India wil adequater HO

Most of the vice-chancellors admitted that nearly 60% of their faculty did not have a clue on what was new in their field. A low gross enrolment ratio, disparities in male-female schooling ratio, challenges to maintain quality, and academic reforms were identified as problematic areas within higher education.

Talking about the employability of graduates, Balachandra Mungekar, member, Planning Commission, stated that only 8-10% graduates get employment. “Our education system is devoid of being practical within industries. Seven IITs and a few IIMs cannot be considered as a knowledge base for the entire country,” added Mungekar. According to Narendra Jadav, vice-chancellor, University of Pune, the entire education system needs an overhaul, before an expansion is planned. Jadav iterated, “The world’s average enrolment ratio is 23% while we, in the coming 10 years, hope to increase our enrolment ratio to 10%. This in itself speaks of our future plans in higher education. Besides, our curriculum is inadequate as well.”

Qamar Ahsan, vice-chancellor, B N Mandal University, Madhepura, highlighted the need to bridge the rural-urban divide. “The university suffers from lack of quality staff. Most of them are not qualified enough to teach at the university level,” he added. Sudersan Iyer, vice-chancellor, Gujarat Vidyapeeth, opined that each university should also run a school, so that the root-cause of problems existing in the education system could be easily identified.