Higher Education Policy

India has no definite higher education policy: NITTE University VC

11 Sep 2012

Expressing concern over the state of higher education in the country, Vice-Chancellor of NITTE University Dr S. Ramananda Shetty said that India has no “definite higher education policy”. Even after numerous commissions and committees submitting their reports on improving higher education since 1948, there is clear road-map as to where our education sector is heading, he said.

He was delivering the foundation day lecture at Mangalagangotri, Mangalore University on the topic “some reality about our higher education system and dentistry and beyond” as reported by The Hindu.

Dr Shetty, formerly Vice-Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, said “For the sake of higher education the government had formed many commissions and committees, passed bills and amended laws, provided adequate funds but still there was no road map to move on. D. S. Kothari Commission’s report on education in 1966 was a visionary report. It had recommended allocating six per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to education. The latest National Knowledge Commission (NKC) had also recommended a similar allocation. Even after the Kothari Commission Report only 3.7 per cent of the GDP had been earmarked for education In that the major share had been bagged by institutes of excellence.”

He also highlighted the underlying confusion over the road map on improving higher education. The NKC report had laid thrust on opening more universities and colleges. While the Tandon committee report said that the existing universities should be strengthened.

Referring to professional education he said that as nine regulatory bodies were controlling it not much progress was happening in the sector. The country was facing a shortage of one million doctors and two million nurses. Medical colleges were spread disproportionately in the country.

Dr Shetty said that India with 315 medical colleges produced 36,000 graduates a year while China with 188 medical colleges produced 1.75 lakh graduates a year.