HEERA has been put on hold. It’s time to rethink comprehensive reforms.
The ministry of human resource development had earlier announced to scrap the two bodies of UGC (University Grants Commission) and AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education), and replace these with a new body called the Higher Education Empowerment Regulation Agency (HEERA) to regulate both technical and non-technical institutions. However, in a recent announcement, this has been put on hold. The reform issues behind this, nonetheless, are of significance for higher education in the country. For the past few years, or rather a decade, concerns have been raised in many quarters about the deteriorating quality of higher education, and the associated command and control-based regulatory mechanisms in place in India. A 2010 circular of AICTE announcing that admissions, curriculum, fee, etc, will be decided or approved by an authorised government agency only is a case in point. This circular was challenged in the Supreme Court and institutions have been functioning since then based on the reprieve granted by the Supreme Court.
Multiple regulatory control by numerous statutory bodies with their labyrinthine mechanisms have challenged all institutions, preventing innovative and creative environment taking root in higher education institutions. To illustrate, the regulators prescribing area in an institution to be used for toilets shows the level and extent of regulation. Such ‘deep regulation’ reflects a flaw in the entire system.
The reports of various committees and commissions have, in the past, highlighted the deficiencies of regulatory bodies and pointed out the lack of autonomy and freedom given to higher education institutions, and made recommendations for their growth and qualitative improvements. However, so far, nothing substantive has come out of these reports.
All existing Acts or guidelines of UGC and AICTE need to be thoroughly reviewed in the context of educational requirements of the current global times. Indian universities have had a dismal ranking in the world. The best we currently have is IISc Bangalore at 152 in QS World University Rankings and IIT Delhi next at 185. With huge financial support and almost full autonomy to these government institutions, this is the best we have attained in about 60 years of their existence. With pincer-like grip of regulators stifling autonomy, it can be anybody’s guess as to what Indian private institutions can achieve when it comes to global standards. In fact, institutions like Harvard, Stanford, Kellogg, Oxford, MIT, etc, earned their status of ‘world class’ not through government guidelines or regulations, but on their own remarkable quality enrichment through the autonomy they enjoyed.
It is high time for Indian higher education to find its proper mooring at the global level and to minimise the outflow of lakhs of Indian students in search of good institutions abroad.
If these issues are not handled appropriately, then the new regulatory environment, HEERA or whatever, reflecting any lackadaisical reform may become a case of problem being handled getting changed from one hand to only the other hand.
It is time for all those who are involved in drafting the blueprint of a reform to revitalise the very thinking of encouraging conducive environment for promoting quality education, emphasising autonomy and accountability, and fostering creativity and innovation, thereby nudging institutions to move towards ‘world class’.
The author is director, FORE School of Management, New Delhi. Views are personal
