Budget 2014: Higher education sector's wishlist and realities

New government, new budget! Everyone is expecting some major budgetary changes under the new Modi government. Talks about how to raise money, control inflation are doing the rounds. 

But what about education sector? 

In the last two budgets by P Chidambaram, Rs 16,210 crore was allocated to higher education. Along with it, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and a moratorium period for all education loans was introduced. With CSR, private players have made inroads into education sector.

So what significant changes will take place in the higher education sector under the current BJP rule? 

To understand this, first, let's take a look at the new voters, the young adults of India. According to various news reports, 150 million 18-year-old to 23-year-old young adults voted for the first time. A majority of these young adults seemed to have voted in favour of BJP government, as per an analysis of Election Commission data.

Now let us look at some other demographics. A mere 10% among university-age population in India has access to higher education (report "Intergenerational and Regional Differentials in Higher Education in India). 

So basically, there's a whole new crop of young adults with low access to higher education, who supported the Modi-led BJP government in hopes of economical improvement.

In short, BJP cannot and should not ignore the higher education sector. 

To figure out the realities and expectations of HE sector, we decided to talk to some B-School professors. Here's Budget 2014 wishlist and reality-check:

FDI & Privatisation

"Across the world, education is a state subject. Only in India, the Centre has made it's way into it, making it a concurrent subject. The Centre should exclusively focus on primary and secondary education, because that is directly linked to public good. It does not have the luxury of  spending a lot on higher education. Therefore, higher education should be opened up to the private sector. Foreign investments should be encouraged. Privatisation is much better than opening IIMs and IITs in every state. That will create good institutes and coordinate the development of a national education system. ," says Suma Damodaran, professor of Economics at XLRI Jamshedpur.

Further elaborating on this, Hemanta Kumar Pradhan, finance and economics professor at XLRI Jamsedhpur says, "At macro-level, the public spending on education is 3.4% of GDP. With such huge requirements in primary and secondary education, this figure is abysmally low for a country like India. Attracting private sector investment in education is neccesary." 

He goes on to explain how an appropriate Private-Public-Partnership model, including attracting foreign universities, will be ideal for the sector.

Regulation Authority

With privatisation and foreign entry, comes the role of a regulator. "The government should just play the role of a regulator and monitor. It has to facilitate the private sector and ensure a healthy competition in higher education so that it becomes accessible to everybody," says Damodaran.

Increased Allocation of Funds 

"Outlay for higher education is in the vicinity Rs 12,000 or 15,000 crore, which is quite insufficient. If the government is serious about making India the center of knowledge for science and research, then it needs to support higher education a lot more in terms of infrastructure and research funding. Let us take the case of institutions at the higher end of the spectrum, that are actually capable of doing world class research. For instance, there are 16 IITs, out of which only seven or eight older IITs are capable of doing any quality research. Some of the new IITs are struggling so badly, that leave alone research, they cannot even find quality teachers for training purpose. Same is the story with IIMs. Allocation of resources should be directed to creating facilities, hard and soft infrastructure for producing research," says Arvind Sahay, Dean of External Relations, IIM Ahmedabad.

Reiterating similar views, IIM Bangalore professor Sankarshan Basu says, "Spending on education should increase. Accountability should also increase. One should focus on outcome-budget, i.e., put a process in place and then judge the outcome."

Quality & Accessibility

"Aim to make quality higher education accessible to more people. For that, one needs to create quality teachers. Unfortunately, India doesn't have enough quantity of quality higher education teachers. There are a few institutions that run faculty development programmes. Government should be thinking about supporting these programmes," says Sahay.

Professor Pradhan lays out a few steps for the government to improve accessibility:

• Improve access of education to low income marginalised community. 
• Introduce soft loans for education and fee subsidisation. 
• Regulate fee structure and standardise education (among public and private players)
• Reform primary and public school system through Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan for a direct impact on higher education.

 

 

 

 

 

University education

"Focus should not be on building more IITs and IIMs. There's a need to strengthen quality of university system which is present across the length and breadth of the country. Lack of quality faculty and research makes these universities weak. Also, many business houses are getting into higher education sector, taking advantage of CSR route. It will be good to channel these investments into existing universities and create some model of collaboration or industry interface / partnership," says Pradhan.

Skill-based courses

Pradhan also advocates introducing skill-based vocational programmes at graduation level which will enhance a student's employability. "India has a high talent pool. So higher education becomes necessary. But according to statistics, a large number of management seats are not being filled up. That means there's room for people to get into higher education. Also, not everyone can afford education. We need to create an environment in which the student is sustained all the way till higher education. We need to make long term education policies. Introducing vocational courses can address the issue of dropouts and increase employability," he says.

 

Taxation

"Boost teachers' morale and research quality by making their salary taxfree," said a former IIM-Ahmedabad professor and current director of a top B-school, jokingly. "Instead, make the tax their consultation fee at 30%. This will not only create loyal teachers, but research will increase," he added.

 

 

Realities

Wishes and expectations are high. But what is the reality? 

"Pressure on the government is high. All platitudes will be heaped on education, but no real changes should be expected. There are so many other immediate pressures - inflation control with a drought-kind of scenario, pressure on raising money, power sector, etc. Higher education is low on Modi government's list of priorities," says Basu.

"The ultimate goal of education is to create employability," explains Professor Pradhan. "This will be the key challenge for the government."

' Acche din aane walen hai', claimed the Modi Government to Indian voters. Will the government keep its promise? Will they give the higher education sector an ideal budget? Let's keep our fingers crossed.