Indian universities’ campus in foreign soil and foreign university campuses in Indian soil have been celebrated with animated ecstasy as progress for Indian higher education. With gross enrolment ratio in India still needing higher growth, one might wonder why should Indian institutions open campuses abroad? If such a logic is applied for textile exports when many poor in India are still starved of quality clothing, India cannot be competitive in the global textile industry.
On the other hand, foreign universities establishing campuses in India is seen as progress with Australia and the UK making their first move to seize the market access. Will this entry continue like an avalanche or Indian universities shall expand in both quantity and quality to competitively outgrow the foreign counterparts in India?
The answer(s) to this question shall uncork the high-pressure bottle of Indian higher education which needs a policy stick to contain the regulatory frenzy and a magic wand to let out the deregulatory bliss. Will Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent speech at the Global Business Summit provide the pathway for higher education?
In the recently concluded Global Business Summit, Prime Minister Modi signalled the formation of a deregulation commission to reduce compliance burden and governmental interference. Tracing India’s growth story in the last one decade that has been marked by transformations spanning across the spectrum, Modi’s mood was crystal clear: ‘less government interference’.
While Jan Vishwas 1.0 made sweeping reforms in 42 ministries (none in Ministry of Education), Jan Vishwas 2.0 offers more hope for higher education, a perfect candidate for deregulation commissions’ effects. Though the New Education Policy (2020) is a major leap towards progress in education, some of the legacy regulations and guidelines of various statutory bodies—University Grants Commission (UGC), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), etc. need a deregulation commission makeover to ease the running of higher education institutions just like the ease of doing business.
In the interest of five major dimensions that can enrich the Return on Education (RoE)—Student Experience, Faculty Expertise, Institutional Excellence, Industry Engagement and Societal Empowerment—the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) contemplated by NEP 2020 promises a harmonious co-existence of various higher education bodies and their redundant functions.
While HECI is on its way, there have been reforms to smoothen the transactional process addressing all of the five dimensions. Despite the reforms, there is still a compelling need to remove some vestigial requirements clinging on with various higher education bodies with high terminological and low functional value. In my previous article, I had highlighted the need for autonomy to deserving higher educational institutions who need to be told what is wanted from them and not how to do. The recently tabled Economic Survey of 2024-25 seem to have hit the bull’s eye with its observations:
“Achieving compliance with UGC norms may be an excellent way for institutions to achieve credibility in the eyes of prospective students, faculty, and employees. On the other hand, such compliance is not essential for quality institutions. These have already achieved strong reputations in teaching, research and placement of their students. These institutions have innovated on some dimensions of their functioning, and they should be encouraged to follow that path since that is the only way to compete with global institutions.
Institutions that desire to stand by their own hard-won reputations should be free to carve out their own path. There is no greater accountability than that demanded by the market through prospective faculty, students, their parents, and collaborating academic and non-academic institutions. It is important to embrace diversity and to trust the genius of faculty and students to come up with frameworks that are novel, creative and impactful on society.” (Selective picks from the Economic Survey 2024-25).
Though the survey mentions UGC, the findings and recommendations are applicable to all the statutory bodies under the higher education ambit which need to loosen their regulatory purse-strings. There is an urgent need to not only demystify certain antiquated impressions of regulations but also clear the foggy framework of progressive autonomy to address the gargantuan problem of size and scale.
With slippery slopes and rough contours, both the ranking and rating systems have recently raised more questions than answers. Before the global ranking twin-towers are stealthily hijacked as an ideal substitute, the need for a deregulation commission equivalent in higher education through HECI cannot come at a time more appropriate than now. In short: Deregulation Commission is Higher Education’s Eureka Moment!
S Vaidhyasubramaniam
Vice-Chancellor, SASTRA Deemed University
vaidhya@sastra.edu