Indian Govt. Seeks Private Sector Assistance in Higher Education

The Ministry of Human Resource Development in India has said that it will seek to bring into its investment fold both private companies and “high-net individuals” to assist in improving quality and access of higher education to students in the country. A draft of the plan to do this will be presented to the Union cabinet to be considered, the Ministry also added. According to one government official, there were three benefits to bringing in these kinds of investors, which were that funding would be more organized and done with total accountability, the benefits of operating in a more transparent and professional framework from outside of the system, as opposed to how these things have been carried out till date, and finally, as a result of this, that there would be very little chance to manipulate any part of the system.

This move to improve higher education in India comes on findings in earlier years, the first being that till 2014, only 10% of the total student population had access to higher education, and the second that comparatively, India spent $4.5 billion on education in 2016 during which time China spent close to $565 billion. Some of the main reasons for such paucity in maintaining the quality and standards of higher education in India have been blamed on a lack of accountability in the system overall, and a restricted sense of innovation that leads to rigid thinking. An example of this kind of thinking, albeit with the policy makers in the education sector, has been the previous over-reliance on private institutions being allowed to set up very easily, but with no thought to the government itself investing in education, with specific attention to be paid to consistently improving the quality of education in the country.