Privatisation of Higher Education In India: Hopes and Despairs

Education is very important tool for everyone to succeed in life and get something different. It helps a lot in lessening the challenges of life difficult life. Knowledge gained throughout the education period enables each and every individual confident about their life. It opens various doors to the opportunities of achieving better prospects in life so promotes career growth. Many awareness programmes has been run by the government in enhance the value of education in rural areas. It brings feeling of equality among all people in the society and promotes growth and development of the country. In 21 st Century become as necessary as food, cloths and Shelter. There has been an upsurge in the demand for higher education after independence, resulting in a substantial expansion in the number of universities and colleges in the country. India has the second largest higher education system in the world. As per UGC Annual Report 2014-15, as on 31.03.2015, the number of Universities had gone up to 711 (46 Central, 329 State, 205 State Private, 128 Deemed to be Universities, three Institutions established under State Legislation) and 40760 colleges in the Higher Education sector. The Indian higher education has already entered a stage of massification and the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education in 2015-16 is 24.5 percent, which is 3.45 crore in absolute numbers. The current target is to increase Gross Enrolment Ratio to 25.2 percent in 2017-18 and further to 30 percent in 2020-21. The extant National Policy on Education (NPE) provides for a National System of Education which implies that, up to a given level, all students, irrespective of caste, creed, location or sex, have access to education of a comparable quality. The Government is committed to provide equitable access to quality education to all, by enhancing access to public funded education across all levels ranging from elementary to higher education. This paper gives an overview of state of higher education system in India & highlights the need for private sector to step up in the field of higher education. Why Privatization is necessary in India. A detail information providing number of different types universities in different states of India. It is argued that privatization of higher education can be applied to improve the education system in all but with the regular control of some regulating authorities.

For the last few years, one can easily notice the powerful grip which the private sectors hold in the educational sector. It's highly a debate issue whether it serves good or bad purpose. It seems to be highly pragmatic if they take over the educational sector with philanthropic mission and vision. But looking at pathetic situation prevailing in the field of higher education, one can hardly favour the role played by private sectors here. Obviously its only motive is to turn colleges into money making factories. Those who run private colleges have no vision whatsoever. They are modern Arjunas whose eyes are focused on profit only. They have no hesitation in making compromise with quality. It is high time for the society to raise voice against such elements in the interest of poor students. The present research paper aims at alarming those who have considered education `anyone's business'

India has seen a spurt of private institution in the last decade owing to the neoliberal policies adopted by the government. The thrust of this paper lies in exploring how the higher education sector of the country is influenced by this mass scale privatization. My paper would argue that in the light of the Chilean mass protests against the privatization of education, it is important to take into account the views and beliefs of the students who are the major beneficiaries of any educational reform. My paper will also argue how privatization leads to social exclusion and also increased immiseration of the ones who avail it. The need for strengthening community schools would be argued so as to strengthen the knowledge base of the ones entering the higher education scenario. Education is one of the indispensable endowments that is supposed to be distributed amongst everyone in a country without any discrimination on the basis of religion, caste or creed. The state has the foremost responsibility of ensuring the equal redistribution of education amongst all its citizens. As such the government with its policies and implementation of pro people laws can ensure affordable education for all its citizens. There is also a need of the government to prioritize spending on education. For instance, according to World Bank India spends only 3.3% of its total GDP for funding and improving infrastructure in educational institutions both in the primary and higher educational sectors. Further the growth of private sector also tends to act as a support (financially and logistically) to help the problem of underfunding in the public institutions. It is important to evaluate India's spending capacity on higher education reforms as an analysis of the actual mix of public subsidies and non-government finances for education in a society I believe reflects the economic policies of the government, the traditions, and social policies of the given society. Talking about redistribution of education, it is to be noted that here the public nature of education is highlighted. In India, according to the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), 2014-15 access of more than 80% of our total population to higher education remains restricted. This 80% also includes Dalit and tribal children who have been historically denied the opportunity of not only pursuing higher education but also primary education. With the increasing demands of a growing middle class and also as India drifts towards a more neoliberal form of governance and economy, it is seen that privatization has increased by heaps and bounds. This was seen after India adopted the LPG policies under which India opened up her economy which led to the erosion of the hold of the state over the entire education sector. Even though a lot of scholars supporting privatization argue that the existence of private institutions alongside the public institution enhances the performance of the latter. This I would argue is not a time tested argument as the ALSHE comparison of higher education (Graduation and Post graduation among public and private universities in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal) tells us that private educational institutions do not contribute to employability of the children graduating from private institutions. Further the crisis of Privatization deepens as we see an economy of debt developing in the country. As more and more students are interested in pursuing professional courses from private institutions; they find it difficult to complete their education. Parents are forced to

Education is one of the dominant sectors of the Indian economy in terms of enrollment of children, employment of adults and investment of financial resources. While school education has a broad base, higher education suffers from a narrow base covering only about 7% of the relevant age group population. With the expansion of school education, the pressure on the higher education system to expand is expected to continue in India. In this context, two criteria of efficiency and mobilisation of resources are put forward in justification of privatisation of higher education. When higher education is left to the market forces, it results in ‘elitisation’ of a basic need; it puts higher education firmly out of reach of the millions of under-privileged of India who dream of going to the university one day.

2018

India has world's third largest higher educational system, next to China and United States. The mission of higher education is to achieve access, equality, justice, quality, employability, inclusiveness and create a knowledge society/economy. The deteriorating administration, unproductive practice, corruption and fund unavailability leads to break down of indigenous educational system. To tackle with the problem of unavailability of funds, instead of setting up new institutions, which require huge investments, priority of the government is to expand the capacity of existing institutions and to open the new educational institutions in higher education in private sector only. There are three forms of privatization of higher education institutes- Government self financing institutes, Government aided private self financing institutes and completely private higher education institutes. The need to privatize higher education is explained in this paper. The impact of privatization in ...

International Journal of Recent Scientific Research, 2017

India has world's third largest higher educational system, next to China and United States. The mission of higher education is to achieve access, equality, justice, quality, employability, inclusiveness and create a knowledge society/economy. The deteriorating administration, unproductive practice, corruption and fund unavailability leads to break down of indigenous educational system. To tackle with the problem of unavailability of funds, instead of setting up new institutions, which require huge investments, priority of the government is to expand the capacity of existing institutions and to open the new educational institutions in higher education in private sector only. There are three forms of privatization of higher education institutes-Government self financing institutes, Government aided private self financing institutes and completely private higher education institutes. The need to privatize higher education is explained in this paper. The impact of privatization in higher education is positive as well as negative. The suggestions to take maximum benefits from privatization are also discussed.

Economic and Political Weekly, 2014

Privatisation of tertiary education in liberalising India has taken place in the presence of a centralised regulatory regime. This phenomenon does not conform to explanations that understand privatisation as a direct consequence of withdrawal of the state from higher education and challenges the idea that liberalisation has minimal impact on state funding of higher education. This article seeks to understand the phenomenon through a comparative analysis of the tertiary education sector in pre- and post-liberalisation Karnataka which turned into a site of patronage and social management. Privatisation became the means by which the regulatory state placated powerful local groups which stood to lose from the reform process.

Journal Article, 2016

Higher education is a global phenomenon. Higher education system plays pivotal role for the country's overall development including industrial, social, economic, political, etc. Indian higher education system is the second largest in the world after USA. Privatization of higher education was initiated in 1991 with the initiation of the Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG) Policy. Privatization of higher education in India introduced new policies and programs to increase more employments, outcomes and income opportunities and achieve economic development at Regional, State wise, National and International levels. It has brought about a rapid change in the educational scenario of India. Privatization encourages the individual and society to establish schools, colleges and private universities to meet the growing demand for education. As a result, private educational institutions are growing day by day throughout the country. Privatization of higher education in India has positive and negative impacts on education and society. Hence, the prime objective of this paper is to present the emergence of privatization in present higher education in India and also to analyze the impact of privatization in higher education. Besides, in this paper, some suggestions for privatizing the higher education were prescribed.

This paper aims to analyse the impact of privatisation of education in the Indian society. The government of India introduced new economic policies namely globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation to increase employment, output and income opportunities and achieve economic development at international level. Privatisation has brought about rapid change in the educational scenario of India. It is seen that privatisation encourages the individuals and religious organisations to establish colleges and deemed universities to meet the growing demand for higher education. Consequently, higher educational institutions are found throughout the country. It not only increases the number of higher educational institutions but also increases the number of seats for highly demand courses such as engineering and medicine. Moreover, it decreases the distance between the educational institutions. It causes competition among them to fill the seats allotted by the affiliated universities and maximize socioeconomic benefits. However, it creates the gap between the demand and supply of higher education. It not only increases the cost but also decreases the quality of education. Thus, privatisation has positive and negative impact on education and society. Hence, the present study is an attempt to analyse the impact of privatisation on the growth and demand and supply of higher education and on society at micro level. Introduction Education is the most important and powerful tool invented by mankind to shape and mould himself for personal as well as social life. In short, it prepares the man for life. Moreover, it is the important source of employment, income and standard of living. So, everyone gives important to higher education. As a result, it has become one of the basic necessities of human life in the materialistic and knowledge society. Hence, the demand for higher education has increased especially after the independence of India. But the central and the state governments are unable to meet the increasing the demand for higher education due to financial constraints, non-availability of appropriate places and cost of higher education. Therefore, it encourages the individuals and organisation to establish colleges and deemed universities. As a result, the number of self-financed arts and science, engineering and medical colleges has increased on the one hand and increased the gap between the demand and supply of higher education. This is also because the afflicted colleges have applied for additional seats to meet the demand for certain courses. Thus, the increase in the number of colleges and demand for additional seats create a gap between the demand and supply of higher education in many higher educational institutions in India. Further, privatisation has positive and negative impact on higher education and society.