This presentation was part of a special panel organized by the CSAMES & International Program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign including Indian Consul General Mukta D.Tomar; Prof. P.R. Kumar, Electrical and Computer Engineering ; Prof. Madhu Viswanathan, Business Administration; Mousumi Mukherjee, Doctoral student in the Department of Educational Policy Studies http://illinois.edu/calendar/Calendar?ACTION=VIEW_EVENT&calId=779&eventId=196292

1. Higher Education in India and
India's role in Higher Education in a
Global Context
Mousumi Mukherjee
Department of Educational Policy Studies
Panel on Indian Higher Education in the Global Context
December 1, 2010
Illini Union

2. Indian Higher Education: a complex system of 18, 600 universities and
affiliated colleges ( four time larger than US & entire Europe, but this has
to be understood in the context of India being second most populous
country in the world with 1.8 billion people)
University level Institutions 399
Public Institutions
Deemed
Universities 114
Institutes of
National
Based on Funding Source
Importance
(IITs) 13
Private Institutes set up Central State Universities
Universitie by State
Universities 24 232
Legislature
s 11
5
Source: Background papers of the University Grants Commission of the Eleventh
Five Year Plan: 2007 as cited in Agarwal (2009). This number has increased since
2007 with couple of more IITs and State level management and technical institutes.

3. Global Experience: Private vs. Public share in Higher Education
• Among 78 countries of which information has been gathered by the ―Programme for
Research in Private Higher Education‖ (PROPHE) funded by the Ford Foundation at
the University at Albany (SUNY), India’s level of private enrolment exceeds 55 cases and
trials behind just 22.
• However, though the private sector (as most of the affiliated colleges are private
institutions) in India is one of the highest in the world, majority of large universities and
colleges are public. These include some supported by the national government, but most
by individual states. Moreover, so far none has the profile of a world-class research
university compared to private institutions in the U.S. or any other country
• Also, according to Altbach (2008) marketplace for international higher education in India “is
large, growing and basically unregulated….[While there are some] prestigious universities
hoping to build links overseas, recruit top students to their home campuses and strengthen their
brand abroad. But many more are sub-prime institutions: sleazy recruiters, degree packagers,
low-end private institutions seeking to stave off bankruptcy through the export market and even
a few respectable universities forced by government funding cutbacks to raise cash elsewhere.”

4. Comparative Analysis: United States and India
Linkages between different units in Linkages between different units in
US higher education Indian Higher Education
Federal Accreditation
Government Bodies
Student
Centered
Funding
Central Govt.
Accreditation UGC and
Bodies Professional
Councils Institutional
Funding
Higher Higher
State State
Education Governments Education
Governments
Institutions Institutions
Institutional Funding Institutional Funding

5. India’s role in Higher Education in the Global Context:
• Elite institutions of higher education are some of the strongest global brands
and the United States, with a deregulated system of higher education, has many
of these strong brands both in the public and private higher education sector like
Harvard, Stanford, MIT and State flagship universities like UC Berkley and
Illinois.
• India has the IIT and IIM brands (created in the US model of MIT/Cal Tech)
that are now recognized all over the world. These institutions have helped giving
a positive image of India and Indian Higher Education abroad. These are some
of the most selective institutions in the world and like many other elite
institutions, these have not increased their intake substantially over the years
and thus continue to be very selective, though 2 new IITs were launched recently
in 2009 and another university is being planned to be converted as an IIT
increasing the total number from 13 to 15 .
• IITs were created by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru ―50 years ago
just after independence to train the scientists and engineers he knew the nation
would need to move from medieval to modern. He never imagined India would
be supplying brainpower to the whole world.‖ (source: 60 minutes, CBS News, 22 June
2003, cited by Agarwal 2009)

6. Dilemmas of reform: a ―quiet crisis‖ or a ―sick child‖
• Pawan Agarwal, (2009)Indian Administrative Officer & Fulbright New Century
Scholar, in his recent book quotes the chairperson of Indian Knowledge
Commission to refer to Indian Higher Education as a ―quiet crisis‖ and quotes
the HRD minister to refer to it as ―sick child‖. Development economists have
raised serious doubts about sustaining the macro-economic growth rate of India
since it is now solely based on the service-sector. Taking into consideration the
global economic crisis, this macro-economic growth could be a false boom until
and unless research & development is boosted in the higher education sector.
• India’s consistently high rate of economic growth in the recent years which has
now become a major player in the global knowledge economy, is mostly because
of its ―brain in circulation‖ as scholars like Anna Lee Saxenian (2006) have
understood through extensive field research in the Silicon Valley in the US and
in India. However, this growth momentum cannot be sustained as industries
routinely complain huge skill shortages within the country. (Agarwal, 2009)

7. Public Policy
• ―A fundamental problem faced by Indian higher education is that public
policy assumes that all institutions are homogenous and therefore treats
them equally and regards all programs as equal, while large system of higher
education as India is incompatible with this model of understanding public
policy.‖ (Agarwal, 2009)
• ―Public policies are often not based on long-term concerns. These do not
carefully weigh the trade off between seemingly contradictory goals and
ignore that the markets are now the main arbitrators of resource allocation.
The role of Government is to create an open environment and more
demanding standards of transparency and accountability so that the market
functions efficiently. The Government has to strike a delicate balance
between growth and an equitable and inclusive development taking into
account the forces of globalization and the prevailing socio-economic
realities.‖ – Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh during Civil
Services Day Speech on 21 April 2006)

8. Indo-US collaboration: a way forward
―I am not the first American president to visit India. Nor will I be the last. But I am proud to
visit India so early in my presidency. It is no coincidence that India is my first stop on a visit to
Asia, or that this has been my longest visit to another country since becoming President. For in
Asia and around the world, India is not simply emerging; India has already emerged. And it is
my firm belief that the relationship between the United States and India—bound by our shared
interests and values—will be one of the defining partnerships of the 21st century. This is the
partnership I have come here to build. This is the vision that our nations can realize together.
My confidence in our shared future is grounded in my respect for India’s treasured past—a
civilization that has been shaping the world for thousands of years. Indians unlocked the
intricacies of the human body and the vastness of our universe. And it is no exaggeration to say
that our information age is rooted in Indian innovations—including the number zero. India not
only opened our minds, she expanded our moral imagination. With religious texts that still
summon the faithful to lives of dignity and discipline. With poets who imagined a future
―where the mind is without fear and the head is held high.‖(Tagore) And with a man whose
message of love and justice endures—the Father of your Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.‖
- (US President Barack Obama’s remarks to the Indian Parliament, November 8, 2010)