Higher Education Lowest Standards National Assessment Accreditation Council NAAC University Grants Commission UGC XIth Five Year Plan

Higher Education Lowest Standards

Higher Education Lowest Standards

New Delhi: In this season of celebrating toppers and staggering cut-off in college admissions across the country, the University Grants Commission has come up with a starting admission; over half of the students who pass Class XII don’t even enter the higher education sector; 90 percent of colleges and 68 percent of Universities across the country are of middling or poor quality. On almost all indicators, from faculty from computer availability to student-teacher ratio, higher education is in crying need for an upgrade.

The “quality gap” in both universities and colleges is alarming: 25 percent faculty positions in universities remain vacant; 57 percent teachers in colleges do not have either an M.Phil. Or Ph.D.: there is only one computer for 229 students, on an average, in colleges.

These results of the first ever official assessment of the higher education system, conducted by UGC’s Bangalore-based National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), have been presented to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by HRD Minister Rabun Singh.

The assessment was conducted on 123 Universities and 2,956 colleges across India – an estimated 60 percent of these institutions were private, the rest government run. Institutions participated on a voluntary basis. It was based on the seven broad parameters; curriculum, teaching, Infrastructure, students support, management and innovative practice.

The data acquire added significance given the boom in the higher education sector and the exponential rate of growth expected. The number of universities has risen from 20 in 197 to 378 in 2006; colleges, from 500 to 18,064 during the same period. And yet, “little more than half, 52061 percent, of those who passed the 12th standard get into colleges and universities, and other half drops out,” said UGC chairman Sukhdeo Thorat.

The dropout rate among Scheduled Tribes is maximum (61.5 per cent), followed by Scheduled Castes (51.21) and Other Backward Classes (50.09)

“We followed an rigorous methodology for each institution which, in for each institution which, in an average, took as long as seven months,” said NAAc’s director V.S Prasad. So far, no IIM, IIT or NIT (formerly RECs) have been assessed by the council – these anyway are likely to be Grade A institutions, said Prasad.

The Key finding are startling:

Of 123 universities, only a third is of “good quality”, over a half are Grade B and a sixth Grade C.
Among 2.956, only 10 percent made the Grade A cut; 66 percent were Grade B and 24 percent Grade C.

Throat present during the meeting with the PM, told Express; “We have to focus on bridging the quality gap between Grade A and the rest. There are mainly two reasons for this quality gap; availability and quality of facilities and quality of faculty.”

Thorat says that one key factors behind the quality gap is the under-investment in higher education since 1980s. Between 1951 and 1980, the government spending on higher education sector grew at the rate of 17 percent, but then it dipped to 10 percent between 1981 to 2003-04

The result, the UGC claims, is that it’s unable to find 60 percent of college and 40 percent of state universities. To “improve the situation”, the UGC, backed by the HRD ministry, has sought Rs.77, 779, crore as funds for the XIth Five-Year Plan. And plans to make NAAC assessment and accreditation mandatory, link funding to performance, expand operations in districts with enrollment less than 10 percent, increase funds to institutions with hither share of students from the poor and the marginalized sections.

Survey shows 90 pc of Colleges, 68 pc of universities medium or poor; half of Class XII pass students never even enter college

Higher Education Lowest Standards

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