The five strategic pillars for building world-class Indian higher education
To achieve the goals laid out in the five-year plans of Vision 2047, strategic reforms and infrastructural development are necessary across five key areas of the Indian HE ecosystem ꟷ student centricity, research and innovation, faculty, international mobility, and digital learning.
Student centricity: The policy would aim to provide a system of education that serves all students, irrespective of age, gender, passion, interests, strengths, and weaknesses in an individualized way, while being accessible to all. Many factors have contributed to this powerful need for student-centricity. According to an India Skills Gap report, 52% of India’s youth are unemployable, a high number of unused reservation seats remain unfilled, US$17b of potential revenue is lost from students going abroad to study and more than 50% of HE institutes in India remain unaccredited. The NEP 2020 targets meeting the above challenges to make students from Indian HE institutes truly skilled and competent.
Research and innovation: Presently, India’s spending on research and innovation is significantly less compared to other key economies, such as the US and China. To overcome this hurdle and make HE research-intensive, immediate focus on R&D funding, the introduction of research-intensive education and partnerships with the industry for providing research services is required.
Faculty: Due to lower faculty strength, a 28:1 student-teacher ratio in Indian HE is relatively high compared to other key economies. To overcome this challenge, faculty positions need to be made attractive and a core focus on improving faculty output, productivity and performance is needed. The Indian HE ecosystem should also aim to become a global exporter of qualified faculty to top ranked HE institutes.
International mobility: Improving international student inflow and building a world-class HE ecosystem is a core focus area for NEP 2020. Indian HE institutes must focus on improving their international footprint, while policymakers could focus on liberalizing HE landscapes to attract international investors and universities in India. The Indian HE ecosystem should also aim to achieve 30 to 40 ranks within the global top 200 university rankings.
Digital learning: Digital learning is an indispensable part of higher education and the market for online education and ed-tech continue to be among the most promising in the global education landscape. However, 30 to 40% of people in India lack computer literacy, internet penetration is less than 50% and there is a distinct lack of digital tools available to students, with only 17% of students with access to online classes through laptops. Hence, the government’s focus in the coming times would be on digitizing HE institutes and deploying new-age technology tools.
Transforming the higher education ecosystem in India
Over the past two decades, the HE ecosystem underwent vast reforms and significant growth; however, much of its potential remains unfulfilled. The NEP 2020 is a progressive and visionary policy for building a sustainable and long-lasting higher education ecosystem in India. Adaptive implementation of the policy has the potential to not only propel the education ecosystem of India in the right direction, but also radically transform it.