‘Budget cuts hit quality of higher education’

AHMEDABAD: At a time when increasing numbers of youngsters have access to higher education, both state and central governments curtailing higher education budgets will be detrimental to the quality of education, said experts present at a panel discussion on ‘Building Universities That Matter’ organized by Ahmedabad University on Monday.
Apoorvanand, professor, Delhi University along with Kunal Basu, professor, Oxford University and AU vice chancellor, professor Pankaj Chandra, were present at the discussion.

“The gross enrolment ratio in higher education has gone up and many young men and women now have access to higher education. However, as soon as the access was achieved, governments began withdrawing from education. If governments at state or centre, curtail the budget for higher education, it is detrimental to the quality of education,” said Apoorvanand.

“The state of universities and educational institutions is barren with lack of faculty and basic infrastructure including laboratories and libraries,” he said.

Speaking on higher education challenges, Basu said that apart from the government, the challenge also comes from the market too. “Market leaders and industry leaders have been blaming the universities for not producing employable people. This is not the job of a university to model its curriculum to churn out employable people. Research has shown that strengthening of general education increases employability. Such a demand by market forces creates unnecessary pressure on institutes,” he said.