Deterioration of Standards in Indian Universities

["Prof. R. Jagadiswara Rao" <rvp_org80@hotmail.com>]

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I served as a university teacher for over 38 years. I held many
administrative and academic assignments, and have a good knowledge of
the general working of many universities. My conclusion is that there
has been deterioration of educational standards in most of them. There
are no doubt exceptions, which are due to the commitment by individual
teachers and students particularly belonging to the professional courses
such as engineering, medicine, agriculture, education, and management.

In the early years, the staff pattern used to be pyramidal with many
lecturers, a few readers, and a single professor. The professor used to
be the head of the department till retirement and was taking the full
responsibility of the department. He was having the full powers in the
admission of students, assessment of students' performance, recruitment
of staff, generating grants, purchase of materials and books, etc. The
salaries of teachers used to be much lower than those paid in other
professions. The entry point of a teacher into the university was
tutor/demonstrator with a salary just sufficient for bare living. Those
who were committed to teaching and research alone remained in the
university, while others used that position as a springboard to get into
some lucrative position in or outside the country. There used to be
however a few cases of victimization of students and staff by the
professor. Despite this, the system worked well and the general
educational and research standards used to be quite high.

After 13 years of schooling, the more meritorious students with aptitude
for higher education alone used to join into the honors courses run by
the university, while others were joining into the degree courses in
other colleges. There used to be half-fee concession for economically
poor students and a few scholarships for meritorious students. Jobs were
waiting for most of the students even before completing studies. The
stipulations for the award of doctoral degree were quite severe and the
degree was awarded only when three foreign professors unanimously
recommended for the award.

But things are now different. The headship of each department is on
rotation for two or three years and no one is accountable for any wrong
in the department. The entire purchase of equipment and books has been
taken away by the non-teaching staff and many teachers are so much
frustrated that they prefer not to apply for any research grant. Thanks
to the University Grants Commission (UGC), the salaries of staff are as
attractive as those paid in other professions. The entry point of a
teacher into the university is lecturer, whose salary is same as that of
a Class-1 officer in the government. Thanks to the UGC merit promotion
scheme and further dilution of rules by many vice-chancellors, the staff
pattern in most university departments is in the form of an inverted
pyramid with very few lecturers, a few readers and many professors.
Irrespective of performance, most lecturers become professors in course
of time. The staff once recruited can remain at the same place without
any transfer. Many of them indulge in politics or take up some part-time
work. Some coach students for various competitive examinations for
entrance into various professional courses and for getting into some
job, which may range from IAS to clerk-grade.

Recruitment of teachers now is based on the rules of reservation spelled
out in various government orders (GO) from time to time. Some of the
reservation categories recognized include scheduled castes (SC),
scheduled tribes (ST), backward classes (BC) divided further into A, B,
C, and D sub-categories, physically handicapped, women, etc. Efforts are
being made to recognize four sub-categories among SCs. These GOs are
often so poorly drafted that rules in one GO sometimes contradict with
those in another GO. This gave scope for the university to implement the
GOs to suit its convenience and fill up a vacancy by reserving it to the
caste of a favored candidate. Several aggrieved parties then filed cases
against the universities. The whole issue became so complicated that the
Supreme Court evolved a formula where the reservation category of each
vacancy should be determined by chance and not by selection by anybody.
Thus if a particular post is reserved for a BC-A category, it cannot be
filled up even with a meritorious SC candidate. In the whole process,
real merit and the specialization requirements of the post are
forgotten.

Admission of students into the university is now not based on the marks
secured in the qualifying examination, but on the ranking obtained in a
common entrance test and rules of reservation. Sometimes, SC and ST
candidates who could not even qualify in the entrance test had to be
given admission. Every year there are hundreds of writ petitions in the
High Court particularly from those who could not get admission into the
professional courses challenging the admissions on one ground or the
other.

Entry of students now into the university is after 15 years of schooling
and the university education is limited to two years. Only those who
failed to get admission into a professional course or a job opt for
studies and research in the university. Scholarships are now granted for
all categories of students including forward castes, whose parents
monthly income is below Rs.1000-2000. The only students who are denied
scholarship are those who cannot get such an income certificate. Merit
ceased to be a basis for scholarship.

Many students who now seek admission into the university had their
entire education in mother tongue, while English is the medium of
education in the university. The students find it difficult to follow
the subject in the English medium. The unwritten understanding is that
the teachers can avoid teaching, but award a first class to all the
students.

After getting the degree, many students seek admission for research not
out of interest in research but to remain somehow in the university
hostels and try for some job or face some competitive examinations
ranging from IAS to clerk-grade. Scholarships are also given to all
those who got earlier such scholarships. Only those who failed to get
any job finally carry out research. Quality of research is often very
poor. Evaluation of the doctoral thesis is so diluted in some
universities that degree is awarded if majority of three Indian
examiners, of which one is the research supervisor, recommended for the
award.

Most of the syllabi of courses other than the professional courses are
so outdated that the students do not get any skill for getting into any
useful job. The syllabi is not updated as the concerned teachers do not
wish update their knowledge. The only hope for these post-graduates is
to become lecturers to teach the very same subject to the students or
face competitive examinations by choosing their course subject as an
elective. The syllabus of these electives for IAS also is not updated.

Many universities have started job-oriented courses of relevance in
recent years. But the necessary infrastructural facilities and necessary
jobs could not be created owing to budgetary constraints. One way is to
scrap the old courses having no demand or relevance. No university can
hope to do it as there will be opposition from the staff.

Despite government incurring enormous expenditure on higher education,
there is no hope of improving the quality of higher education. IPI also
suggests for decreasing governmental expenditure on higher education. It
is necessary for the universities to become self reliant by introducing
dual fee structure, which is in vogue in the state universities in USA.

There is therefore an urgent need to do something to revamp the
university education in India on a priority basis.

Thanks

Jagadiswara Rao


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