Higher Education in India: Present Scenario, Major Challenges and Way Forward

Higher Education sector has witnessed a tremendous increase in the number of higher education institutions since independence and emerged the largest in the world. The number of universities degree awarding institutions has increased around 26 times from 27 in 1951 to 712 in 2014 and number of colleges has also registered manifold increase of around 64 times with just 578 in 1951 growing to 36671 in 2014. There is a tremendeous increase in the enrollment of male students from 3.5 lacs in1951 to 163 lacs in 2013 and of female students from 0.5 lacs in 1951 to 133 lacs in 2013 pursuing their higher studies in India. Government of India is not able to achieve higher success in the implemented projects of education and still gross enrollment ratio (GER) is very low (21.1%) as compared to advanced countries despite the facts that opportunities for higher education have been increased recently due to the private participation. It is a challenge of providing access to India's expanding population of young people and rapidly growing middle class. India also faces a serious quality problem, given that only a tiny proportion of the higher education sector can meet international standards. However, due to widespread poverty, the higher education is still a dream mainly for deprived class in India. Total expenditure on higher education in 2012–13 was just 0.89% of county' GDP which is not sufficient to meet the goal of higher education in India. The unconditional co-operation in curriculum development, implementation of innovative practices, use of new technologies, exchange of experts and promotion of collaborative research are the need of the hour. The present paper is an attempt to study the present scenario and challenges facing Indian higher education sector as well as to suggest the ways to make the sector globally competitive.