national seminar

1. The Human Resource Challenges for Higher
Education
Abstract
Achievement of sustained and equitable human development is an
urgent need and a challenge before the present Indian society.
Though there have been considerable progresses in all walks of life
over the last few decades, large section of people in India still live
below the line of poverty. These people have inadequate access to
education, health care facilities and other economic resources. The
size of India’s higher education market is about $40 billion per year.
Presently about 12.4 percent of students go for higher education from
the country. However, This paper aims to highlight the perceptible
challenges of higher education in India in the way of developing
human resource in the Country.
I. INTRODUCTION:
In order to promote economic and industrial development in a
country, the essential requirement is the capacity to develop skilled
manpower of good quality in adequate number. According to
population projections based on the 2001 Census figures, in 2011
nearly 144 million of India’s population will be between the age-
group 18 to 23-the target age group for Higher Education. By
2013, India had 727 universities, over 35,000 colleges, and nearly
13,000 ‘Stand Alone’ institutions (World Bank, 2010; University
Grants Commission, 2013; Choudaha, 2013). This paper tries to
sum-up India’s higher education journey so far in terms of policy,
growth in enrolment, and the myriad challenges being faced by
the proposed “strategic shift from mere expansion to
improvement in quality”.

2. II. Challenges
 Mass Education and the Gross Enrolment Ratio:-
The ‘gross enrolment ratio’ (GER) is the total number of all
enrolees in higher education, regardless of their age, divided by the
total population age 18-23. In effect, it is a measure of the extent to
which the population is availing itself of opportunities in higher
education. It can be considered a measure of access to higher
education, but increasing the GER can require more than just
building more universities. Total enrolment of students in regular
mode in higher education institutes in India is around 257.6 lakhs,
with 55.3% male and 44.7% female enrolments. With a huge
population base (highest share of 18-23 population in India,
16.9%), Uttar Pradesh ranked first in terms of enrolment (39.6
lakhs, 15.4%); followed by Maharashtra (31.8 lakhs, 12.3%),
Tamil Nadu (24.52 lakhs, 9.5%), Andhra Pradesh (24.21 lakhs,
9.4%) and Karnataka (15.42 lakhs, 6%). The three southern states
of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka accounts for one-
fourth (25%) of the total enrolments across India.
HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said “We will
need 800 new universities and 40,000 new colleges to meet the aim of
30 percent GER (gross enrolment ratio) by 2020. Government alone
cannot meet this aim,”
 Quality Education :-
Quantity and quality of highly specialized human resources determine
their competence in the global market. According to a recent
government report two-third of India’s colleges and universities are
below standard.
For improving the quality education there are four regulatory
bodies exist within the Department of Higher Education in the
Ministry of Human Resource Development in the Central

3. Government that oversee higher education and are generally
responsible for accreditation.
 University Grants Commission (UGC).
 All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
 Distance Education Council (DEC).
 Council of Architecture (CoA).
Five research councils also exist within the Department of Higher
Education that focus on research in History, Social Science,
Philosophy, Civilizations, and rural issues.
But it is unfortunate that such grading is not
associated with either rewards or punishments. Neither is there a
motivation to re-accredit as it is disconnected with funding
mechanism. Rigidity and bureaucratic delays in accreditation on the
part of accreditation bodies further acts as a deterrent.
 Equity: Women, Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes,
the Poor :-
Equity of access to higher education in India is a triply complicated
problem. Besides the low GER for overall population of India, large
variations exist among the various categories of population like male-
female, rural-urban and SC/STs and the General categories. Due to
urban centric and uneven distribution of institutions of higher
education, it is not equally available to all in the State.
 Falling standard of research :-
Though research is basically aimed at developing knowledge and
understanding for solution of vital problems faced by man and for
developing theories and generalizations, current practice in the field
can hardly claim to fulfil its basic purposes.
“only 4 percent of research expenditure is made through
universities. In the United States the corresponding figure is 17

4. percent and in Germany it is 23 percent. Moreover, India’s
higher education institutions are poorly connected to research
centres’. China’s investment in research manpower, estimated at
708 researchers per 1 million people, is six times that of
India’s”.
Though there has been considerable increase in the
number of academic research during the recent times, these
cannot be considered as attempts to satisfy the inquisitive and
scientific thirst for knowledge. The reason behind this
assumption lies in the fact of increased interest in research
among teachers and prospective teachers to meet the University
Grant Commission (UGC) of India’s directive making research
eligibility to enter teaching at higher level, a criterion of
promotion, incremental benefit and so on. This supposition finds
testimony from the fact of increased number of Ph.D.
registration with private universities, some of which are facing
criminal procedures due to widespread violation of norms.
 The problem of Reservation in higher education:-
Caste based reservations in educational institutions in India are a
constitutional obligation having its own logic of equalizing social and
educational inequality. However, caste based reservation amounting
up to 49% of the total seats in the Govt. institutions of higher
education, including the institutions of excellence, prevents better
talent coming in from un-reserved categories besides causing social
unrest at times.

5.  Neglect of Traditional fields of knowledge:-
Growing popularity of professional courses with prospects of quicker
and better employability has negatively affected the enrolment of
students in traditional fields of knowledge like basic sciences,
classical language and literature, art etc. The enrolment registers of
colleges and universities in India stand testimony to this fact. Most of
the talented students move out of the State after completing Senior
Secondary course in search of good professional and technical
colleges like medical, engineering, management etc. leaving only a
few for pure and basic fields of knowledge. Diminishing enrolment in
B.Sc. /M.Sc. courses verify this fact.
 Faculty shortage :-
According to a recent report of HRD Ministry premier educational
institutes like the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and the Indian
Institute of Management (IIMs) are facing a faculty crunch with
nearly one-third of the posts vacant. According to a report published
in IANS around 35 percent posts are vacant in the central universities,
25 percent in the IIMs, 33.33 percent in the National Institute of
Technology (NITs) and 35.1 percent in other central education
institutions coming up under the Human Resource Development
(HRD) Ministry. However in order to overcome this, government is
planning to have short-term measures like raising the retirement age
in teaching posts from 62 to 65 years and enhancement in salaries and
other benefits for teachers. Also some long-term measures have also
been initiated for attracting young people to opt for this (teaching)
career. These include enhancement in fellowships and attractive start-
up grants in various disciplines.

6. III. Conclusion
In this paper we have presented the development and present scenario
of higher education in India by analyzing the various data and also
identify the key challenges like demand-supply gap, quality
education, research and development and faculty shortage in India’s
higher education sector. Looking to the present scenario of the higher
education in India we recommended some points in order to further
meet the challenges.
Presented By :- Krupa Pandit
Reference
www.wipo.int
www.eajournals.org
Ministry Of Human Development Of India
ASHE2014