We need more quality in the already existing institutions, not more institutions. The base of higher education has expanded enormously in India since Independence. Yet we are far behind the United States and China in Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in this sector. In 1950, India had 700 colleges and 16 universities.
These numbers have now leaped to 33,000 colleges and 700 universities in 2011, if the statistics by University Grants Commission’s publication Higher Education at a Glance—2012 is to be believed. The Report on “Restructuring and Rejuvenation of Higher Education” by noted educationist Prof Yashpal suggests that there is a need to establish another 1,500 universities in the country to achieve the target of 30% GER (i.e., enrolment of 30 per cent of students who have finished twelve years of education in undergraduate courses.)
While expansion of higher education came to be the focus of educational policy of the nation right after 1950, the aspect of quality enhancement became the cornerstone in the early 1990s. The New Education Policy was formulated in 1986 and thereafter the Programme of Action (PoA) came to be implemented from 1992. In pursuance of it, National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) was set up in 1994 with its headquarters coming up in Bangalore. The Council began to set standards and benchmarks by 1998 and grading began in right earnest. Prior to this the quality was never documented. According to Dr. Shakuntala Katre, Advisor for NAAC, so far only 4,000 colleges have opted for accreditation and only very few have gone for reaccreditation. Curiously, accreditation is only a voluntary option and has not been made mandatory.
While in industry quality can be measured, it poses difficulty in education. What is measured is improvable. So the educators constantly need to think of standards and benchmarks whereby they could measure their performance, efficiency and cost reduction. One way to do that is to exchange the best practices, search for partners, shake hands with others and showcase one’s own practices. For example, some believe that ‘completion of syllabus” is a benchmark. But Dr. Shakuntala differs. She says, completion of syllabus is not necessary. What is necessary is ‘Covering of syllabus, even by self-learning by the students.”
Jagadish Kini, founder director of a consultancy firm recalls one of his teachers, one Prof Mule who will assign tests to students in a class and ask them to exchange their answer sheets and evaluate each other in terms of marks. Knowing full well that students would soon come to a pact in mutual correction (even to the extent of assigning marks for questions the other has not answered) with their neighbours, he would surprise them by asking them to bring their sheets to him next time.
College have adopted various ways of enhancing quality. Some colleges likes to evaluate the students in terms of participation in entrepreneurial fairs conducted by the College every year. In some colleges each teacher in the college has to prepare at least two research papers a year, while others mandate that each batch of the outgoing students should log in certain hours of technical training, lab practice and soft skills.
In some colleges staff from all faculties meet every Saturday for campus audit. There are norm for logging 30 compulsory reading hours in library every month. Every student and parent is provided a password for accessing info like fee arrears, library hours, books borrowed, attendance and papers in arrears. Besides students can opt for a variety of short term courses. There are colleges which assign a mentor from among teachers for each student. Many colleges have signed MoUs for various research projects.
The pressure on colleges to come up to the expectation of global employers has necessitated adoption of measure to map, measure and sustain high standards in education. Director of Collegiate Education, Government of Karnataka Dr B L Bhagyalakshmi who recently disclosed details of a Programme for Continuous Assessment of Quality in 60 (of the total 360 Government First Grade colleges under the Directorate), says in the light of impending entry of foreign educational institutions, there will be increased pressure on colleges to deliver better quality of research, patents, publications, innovation and creation of enabled and empowered citizenry. Though definite benchmarks are difficult to be set in higher education in India, it could be spoken in terms of collaboration, organisation learning, inclusiveness, reflection review, leadership and improvement.
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