Dr. D. Mukhopadhyay
Quality in any subject means meeting a standard or benchmark that efficiently meets the purpose of society and the same phenomenon is equally applicable to education sector also. Education empowers minds and develop capability of achieving the status of socio-economic well being of an individual. Universities are the social agencies that shoulder the responsibilities for providing education to people. India is a vast country and her needs are also diverse. People empowered with higher education are capable of resource generation and effective utilization of the same so that socio-economic condition of the country improves. Now it is the time that universities are not only to provide education but also are required to provide excellent education. Excellent education providing depends on many factors and one of them is to have better infrastructure and retain qualified teachers.
Teachers provide intellectual inputs and develop intellectual capability and passed out students and alumni are the products of the universities and obviously quality of output depends upon quality of inputs. As on date there are 785 universities in India out of which 267 are private universities and it is common to see that infrastructure and other facilities including capability of teachers in those universities are seen to be more competitive than others. Private universities are preferred by a certain percentage of people endowed with strong financial support. A private university is created by a State or Central Act by a sponsoring body which is normally a Society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, a trust or any company under section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013. In India, higher education is provided by these 785 universities but quality of education varies from university to university though UGC puts its best effort to maintain uniformity in educational standards among all the universities in the country. Quality of education varies from university to university because of non availability of sufficient resources mainly in State universities
In India, responsibility of providing higher education lies with both the State Government and Central Government together but it is evident from various studies that Indian higher education system could not achieve excellence in education delivery system in the map of education of the world. We have hardly any room in the rank list of excellent educational institutions and under such critical juncture, appearance of private universities promoted by private promoters becomes quite helpful in meeting the quality education needs of higher education in India. Private universities come up in a campus and are providing all kinds of modern support that are needed for quality research and better education delivery system. It is evident from various studies that private universities are functioning under a not for profit business model in many cases and they are built on the foundation of high intellectual capability including entering into partnership with the renowned universities in the world and make remarkable investment in promoting collaboration for the interest of delivering quality education.
They constantly remain busy in updating their course curricula keeping in view the best practices that prevail in contemporary and time honored era. The advantage of private universities lies in process of decision making rapidity. Whereas, decision making process in State and Central universities is based on red tapism and they lack in having mission and vision. Mission is the purpose for which an organization exists and vision is forward looking. Private universities are strictly guided by mission, vision and objectives and strategies are formulated and adopted keeping in view the requirement of objectives. Private universities cost of education delivery process is comparatively much on higher side but quality itself has a cost. State universities and central universities should revise their fees from time to time keeping in pace with the rise of standard of living of people. There are many State universities in the country where there is no revision of students fee during last thirty years or more.
Our private universities set their benchmark against the standard of best foreign universities and entire education delivery system is built up accordingly. Private universities are now on higher side of attracting domestics students besides foreign students too. Indian parents are also becoming quality conscious and they are trying their level best to give better education to their wards and they are becoming fascinated day by day to send their wards to the private universities. There are several central universities whose infrastructure is very poor. Internet facility is a must and help of technology in education delivery system is a must too. Now class room has been extended to the drawing rooms with the support of internet. Out of total 785 universities, 267 are private universities, 46 are central universities, 347 are state universities and 125 are Deemed Universities. If we look at the growth rate of private universities during last ten years, picture becomes like this i.e. there were 16 private universities in 2007, it became 100 in 2011, the same became 140 in 2012 and it is now 267 in 2016. This clearly shows the popularity of private universities in India because of quality education delivery mechanism.
Multinational corporations hire only the performers and they recruit hardly from those who are non competitive. However, all private universities are not of equal standard and there is variation among them also. But, generally, private universities are performing better than state and many central universities in the country. Private universities should take into consideration that they should deliver at affordable cost. State universities and many central universities should take renowned private universities as the model on many aspects and give better inputs to the students. State and central universities can recruit and retain best faculty, develop mechanism to attract best faculty, salary and financial incentives should be revised from time to time.
Financial stability is to be ensured through resource raising process and having control over expenditure management. The operational expenses are to be ascertained with scientific basis and resources are to be raised keeping in view the extent of expenses. Private universities manage finance with the help of Professional Accountants and there is centrally fund management system. Quality of board of governors is also a decisive factor for the successes of the universities. Besides, academics, member of board of governors are drawn from industry and corporate in private universities to a greater extent. Product of the universities shall mainly serve the corporate sector and therefore course curricula is developed keeping in view the needs of the corporate world by the private universities by and large.
They regularly invite industry captains in symposium, workshops, seminars and conferences and empower their students with rich experience of industry and corporate managers. Private universities concentrate on research and innovation, time-honored pedagogy, qualitative infrastructure, quality of teachers, interface between the university and corporate, employability and many of these variables are absent in state and central universities. Government while funding these universities should keep these factors into account. However many private universities are yet to receive social acceptance due to fear that education from private universities may not get wider recognition since government sponsored or owned universities are in the minds of people. In the developed countries, majority of universities are promoted by private bodies and they hardly need any grant from the government. Indian mindset is also gradually changing and preference for private universities is increasing day by day.
(The author is Professor of Management, School of Business, Faculty of Management, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra)
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