Page 38 - EW May 2020 for Flipbuilder

Cover Story

pathetic condition countrywide.
For instance, tuition and residence
fees in the Central government-funded
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU),
which has an annual budget of Rs.200
crore, average less than the Rs.300 per
year and room charges are Rs.0.23 per
night for 60 percent of its middle class
students. When these next to nothing
fees were proposed to be raised last
year, the JNU Students Union and
faculty led by the Delhi University
Teachers Association (DUTA) were up
in arms, forcing a freeze. Their ratio-
nale: 40 percent of the student body is
from bottom-of-pyramid households
and cannot afford any rise in tuition
and accommodation fees. The op-
tion of restricting over-subsidisation Dr. Natarajan: great contribution Dr. Kasturirangan: encouragement call
to poor students and means testing
the rest hasn’t found any resonance ates,” comments D r. R . N a ta ra j a n , Organisation, ex chancellor of JNU,
within this reportedly island of higher former director of IIT-Madras and former director of the National Insti-
education excellence. former chairman of AICTE. tute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore
In India’s government colleges and and currently chancellor of the Central
universities students’ fees contribute HE IMPORTANT contribu- University of Rajasthan and the pri-
less than 5 percent to institutional T tion of private universities vate NIIT University.
budgets against the global norm of 20 in the higher education Against this backdrop of a new,
percent. Universal — rather than tar- space is also acknowledged high-potential crop of private univer-
geted — over-subsidisation of univer- by D r. K ris h n a s w a m y K a s tu ri- sities emerging as affordable alterna-
sity education doesn’t seem to bother ra n g a n , chairman of the eponymous tives to the estimated 110,000 school
well-remunerated tenured academics nine-member high-powered com- and college leavers who join the an-
of DUTA who tend to express great mittee which has drafted the com- nual scramble to enroll in expensive
concern about “commercialisation of prehensive 477-page draft National universities abroad which costs the
education” and routinely trash pri- Education Policy 2019, submitted to Indian economy an estimated $10 bil-
vate universities as elitist. They seem the Union HRD ministry a year ago, lion in foreign exchange every year, in
comprehensively unaware that most and now in the final stages of being the pages following we present league
new genre private universities practise translated into the official National tables rating India’s most well-reput-
needs-blind admission policies and Education Policy 2020. ed private universities, government
liberally offer means-tested scholar- “It’s very important that there is universities and private B-schools on
ships to students. flexibility, choice, competition and ten parameters of higher education
“Promotion of private universities, alternative models of institutions pro- excellence and their relative standing
especially philanthropic institutions, viding higher learning and research. inter se.
should be encouraged because it is Diversity of institutional models, com- The millions of secondary school-
impossible for government to meet petition, funding flexibility and vari- leaving students who don’t make the
the entire demand for higher educa- ety of choice will enrich the country’s cut for admission into the few dozen
tion. In this connection it’s important higher education system and better top-ranked private autonomous, gov-
to bear in mind that 75 percent of en- prepare our graduates for the complex ernment autonomous and non-auton-
gineering colleges in India are private and uncertain future they will have to omous (ranked separately in our April
and have made a great contribution face. Therefore private universities, issue) colleges are advised to carefully
to nation-building. Therefore, I am especially philanthropic institutions peruse the national, state and param-
against official curbs imposed upon of advanced learning, need to be given eters league tables set out in the pages
private liberal arts universities, al- importance and encouragement,” says following. Making the right choice
though I am doubtful about the capa- Kasturirangan, the erudite former could shape your destiny in the new
bility of the Indian economy to absorb chairman (1994-2003) of the global- VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex
a larger number of liberal arts gradu- ly-respected Indian Space Research and ambiguous) age that has dawned.

38 EDUCATIONWORLD MAY 2020