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Saturday, 14 August 2010

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Matters of concern

The Government has taken a decision to invite foreign universities to open campuses in the country. Beside, the private sector will also get a chance to establish and run tertiary education centres including universities.

In the background of hundreds of thousands of qualified students failing to get admission to the universities due to lack of vacancies this is a welcome move. Already several institutions are running degree awarding courses in association with foreign universities. There is also a heavy demand for more such institutions.

In the meantime, several political parties and groups as well as the University students have expressed their opposition to the move. Some of them are moved perhaps by insecurity of their future or a fear that State universities may get step-motherly treatment and their rankings would go down further.

Given the low standards in the university system and the deficiencies in capital and human resources these apprehensions are understandable. Yet there is no rational basis for the opposition to the private sector universities.

However, there are two matters of concern. First is the lack of a regulatory body and minimum academic standards that these new private universities should follow. Now that there is no such body. It is impossible for the students to assess their suitability before applying for admission. There are also no criteria to decide upon the course contents.

Either the University Grants Commission should be empowered to act as a regulator or a separate statutory regulatory body should be constituted.

A second matter of concern is the lack of resource personnel in the country to undertake teaching and research activities of a large number of universities that would come up as a result of the opening of the education sector.

Already the present universities are short of qualified academic staff. This is largely due to the low salaries and lack of research facilities at the universities. It is well known that some of the GCE qualified in the mercantile sector earn much more than university professors. It is this situation that has led to many academics leaving the country for greener pastures abroad. Further, the academics are less recognized by the State and even the society than cricketers and the like. Their commitment and dedication is not recognized. In this context, one should really appreciate the few who stay whatever hardships they face.

The poor conditions of service of the academia in the universities pose another danger. That is the danger of at least some of them being lured to the private sector to the detriment of the State universities.

It is often said the opening of the higher education sector would pose a challenge to the State universities as they would have to compete with foreign or private universities. Whether they would have the resources to do so is a moot point. If they do not have them, wouldn’t they decline in academic standards further? If it happens students from low income families, who constitute the majority now, would be at a distinct disadvantage.

Therefore, the Government would have to ensure that there would be equity in the allocation of resources to the universities. Just as the lack of competent teachers proficient in English and in the subjects taught handicapped many schools with the introduction of the English Language stream in AL classes, the same problem may arise in a much greater scale with the establishment of private universities.

It is easy for the private sector to put up physical infrastructure but the provision of the social infrastructure will be problematic. Hence, the need for concerned pre-planned measures to address this problem as soon as possible.

If the State universities are to endure there is an urgent need to reform the system. There should be better academic freedom, less interruptions due to trade union action or student agitation, modernized and up-to-date course content and greater choice for students to choose disciplines, coordination of academic teaching and research programs, pooling of resources among universities , establishment of industry-university links and much more to develop them as centres of excellence. As they are already established, they have certain advantages which should be used to maximum advantage.
 

N M

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