Page 55 - EW August 2025

Higher

Education

aking higher education
more accessible and sharply
Mupgrading teaching-learn-
ing and research standards in higher
education institutions (HEIs) is a
prime focus area of the National Edu-
cation Policy (NEP) 2020. The higher
education reform proposals of the
66-page NEP 2020 — a remarkable
abbreviation of the 484-page Dr. K.
Kasturirangan Report researched and
written over three years by a commit-
tee of nine academics, mainly former
chancellors of second string Indian
universities, but including Dr. Manjul
Bhargava, professor of mathematics
at the prestigious Princeton Univer- College students: emigration and multinationals preference
sity, USA — starts of with a promis-
ing statement. “Regulation of higher tive as members. Little wonder this ca- a large and multiplying number of
education has been too heavy-handed bal of career bureaucrats and govern- new genre private universities storm-
for decades; too much has been at- ment academics has drafted a policy ing into QS, Times Higher Educa-
tempted to be regulated with too little document which heavily monitors and tion and other global rankings league
effect,” says the very first sentence of supervises HEIs. tables, politicians, if not know-all bu-
the policy’s section titled ‘Transform- As soon as the Kasturirangan Com- reaucrats, have learned that academ-
ing the Regulatory System of Higher mittee’s draft was published your ics is best left to academics.
Education’. editors were highly critical of the re- Promisingly, in its self-congratu-
However, further on, the policy port (see https://educationworld.in/ latory 11 Saal (years) publication to
document contradicts this first state- ew-july-2019-2/) and the NEP 2020 mark the BJP/NDA government’s 11
ment of intent. NEP 2020 mandates policy document. We highlighted years in office at the Centre, there is no
an alphabet soup of regulatory com- that the elaborate supervisory struc- mention of the numerous higher edu-
mittees to oversee “the distinct func- ture militates against the mandate of cation regulatory committees recom-
tions of regulation, accreditation, institutional autonomy. Somewhat mended by the K’Rangan Committee
funding and academic standard set- contradictorily and reluctantly, NEP and dutifully incorporated into NEP
ting” in higher education. Under an 2020 also proposes “graded accredi- 2020.
“umbrella” Higher Education Com- tation and graded autonomy” for pri- On the other hand, 11 Saal congrat-
mission of India (HECI), the policy vate HEIs “having a philanthropic and ulates the BJP/NDA government for
proposes regulation of HEIs by public-spirited intent”. Fortunately several initiatives it has taken to im-
NHERC, NAC, HEGC, GEC, NHEQF — perhaps an outcome of Education- plement NEP 2020 mandates. Among
among other committees. World’s constructive criticism — five them: introduction of the four-year
This is the outcome of the com- years on none of these regulatory com- undergraduate programme; a national
position of the K’Rangan Committee mittees have been constituted, and are ABC (academic bank of credits) digital
chaired by the late Dr. Kasturirangan, unlikely to be in the near future. repository to facilitate certified mul-
who served in government organiza- Indications are that governments tiple exit and re-entry options; phas-
tions including the public sector ISRO at the Centre and in states which are ing out the system of undergrad col-
(Indian Space Research Organiza- formulating their own SEPs (State Ed- leges obliged to affiliate with a parent
tion) through his entire career, and ucation Policies) will prefer to accel- university, and notification of regula-
the committee comprising former erate NEP 2020’s mandate of gradual tions permitting foreign universities
and serving vice chancellors of gov- conferment of autonomy on HEIs, and to establish brick-n-mortar campuses
ernment universities. The committee disparate colleges to “cluster” into in- in India. Deakin University, Australia
didn’t include any private industry or dependent and autonomous universi- inaugurated its campus in GIFT City,
private Indian university representa- ties. One hopes that five years on with Gujarat in early January becoming the

AUGUST 2025 EDUCATIONWORLD 55