Page 60 - EW-January-2026

Cover Story

Runaway subsidisation

ne of the big secrets of Indian education is over-
subsidisation of higher education, an issue about
Owhich there is political and media silence since
most media pundits and others down the pecking order are
beneficiaries. This is iniquitous because over-heavy subsidi-
sation of tuition and residential accommodation in publicly-
funded colleges and universities attended mainly by middle
class students comes at the cost of inadequate provision for
early childhood and primary education.
Rock-bottom tuition fees payable by scholars in the
postgrad, showpiece Central government funded Jawaharlal JNU students: rock-bottom fees. Inset: S.P. Mishra
Nehru University (JNU, estb.1969) are a classic example of
this enduring iniquity. Tuition fees for MA, M.Sc, MCA pro- top-ranked Beijing University, arts and science study pro-
grammes range form Rs.120-10,120 per month. Moreover grammes are priced at Rs.3.35 lakh per year against India’s
hostel accommodation in this wholly residential university top-ranked JNU’s Rs.1,440-121,440.
sited on a green campus in the heart of Delhi where hotel “The degree of subsidisation of higher education in India
room rents average Rs.5,000-10,000 per night, is Rs.240 per is indefensible. Almost 40 percent of the education bud-
month for a single room and Rs.120 for double occupancy. gets of the Central and state governments are allocated for
It’s also pertinent to note that a substantial number of JNU higher education at the expense of public early childhood
Ph D scholars who have cleared the UGC exam are awarded and primary education, with government schools having
UGC/CSIR junior and senior research scholarships ranging to make do with pathetic infrastructure, misgovernance,
from Rs.31,000-35,000 per month. mass teacher absenteeism, multigrade teaching and poor
uch heavy subsidisation of higher education — widely nutrition. The public interest demands the end of universal
Sacknowledged as a personal benefit cf. primary-sec- tuition subisdisation of higher education and introduction of
ondary education which is regarded as a public good — is means tested fees. Under the present system, middle class
exceptional to India. It’s well-known that college/university students in colleges and universities are snatching founda-
fees are sky-high for American school-leavers, and that tional early years learning from poorest children,” says Dr. S.P.
total student debt has reached alarming levels in the US. Mishra, an alum of Bangalore and Pondicherry universities
Likewise, in the UK, it’s normative for school-leavers, to take and currently Promoter-Director of the Hyderabad-based
bank loans to pay for higher education and that loans are India Career Centre, a students counselling firm.
returnable after an income threshold is crossed. In China’s Dilip Thakore

of Sciences, and Indian National Sci- lish professor at JNU in JNU: Nation-
ence Academy. alism and India’s Uncivil War (Rupa,
However the left-liberal dominance 2022)
of JNU is increasingly being chal- Nevertheless, disappointment with
lenged in the post 2014 era. “Not sur- the incumbent administration runs
prisingly, the phenomenon of ‘illiberal deep within the JNU faculty. Last
liberalism’ is as rampant in India as September, JNUTA wrote to Presi-
elsewhere in the free world. The same dent Droupadi Murmu, the official
story of blindness or duplicity, evi- Visitor to JNU, demanding removal
dently, prevails here. LeLi journalist- of Vice Chancellor Santhishree Pandit
intellectuals and the periodicals they over what it described as a “crisis of
patronize, often train their polemical governance” and “lawlessness” in the
guns on the Hindu Right, but seldom institution. The letter also urged the
on Muslim and other forms of ‘minori- President to invoke her powers under
tarian’ intolerance. They soft-pedal Paranjape: illiberal liberalism rampant the Jawaharlal Nehru University Act,
the latter as if it poses no real threat 1966, to annul the termination of Ro-
to Indian liberalism. If Sharia-like lent,” writes Makarand R. Paran- han V.H. Choudhari, an assistant pro-
conditions are imposed on reluctant jape, an alum of St. Stephen’s College, fessor at the Centre for Political Stud-
Muslims in Musim-dominated areas, Delhi and the University of Illinois at ies, citing “unauthorised absence”.
or even on non-Muslims, they are si- Urbana-Champaign and former Eng- Moreover, it alleged that decisions

60 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2026