Abstract
This chapter seeks to understand and anticipate the future of the Indian higher education in the Post-Covid era in the wake of the implementation of the New Economic Policy (NEP) 2020. The chapter begins with the conceptualization of the debatable issue of whether higher education as a public good or common good. This is followed by a brief discussion of the challenges facing the Indian higher education system and how are they being addressed in the proposed NEP. This is followed by a discussion on the possible implications for the two major functions of the universities such as teaching and doing research with the academic profession being at the center of discussion. We broaden the context of the discussion by bringing in a major force which is gaining momentum, i.e., internationalization. We end this chapter with a discussion on the major issues and objectives, access and equity, conceptualization of quality, autonomy and accountability and the nature of public good character of higher education. We conclude with observations for the evolving market for higher education and the nature of public character of higher education focusing on inclusive expansion and attainment of quality education.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
It is in this context that it would be worthwhile to trace back to the definition of public good Samuelson (1954) offered and how this definition is able to capture the essence of higher education. Non-rivalry in consumption and non-excludability are the two distinctive features of a public good.
- 2.
In the Visitors’ conference held …the President of India, Hon’ble Ram LalKovind drew the attention of the Vice Chancellors to the improvement of ranking of the Indian universities in QS 2023 edition. Source :https://pib.gov.in/Pressreleaseshare.aspx?PRID=1831172#
- 3.
IISc top Indian university, overtakes IITs: QS World University Rankings | Education News, The Indian Express. https://indianexpress.com/article/education/iisc-is-top-indian-university-in-global-rankings-overtakes-iits-7959729/ss.
- 4.
This is the ratio of students studying abroad and the students enrolled in Indian higher education institutions.
- 5.
As per the UNESCO estimate nearly 4.4 million students are studying abroad. However as per the estimate of the MEA, the number goes up to 8 million. In comparison, India receives only 49 thousand students from abroad.
- 6.
Coursera reaches 58 Million global learners (The IFC Report 2020). Top 5 countries were USA 12.1 Million; India: 7.1 Million; China 3.2 Million; Mexico 3.1 Million; Brazil 2.4 Million. At the end of the previous decade, there were 380 million students opting for 30 thousand rupees, 50 degrees and 1000 universities.
- 7.
Inclusion in Category I would require NAAC Score of 3.5 and/or featuring in the world ranking within the top 500 as per the THE and QS. Category II would require NAAC score of 3.01–3.49.
- 8.
Recently, Jindal Global Law School has signed up MoUs with 10 universities in 6 countries for increasing international student mobility. See https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/jindal-global-law-school-signs-mous-with-10-universities-in-6-countries-for-international-student-mobility-7761885/.
- 9.
- 10.
The Indian HEIs to become eligible to tie up should have a NAAC score of above 3.01, or in the top 1000 THE or QS ranking or in the top 100 NIRF ranking. The foreign institutions should feature in the top 1000 of the THE or QS world ranking.
References
Becker, G. S. (1993). Human capital: A theoretical and empirical analysis with special reference to education (3rd ed.). University of Chicago Press (Originally published in 1964).
Bhushan, S. (2019). Contesting the present in the evolution of public higher education. In S. Bhushan (Ed.), The future of higher education in India. Springer.
Brown, P., Lauder, H., & Cheung, S. Y. (2020). The death of human capital? Oxford University Press.
Chandra, P. (2017). Building universities that matter: Where are Indian institutions going wrong? Orient BlackSwan.
Chattopadhyay, S (2009). The market in higher education: Concern for equity and quality. Economic and Political Weekly, XLIV(29), 53–61.
Chattopadhyay, S. (2012). Education and economics: Disciplinary evolution and policy discourse. Oxford University Press.
Chattopadhyay, S. (2019). World ranking of the universities: What does it entail for the future. In S. Bhushan (Ed.), The future of the Indian universities. Springer.
Chattopadhyay, S. (2020). NEP 2020: An uncertain future for Indian higher education. Economic and Political Weekly, LV(46), 23–27.
Chattopadhyay, S. (2021). Internationalisation of Indian higher education: Issues and challenges. In S. Chattopadhyay, S. Marginson, & N. V. Varghese (Eds.), Changing higher education in India. Bloomsbury.
Chattopadhyay, S. (2022). Higher education in quest of humane development: Envisaging the future in the post-covid era. In B. Dasgupta, P. Sarkhel, A. Ghosh, & B. Ghosh (Eds.), In quest of human development: Human development, community networking and public service delivery in India. Springer.
Das, D., & Chattopadhyay, S. (2014). Academic performance indicators: Straight jacketing higher education. Economic and Political Weekly, 49(50), 68–71.
de Wit, H., & Altbach, P. A. (2022). The impact of covid-19 on the internationalisation of higher education, revolutionary or not? In C. Raj Kumar, M. Mukherjee, T. Belousova, & N. Nair (Eds.), Global higher education during and beyond covid-19: Perspectives and challenges (pp. 219–231). Springer.
Etzkowtiz, H,. Webster, A,. & Healey, P. (1998). Introduction in Etzkowitz,K et al (eds) Capitalizing Knowledge: New intersections of industry and academia, State University of New York Press: New York, 1–17
Foray, D (2006). Economies of Knowledge, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Government of India (GoI). (2017). University Grants Commission (Institutions of Eminence Deemed to be Universities) Regulations 2017. The Gazette of India, 337(4), Part III, Section 4, August 30, 2017. Available at: https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/5403862_Gazette-Institutions-of-Eminence-Deemed-to-be-Universities.pdf
Government of India. (2018). UGC (Categorisation of Universities (only) for Grant of Graded Autonomy) Regulations 2018. UGC.
Government of India (GoI). (2019). Draft National Education Policy 2019. Ministry of Education. Available at: https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/Draft_NEP_2019_EN_Revised.pdf. Accessed August 11, 2020
Government of India. (2020a). The National Education Policy 2020. Ministry of Education. Available at: https://www.mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English.pdf. Accessed August 11, 2020
Government of India (GoI). (2020b). Public notice: Expression of interest (UG Course Mapping/SWAYAM) dated 31.07.2020. UGC. Available at: https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/4981711_Public-Notice-EOI.pdf. Accessed August 11, 2020
Government of India (GoI). (2020c). All India statistics for higher education 2018–19. Ministry of Education. Available at: https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/statistics-new/Budget%20Exp%202017-18%20-27-6-2020c.pdf. Accessed June 28, 2021
Government of India. (2022a). Economic Survey 2021–22.
Government of India (GoI). (2022b). University grants commission academic collaboration between Indian and foreign higher education institutions to offer twining, joint degree, and dual degree programmes) regulations, 2022. https://www.ugc.ac.in/pdfnews/4555806_UGC-Acad-Collab-Regulations.pdf. Accessed June 12, 2022
International Finance Corporation. (2020). Case study: Toward ending educational privilege. IFC-CourseraCaseStudy-May2020.pdf.
IISc top Indian university, overtakes IITs: QS World University Rankings | Education News, The Indian Express.
Locatelli, R. (2018, February). Education as a public and common good: Reframing the governance of education in a changing context (UNECSO Education Research and Foresight Working Papers, No. 22). UNESCO. Available at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0026/002616/261614E.pdf. Accessed June 28, 2021
Locke, W. (2011). The institutionalization of rankings: Managing status anxiety in an increasingly marketized environment in the future of university rankings. In J. C. Shin, R. K. Toutkoushian, & U. Teichler (Eds.), University rankings: Theoretical basis, methodology and impacts on global higher education. Springer.
Marginson, S. (2016). Higher education and the common good. Melbourne University Press.
Marginson, S. (2022). Challenges and possibilities for higher education in India during and beyond the covid-19 pandemic. In C. M. Raj Kumar, M. Mukherjee, T. Belousova, & N. Nair (Eds.), Global higher education during and beyond Covid-19: Perspectives and challenges (pp. 11–22). Springer.
McCowan, T. (2017). Higher education, unbundling and the end of the university as we know it. Oxford Review of Education, 46(6), 733–748.
Olssen, M., Codd, J., & O’Neill, A. (2004). Education policy: Globalization, citizenship and democracy. Sage Publications.
Samuelson, P. (1954). The pure theory of public expenditure. Review of Economics and Statistics, 36(4), 387–389.
Sharma, Y. (2022, May 20). UNESCO reaffirms higher education as a right and a public good. University World News. https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220520090907357
Sharma, A., & Chisti, V., Pathak, B. K. (2021). Teachers and students as political actors. In S. Chattopadhyay, S. Marginson, & N. V. Varghese (Eds.), Indian higher education. Bloomsbury.
Slaughter, S., & Leslie, L. L. (1997). Academic capitalism. The John Hopkins University Press.
Stiglitz, J. E. (1975). The theory of screening, education, and the distribution of income. The American Economic Review, 65(3), 283–300.
Täljedal, I.-B. (2013). Publish and Perish: A note on a collapsing academic authorship. In S. Rider, Y. Hasselberg, & A. Waluszewski (Eds.), Transformation in research, higher education and the academic market: The breakdown of scientific thought. Springer.
Teichler, U. (2011). The future of university rankings. In J. C. Shin, R. K. Toutkoushian, & U. Teichler (Eds.), University rankings: Theoretical basis, methodology and impacts on global higher education. Springer.
Trow, M. (1996). Trust markets and accountability in higher education: A comparative perspective. Research and Occasional Paper Series, CSHE.1.96. Centre for Studies in Higher Education, University of California.
Varghese, N. V., Sabharwal, N., & Malish, C. M. (2021). Equity in higher education for inclusive growth: Evidence from India. In S. Chattopadhyay, S. Marginson, & N. V. Varghese (Eds.), Indian higher education. Bloomsbury.
Washburn, J. (2005). University Inc. The corporate corruption of higher education. Basic Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chattopadhyay, S. (2023). Envisioning the Future of Indian Higher Education in the Post-Covid Era: Challenges and Possibilities. In: Raychaudhuri, A., Ghose, A. (eds) Managing Pandemic and Correcting Development Fundamentals. India Studies in Business and Economics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8680-2_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8680-2_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-19-8679-6
Online ISBN: 978-981-19-8680-2
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)