4714
/ 4
Min Read
India’s higher education system has finally broken free of decades of colonial overhang. In recent years, the country has undertaken massive structural and systemic changes that have started to give in encouraging results. About 15 years ago, India consciously moved to a differentiated academic system with a three-tiered structure comprising highly selective elite research universities at the top, comprehensive universities and specialized institutions in the middle, and an array of highly-accessible and high-quality colleges at the bottom. While the first tier caters exclusively to furthering India’s intellectual capital, the other two focus on delivering economic and social value respectively.
Scenario of Higher Education Industry in India
India has one of the largest Higher Education system in the world. There is a large number of Indian as well as foreign students who apply every year to Indian universities and colleges. The Indian higher education system has undergone rapid expansion and in less than 20 years, the country has created additional capacity for a mammoth 40 million students. While the scale of this expansion is remarkable in itself, what set it apart from earlier decades of equally aggressive expansion is a deliberate strategy and an organized design.
The Higher Education to 2030 series takes a forward-looking approach to analyzing the impact of various contemporary trends on tertiary education systems. Over the last two decades, India has remarkably transformed its higher education landscape. It has created widespread access to low-cost high-quality university education for students of all levels. With well-planned expansion and a student-centric learning-driven model of education, India has not only bettered its enrollment numbers but has dramatically enhanced its learning outcomes.
A differentiated three-tiered university system – where each tier has a distinct strategic objective – has enabled universities to build on their strengths and cater across different categories of educational needs. Further, with the effective use of technology, India has been able to resolve the longstanding tension between excellence and equity.
India has also undertaken large-scale reforms to better faculty-student ratios by making teaching an attractive career path, expanding capacity for doctoral students at research universities and delinking educational qualifications from teaching eligibility. Concerted and collaborative efforts are needed in broaden student choices through liberal arts education.
Talking about India and the ventures that are carried out here, the director of AICTE, Dr. Manpreet Singh Manna said, “Whenever we see any development, the contributions are made by the Indians but outside India. It is a matter of concern that India is neglected as a place for an innovation.”
Impact of Rapid Urbanisation on Higher Education
India is expected to become the most populous country by 2030. India’s real GDP per capita is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.9%, higher than emerging markets’ average of 5.4% and global average of 4%.
With a high rate of urbanization significant changes have taken place. There have been changes with the migration of rural people to urban areas, Employment opportunities in urban centers, Transport and communication facilities, Educational facilities, Increase in the standard of living.
Teaching was confined to classrooms and the link with nature was broken, as also the close relationship between the teacher and the student. However certain villages which are close to the cities had been transformed changes occur in entire world not only in India. There were differences marked in Skilled and unskilled labour, with the white colour job put on priority. With this, Urbanization & its impact on education can be easily visualized.
India seems to have indeed entered a golden age for higher education.
- India is the single largest provider of global talent, with one in four graduates in the world being a product of the Indian system
- India is among top 5 countries globally in cited research output, its research capabilities boosted by annual R&D spends totaling over US$140 billion
- India is in the fourth cycle of its research excellence framework, with at least a 100 of Indian universities competing with the global best
- 23 Indian universities are among the global top 200, going from none two decades ago.
- India’s massive open online courses, started by several elite research universities, collectively enroll 60% of the world’s entire student population.
Conclusion
The ultimate aim of education was not knowledge as preparation of life in this world or for life beyond but for complete realization of self-for liberty. Our present Education system is an outcome of various changes from glorious past till date, and if we notice education was entirely on different prospective, there is a need to introspect various stage which keep on bringing changes in existing education system which we named as impact of Rapid urbanization on education system.
