A game-changer for higher education @ renewed focus on RUSA is welcome
The renewed focus on RUSA is welcome, but its litmus test will be in how impartially it is administered
The Union
Cabinet’s decision recently to not only continue with the Rashtriya Uchchatar
Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) — ‘a Centrally sponsored scheme launched in 2013 to
provide strategic funding to eligible State higher educational institutions’ —
but also give it due importance augurs well for the system of higher
education in India. That the government is backing the
scheme speaks volumes about the robustness and relevance of the scheme.
Ground realities
India is estimated to have over 800 universities (over
40,000 colleges are affiliated to them). About 94% of students of higher
education study in 369 State universities. But the Central government’s slant
toward premier institutions has continued ever since the Eleventh Five Year
Plan (2007-12), where in spite of a nine-fold increase in Budget allocation
State institutions have been left to fend for themselves with funding mainly
directed towards starting more Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Indian
Institutes of Management and Central universities. Today about 150
Centrally-funded institutions (less than 6% of students study in them) — corner
almost the entire funding by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).
To make things worse, investment by State governments has been also dwindling
each year as higher education is a low-priority area. The University Grant
Commission’s system of direct releases to State institutions which bypasses
State governments also leads to their sense of alienation. Though they are the
face of higher education in India, State institutions have been getting short
shrift.
It was to address these critical concerns that the MHRD
launched RUSA. The scheme is largely based on the conditional release of funds
linked to reforms in the key areas of governance, learning-teaching outcomes,
reaching out to the unreached and infrastructure support. Unlike other schemes
which are foisted on State governments in a one-size-fits all manner, under
RUSA, States and institutions have to give an undertaking expressing their
willingness to the idea of reform and agreeing to meet the States’ share of the
cost.
RUSA is a process-driven scheme. Its design and
conceptualisation were finalised through extensive consultations with all key
stakeholders, especially State governments. Preparatory grants were released to
States to have the required systems, processes, and the technical support in
place. Despite being voluntary, all States except a Union Territory
(Lakshadweep) are a part of RUSA. All the State Higher Education Perspective
Plans for five/10 years have been prepared after extensive stakeholder
consultations. RUSA began with a modest allocation of ₹500 crore,
but over time has seen its resource allocation being increased.
For the current year, ₹1,300 crore
has been provided. Since funding is conditional to performance, it is critical
to have a robust monitoring and evaluation system in place. In this regard,
geo-tagging, introduction of a public financial management system, a fund
tracker and reform tracker system and regular video conferences have proved
effective tools, since 2015.
Reform as core
Governance reform is central to the scheme. State Higher
Education Councils (SHECs) which have eminent academics, industrialists and
other experts have been created, playing a major role, from an academic and
professional point of view, in the formulation of medium- and long-term State
perspective plans. In order to avoid arbitrariness, a State, for example, has
to also give its commitment to creating a search-cum-select committee in the
selection of vice-chancellors. Mitigating the bane of the affiliation system is
also a major objective. This is achieved through a reduction in the number of
colleges affiliated per university by creating cluster universities and promoting
autonomous colleges. An important precondition is the filling up of faculty
positions and lifting the ban on recruitment (as in some States).
To improve learning-teaching outcomes, there is an effort
towards improving pedagogy by capacity-building of faculty, selecting teachers
in a transparent manner, adopting accreditation as a mandatory
quality-assurance framework, implementing a semester system, and involving
academics of repute and distinction in decision-making processes.
Visible change
An independent performance review (of four years) of the
scheme was done by IIT Bombay in 2017. It concluded that the funding linked to
reforms has had a visible impact on higher education. When RUSA began, the
gross enrolment ratio (GER) was 19.4%, faculty vacancies were at a shockingly
high level of 60%, and a large number of universities were bloated with a
teacher-student ratio of 1:24. Today, the GER is 25.2%, faculty vacancies are
down to 35%, the ban on faculty recruitment by States has been lifted, and and
the teacher-student ratio is now 1:20. Several universities in Karnataka,
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have been right-sized, and critical
governance reforms such as the formation of the SHEC and merit-based
appointments of vice-chancellors in Odisha, Goa, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu are
visible. There has been an improvement in the number of institutions accredited
and their scores. In 2012, 106 State universities and 4,684 colleges were
accredited. By 2017, an additional 145 State universities and 5,445 Colleges
were accredited.
RUSA can prove be a real game changer for higher
education in the country. It has not only reprioritised the country’s needs,
from funding just a few premier institutions to reaching out to institutions at
the bottom of the pyramid, but has also changed the way regulators need to
function. However its litmus test will be in how impartially the scheme is
administered by the MHRD and the degree to which State governments allow the
SHEC to function. Letting go of the governmental stranglehold over universities
is linked to this.
Source | The
Hindu | 28th March 2018
Regards
Mr. Pralhad Jadhav
Master of Library & Information Science (NET
Qualified)
Senior Manager @ Knowledge Repository
Khaitan & Co
Mobile @ 9665911593
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