Johns Hopkins University president Ronald J. Daniels delivering a
lecture on “Frontiers of higher education” in Jaipur on Tuesday.–Photo:
Rohit Jain Paras.

 

A robust role by the State, establishment of governance
bodies which can resist political interference, first-rate colleges and
universities, regulations offering incentives rather than directions and
targeted investments in innovation and competition will go a long way
towards promoting quality education for millions, said Prof. Ronald J.
Daniels, President of the prestigious Johns Hopkins University of the
U.S., on Tuesday. He was delivering a lecture on “Frontiers of higher
education: Access, quality and innovation in India and the United
States” here.

He said the disparities in access to
high-quality post-secondary education were evident in both the U.S. and
India. The socio-economic dividing line, depicted through 70% of the
population not having a college degree, is closely related to the
decline and eventual halt in the growth of educational attainment and
the withdrawal of State investment in colleges and universities, pointed
out Prof. Daniels.

In the U.S., he said, student
debt is roughly one trillion dollars, or one-sixteenth of the total debt
of the country. “One can see the same trends in India, where funding to
support students from poor backgrounds in accessing higher education is
nearly absent. There are disparities in access for students from rural
areas, for women, for the poor, for students from Scheduled Castes and
Tribes,” he added.

According to 2008 data, only 11.1%
of individuals in India’s rural areas attend college or university,
compared to 30% in urban areas. The gross attendance ratio for Scheduled
Tribes was 7.7%, compared to a national average of 17.2%. By one
estimate, India will need to add 90 lakh new post-secondary seats by
2016 to merely keep pace with growth in demand, even as there is already
a dearth of roughly 4 lakh faculty members, said the Professor.

The
Bhoruka Charitable Trust and the Institute of Health Management
Research (IIHMR) jointly organised the lecture to commemorate the late
P. D. Agarwal who had established the trust. IIHMR trustee-secretary and
former Rajasthan Chief Secretary M. L. Mehta presided over the
lecture.Prof. Daniels noted that government support for research in both
the U.S. and India had declined in real terms over the past decade.
There has been a 26% reduction in funding for higher education in the
U.S. and additional serious budget cuts loom on the horizon. At the very
least, public funding is unlikely to return to previous levels,
particularly as other costs such as health care continue to rise.

In
India, the Yash Pal Committee has characterised funding as
“unpredictable, inadequate and inflexible”. Just last month, New Delhi
slashed the budget for higher education by 13%. Spending on all
education in India as a percentage of GDP is lower than in Brazil,
Mexico, Iran, China, Botswana or Uganda, said Prof. Daniels while
emphasising that educationists, scholars and citizens must act briskly
and effectively to meet these challenges.

John
Hopkins University is the largest university recipient of Federal
research funds in U.S. and is home to a host of pre-eminent schools and
programmes. As the University’s 14th president, Prof. Daniels has
focused his leadership on the overarching themes of interdisciplinary
collaboration, student accessibility and community engagement.

The
State must play a fundamental role in promoting education and make a
sustained investment in colleges and universities. The institutions of
governance must be able to deflect and manage politics that can distort
policy formulation in the area linked to the core goals of social
transformation, equity and economic growth, he added.