying a greater degree of autonomy as they fall outside the regulatory purview of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
- In contrast, the best-ranked university in the country falls in the rank brackets of 521-30 by the QS, in the 801-1000th bracket by THE, and in the 601-700th bracket by the ARWU.
UGC-funded universities:
- Funded through the University Grants Commission (UGC), universities are all subject to a very strict regulatory regime.
- Abiding by UGC regulations and AICTE guidelines, encompasses almost all aspects of their functioning be it faculty recruitment, student admission, and the award of degrees.
- In many cases, they are micro-managed by the regulatory authorities. Therefore, most of them have become so comfortable with the practice that they rarely assert their autonomy.
- Central universities in the country are also ranked on the basis of their ‘obedience’ to regulatory compliances.
- Even in the academic domain, many of them are comfortable in publicly stating that they have adopted the model curricula, pedagogy, and syllabi prescribed by the regulatory bodies, even though the same may have been only indicative.

Reasons for lower ranking:

Management of Indian education faces challenges of over-centralization, bureaucratic structures, and lack of accountability, transparency, and professionalism.
Increasing interference of politicians in the management
Lack of Infrastructure
Lack of Research and Development facilities and inadequate research grants
Faculty shortages and the inability of the state educational system to attract and retain well-qualified teachers
Interruptions by students organize campaigns
Lack of Autonomy

Autonomy is prime:

The best universities in the world are continuously sensitized about the importance of their autonomy and are trained and enabled to make their own decisions.
The European University Association (EUA), for example, prescribes a ‘university autonomy tool’ that lets each member university compare its level of autonomy vis-à-vis the other European higher education systems across all member countries.
By focusing on four autonomy areas (organizational, financial, staffing, and academic) the EUA computes composite scores and ranks all the countries in Europe.

Importance to autonomy in New Education policy:

A large number of commissions and committees, including the national policies on education (including the National Education Policy 2020), have highlighted the need for higher education autonomy.
The new education policy seeks to completely overhaul the higher education system, and to attain this objective, repeatedly emphasizes the need for institutional autonomy.
The NEP regards academic and administrative autonomy as essential for making higher education multi-disciplinary, and that teacher and institutional autonomy are a sine qua non in promoting creativity and innovation.
The policy considers a lack of autonomy as one of the major problems of higher education and promises to ensure faculty and institutional autonomy through a highly independent and empowered board of management that would be vested with academic and administrative autonomy.
It argues for a ‘light but tight’ regulatory framework and insists that the new regulatory regime would foster a culture of empowerment.
It says that by relying on a robust system of accreditation, all higher education institutions would gradually gain full academic and administrative autonomy.

Conclusion:

Higher learning centres in ancient India enjoyed no less academic, administrative, and financial autonomy than the most autonomous universities in the world today.
Forcing higher educational institutions to follow uniform standardized rules and regulations run counter to what the NEP provides for.
Micromanagement of student admission, faculty recruitment, course contents, program delivery, and administration is a sure-fire recipe to take higher education farther away from excellence.

Source: The Hindu

Mains Question:

Q. What factors contribute to Indian universities' inferior standing in global institutional rankings? Give some suggestions on how India might regain its former position as "a home to world-class institutions."