HIGHER EDUCATION : ENROLMENT AND PROGRAMMES
12.01 In this chapter we discuss problems relating to expan- sion of higher education and allied questions. These will include the regulation of the expansion of the university system in terms of manpower needs for national development; the selection of students; the establishment of new universities and colleges; and the develop- ment of new courses in higher education. We also propose to discuss some problems relating to the development of educational research.
EXPANSION OF FACILITIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION 12.02 Expansion of Higher Education in the First Three Plans. One of the important features of educational development in the post- Independence period has been the rapid expansion of professional education ill engineering, medicine and agriculture and of science courses for the first and second degrees. This was necessitated by the programmes for economic development undertaken in the first three plans. By and large, this expansion has outstripped the facilities available (in real terms) and has had an adverse effect on standards. At the same time, there has also been a rapid expansion in arts and commerce courses at the first degree level; and this has been dictat- ed, not so much by the enrolment capacity of the institutions con- cerned or the employment opportunities available, but by the pressures of public demand which have increased immensely on account of the reasons which have been discussed more fully elsewhere*139. The effect of this expansion on standards has been even more adverse.
12.03 Table 12.1 gives the enrolment in higher education during the first three five year plans.
Some interesting points emerge from this table:
(1) Enrolments at the undergraduate stage in arts, commerce and science courses have increased from 191,000 in 1950-51 to 759,000 in 1965-66 or at an average annual rate of 9.6 per cent. The enrolment of girls at this stage shows considerable improvement the number of girls enrolled for every 100 boys increased from 13 to 24.
*139 Chapter V.
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12.04HIGHER EDUCATION: ENROLMENT AND PROGRAMMES 551
(2) In postgraduate courses in arts and science and in research, the total enrolments have increased from 18,000 in 1950-51 to 86,000 in 1965-66 or at an average annual rate of 11 per cent. The enrolment of girls shows a considerable improvement at this stage also-it rose from 13 for every 100 boys in 1950-51 to 25 in 1965-66.
(3) In professional education,*140 enrolments have risen from 54,000 in 1950-51 to 249,000 in 1965-66. The rate of growth is faster than that in arts and science- at 10.7 per cent per year-but a little less than that at the postgraduate stage.
(4) The professional courses like engineering or medicine, which are generally longer and take five to six years, are really comparable to the postgraduate courses in arts and science. It will be seen from Table 12.1 that, in 1950-51, the enrolment in the postgraduate courses of arts and science was 18,000 or about one- third of the total enrolment in professional education in that year. By and large, this proportion has remained fairly constant throughout the period under review. It highlights the need to increase the postgraduate courses, particularly in the sciences.
(5) Taking the enrolments in higher education as a whole, we find that these have increased, during this period, from 263,000 to 1.1 million or at an average annual rate of 10 per cent. The total enrolments in professional courses stood at 72,000 of 27.4 per cent of the total in 1950-51. In 1965-66, they had increased to 335,000 or 30.6 per cent of the total.
12.04 In using these statistics for internal or international comparison, some important points deserve emphasis.
(1) Internal Comparison. In most countries, the duration of the first degree course is about the same, irrespective of the fact wheth- er it is a degree in arts, science, engineering or medicine. The degrees of the different faculties are, therefore, broadly comparable. In India, on the other hand, the first degree in arts, commerce and science is of a much shorter duration, just like a 'half-way degree'.141 It cannot, therefore, be equated with the first degree in agriculture or engineering or medicine which has a much longer dura- tion. In fact, it is the postgraduate degrees in arts, commerce or science which are comparable with the first degrees in agriculture, engineering or medicine.
1440* This includes courses in agriculture, teacher training, engineering and technology, law, medicine, veterinary science, forest- ry and a few others. In the statistics published by the Ministry of Education, all courses in commerce have been classified as 'professio- nal'. We have, however, followed the decision of the Planning Commis- sion and regarded the courses in commerce for the first degree as forming part of general education and comparable with courses in arts. Courses for the second degree (M. Corn.) have been classified as 'professional'.
141*See Chapter II.
552 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 12.05
(2) International Comparison. In international comparison it would be wrong to compare our first degrees in arts, commerce or science with the corresponding first degrees of educationally advanced countries. What is really comparable is our second degrees in arts, commerce and science and first degrees in agriculture, engineering and medicine with the first degrees given by universities in the educa- tionally advanced countries. This has been shown in the chart on page 555. The following conclusions which can be drawn from this comparison have an important bearing on the programmes of future development:
(a) The overall expansion of higher education in India is far too meagre in comparison with that in the more industrialized countries.
(b) What is even more important, enrolments in the professional courses, particularly in science and agri- culture, are extremely inadequate for the needs of our economic development.
(c) Our system of higher education is more wasteful (lower ratio of output to input )than in countries like the UK or the USSR.
(d) The provision for part-time education or corre- spondence courses which is made on a very largescale even in affluent countries like the UK, the USA and the USSR, is conspicuous by its absence in our system of higher education.
12.05 Future Enrolment Policy. What should be the enrolment policy in higher education during the next twenty years ? Our recom- mendation is that the expansion of facilities in higher education should be planned broadly on the basis of general trends regarding manpower needs and employment opportunities. At present, there is an overproduction of graduates in arts and commerce because of the adoption of this open-door policy; and consequently, there is a growing incidence of unemployment amongst them. On the other hand, there is a shortage of professional specialists and there is a conse- quent need to increase the facilities in professional courses such as agriculture, engineering, medicine, etc., and especially at the post- graduate stage in science and arts.
12.06 The ISI/LSE Paper*142 has made the following forecasts of trained manpower at this stage for 1985-86:
(1) Undergraduate Stage (Arts, Commerce and Science). These enrolments are expected to increase from 759,000 in 1965-66 to 2.2 million in 1985-86 or at an average rate of 5.3 per cent.
(2) Professional Education (Excluding Law). The enrolments at the undergraduate stage in professional education, excluding law but including teaching, are expected to rise from 195,000 in 1965-66 to 972,000 by 1985-86 or at an average annual rate of 8.4 per cent as shown in Table 12.2.
142* See Chapter V, for details.
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554 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 12.07
TABLE 12.2. OUT-TURN, INTAKE AND ENROLMENT OF SPECIALISTS
Out-turn Intake Enrolment
1960-61 1975-76 1985-86 1960-61 1975-76 1985-86 1960-61 1975-76 1985-86
Engineering
First Degree 7 43 92 14 65 129 40 229 473
Agriculture
First Degree 3 13 42 5 23 64 12 39 115
Medicine
First Degree 5 16 34 6 23 43 35 125 245
Teacher Training
Graduates 18 73 115 20 81 128 22 88 139
TOTAL 33 145 283 45 192 364 109 481 972
(3) Postgraduate and Research. The ISI/LSE paper gives no projections for this stage. In 1965-66, the enrolments at this stage were 108,000 as against a total enrolment of 986,000 at the under- graduate stage (Or about 11 per cent). We recom- mend that this proportion should be raised, by 1986, to about 30 per cent. This will imply that these enrolments will rise from 108,000 in 1965-66 to about 960,000 in 1986 or an average annual increase of 11.5 per cent.
(4) Law. The ISI/LSE paper gives also no projec- tions for legal education. We have assumed that the enrolments at the undergraduate stage in legal education would increase from 32,000 in 1965-66 to 76,000 by 1985-86.
12.07 On the basis of these assumptions, the total enrolments in higher education in 1975-76 and 1985-86 will be as shown in Table 12.3.
TABLE 12.3. PROJECTED ENROLMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN 1975-76 and
1985-86
Type of education Projected enrolment
(in000's)
1975-76 1985-86
1. Undergraduate (General) 1,350 2,152
2. Undergraduate (Professional) as
estimated by ISI/LSE Paper 481 972
3. Undergraduate enrolment in legal
education 50 76
TOTAL (Undergraduate) 1,881 3,200
4. Postgraduate 321 960
TOTAL (Higher education) 2,202 4,160
555
556 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 12.08
It may be pointed out that
-in the first three plans, the enrolments in arts, commerce and science at the undergraduate stage 'in- creased by 568,000. During the next twenty years, they are expected to rise by about 1.4 million. The average annual rate of expansion will, however, be reduced from 9.0 per cent to 5.3 per cent;
-in professional education at the undergraduate stage (including teaching and law) the enrolments increased, during the first three plans, by 177,000; in the next twenty years they will increase by 821,000, although the average annual rate of growth would be reduced from 10.6 per cent to 7.9 per cent; at the postgraduate stage, enrolments increased in the first three plans by 86,000; in the next twenty years these will increase by 852,000 and the average annual rate of growth will also have to be slightly accelerated from 11 to 11.5 per cent.
12.08 As pointed out earlier,143 these estimates of manpower needs enrolments are tentative and will have to be continually revised in the light of experience gained. Moreover, these are estimates for the country as a whole. For practical implementation, they will have to be broken down according to the States; and finally an attempt will have to be made to correlate broadly the enrolment and output of the universities with these estimates, as revised from time to time. This is a difficult task. But we expect that the UGC under the general guidance of the Planning Commission will be able to cope with it.
12.09 The need for reducing the rate of expansion at the undergraduate stage in courses of arts and commerce has been discussed elsewhere.*144 Similarly, we have highlighted the need for expanding science education of quality and for increasing professional education at the undergraduate stage especially in agriculture, engineering an teaching.*145 It is,however, necessary to explain why a large expan- sion is also needed at the postgraduate stage and in research. An analysis of our proposals will show that this is fully justified because
- we expect a proportion of teachers even in lower secondary schools to hold the master's degree;
- we have recommended that a master's degree should be the minimum qualification for all teacher-educators both at the primary and at the secondary level;
- the lengthening of the duration of the higher secondary stage uniformly to two years and the expansion visualized at this stage will
143 *Chapter V.
144 *Chapter V.
145 *Chapters IV, XIV, XV and XVI
12.12 HIGHER EDUCATION: ENROLMENT AND PROGRAMMES 557
need a very large number of teachers with postgraduate qualifications;
- the large expansion visualized at the undergraduate and the postgraduate stages itself will need several times more teachers with postgraduate and research qualifications than at present; and
- the number of professional persons needed in research, agriculture, industry and the services has to be increased very substantially.
SELECTIVE ADMISSIONS 12.10 The Need. In the first three five year plans a policy of Open-door access has been in operation in courses in arts and commerce in most of the affiliated colleges. A stage has, however, now been reached in the process of expansion when the policy of selective admissions will have to be extended to all sectors and institutions of higher education. If the present rate of expansion (at 10 per cent per year) is assumed to continue for the next 20 years, the total enrolments in higher education would be between seven and eight million by 1985-86 or more than twice the estimated requirements of manpower for national development. An economy like ours can neither have the funds to expand higher education on this scale nor the capacity to find suitable employment for the millions of graduates who would come annually out of the educational system at this level of enrolment. There is no escape but to link broadly the total enrohnents in higher education to manpower needs, and to bridge the gap between these enrolments and the demand for higher education by adopting a system of selective admissions.
12.11 This conclusion, which is based mainly on two considerations paucity of resources and relating the output of the educational system to manpower needs-can also be supported on academic grounds. Standards in higher education will tend to rise if there is competition for admission and the best students are selected on the basis of merit. We are happy to note that the earlier opposition to this principle is gradually lessening and our discussions with officials and non-officials whom we met has led us to conclude that public opinion is now largely in favour of making admissions to higher education selective. The reform should, therefore, be introduced as early as possible.
12.12 The Main Elements. Three main elements are needed for operating a programme of selective admissions in higher education:
- the determination of the number of places available in an institution in relation to teachers and facilities available to ensure that standards are maintained at an adequate level;
558 EDUCATION AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 12.13