EDITORIAL COMMENT | College Coup

The government wants to turn the clock back on higher education by pushing new regulations whose outcome would be the quasi-collectivisation of private universities. According to regulations prepared by the University Grants Commission (UGC), that august body will have the power to fix a uniform fee structure for all deemed universities, besides setting up a centralised admission process, to be overseen by it, which will determine student intake at these universities.
The status of deemed university granted to some private institutions gives them a measure of autonomy in running their affairs, on the principle that an institution can attain excellence only if administrators are given a free hand in running it (IITs and IIMs are good examples of this principle). But the proposed centralization of critical decisions by making them the province of bureaucratic puppetmasters at the UGC would turn the definition of deemed universities on its head. The National Knowledge Commission (NKC), that was set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to suggest ways in which India can take advantage of the 21st century knowledge economy, has said that the present regulatory system is a formidable barrier to the expansion of higher education. The proposed changes will make regulatory structures even more oppressive.
The UGC and its sister organization, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), have been accused of becoming rent collection points by creating artificial scarcity in higher education, where demand surpasses supply by a wide margin. The case isn't that all institutions, whether private or public, will attain giddy heights of excellence the moment they are allowed flexibility in determining their students, faculty, syllabi, fees and cost structures including remuneration paid to faculty and staff. But at least they have a chance of doing so, and those that don't will weed themselves out by attracting fewer students. When demand gets to match supply, the cost of higher education will fall as well.
The folly of socialized higher education shows up not only in the number of unemployable graduates it turns out, or the flight of many of our best minds abroad, but also in government proposals to set up a number of 'world-class' universities, as if these things can be accomplished by fiat. Instead of persisting with outdated thinking the government should abolish inspector raj in the sphere of higher education, setting up an independent authority that would regulate it with a light hand, as suggested by the NKC. That's much more in tune with what a knowledge economy needs.