Higher education to move from recognition to realisation

Australian Education Minister Jason Clare lauded the efforts of his Indian counterpart Dharmendra Pradhan while replying to a Parliament question on the need for Indo-Australia partnership in education.

Clare unequivocally termed it as a bridge for a relationship, highlighting the 160 per cent jump in the number of Indian students visiting Australia for higher education and that the country considers itself to be a proud partner in India’s socio-economic growth through education.

The proposed campuses of Australian universities—Deakin and Wollongong—in India and the mutual recognition of certain degrees, in his opinion, signalled indicating India’s genuine interest in broadening its global footprint.

In another interview last week, the UGC chairman announced new regulations for Indian universities opening campuses abroad will be e-notified in a month. In addition to IITs exploring open campuses in countries like Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and the UAE, other progressive Central, state and private universities can open campuses through these new and enabling UGC regulations.

African and Gulf countries, Thailand and Vietnam are among the probable locations and UGC shall be a facilitator in this effort to realise the physical presence of Indian universities on foreign soil.

Such a double-barrelled internationalisation of Indian education has triggered the NEP 2020 gun to fire multiple global targets. This is a clear indication of not only foreign universities expressing confidence in Indian talent but also inviting Indian universities to establish campuses abroad, making this two-way traffic on the global education highway free from tolls, speed breakers and potholes. ‘Foreign in India and India in Foreign’ is all set to roll and gather speed in the years to come. The larger question, though, is about Indian universities in India.

Sander van’t Noordende, the CEO of Randstad, the world’s largest HR staffing and recruitment firm, estimates India to be the biggest international talent base. It will be accelerating its presence in the country for growth—not only in dollar billing but also in people skilling. The three biggest areas of growth for Randstad are technology, financial services and life sciences, and Indian education needs to be uniquely positioned in all three.

To leverage the global rise in confidence of Indian talent, there needs to be a shift in institutional focus from preparing students for a job to preparing them for a career. This requires high levels of autonomy in Indian universities, for autonomy is the quintessence of maximising learning outcomes for career growth.

The Indian education policy is influenced by three Ms—massification, marketisation and management. While massification is happening through online and other forms to enhance the Gross Enrolment Ratio, marketisation is wrapped in a fine package called NEP 2020.

What remains to be done is the management of universities and higher education to realise the full potential of India’s promising and youthful demography. While we are just beginning to scratch the surface, there is still a lot to be done on the management of higher education, which is craving for autonomy.

Global experience in university management has seen the shifting levers of control across different stakeholders, and this is essential for the development, action monitoring and review of universities’ learning, teaching, research and social engagement strategies.

The Oxbridge (Oxford-Cambridge), Scottish, Humboldtian, American, the UK’s Higher Education Corporation, the National University Corporation Act of Japan, etc. are time-tested, and these models have captured and delivered the intended benefits at unimaginable speeds. The Indian model also needs such tectonic shifts from current models of engagement to improve the ‘ease of delivering higher education’ and ‘ease of doing research’ scores.

Thanks to NEP 2020, the regimental shackles that used to strangulate than oxygenate higher education are beginning to get loose and requires more loosening. While NEP 2020 has recognised the need for an autonomous and autogenous higher education institution ecosystem, the realisation of the same has to come from various policy actions to deliver the much-needed administrative, academic and financial autonomy.

As India recognises global players to realise global value, its recognised NEP 2020 must now realise higher Indian value. In short: Higher education needs to shift from recognition to realisation mode. The quicker, the better.

S Vaidhyasubramaniam

Vice-Chancellor, SASTRA Deemed University

vaidhya@sastra.edu