“National Education Policy 2020:
Quality Higher Education is a Challenge.”

 

Vinay Anand Bourai

Principal, SGRR PG College, Pathri, Bagh, Dehradun, 248001

 

Summary: The new education Policy was long awaited in India. The Government of Shri Narender Modi Honorable Prime Minister and Honorable Higher Education Minister Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank took an initiative and bold step for the change. The reform in higher education was the dire need of the day. When one thinks about the global competition, increasing global challenges then ultimately education and particularly higher Education is pointed out in our country. Everyone feels that the General Enrolment Ratio is continuously increasing but as far as the quality is concerned higher education is not up to the mark; both at national level as well as at International level.

At the time of Independence, there were only 20 Universities and 500 Colleges in the entire country with 2.1 lakh students in higher education. Just after the Independence, the University Education Commission was set up in 1948 under the Chairmanship of Dr. S Radhakrishnan,

            "To report on Indian university education and suggest improvements and extensions that might be desirable to suit the present and future needs and aspirations of the country".

            The Education commission recommended that the University Grants Committee be reconstituted on the general model of the University Grants Commission of the United Kingdom with a full-time Chairman and other members to be appointed from amongst educationists of repute.

 The than Government of India decided to improve the quantity and quality of higher education by public funding to the institutions of higher education through one agency i.e. UGC, which was formally established in November 1956 as a statutory body of the Government of India through an Act of Parliament for the coordination, determination and maintenance of standard of the University Education in India.

            The Union Government decided that all cases pertaining to the allocation of grants-in-aid from public funds to the Central Universities and other Universities and Institutions of higher learning might be referred to the University Grants Commission. 72 years after the independence the numbers now have increased 52.35 times in the case of the Degree awarding Universities (1047), 83.87 times in the case of Colleges (41935) and the students enrolment (37399388) has gone up to over 178.09 times in the system of higher education in comparison to the figures at the time of independence.

 As on 31.03.2019, the number of Universities listed by the UGC under Section 2(f) of UGC Act 1956 had gone up to 911 universities – (51 Central, 397 State Public, 334 State Private, 126 Deemed Universities, 3 Institutions established under State Legislation and 12070 Colleges are listed under Section 2(f) and out of these colleges 9755 colleges are under Section 12B in the Higher Education sector.

So far as the number of universities in states is concerned, Rajasthan tops the list with 83 universities, followed by Uttar Pradesh (75), Gujarat (67) etc.  During the reporting year 2018-19, 17 State Public and 40 State Private Universities and 3 Deemed Universities were included in the UGC list of universities. 7 State Public Universities, 23 Deemed Universities and 2 State Private Universities were declared fit to receive central assistance under Section 12B of the UGC Act 1956. Before the NEP 2020 higher education was regulated by the UGC along with 14 other professional councils such as All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), Medical Council of India (MCI), and National Council of Teacher Education (NCTE) etc.

            Honorable Prime minister of India Shri Narendera Modi has declared the single Government Body that is Higher Education Commission for India (HECI) over reaching umbrella body for the entire higher education, excluding medical and legal education. The higher education commission for India (HECI) has four independent verticals:

1.      National Higher Education Regulatory Council (NHERC) for regulation,

2.       General Education Council ( GEC) for Standard Setting,

3.      Higher Education Grants Council( HEGC) for funding and

4.      National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) for Accreditation.

 The NHERC:

 The new and bold revolutionary set up of Higher Education in NEP 2020 would also have a regulating role in the higher educational institutions of India.  Number of times the Higher Education Institutions are/were helpless to manage the mounting Problems because of lethargic as well as slow working and the delay in decisions making in the system of the Universities.  The University administrators; academicians; research scholars; students and general public, were feeling for a long time about the reforms in the higher education.

In 21^st century onwards students and faculty needs number of solutions too quick  at one window only, which is possible by the single regulating body only,  this will definitely benefit the large number of teaching community, students community  as well as other stakeholders in the country and abroad.

The GEC:

 General Education Council:  is responsible for ongoing development, implementation and assessment of an effective general education program. Responsibilities include the evaluation and approval of courses for the liberal arts curriculum, as well as the periodic evaluation of the general education policy.  The council shall advise the president, the provost, and the dean undergraduate studies on the development of future general education programs at the university and provide continuous assessment of the General education.

The HEGC:

Higher Education Grants Council: The HEGC will become responsible to allocate grants to the Universities and colleges, for General Development and development, research, projects and various other needs of the institutions as per requirements of the institutions and after the assessment of the expert committees of the HEGC. The present major task which UGC is doing in India will be the sole responsibility of HEGC.

The NAAC:

 National Assessment and Accreditation Council is the fourth and the most important to enhance the quality of higher education. Since we are talking about to make India the knowledge hub of the world, so the comparisons at the world level of our educational institutions is also necessary.  The most important and crucial question is; Where we stand as far as the world ranking is concerned? Even the first ranked institution in our country is among 501-600 rank at the world level. Despite of all efforts in last 24 years with liberal funding, not even a single institution of our country is among the first 500 institutions of the world ranking. The academic ranking of our best institutions is shown in the below stated table No 1.

                                                                        Table No 1

Best Indian Institutions in the Academic ranking the world Universities ranking 2020

Country Rank (India)	Best 15 Ranked Institutions	World Ranking
1	Indian Institute of Science	501-600
2-4	Indian Institute of Technology Madras	601-700
2-4	University of Calcutta	601-700
2-4	University of Delhi	601-700
5-7	Indian Institute of Technology Delhi	701-800
5-7	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	701-800
5-7	Jawaharlal Nehru University	701-800
8-9	Aligarh Muslim University	801-900
8-9	Vellore Institute of Technology	801-900
10-15	All India Institute of Medical Sciences	901-1000
10-15	Anna University	901-1000
10-15	Bharathiar University	901-1000
10-15	Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur	901-1000
10-15	Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee	901-1000
10-15	Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs)	901-1000

* Institutions within the same rank range are listed alphabetically.

 

 

 

                                                                  Table No 2

State wise number of colleges and universities accredited by NAAC (As on31/07/2020)

Sr. No.	State	Region	Universities	Colleges	Total
1	Andaman and Nicobar Islands	South	0	2	2
2	Andhra Pradesh	South	14	357	371
3	Arunachal Pradesh	North East	3	7	10
4	Assam	North East	6	208	214
5	Bihar	East	8	161	169
6	Chandigarh	North	2	15	17
7	Chhattisgarh	East	6	127	133
8	Goa	West	1	25	26
9	Dadra and Nagar Haveli	West	0	2	2
10	Daman & Diu	West	0	2	2
11	Gujarat	West	20	484	504
12	Haryana	North	14	321	335
13	Himachal Pradesh	North	8	69	77
14	Jammu and Kashmir	North	7	95	102
15	Jharkhand	East	7	106	113
16	Karnataka	South	28	837	865
17	Kerala	South	8	258	266
18	Madhya Pradesh	West	17	300	317
19	Maharashtra	West	32	1711	1743
20	Manipur	North East	1	27	28
21	Meghalaya	North East	1	19	20
22	Mizoram	North East	1	24	25
23	Nagaland	North East	1	29	30
24	Delhi	North	17	87	104
25	Odisha	East	14	282	296
26	Puducherry	South	2	24	26
27	Punjab	North	7	271	278
28	Rajasthan	North	24	255	279
29	Sikkim	North East	2	8	10
30	Tamil Nadu	South	43	785	828
31	Telangana	South	13	222	235
32	Tripura	North East	2	18	20
33	Uttarakhand	North	10	60	70
34	Uttar Pradesh	North	32	580	612
35	West Bengal	East	13	388	401
	All India		364	8166	8530

NAAC 31/7/2020 Bangluru www.naac.org

Second Cycle of NAAC completed by: 166 Universities and 3535 colleges;

Third cycle of NAAC completed by; 76 Universities and 1056 colleges only;

Fourth Cycle of NAAC completed by 3 Universities and 45 Colleges only.

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) established in 1994 as an autonomous institution of the University Grants Commission (UGC) with the head quarter in Bangalore, Karnataka. The establishment of NAAC was only to enhance the quality of the institutions of Higher Education, but despite of its all efforts it was able to do the Assessment and Accreditation of higher education institutions till 30/7/2020 as per the table published by NAAC.

If data is analyzed from the above stated table given on the website of the NAAC, The Universities completed the second cycle of NAAC were15.8% only; this was 166 out of 1047 Universities in entire country. While in the case of colleges out of 41935 only 3535 colleges have completed second cycle of the accreditation which is only 8.4%. These colleges have merely gone through the second cycle of NAAC.   The third cycle completed by the universities number is quite thin, that is only 76 out of 1047 which is only 7.2% acrediatated as far as colleges are concerned only 2.5% colleges were acrediatated in India. If we take the data of the Universities and colleges completed 4^th cycle in such situation in India only 0.28 % universities are acrediatated while 0.10% colleges are accredited in the country. Higher the cycle higher is the quality of institutions so easily it shows that India has to work much hard to attain the world quality level in Higher Education.  The data given or cited on the webpage’s of NAAC are not informing about the quality grading of acrediatated institutions if we do analysis on those basis in that case the number of quality institution will be negligible in numbers.

 

References:

1.      www.ugc.ac.in 

2.      www.naac.gov.in