HIGHER EDUCATION (GENERAL AND TECHNICAL)
University of Calcutta, Calcutta (Seminar held on 19th and 20th September, 1990)
- Concepts of autonomous colleges, accreditation councils etc. should be dropped; modularisation is to be recommended for higher education courses.
- Restriction of further expansion of higher education is in no way beneficial to the country. Development and expansion of higher education should not be counter-posed with universalisation of school education. In the present context higher education should not be geared to a self-financing programme; so increase in tuition fee, etc., at this stage is not welcome.
Gandhi Peace Foundation, 221-23 Dean Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, New Delhi- 110002 (Consultation held on 13th and 14th October; 1990)
- Autonomy of universities must be recognised and respected. It is also important from the point of making them more sensitive and responsive towards and developmental needs of the region.
- Universities should be given endowment funds through which they should be run. Their dependence on annual governmental grants should thus be ended.
- In order that higher education becomes responsive to the developmental needs of the region it is suggested that
* Development agencies be linked to the universities.
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* Expansion of technical education must be in rural areas
* Rural Institutes must be run as community colleges wherein all important rural vocations should be reflected.
- Teachers, students and university administration should be encouraged to solve their problems at their level itself through dialogue, arbitration, tribunals etc.
- Institutions conducting research in social sciences and natural sciences outside of the University frame work should be encouraged.
- The system of affiliated colleges must be abolished for with so that they become autonomous.
Dr. J.K.P. Sinha, Indian Institute of Public Administration, Bihar Regional Branch, Kadamkuan, Patna-800003 (Seminar held at Patna on 9th November; 1990)
- University education should be totally de-politicised and universities should be centres of excellence. The tenure and service conditions of Vice-chancellors should be statutorily defined. The tenure must be for a minimum period of 5 years. Eminent men of outstanding academic achievements should be made the Chancellors of the Universities.
Shri Sanjeev Ghotge, D2, Indra Raj, Near Sheetal, Fergusson Road, Shivajinagar, Pune (2nd November, 1990)
- Vocational training should not be limited to class room, but should be given on an on-the-job situation. It should also be necessary to create textual material in regional languages for the different vocations.
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Shri T. Rajagopalan, Article in the 'Hindu', Madras dated 12th September, 1990
- The concept of autonomous colleges is quite a good one but the way in which it has been implemented in the past especially in Tamil Nadu, it serves little purpose except that of teachers union.
Shri Furgan Qamar, Article in the 'Hindustan Times', New Delhi, dated 16th November, 1990
- The attitude adopted by the Review committee with regard to higher education is damaging. It has adopted the erroneous attitude that higher education is a rival to primary education. The Paper highlights that over the past 30 years or so the share of primary education has come down from 56% to 29% while the share of higher education has increased from 18% to 44% of the education budget. The Committee has taken into account the education budget of the Union Government only. If we take into account the total expenditure on education by the central and State Governments, the share of primary education works out to be around 45% while higher education gets not more than 15%. The expenditure on higher education has been rising at the rate of 8% per annum only which has not even neutralised the effect of inflation. Therefore, the overall expenditure on higher education in real terms has come down. Less than 1% of the GNP is spent on higher education. Only 5% of the population in the relevant age group has access to higher education and it is only 10% of this who is able to receive professional and technical education.
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- The proposal to raise fees at the level of higher education and to make higher education institutions self-sufficient and entirely dependent on the purchasing power of their consumers i.e. (students) is a violation of the principles of social justice and equity. Instead, since the industry and services in private sector happen to be the major beneficiaries of the educated manpower they should be made to bear a substantial portion of educational expenses.
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