Indifference to academic excellence

The current debate on higher education has centred on privatisation, reservation, control and governance of Indias universities and colleges. There is little discussion on education quality. Yet some questions need to be posed: Do Indias 21,000 colleges and 430 universities deliver quality education appropriate for a growing and rapidly changing economy? Do college students acquire the skills that would equip them for productive employment? These issues have not yet entered most conversations on higher education reforms, even though numerous studies and surveys in recent years have given our ivory towers average-to-failing grades for the services they deliver.In 2005, a survey conducted by the National Association of Software and Service Companies and the McKinsey World Institute found that 75 percent of Indias 350,000 engineering graduates who are certified every year, are unemployable in global-standard IT companies. Another study published in the McKinsey Quarterly showed that only 10-25 percent of arts, science and commerce graduates are suitable for employment without further training. These shocking statistics depict how inefficient, static and inert our institutions of higher educa-tion have become, and how utterly ill-equipped and unwilling they are to adapt to the needs of the new economy. Approximately 80 percent of colleges in the country fall within the purview of the University Grants Commission (UGC). Yet as UGC chairman Sukhadeo Thorat admitted in a 2006 Nehru Memorial lecture, 60 percent of these colleges have never been assessed for accreditation by the commission. In 1994 UGC established the National Assessment and Accreditation Council to evaluate the performance of universities and colleges in the country, but only 18 percent of Indias 21,000 colleges have been accredited by the council. Likewise thus far, UGC has assessed half of Indias 430 universities, and has acknowledged a mere 4 percent as universities with potential for excellence. In short, both internal and external evaluations dont give even pass marks to Indias colleges and universities. Yet curiously the student community isnt outraged. Why dont students demand quality education? Its amazing that although every college and university in the country has a student union, their representatives rarely demand academic excellence. Student ‘leaders use election to unions as a stepping stone for careers in politics, and thus have little incentive to improve education quality. On the contrary, student unions across the country pride themselves on their politicking abilities and can get exams postponed, classes canceled, and force strikes very effectively. Moreover they are quick to turn belligerent on the issue of raising college tuition fees. But they seem to have no sense about the value of the time that students spend in acquiring college education, and there is no outrage within the student community that by settling for low quality education, their futures are shortchanged. The point is that there is an amazingly low level of concern within student organisations about academic excellence. It seems to me that Indian society has decided to settle for a low-price, low-quality equilibrium in education. Since tuition is a small fraction of the actual cost of college…