Higher Education in India Vision and Action
Country Paper
UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century
Paris, 5-9 October 1998
Indian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO
October 1998
This paper has been brought out by Indian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO with the assistance of UNESCO, New Delhi Office.
Murli Manohar Joshi
Minister
Human Resource Development and Science & Technology India
Contents
n Foreword
n Overview
n Objectives of Higher Education in a Changing World
n Growth of Higher Education
n Governance and Management
n Pertinence and Quality
n Open University System
n Financing of Higher Education
n New Challenges
n International Cooperation
n Vision and Tasks Ahead
n Abbreviations
n Educationists and Experts Consulted
Foreword
The World Conference on Higher Education, 1998, organised by UNESCO on the eve of the next century presents a valuable opportunity for us to place India’s national perspective of higher education before the international community. India’s distinctiveness rests on its great foundations, which were built by her ancient sages who relentlessly sought after the highest integral knowledge and perfection; as a result, her culture has been sustained, even through periods of decline, with surprising continuity since remote antiquity. India’s renaissance, which began in the last decades of the 19th century, has been marked by multisided awakening, creativity, renewal and reconstruction enabling the country to make valuable contributions in the services of her people and the peoples of the world. Our culture has always stood for universality and common fraternity of the entire human race, and our aspirations are reflected in the educational field in creating, strengthening and developing a national system that should be geared to the highest ideals of universal peace, unity and harmony. We maintain that...