Meeting autonomy goals in higher education: What’s the catch?

The pace and face of education in the contemporary world have taken a new dimension. The paradigm shift in educational technology is instrumental in witnessing the transition to higher education.

The reformation of Indian higher education under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the perspective of the standard are changing dramatically. However, that alone will not bring transformation, quality and holistic growth in any stream of education.

NEP is looking to build higher education under the banner of ‘Light and Tight’. Through this, it wants to ensure quality higher education with international standards. As a result, by 2032, the policy is trying to witness the Gross Enrolment Ratio of higher education at 50% and encourage higher educational institutions to be autonomous.

At present, there are 50,557 colleges and 1,284 Universities. The journey of autonomy in the Indian context is not a cakewalk. Policymakers and regulatory bodies are fully aware of the scenario and the repercussions of autonomy in the long run. The prospect of higher education lies in the outcomes of the graduates/postgraduates.

Outcome-based education mirrors employability skills, and the competency of the graduates is less than 15%. The percentage of employability skills is not encouraging or convincing in the contemporary world. It also reflects the performance, quality, and stature of India’s outcome-based higher education educational institutions.

Challenges before autonomy

Meeting autonomy goals will remain aspirational unless higher educational institutions become robust in academics. Most higher education institutions in India lack the infrastructure or academic ecosystem to address students’ needs. Since our formative and summative assessment process works on mechanical lines rather than concrete-based results, the employability skills of graduating students complement the outcomes and performance.

Accreditation is mandatory for autonomy, but out of 50,557 colleges, only 6,176 have been reaccredited since July 2017. As a result, the new NAAC reforms, i.e., the binary accreditation process, are intended to ensure more colleges are accredited by 2032. The outcome is a long way off.

Since July 2017, only 362 universities have been reaccredited out of 1,284 universities. (http://naac.gov.in/index.php/en)

Foreign universities are entering India in the academic year 2024-25, and our universities and colleges must ensure academic standards in higher education. However, the scenario looks quite contradictory regarding quality, standardisation of teaching-learning, research, etc.

The rise of academic politicisation in India is the biggest threat and perhaps the reason for the malfunctioning and mediocre performance of higher educational institutions and universities in India.

The lack of a mechanism to ensure the research outcomes and its benefit for societal change leads to sub-standard research publications. 

The less competent graduates will soon join the faculty of higher educational institutions. If we visualise this scenario, the fate of education will be in peril.

Genuine academicians are disconnected and sidelined by soon joining the faculty of higher educational institutions. Political sycophancy is causing irreparable damage to education. The ultimate sufferers are students.

Thus, the true transition and transformation of higher education happen when the facilitators adjust to the pace of the changing scenario, which is the beginning of quality sustenance. The 21st-century developments and the National Education Policy (2020) will help us set up a quality benchmark for autonomy and the prospect of higher education. If not now, it will never.

(The author is an associate professor in a Bengaluru-based college)