Commercialization of Higher Education in India: Concerns and Implication

The challenges of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization is often seen as to offer high quality education and other services in a competitive manner that would help the universities to benefit from ICT revolution and to become competitive nationally and internationally which will help, India, to become a Knowledge Super Power by the year 2020. It has no doubt broadened the scope of education. But such relationships vary among countries depending upon their level of development. Whereas developed countries derive significant benefit out of LPG, for developing countries it is perceived as a sudden thrust. India is still in a stage of achieving the goals of total literacy and universalization of primary education. There are number of questions which need serious pondering. Some of them are as to what extent our education could be adapted to the demands of LPG in education? Are these challenges really helpful to students to face global challenges? Is it worth leaving education to market forces? The paper throws light on the crass commercialization of Higher Education under the model of reform of LPG through rising of fees, autonomy to institutions with practically no control over managements, relaxation in norms for granting deemed to be university status and funding linked to mandatory assessment and accreditation, which are some of the decisions taken in order to usher in massive commercialization of higher education. There is a need to understand the impact of LPG within the more localized sphere of ground realities in India. The objective should be to promote inclusive higher education by ensuring fair, transparent and non-exploitative administration of educational institutions.