The UGC has made new plans and schemes for the Eleventh Plan Period for all the universities and colleges. In the 11th plan the UGC have put forward a few issues concerning the higher education in India. The commission has mainly focused on four major issues. This includes the broadening of reach of higher education by means of higher enrolment of candidates, equal right of entry to all, support of quality in higher education and presenting the students with pertinent education.

Issue Related to Reach of Higher Education for Broadening Enrollment

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The growth and development of higher education in India after the post-Independence period has been very remarkable. The higher education has gone through rapid expansion. Even though, when considering the accessibility of higher education to each and every qualified candidate, it has been quite inadequate and uneven. This has later on given rise to numerous access-related problems. Some of the issues pertaining to the unevenness of higher education in the country are diverse.

In India the access to higher education relating to the enrolment proportion in different states varies a lot. In some of the states only 1.0 % of students goes for higher education and in others states the enrollment rate of students for higher education is around 33.7 %. Also recently the demand for higher education among students has tremendously increased and this has lead to the condition where demand has far-flung surpassed the present capacity in most of the universities and colleges in the country.

During the 1950 – 2007, there has been an increase in the number of universities up to 17 – folds. At present the university – level institutions in India is around 417. Regarding higher education, the leading providers are mostly affiliated colleges which are around 20677 according to the UGC.

In India there are different universities – level institutions. This includes the central, state, deemed and private universities. The main issue is these universities are not uniformly distributed across various states and union territories. Most of the central universities, which are very popular and in demand are more over concentrated in states like Andhra Pradesh, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and North-East States for certain historic and cultural reasons.

On numerous occasions, certain universities have added up to affiliating an exceedingly large number of institutions for example at one time, 890 colleges. This act has badly affected the proper control and eminence of higher education.

On a wider perspective, India has on an average 2 or more college in the developed blocks. On the other hand, colleges are not equivalently dispersed diagonally in all the states and districts.  As per the UGC, only two states in India have 20 colleges per lakh of population, whereas 10 states have below 5 colleges. To a certain extent, a lot of villages in remote locations and tribal areas do not even have one college in reachable or at an evenhanded distance. To add to the inequality of colleges, the volume and quality of across the India also varies drastically.

Issues Related to expansion in higher education

In the past decades, the efforts for higher education expansion have been not so successful. A lot of regions and scores of segments of the country’s inhabitants are still left out. This is a major problem and is an evidence for the disproportion and imbalances regarding education n the country and is at high stake for corrective action as soon as possible.

Some of the prominent issues with relation to such disparity are clearly mentioned in the 16th UGC report. It includes Rural-Urban disparities, Inter-state Disparities, Inter-religious Group Differences, Inter-caste Variations, Gender Disparities, and Disparities among Occupation Groups and the Poor-Non Poor Disparities.

Issues linked to Quality in higher education

In India, out of the 16,000 education institution which comes under the UGC control, merely 5813 institutions are recognized. This comes to only 36% of the entire lot. Around 5273 institutions are only eligible to obtain the development assistance from the government.  Plenty of colleges are not allowed for the UGC development grant, simply because these colleges are incapable to meet up the bare minimum eligibility criteria put forward by the UGC. This criterion was only on the quality pertaining to physical and academic infrastructure.

This is the similar condition prevailing in most of the universities also. From the 417 university - level institution in India only 317 comes under the authority of the UGC. Out of these, 164 universities were a part of the development grants provided during the Tenth Plan. From these 164 universities, 111 universities are recognized by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). With all these benefits, out of the 111 universities only 32 % have been rated as ‘A’ grade or beyond.  This, by a hair’s breadth, speaks well of quality and fineness of the universities in India.

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Almost 69 % of universities and 91 % of colleges are placed on an average or below average when it comes to the quality constraint laid down by the NAAC. The scope for improvement with regard to the quality and fineness is as plain as ever.

Issues Related to Relevance in Higher Education

There is a huge disparity with regard to the offering of relevant and appropriate education. This issue is rather creating serious concern in the stability of higher education in India. It is an accepted fact that relevant education should involve three main characteristic. Relevant education should be capable of imparting scientific knowledge to the scholars. This should develop knowledge base among students with scientific approach and mind.

In addition to knowledge relevant education must also impart various skills and working knowledge which will help to develop efficient human resources which are a crucial ingredient in a countries economic development.  Along with all these, the relevant education should also encompass the ability to provide valued education which will help to craft minds of students with values of democracy, secularism, fraternity, and impartiality.

The relevant higher education must be recognized by developing core curriculums at various college and university levels in order to meet the 3 goals of higher education and bring up students with excellent scientific temper along with relevant skills and values.

Some Other External issues

There are some other external issues in the higher education includes the various academic reforms which play a huge role imparting education in various colleges. There are also various issues in relation to the regulation of the system through different regulatory councils. Internationalization and problems in public - private partnership are other similar issues