Higher Education in India: Transition from Socialism to Capitalism

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2023

Since the 1990′s the word 'neoliberalism' has been used for global market-liberalism and for free-trade policies. In India, the onset of the dept and fiscal crises of 1990's triggered LPG policies of national economy in conformity with IMF and World Bank that was rooted in neoliberal ideology. This research paper tries to understand the depth of concerns of Neoliberal Policies with focus on Higher Education System in India within the light of NEP 2020. The research paper further suggest measures for a strong theoretical framework in Higher Education System in India.

New Proposals: Journal of Marxism and Interdisciplinary Inquiry, 2015

Privatization of higher education is not a new phenomenon in India. However, since India started embracing neoliberal policies in 1991, the objectives of higher education in India have increasingly shifted from philanthropy to profit-maximization. This paper is an empirical attempt to show how the higher education system in India is gradually changing with the demands of neoliberalism and leaving behind its original objectives of promoting national development through equity and quality. This paper will also suggest some possible solutions.

The Global Studies Journal, 2017

This article is a study of the impact of liberalism and neoliberalism on educational policy in India. The focus is on two waves of colonial enterprise into India. The first phase occurred in the nineteenth century and was ideologically fueled by post-Enlightenment liberalism. At this time the British conspicuously and proactively colonized India and justified this colonial project on liberal, Eurocentric grounds. In this context, I examine the impact of liberalism and utilitarianism on education policy and argue that modern, secular education was uniquely an outcome of colonial ideology in India. In the second section of the article, following post-colonial and critical theorists of education, I argue that global neoliberalism is a continuation of colonialism, albeit in different form, and that this new form of global colonization is reversing educational commitment and policy in India from secular public education to privatized education and school choice in the service of global neoliberal interests.

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

TRANS-KATA: Journal of Language, Literature, Culture and Education

Education is now considered a pre-condition in all societies, particularly in the developing societies, for inclusive development and to fight different inequalities. This can only be possible if access to higher education is based on equity, and a public-funded education system can ensure this. The paper is based on qualitative research and analyses the changes in the higher education system in India from a largely public-funded education system towards a commercial, profit-driven system. The policy shifts are analyzed from comparative and historical perspectives. The neo-liberal approach to education facilitates commercialization, leading to the exclusion of the poor from the higher education system and defeating the constitutional goals of building an inclusive democratic society. The functioning of democracy is also dependent on education as it creates citizens and empowers the marginalized to enter into the democratic system, thus legitimizing the state. The paper concludes tha...

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.

Abstract: Anthony Giddens, a British sociologist, who is known for his holistic view of modern societies, held, “Globalization refers to the fact that we all live in one world, so that individuals, groups and nations become interdependent.” It is generally associated with neo-liberalism ideology which advocates the primacy of the market and opening up of the economy of all nations to free trade, privatization and withdrawal of the state from regulation of economic activities. India inherited globalization in early eightees when she took a massive loan of 5 billion SDRs from the IMF. But after one decade when India took another massive loan of $2.5 billion in 1991 to cope with the balance of payments crisis that globalization in India actually started. With the adoption of neo-liberal philosophy, economic reforms started and besides withdrawing from economic activities, disinvesting some PSUs, India for a liberalized trade regime, threw open country’s resources to foreign business conglomerates making it easy for them to exploit and have easy access. This paper discusses one the major issues, that is, Globalization & Higher Education. Keywords: Globalization, Neo-liberalism, Nehruvianism,Tradition, Culture, Liberalization, Privatization.

Indian Journal of Human Development , 2021

The book under review, that is, Navigating the Labyrinth, deploys diverse methodologies to analyse the governance issues plaguing the higher education in India. The nuances of "governance" can be observed in terms of un/critical celebration of the glorious past through a political economy framework. This is important, as the variants of state place the Vishwaguru on the pedestal even against the stark reality where the literacy rate in 1931 was below 9% (p. 2). The book underlines "how the state universities charge little and teach little" (p. 13). These studies not only underscore the systemic complexities but also highlight paternalism of the educracy in both policy formulation and regulations. The public policy has been obsessive about input factors like access and infrastructure where the outcome dimensions are often left to the human agency. This is a problematic position to the very ideal of "development" where the weak academic performances, either in terms of capabilities or in terms of functionings, are due to the societal dimensions (Venkataraman, 2021). The book has chapters written by eminent scholars on diverse aspects in terms of the declining college systems, multidisciplinary research on universities, financing, vocational, skill development and employment. As a postcolonial nation state, India is known for its access-driven policies in education. This is due to the obvious reasons of historical marginalisation across the primordial identities. The massification of university education has been due to diverse intersectional factors like growth and integration into the global economy, the rising demand for higher education and the increase in the number of private colleges over the years. The education inflation shall, thus, be contextualised in terms of the demographic momentum where "nearly a million Indians projected to enter the working age each month for the next two decades" (p. 7). Against this, what we are witnessing in terms of the systemic expansion is the creation of babudom where the indigene traces of managerialism are available in the ivory towers. This is depressing due to the complex fact that neither the state has a political will to reform the sector nor does the leadership available in most of the institutions inspire confidence. Hence, Apoorvanand's Chapter (pp. 38-69) aptly picturises the broken system. How the cumulative disadvantages are pushing the system to the inertia has further been analysed by Chandra (pp. 235-264). Some of the left-over "quality" institutions are living on their past glories, whereas the majority of the rest are obsessive about the institutional politics for power and benefits. The collateral damage that occurs out of this complexity is the distrust one notices where neither the scholarship is organic in Gramscian sense nor is it collegial to navigate the labyrinth. Consequently, the mediocrity has entrenched into the system often in the name of governance. This redefines the very notion of university as a community of

The strong endorsement of neo-liberal policies by successive Indian governments has severely affected the education sector. Not just the funding cut but also growing privatization has significantly affected the quality of and access to education. The logic of the competitive market and one’s ability to pay determines the access to education; education is increasingly treated as a commodity rather than a social good.

It is viewed that globalisation, mainly economic globalisation, has severely influenced education, particularly higher education. A comparative case study using document analysis and qualitative interviews is made on the trends in higher education transformation in the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu of India and at the six selected higher education institutions from the two states. The decline of public fund to higher education has paved ways for the development of self-financed higher education, increase of tuition fee and self-financed courses at public and at state supported private higher education institutions. As a result cost of higher education has increased and the vulnerable are further marginalized from access to quality higher education. Kerala has resisted privatisation of higher education and experienced mass exodus of students going to neighbouring states for higher education. While Tamil Nadu has gone with privatisation of higher education to create more access to higher education, attracting private investment, yet adverse effects of privatisation are evident. The six micro cases (public / not-for-profit-private / for-profit private higher education institutions) have been responding to these developments, differently, given their nature, interest and capacity.