World Class vs State universities
Dr Akhil Ranjan Dutta
The government of India declared on March 28, 2008 its decision to establish
four new Indian Institutes of Technology and six Indian Institutes of
Management in various States along with establishment of 14 World Class Central
Universities in different cities of the country having well connectivity with
the outer world. The northeastern region has been blessed with the
non-conventional wisdom of the government to establish one such World Class
University in Guwahati city and an Indian Institute of Management in Shillong.
This is a welcome development as through these initiatives North East India
will be blessed by world class academia and flow of brilliant students striving
for world class management learning as demanded by global economy in general
and corporate houses in particular.
By now, except for Gauhati University and Dibrugarh University the two
pioneering institutes of higher learning and research in the North East, all
other Universities engaged in imparting conventional education have been
converted into Central Universities. Accordingly with the up coming World Class
University in the region, now onwards it will have three categories of
university-State class, national class and world class. This class status will
be defined and determined basically in terms of facilities being made available
to these institutions. Unfortunately, the pioneering institutions in higher
learning and research i.e. Gauhati University and Dibrugarh University will be
placed in the bottom of the hierarchy in terms of physical infrastructure and
connectivity with the outer world.
The whole notion of world class university is driven by the policy paradigm of
inclusion versus exclusion pursued under the neo-liberal policy regime in India
today. There is no disagreement regarding the necessity of universities having
world class standard. However, such an intention of the Government has resulted
in more and more delusion of the existing State universities engaged in
imparting higher education for decades together in terms of their basic
facilities and also opportunities of global linkage. Most of the State
universities in India today have been suffering from severe fund crunch (as the
avenues of generating revebues by the States are extremely meagre under the
centralised federal polity in India and also because of the growing ideological
bankruptcy of the politicians) and deficit in terms of all minimum facilities.
In case of some Universities, as is the case with Gauhati University today, the
arrear of the revised UGC scale of pay as per the fifth pay
commission is yet to be paid fully even after the elapse of a decade of its
implementation. The unassigned grant allocated for travel and other academic
activities have been extremely low. In terms of class room requirements as well
as accommodation facilities too most of these universities are in a bad shape.
It is pity that the Faculty Members are yet to be connected with internet
facilities. Most of the teachers, particularly in the Arts stream, do not have
individual chambers and personal computers. Accordingly, there has already been
a wide gap between the State Universities and the Central Universities in terms
of infrastructure and other required facilities. Establishment of the World
Class universities will increase the gap further.
Such logic, however, does not necessarily nullify the rationale behind the
establishment of such World Class Universities. But, concentration around a few
World Class universities both aiming at giving them world class facilities and
also world class standard at the cost of overall achievement in higher
education is extremely a lop sided approach. Overall achievement of higher
education in India can be a point of reference in this regard. Let us take only
one indicator i.e. Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education. In a
comparative setting, Indias achievement in this regard has been very poor. For
example in India the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education is around 12 per
cent (2003) which is extremely, poor compared to any developed country like
Australia 74 per cent; France 56 per cent Germany 64 per cent US 83 per cent.
There has not been much improvement under the economic reforms. Available
statistics reveal a direct linkage between this poor achievement
and that of low public investment in higher education. Indeed in terms of real
net public investment in higher education there has been a decline over the
years. Available statistics also reveal that the proportion of Gross National
Product (GNP) allocated to higher education has sharply declined from 0.46 per
cent in 1990-91 to 0.34 per cent in 2004-05. The allocation to technical also
declined from 0.15 per cent to 0.12 per cent as proportion of GNP during the
same period. In terms of budgetary allocation too there has been a decline both
in higher education as well as in technical education. In case of higher
education the allocation has declined from 1.58 per cent to 1.18 per cent
during the period from 1991 to 2005. In case of technical education this has
declined from 2.09 per cent to 1.60 per cent. Now, it is under such a
disappointing environment that the Government is striving to build up knowledge
economy through the establishment of the world class universities.
Going by the logic of globalisation, such universities will be the exclusive
domains for a privileged group.
What could be the implications of such a World Class university for a pioneer
institute like Gauhati University in the region? As stated, the gap in terms of
the very basic facilities for furthering quality teaching and research will
widen. The Government of Assam is now committed to private entrepreneurship in
higher education. Gauhati University is almost a non-entity in the agenda of
governance for the state government. The Government is well aware of the
problems of the University. There is no denying the fact that there have been
some alleged irregularities at some fronts in the University. The University
has alleged to have failed to utilise some allocated funds within the given
time frame. However, the Government has paid un-proportionate attention towards
such internal mismanagements of Gauhati University with a calculated move to
legitimise their drive for privatising higher education in Assam. The
government itself, as is evident from the Comptroller and Auditor
Generals Report, has not merely failed to utilise the allotted funds in
proper way, there have also been allegations of huge corruption. But, it uses
its stick against Gauhati or any other State university or colleges to
legitimise their commitment for privatisation of higher education.
There are quarters both inside and outside the Gauhati University who are now
demanding immediate conversion of Gauhati University into a Central University
to come out of such a depressing situation. There are quarters, who are
skeptical about this. However, the fact remains that if Gauhati University is
allowed to suffer from gross indifference on the part of the State Government
as it is happening today, the University hopefully will be no where in near
future. One can realise the gravity of the crises from the very simple
statistics that the University has suffered from deficit to the tune of around
Rs 70 crore in meeting its recurring salary expenses including the retirement
benefits during the period from 2001 to 2007. Therefore, it is high time to
think seriously about rescuing this University from its complete dependence on
State government. One way could be taking over this University by the Central
Government as a National Heritage University, which is both more
prestigious than a Central University and can also ensure the sustenance of
the unique character of Gauhati Univerity.
(The writer is Reader in Peace and Conflict Studies, Department of Political
Science, Gauhati University)
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