Banaras Hindu University
Press Publication and Publicity Cell
Information and Public Relation Office
Date 13.03.2008
AN ANALYSIS OF INDIAN HIGHER EDUCATION IN GLOBAL CONTEXT
Prof. Panjab Singh
Vice Chancellor
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221 005, UP, India
e-mail: vc_bhu@sifymail.com
The accelerated economic growth leading to demand for skilled man power and to enhance competitiveness in a globalised economy has made the higher education sector a priority sector today. However, the sector is faced with great challenges in terms of quantity and quality of education delivery, funding, inclusivity, research & development, employability of graduates and equitable access to the benefits of international cooperation. Today the key concerns of Indian Higher Education are low General Enrolment Ratio (GER) at 11 per cent compared to world average of 23.2 percent, low public spending on per student in Indian at US$ 400 compared to the average developing country spend about US$ 1000. China spends about US$ 2500 and developed countries like US spend US$ 10,000. Moreover shortage of faculty, inability of universities to attract and retain top talent, lack of timely curriculum updates, etc further mark the growth of higher education sector. This has adverse impact on the quality of the education delivery process in public institutions, the affiliating system and lack of dedicated funds restricting the Universities to focus mostly on teaching and learning and neglecting R&D activities.
India has survived with an increasingly mediocre higher education system for decades. In context of its assertions in a globalized economy it now requires highly trained professionals thus, quality higher education becomes increasingly important. The competition is fierce particularly from China which is investing heavily for improving a small group of its best universities to world class standards, so as to convert them into...