The concern over the low college going rate of students who complete their high school education continues to increase in India, even after efforts from many sides. Experts in the field suggest that the solution to this problem lie in the further expansion of the private sector in higher education.

Need for private participation in higher education

A two day meeting on developing the higher education in the country was sponsored by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The meeting was attended by 600 Indian and Foreign Education Experts, executives, and policy analysts. Most of those who attended the meeting were of the view that real growth in Indian higher education can be made possible through increased private participation.

The Indian economy is growing

Fifty per cent of India’s 1.2 billion people are under the age group of 25, out of which only 13 to 15 % of 18 to 24 year olds enroll into colleges. The expanding Indian economy desperately needs highly skilled work force if it is to exploit the growth opportunities. If the higher education system in India does not grow, then the demographic dividend will soon become a demographic liability.

The professional education is dominated by private players

The current higher education system is dominated by private education institutions, where 75 per cent of the engineering and management institutions are private. But the sector has come under increased surveillance in recent years. Kapil Sibal, the Minister for Human Resource and Development, has cracked down on corruption within the regulatory oversight of the engineering and management colleges. The minister has persuaded the Supreme Court of India to remove 44 private universities of their official status due to concerns over quality. The new rules and regulation that were introduced last year has further increased government monitoring over private universities.

Private participation in higher education must be encouraged

Mr. Sibal has emphasized on the point that private institutions in higher education must be encouraged in order to improve the higher education system in India. Experts in the field of education say that, if the government wishes to achieve the goal of sending 30 per cent of the youth to colleges, both public and private participation are needed. The challenge that the higher education system and the government face is the weeding out low quality education institutions.

Good and bad institutions

According to Montek Singh Ahluwalia, head of Planning Commission, the understanding of common man about the private participation in higher education is differing. He added that most of the private institutions are good, and the problem is with those which are not very good ones. The planning commission is India’s pioneer policy making body.

Demand and supply will remove bad players

Mr. Ahluwalia was of the view that the supply and demand will ultimately eliminate the bad players in the field, while other experts disagree to this view.

M. Anandakrishnan, head of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur says that it is difficult to get rid of bad players, as the demand in the present day is more than supply, and so it will take time for stakeholders to make acute choices.

Numbers won’t contribute to quality education

The growth in private participation will be useful to increase the numbers, but the quality of education they offer is still under question. An education researcher from the UK, Sachi Hatakenaka argues that growth of private institutions in the higher education is good for quantity, but not for quality.

For profit higher education in India

It is high time to think whether allowing for profit institutions in the higher education sector would encourage participation of private institutions in higher education. Currently, the Indian higher educationsystem does not allow profit making in the education sector. Critics are of the view that most of the private institutions find ways to work around the rules. Many of the private institutions collect capitation fee and other donations from the students to grant them admission. This is more evident in the case of engineering and management colleges.

It is considered that education and healthcare are forms of charity, but in the case of healthcare there are private hospitals which make profit, which is contrasting. This point was put forward by Vidya Yeravdekar, executive director of Symbiosis Centre for International Education, a well known private institute in India. She added that the for-profit institutions can generate revenue to the government through taxes, which can be plowed back into public education.

Recently many of the shady private institutions had made headlines for their under performance and round the rules acts. This being the case, there is no prejudice against the private education in India. The federation and Synovate, a consulting firm conducted a survey to understand the perception of the public about the education in India. The survey has found that parents are not concerned whether the institution was public or private when evaluating where they would want their child to attend college.

Expanding existing capacity a viable option

Pawan Agarwal, advisor to the planning commission on higher education said that many countries around the globe are against for- profit higher education. He added that profit is not the factor that prevents entry of private participants into the higher education. He said that the next level of government planning in the field of higher education will concentrate more on expanding capacity at the existing institutions rather than introducing new universities.

It is high time that government should consider private sector as allies rather than adversary. With the increasing demand for higher education, it is quite sure that government alone cannot contribute to increasing the capacity. The private sector is capable of huge investments in the field of higher education, which will compliment the efforts of the government. Public Private Partnership is an option that can be explored in the case of higher education. Government should introduce stringent rules and regulations to monitor and oversee the private players so that they deliver quality education, within the limits set by the government.