Universities of India 2008
  
Preface| Foreword| Executive Summary|Methodology| Sector Update| Insights|Talent Study |Interview Section| University Listing| Editorial Team

 
 

Dun and Bradstreet India (D&B India) has collected primary information from universities through a survey to derive key highlights of India’s institutions of higher education. Out of the total respondent universities, more than one-third has provided detailed information that forms the keystone of this report.

The post-liberalisation period seems to have bolstered the higher education sector as half of the universities that were surveyed were established after 1991. Furthermore, the University Grants Commission (UGC) recognised more than 75% of the sample universities only after CY2000. The universities were set up to create a qualitative, intelligent, and competitive human resource pool. But in the years that followed, the need was felt to add to the qualitative aspect of education system and to thereon provide a competitive edge over educational institutions. Consequently, the UGC of India established an autonomous body called the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) to accredit institutions of higher education in India.

More than half of the universities that participated in the survey are NAAC-accredited, which again underlines increased emphasis on qualitative higher education. The educational institutions that took part in the survey comprised deemed universities (around 47%) and state universities (33%) in majority; the remaining 20% comprised central universities, private universities, and institutes of national importance. For the academic year 2007-08, the number of affiliated and constituent colleges and students collectively stood at 1,357 and 887,417, respectively.

The survey findings revealed that in recent times, the focus of higher education has shifted from national education to global education, from one-time education meant for a few to lifelong education for all and from classroom-based training to distance learning. In fact, one-third of the universities in the sample showedk greater inclination towards distance learning.

Other key findings of the survey were:

Growth in overall student enrolment but decline in MPhil enrolment

The total number of students that were enrolled on an individual basis for the universities, that were surveyed, increased by an impressive 81% from 204,106 in 2006-07 to 370,102 in 2007- 08. During the same period, the students enrolled in various undergraduate and post-graduate programmes grew by around 22% and students enrolled for PhD programmes grew by 17%; however, the number of students enrolled for MPhil programme decreased by 9%.

Female enrollers on the rise

For the academic year 2007-08, female students constituted nearly one-fourth of the total enrolments on an average. Enrolment of female students nearly doubled during the academic years 2006-07 and 2007-08. Conscious efforts by different agencies and government bodies seem to have borne success in the area of promotion of women education as several social and economic factors have been acting as constraints for female education in India.

Need to attract international students

The National Knowledge Commission has suggested the transformation of India into a lucrative destination for foreign students to partially solve the education sector’s funding problems. Unfortunately, India still has to make substantial progress on this front. For the academic year 2007-08, international students accounted for a meagre 1.6% of the total enrolments and international student enrolments rose by a miniscule 2% over the past academic year.

Number of students with work experience up 53%

The number of new courses and programmes offered by universities has gone up to meet industry demand for employees with certain skill sets and talent; consequently, the number of students with work experience increased by 53% from 1,439 in 2006-07 to 2,212 in 2007-08. The need to enhance career prospects is driving the interest in pursuing higher studies; however, the percentage of students having work experience, on an average, remained constant at around 17% during both academic years 2006-07 and 2007-08.

Part-time faculty strength up by more than 90% during 2006-07 and 2007-08

Robust infrastructure and financial resources are the two pillars of higher education whereas skilled faculty forms the base of a globally-competitive academic foundation. There is an increasing need for suitable and competent teachers to ensure quality education. For the academic year 2007-08, total number of faculty at 17,175 was 28% more than the previous academic year.

Of the total faculty, the number of teachers holding a PhD remained constant at 39% for both academic years; however, they showed a growth of 25% for the academic session of 2007-08 over the previous academic session. Female faculty members constituted 28% of the total faculty in academic year 2007-08; their number slipped by 1% over the previous academic year.

Maintaining a rational teacher-student ratio also is an important prerequisite for imparting quality higher education. The teacher to pupil ratio for the surveyed universities in the sample in tertiary education stood at 1:15 in 2006-07 and was close to some of the matured economies such as the US and UK, which had ratios of 1:14 and 1:19 ratios, respectively, in 2005. Unfortunately, the growth in student population has not been proportionate to the growth in student enrolment, faculty recruitment and retention. Another noteworthy deviation was the teacher to pupil ratio that went down to 1:22 in 2007-08 and highlighted the scarcity of faculties in India.

Universities have also begun evaluating the performance of their faculty to gauge the latter’s efficacy. This step is important to ensure that there is continuous improvement in the quality of education. In fact, the study revealed that 82% of the universities surveyed conducted performance evaluation of their faculties through students.

Traditional courses held good for career prospects

Changes in the education system and world economy pose new challenges and make new demands from various educational institutions in the form of the courses that they offer. However, the survey revealed that traditional courses such as engineering and technology remain the favourite programmes in most universities.

In the past decade, management has been following these two streams as the most favourite programmes in the surveyed institutions. On the flip side, it was disappointing to note that in an agrarian economy like India, only 2% of universities offered agricultural and allied programmes.

The number of post-graduate courses has gained momentum steadily over the last couple of years as corporations are increasingly recruiting a post-graduate workforce. Furthermore, outsourced research and analytical jobs are pushing up the need for further studies. More than one-third of the universities surveyed offer post-graduate programmes and around 25% of these universities offer research degrees in MPhil and PhD.

However, there is a need for more universities to adopt research-oriented programmes to boost the decline in number of scholars that India produces. In spite of fierce competition emerging in all areas, Indian scholars make a miniscule 2% contribution to world research papers that is not sufficient for India to gain prominence in the R&D space at the global level. India needs to have at least five times more PhD scholars than the current numbers to compete at the global level with developed as well as developing economies.

Retaining faculty members and maintaining quality of education emerge as major challenges

In an indication that universities are now willing to move to a more independent way of functioning, government funding turned out to be the least important challenge for a majority of universities. Instead, it was revealed that universities chose to focus on resolving challenges pertaining to retention of faculty members and quality of education that they provided. Retention of skilled faculty members is considered an important parameter for improving quality of education.

In the light of this statement one needs to know that attracting and retaining talented faculty is one of the recommendations proposed by the National Knowledge Commission in its 2007 ‘Report to the Nation’. These include improving remuneration and service conditions, improving remuneration and service conditions, providing sufficient sabbatical leaves and rationalising teaching load to devote adequate time for research as well providing incentives for publishing research results in peer reviewed publications etc. Furthermore, the recommendations stress on reforming universities through frequent curricula revisions, course credit introductions and infrastructure upgradation among others.

Issues related to attendance emerged as a third most area of concern for the universities. The two prominent factors that emerged as major challenges for institutes of higher learning, namely quality of education and retaining good faculty members, can be cited as reasons for problems related to attendance. This can be especially true in case of medical and technical education where quality of education coupled with skilled faculty play an important role in grooming students to become professionals in their respective fields of study. Shortage of skilled faculty as one of the major challenges is supported by D&B’s interview excerpts where it has been suggested that members should be exposed to various industrial developments in various levels of their academic career. Consequently, this will help to have a positive impact on addressing the shortage of skilled faculty and thus improving the quality of education in the near future.