By V. Joseph Xavier, SJ
Parliamentary elections are just a few months away. If the BJP comes back to power for a third term – as widely believed after the party’s easy victory in December in the State assembly elections in three northern States – we can be sure they are going to implement the NEP eagerly and earnestly.
The New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, brought in by the BJP-led Central government in 2020, aims to overhaul the higher education system in India in its entirety. NEP proposes to merge the existing multi-layered higher education institutions into three types of institutions. There would be only 15,000 institutions all over India as against 40,000 colleges that exist today. What are the three types of institutions NEP speaks of?
Research Universities: These Universities would be funded by the Union government and would be hubs of excellence in research. They would focus on holistic, multidisciplinary education. They would foster a culture of broad-based learning. With a research-driven approach, these universities can form international partnerships, facilitating knowledge exchange and best practices. These include Central Universities, and stand-alone institutions like IIM and IITs. They would have a student-strength of 5,000 to 25,000. There will be one such institution in each State as per the policy.
Teaching Universities: The existing State Universities would be converted into Teaching Universities. These universities would be under the State Governments. These universities would concentrate on teaching and research. The student strength is expected to be 5,000 to 25,000. Each district of the State would have one such University.
Degree Awarding Colleges: The institutions which have more than 3,000 students would be given the power to award degrees. They should be autonomous colleges, which have shown consistent high academic standards and high grades in NAAC and NIRF. They would be governed by a Board of Directors. It is not clear how this Board will be constituted. The institution would become self-financed, but it could receive donations. They would be multidisciplinary and the curriculum and mode of examinations could be determined by the institution. These institutions would have to follow the norms laid down by the State government. Admissions, however, would be based on the results of the exam conducted by the National Testing Agency. There would be no reservations in admission.
Will these self-financed institutions be out of reach for the poor? What happens to our oft-proclaimed commitment to the poor and the marginalized?
The rest of the institutions that have less than 3,000 students would have to merge with others or be converted into either Adult Education Centres or Libraries or Centres of Vocational Education.
Therefore the question is: when NEP 2020 is fully implemented, what will happen to most minority educational institutions? Most of them are in rural areas and have less than 3,000 students. This means they should be ready to merge with other colleges called ‘cluster colleges.’ The implications of merging our colleges with others to become cluster colleges are still not clear. If we are not ready to merge them, they can only become libraries or adult education centres.
Some of our institutions which have more than 3,000 students can theoretically become degree-awarding colleges. At present we don’t know if all such minority institutions would be allowed to become degree-awarding colleges. Keeping these in mind, the minority institutions have to plan their strategy for the future. There is a possibility of starting Private Universities like the Ashoka University. But these are high profile universities with high fee structures and cater most to the urban elite who can afford to pay these high fees for their education and, most often, plan a career abroad. But we can’t serve the poor or the middle class.
The other option open to the minorities is the State Private Universities. They are less expensive than the Private Universities and so can be accessible to the middle class. Since they are autonomous, they can be innovative. But they will have to be self-financed. Will these self-financed institutions be out of reach for the poor? What happens to our oft-proclaimed commitment to the poor and the marginalized? If and when NEP is fully implemented, the poor and the marginalized would inevitably be left out. Education would become elitist, as in the past Gurukul system.
In this context, all those who are in higher education and their leaders, including the Provincial or the General or the Bishop, should urgently discuss this basic question: are we ready to make our colleges what the NEP would allow us to – degree awarding colleges or merge with others and become just colleges in a cluster?
If we are going to make our colleges self-financing Private Universities, they will have to be governed by a Board of Directors. We will lose what we have been enjoying all these years – the right to administer our institutions.
If we are going to make our colleges self-financing Private Universities, they will have to be governed by a Board of Directors. We will lose what we have been enjoying all these years – the right to administer our institutions.
If we are not ready for these, then the only option left to us will be to make our institutions State Private Universities that will come under the State government. So far 26 States have enacted State Private University Acts and Kerala is in the process of doing so. The advantage of opting for this is that it is possible – at least in some States -to influence the State Government to amend certain sections of the Acts which would enable us to help the poor and minorities. This is what the Jesuit-run St. Xavier’s University, Kolkata has done.
The new Act passed in many States allow the State Private Universities to have ‘satellite centres’ five years after starting the university. So even if one of our colleges becomes a State Private University, our other colleges could become satellite centres of that university in the course of time. In such a situation, the minorities must come together and think of strategies to cope with the completely new scenario that will emerge because of the NEP.
A former Principal of Loyola College, Chennai, and former Research Director at the Indian Social Institute, Bangalore, V. Joseph Xavier, SJ has worked in the field of Higher Education for more than 40 years. He can be reached at: vjosephxaviersj@gmail.com.