[Assam] World Class vs State universities

Fri Apr 4 00:13:02 PDT 2008

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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