Comprehensive Notes on the Higher Education System in India: Governance, Polity, and Administration

Introduction to Higher Education and its Global Standing

• Fundamental Definition: According to Swami Vivekananda, "Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man."
• Role and Purpose: Higher education provides an opportunity for individuals to reflect on critical issues including social, economic, cultural, moral, and spiritual challenges facing humanity.
• National Development: It contributes to progress by disseminating specialized knowledge and skills, serving as a crucial survival factor for a nation.
• Educational Hierarchy: Positioned at the apex of the educational pyramid, higher education is responsible for producing the teachers who sustain the entire system.
• Demographic Dividend: Higher education focuses on the optimum utilization of human resources within the age group of $15$ to $59$ years.
• System Scale: The Indian higher education system, including technical education, is the third largest in the world, trailing only the United States and China.

Categories of the Formal Education System

• Primary Education: Adopts a child-centred approach and continues up to the age of $14$ years.
• Secondary Education:
  • Exposes students to science, humanities, social sciences, and vocational streams.
  • Provides a sense of history and national perspective.
  • Teaches constitutional duties and rights.
  • Mainly managed by the Board of Secondary Education.
• Tertiary Education: A broader term encompassing higher education plus vocational education.
• Levels of Higher Education Qualification:
  1. Undergraduate level: Leading to a bachelor's degree; typically takes $3$ years (excluding professional courses like engineering and medicine).
  2. Postgraduate level: Leading to a master's degree; generally $2$ years in duration.
  3. Research level: Leading to Ph.D., Fellowship, or Post Doctorate.
  4. Other Qualifications: Includes diplomas, Chartered Accountancy, PGDBA, and PGDCA.

Evolution of Higher Education in India

Ancient and Medieval Periods

• Vedic Age: Roots are found in ancient literature such as the Vedas, Brahmanas, and Upanishads, revealed through ancient rishis.
• Gupta Period: India was a global centre of learning with institutions such as:
  • Nalanda: Focused on all branches of knowledge.
  • Takshila: Specialized in the study of medicine.
  • Ujjain: Specialized in the study of astronomy.
• Buddhist Period:
  • Sarnath University: A great centre for studying Buddhism.
  • Ajanta: A significant site for learning art, architecture, and painting.
• Mughal Education: Consisted of primary and secondary schools and colleges established in locations like Fatehpur Sikri, Agra, and Delhi. Hindu philosophy-based education existed simultaneously.
• Modern Revival: In $2006$, a plan was proposed by Singapore, China, India, Japan, and other nations to restore Nalanda as Nalanda International University.

Pre-Independence Developments (Colonial Period)

• Charter Act (1813): Focused on spreading scientific knowledge; allowed Christian missionaries to preach; led to the establishment of Hindu College in Calcutta ($1817$), which eventually became Presidency University in $2010$.
• Elphinstone Report (1823): Recommended District Examination Officers, School Supervisors, and teacher training. Led to the establishment of Elphinstone Institution in Bombay in $1834$.
• Macaulay’s Minutes (1835): Suggested the diffusion of English education to build a secular, scientific system at par with the Western world.
• Wood Dispatch (1854): The first policy measure for higher education; recommended universities in Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay (established in $1857$).
• Hunter Commission (1882–1883): Emphasized segregating primary and higher education and proposed university management of affiliated colleges.
• Universities Commission (1902): Appointed by Lord Curzon under Sir Thomas Raleigh to improve university constitution and supervision. Resulted in the Indian Universities Act of $1904$.
• National Council of Education (1905): Set up post-Bengal partition by Swadeshi leaders; evolved into Jadavpur University. Notable figures included Rabindranath Tagore (Shantiniketan) and Satish Mukherjee (Dawn Society).
• Resolution on Educational Policy (1913): Recommended a university for each province and teaching-focused updates for mofussil town colleges.
• Saddler Commission (1917): Also called the Calcutta University Commission. Recommended separating intermediate education from degree colleges. Precursor to the $10+2+3$ system (implemented in India in $1975$). Recommended the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), which was set up in $1920$ and abolished in $1923$.
• Hartog Committee (1929): Focused on university standards and re-established CABE in $1935$.
• Sapru Committee (1934): Investigated unemployment in U.P.; concluded education focused too much on exams rather than vocations.
• Abbot-Wood Report (1937): Proposed English as the university medium and recommended vocational training via polytechnics.
• Wardha Scheme of Education (1937): Also known as ‘Nai Talim’ or ‘Basic Education’. Based on Gandhian philosophy; shaped by Dr. Zakir Hussain. Recommended free, compulsory education for ages $7$ to $14$ in the mother tongue.
• Sargent Report (1944): Titled ‘Scheme of Post War Educational Development in India’; recommended setting up the University Grants Commission (UGC) and a three-year degree course.

Post-Independence Higher Education Initiatives

Major Commissions and Committees

• Radhakrishnan Commission (1948–1949): Also known as the University Education Commission. Suggested the integration of secondary and higher education via the UGC and recommended rural universities.
• Mudaliar Commission (1952–1953): Known as the Secondary Education Commission. Proposed a $3$-year secondary and $4$-year higher education system and vocational training.
• Committee on Emotional Integration (1961): Led by Dr. Sampurnanand to study youth/student roles in strengthening national emotional integration.
• Kothari Commission (1964–1966): Titled ‘Education and National Development’. Proposed $3$-year degree and $4$-year honours courses, established the Indian Education Service (IES), and recommended spending $6\%$ of national income on education.
• Concurrent List Entry (1976): Through the $42^{nd}$ Constitutional Amendment (Entry $25$), education became a concurrent responsibility of both the Centre and the States.
• National Policy on Education (1968 & 1986): Emphasized quality improvement and distance learning; reaffirmed the $6\%$ GDP target for education spending.
• Gnanam Committee (1993): Advocated for academic autonomy, restriction of deemed universities, and a National Commission on higher education and research.
• Sam Pitroda Committee (National Knowledge Commission, 2007): Recommended multidisciplinary curricula, increasing the number of universities to $1500$ by $2015$, and allowing foreign universities.
• Yashpal Committee: Suggested a "super regulator" called the Commission for Higher Education and Research (CHER), scrapping the "deemed university" status, and evolving a GRE-like test for university entry.
• Sharma Committee (Prof. MM Sharma): Deliberated on science and technology education; suggested establishing IISER and spending $\text{Rs. } 500$ crores annually on basic science research via UGC.
• Dr. Anil Kakodkar Committee: Recommended earmarking $2\%$ of every institution's budget for research to improve technical education.
• K. B. Pawar Committee: Constituted by the UGC to recommend four models of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in higher education.

Economic Context and Spending

• Economic Reforms: Post-$1991$ market-oriented reforms necessitated changes in the education system to ensure a skilled workforce.
• Spending Disparity: Although a target of $6\%$ of GDP was set decades ago, India's actual spending was only $3.3\%$ in $2010$ and increased slightly to $3.9\%$ in the $2014-15$ budget. The global average was $4.9\%$ of GDP in $2010$.