S.C. Sharma, director, National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), on Friday said India’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education is very low despite an average growth of over 7% in the last decade.
If India succeeds in its target of 30% GER by 2020, 100 million qualified students will still not have places at the university, he opined.
Speaking on the topic of ‘Globalisation of Higher Education’ at the Foundation Day of University of Mysore here, Prof. Sharma said despite efforts to spread across the location of higher education institutions more evenly in the country, there is a wide variation, particularly between urban and rural areas, and also between States.
Arguing that there is a need to start more universities in India, the NAAC director said the number of students pursuing higher education around the world is expected to reach about 263 million by 2025. There will be a demand for an additional 85 million students worldwide by 2025. The private sector accounts for some 30% of enrolments worldwide.
New demands
According to Prof. Sharma, student demands were also changing – they were seeking courses that enable them to update their knowledge which will result in jobs with paper skills.
This presents challenges for higher education in all countries including keeping pace with rapid advances in communications and social networking technologies, he observed.
Stating that India does not have enough high quality researchers, the NAAC director said the number of students doing PhDs and entering research posts is on the decline. By 2020, India will have the largest tertiary age population in the world. In addition, it will have the second largest graduate talent pool globally, following China and ahead of United States.
Student mobility
Observing that there is an increase in student mobility from China, India and European countries in particular to the United States, Prof. Sharma said growth of international student mobility is projected to continue in the future to reach approximately 5.8 million around 2020 in the US.
The NAAC director explained that the emergence of global ranking has led to the measurement of real outputs rather than reputation. Performance indicators and external quality evaluations are an integral aspect of the new model of governance. He said the literacy rate in 1947 was 12% and the percentage touched 74 in 2017. The number of colleges went up from 600 in 1947 to 40,000 in 2017. And the number of universities rose to 800 in 2017 from 25 in 1947.
Prof. Sharma said there are very few opportunities for interdisciplinary learning owing to the absence of employer engagement in course content. The student-teacher ratio is insufficient because of the lack of teaching staff and pressure to enrol more students.
The recent and rapid emergence of open online courses can potentially provide access to advanced courses taught by top faculty to hundreds of thousands of students, he opined.
Prof T.K. Umesh, acting Vice-Chancellor, presided over the event.
