Higher Education in India: State Policy and Social Constraints

Abstract

The disjunction between normative expectations and existent constraints on the structure and function of education has led to the postulate that ‘education seldom rises above the socio-economic and socio-political situation in which it is embedded’. In an attempt to substantiate this postulate, India's rich and variegated experience in the field of policy formulation and programme implementation in higher education is reviewed. Substantively, the implantation of higher education in the colonial era, the crisis confronting higher education at present, and the specific issues and macro problems in the planning and implementation of higher education are examined.