'Reduce government control in education'

Talk on higher education, more foreign players, organised at the Mumbai
University Libesralise education, allow more foreign players and private
sector participation, lessen government control-these were some of the
suggestions given by BS Baswan, senior consultant (education) of the
Planning Commission during a talk on 'Higher Education in India: Towards a
New Policy Paradigm'. The talk was organised by the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for
Contemporary Studies at Mumbai University's Kalina campus on March 2.

And a day after the Union Cabinet approved the ambitious bill to regulate the
entry of foreign educational institutions in the country, Baswan said it
will not result in the "best of the universities" entering India due to the
'excessive' regulations that the law provides for.

"Such restrictions may encourage the entry of middle-level players," said Baswan. He said that the entry of foreign players, unlike popular notion, will only increase the
competitiveness of institutes of higher learning in the country,
subsequently improving their quality and performance. Baswan said many
reputed global institutions like Stanford and Yale had approached the Union
Ministry of Human Resource Development in the past, but had to go back
disappointed due to the lack of necessary framework.

While stressing the need for partnership between the government and the private sector in higher and vocational education, he spoke of increased flexibility to be given to
the institutes while designing the curriculum and less government
interference in their day-to-day activities. He spoke of having a more
accountable but autonomous regulatory body like the University Grants
Commission to oversee the education sector in India. But even as he spoke of
less government control in education, Baswan said that government assistance
in terms of finance should continue.

"To attract best-quality faculty, we should devise performance-based incentives for them," said Baswan. He also highlighted the importance of humanities and social sciences and how it forms the basis of a knowledge society. In this respect, Baswan asked the
government to strongly encourage research and recruitment of good faculty in
this sector. To encourage pure science, a proposal to open Indian Institute
of Science Education & Research (IISER) at Thiruvanantapuram and Mohali is
in the pipeline.

Currently the two IISERs, which are autonomous institutes under the Ministry of Human Resource Development, are located in Kolkata and Pune. He advised that the fee structure should be considerably raised in higher education and spoke of "incentives and fellowships" for needy students to facilitate their growth in higher education.


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