STATUS, POLICIES AND INITIATIVES IN
HIGHER EDUCATION IN RAJASTHAN

 Prelude:

It is a universal fact that knowledge is the foundation for the growth of economic activities, income and employment opportunities for the development, application and adaptation of new advancements to enhance the quality of life. The human capital model in theories of Economic development / growth shows that a rise in the level of education brings a rise in the efficiency of all factors of production. Educated people use capital more efficiently, they think innovative forms of production, embrace change and quickly learn new skills.

Education allows developing modern market based economy to raise living standards. Therefore, outlays on education should be perceived as an investment and should not be construed only as an expenditure. Hence, multi dimensional efforts are being made for enlarging access to relevant and quality higher education to all.

Growth of  Higher Education in Rajasthan: A Retrospection

·                 During the pre-independence era educational facilities were instituted by rulers of princely states nurtured by religious and social organizations.

·                 Rajasthan being a climatically very hot place was not a preferred site for the development of educational institutions during the British rule.

·                 After Independence, Rajasthan had 13 institutions of general education at UG and PG level in 1947, out of which 8 were Boys Colleges in the Govt. sector and 4 in the private sector. 

·              In addition to degree colleges of general education, State also had 15 colleges at intermediate level.

·              Although there existed one college each for engineering and medical education along with three teachers training college and one research institute at Udaipur in private sector but still professional and technical education was in its infancy stage.

·              The condition of higher education was so pathetic that the State had no University of its own to provide affiliation to the existing colleges at that time. They were affiliated to Calcutta, Allahabad and Agra Universities.

·              With the onset of independent Rajasthan, the first University named as 'Rajputana University' was established at Jaipur, which was later named as University of Rajasthan.

·              Table-1 shows the decadal growth of Institutions starting from 1950 to as on date.

·              There has been a phenomenal  increase in the number of institutions and students at graduate level after  1995 due to the mushrooming growth of private, aided as well as self financing institutions particularly in big cities and at district headquarters.  This commendable growth has taken place mostly in the eastern Rajasthan comparatively a more developed terrain east of the Aravali. 

TABLE – 1
DECADAL GROWTH OF COLLEGES

 

Present  Status of Higher Education in Rajasthan

·              With the concerted efforts of University Grants Commission, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India, and the Department. of Higher Education. Govt. of Rajasthan, the State is blessed with 11 Universities and 7 Deemed Universities catering to the educational needs of the state by imparting higher education under different categories. Letter of intent to 15 private universities out of 23 proposals received have been issued this year.

 

TABLE -2

UNIVERSITIES IN RAJASTHAN

 

TABLE – 3

DEEMED UNIVERSITIES IN RAJASTHAN

TABLE – 4

STATUS OF AFFILIATED COLLEGES

 

 

Table-5 indicates the status of affiliation of these colleges with different universities of General Education in the State.

 

TABLE - 5
Present Status of Higher Education
WITH AFFILIATION TO UNIVERSITIES

Name of University	Year of Establishment	No. of Colleges Affiliated (2005-06)	Enrollment (2005-06)
Univ. of Rajasthan, Jaipur	1947	373	137053
M.L.S. Univ. Udaipur	1962	69	36034
J.N.V. Univ. Jodhpur	1962	19	3458
M.D.S. Univ. Ajmer	1987	124	55423
Bikaner Univ. Bikaner	2002	92	51376
Kota Univ. Kota	2002	74	43940
Total :		751	327284

  

·                      The State Govt. has laid special emphasis on furtherance of women education despite social and cultural inhibitions in the state.  As a result, the enrolment of girls has increased from 7.8% in 1950 to 36% in 2004-05 in comparison to respective national growth from 10% to 39.9%.   

·                      As compared to the national average of 0.77 college per lac population, Rajasthan has 1 college per lac population and as such reasonably better off as compared to national average. 

Overall  Scenario : 

The status and various issues in Higher Education to narrate the overall scenario in the State can best be summarized under the following heads. 

·                      Access

·                      Quality

·                      Relevance

·                      Equity

·                      Resources

 

Access :

Despite all the efforts of the state in the direction of growth and development of educational facilities in the state, it has been observed that the distribution of college is not even throughout the state. Following anomalies are noticed.  

·                      If one college for every 1 lakh population in each district is taken as  the ideal distribution situation than it is alarming to note that Barmer is the neglected district where there is 50% deficiency from the reference point and Jhunjhunu is the district  where availability is 250% times more than the reference point of 1 lakh population. 

·                      Most of the institutions are surrounded around Sikar, Kota, Ajmer, Dausa, Sriganganagar, Jaipur and Jhunjhunu districts.  Out of 32 districts, 9 districts have 3-6 colleges.

·                      64% colleges are located in 10 districts only whereas  Jaipur has 140 institutions which corresponds to 18% of total institutions.

·                    Banswara,, Barmer, Baran, Dungarpur, Jaisalmer, Jalore, Jhalawar, Rajsamand and Sirohi are the most lagging districts

·                    83% (628) colleges are situated at Tehsil H.Q.  and 17% (124) in Tehsil Area (Rural).

·                    20 Sub Divisional HQ’s have no college.  19 Sub Divisions have no college in their jurisdiction.

·                    Out of 272 women colleges, 226 are situated in 14 districts (14 district have more than 5 girls college in their jurisdiction) and remaining 18 districts have  only 46 colleges.

·                    Hanumangarh, Churu, Sikar and Dholpur district HQ have no Government women college.

·                    Although providing cost effective education is the prime concern of the government but because of the scarcity of the government resources self financing courses and the establishment of private colleges have been encouraged. As a result the fees and charges raised by the private colleges are becoming unaffordable for many sections of the society and as such education is becoming beyond the  reach of the poor.

 

It is important to note, if one college is to be provided at a population of one lac with Tehsil as a unit, 70 more colleges are required to be set up so as to reduce the constraints of  accessibility. 

                  

          There are following observations on the basis of economic access :

·                    Cost of Education is going up.

·                    Private Colleges fees and charges are becoming unaffordable for many sections of society

·                    The fees of incoming private universities will also be non affordable for common students.

·                    Self financing courses are beyond the reach of the poor.

 

Quality of Education: 

Education forms the backbone for overall  development as it acts as a catalyst for human development. In the light of forthcoming WTO regulations, the state will definitely envision its largest pool of human resources to  be transformed into a knowledge pool by imparting  quality education comparable to global standards. It is realised that present quality of education in majority of the Universities and Colleges is poor due to  following reasons: 

·                    Lack of adequate infrastructure - 75% Government Colleges do not fulfill the infrastructure norms laid down by the University/UGC.

·                    20% posts of teachers are vacant in Government Colleges.  Most of the vacancies are in remote and backward districts. (tribal and desert areas) 

·                    Teacher’s Competence needs to be oriented through appropriate training.

·                    Use of outdated curriculum and teaching methods for years hampers the quality.

·                    The curriculum and teaching methodology mainly focus on book knowledge rather than overall personality development of students.

·                    Lack of proper evaluation of institutional and teacher’s performance on annual basis.

 Relevance :

        In the  present system of higher education, the students are not equipped with the vocational skills or entrepreneurial instincts as a consequence, they neither get a suitable entry point in the employment in the organized sector nor they are able to undertake self employment. Following issues need immediate attention to enhance relevance of higher education.

·                     The 'generalist' education has low employability and reorientation of the present system is imperative.

 

·                     Enrolment in faculties directly linked to the production stream is only 5%.

·                     Extremely low level as well as growth rate of enrollment in Veterinary Sciences and  Agriculture (0.46%)

·                     Low level of enrollment in basic sciences.

Equity : 

Government is committed to provide equal opportunities for access to education to all sections of society without any discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, sex, region and religion.

Policy Decisions

1.    Private  Participation 

The New Education Policy (1986) helped to focus attention of the govt. or public in general on the need to adopt a policy of private participation for providing education at large.  In this backdrop, the state Government has also framed a scheme of Self Financing (SFS) colleges with private participation.  Rajasthan Private University Act 2005 has been passed by the government. Out of 19 proposals received for establishment of private universities, recommendation for 17 universities have been submitted to the government by the expert committee. The government has issued letter of intent to 7 universities for establishing private universities. Therefore, it will have to further encourage private investors to participate in strengthening higher education with a mission to establish one college each at every tehsil by year 2020.

 To meet the growing demands of providing access to college education in Rajasthan, Private participation in higher education was encouraged. As a consequence the number of private colleges in Rajasthan have increased manifold.  

2.    Up-gradation of Infrastructure: 

        UGC provides financial assistance to those colleges which are registered under section 12(b) of UGC act 1956 for the development of infrastructure and faculty improvement programmer under various schemes. 

a.   Infrastructure Development : 

                                                             i.      Development Grant (For the purchase of Books, Equipments and for Extension Activities, Remedial Coaching, Field Work and PTAC)

                                                           ii.      Buildings

                                                         iii.      Women's Hostel

                                                         iv.      Instrument Maintenance facility

                                                           v.      COSIP

                                                         vi.      Examination Reforms

                                                       vii.      Simplification of admission procedure  

b.   Faculty Improvement Programme :

                                                           i.          Teacher Research Fellowship

                                                            ii.       Major / Minor Research Projects

                                                          iii.       Post-Doctoral Research Awards

                                                         iv.       Cultural Exchange Programmes

                                                           v.       Seminar/ Workshop/Conferences

                                                         vi.       One time basis JRF

                                                       vii.       Research Associates-ship for women

                                                     viii.       Travel Grant 

    c. Other Schemes :

                                                              i.       Career Oriented Programme

                                                            ii.       Network Resource Centre

                                                          iii.       Potential for excellence

                                                         iv.       Colleges situated in educationally backward areas

                                                           v.       Young colleges

                                                         vi.       Human rights and values in Education

                                                       vii.       SC/ST and Minority communities

                                                     viii.       For physically Handicapped lecturers

 Following policy decisions have been taken for this purpose :

(i)               Letters have been issued to principals of all the colleges to properly utilize the grants .

(ii)             Eleven lecturers have been relieved to join post-doctoral research awards.

(iii)           Two hundred and forty seven minor research projects and Eight major research and project have been sanctioned by UGC.

(iv)           One Hundred and Sixty five lecturers have been sanctioned academic leave to avail Teachers Research Fellowship.

 3).   Accreditation by NAAC 

NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council) is an autonomous Institution established by UGC in 1994. The Prime agenda of NAAC is to assess and accredit universities / colleges to improve the quality of education. 56 colleges out of 74 government colleges registered with UGC, New Delhi have been assessed and Accredited by NAAC. 15 Private colleges and 4 government colleges (which are not registered with the UGC ) have also been assessed and Accredited by NAAC. 

Futuristic Outlook   

The efforts would be put in place for visualizing the future needs of the State and recognising that human endowment can enable the State to envision the real possibilities and to perceive the necessary action that needs to be taken to convert those possibilities into realities.  Few important strategy and policy interventions with suggestive initiatives which the government would like to undertake in the immediate future can be listed as follows : 

Access:

1.    New Colleges through Govt. / Private participation in lagging areas.	Incentives like free land and grant for initial 5 years may be provided in lagging areas
2.     Popularizing distant learning programmes in remote and inaccessible areas through open learning systems.	IGNOU and  Kota open University to be approached for focused attention in lagging areas with specific targets.
3.    University to enhance correspondence courses	All universities will be requested to implement within specific time frame
4.  Removal of impediments of SC,ST, women and poor students to access higher education	Scholarships, Freeships, clothes, hostel facilities, Book Banks etc.
5.    Privatising some existing colleges and handover the same to Vidyalaya Vikas Samiti	Policy to be brought out.

Quality :

Enhancing Teacher's competency	TRF - In service Training
up-gradations of infrastructure as per UGC norms	College Dev. Fund; MP/MLA & UGC grants Govt. funds
Accreditation through NAAC	Budget to overcome deficiencies
Institutional annual review system	Procedure worked out
Teachers vacancies	Recruitment to be made through RPSC
Adverse Teachers students Ratio to be corrected	Redeployment
Internet connectivity to have - access to learning  resource centers of universities and UGC networking	Student fund and UGC grant

Relevance :

1.  More and more focus on skill based learning	Vocational education at school and college level needs strengthening.
2.  People with technical problem solving skills have more opportunities	More and more students to be attracted to skill based courses at Polytechnics through aggressive marketing and appropriate counseling. Universities should start diploma courses in relevant skills for job market as done by Southern Universities.
3.   Create awareness among students for professional courses and help them to pass the entrance tests	Entrance Test system need review  - becoming privilege of a few through coaching and Counseling
4.   Curriculum revision	Universities to make the regular courses more flexible.
5. Skill oriented add on courses in colleges to be taken by students  while doing degree education in Arts, Commerce  and Science.	Industry university interaction to identify subjects in high demand and diversification of courses

Other Measures:

Setting up a Professional body to provide :

  ·                    Regular forecasts for manpower requirement by different sections of educations.

  ·                    Monitor the quality of education and performance of institutions and advice to  State Government. 

·                    There shall be a body of experts of repute from various disciplines with V.C.s of Universities as members.  

Facilitate setting up centers of excellence particularly in areas of :

                                         (i)                      IT

                                       (ii)                      Medicine

                                     (iii)                      Horticulture

                                     (iv)                      Management Education

                                       (v)                      Bio-Technology

                                     (vi)                      Pharmaceutical research.  

Setting up Private Universities : 

·                    Encourage setting up of private Universities through reputed organisations for intra-state competition about the standard of education 

Challenges :-

Following  proactive steps to be taken to achieve the above goals :

1.  Public spending to focus more on remote and un-accessible areas- Equal infrastructure, attractive salaries, Hostels,  few institutions of excellence.

2.  Subsidised higher education for Non income tax payees, SC and ST and free education to SC/ST girls.

3.    Subsidised  education to girls in rural areas.

4.   Encourage donor participation in Girls education, SC and ST education.

5.   Special Coaching Classes in Colleges of far flung areas be encouraged to facilitate updation of knowledge.

6.   Extensive use of Open Learning System through Distance Learning (EDU SAT of ISRO)

7.    Proficiency of enhancement in english language classes will be introduced.

8.  Online Video conferencing, Internet and Intranet connectivity of colleges, libraries, universities and the commissionorate

Strategies and Policy Interventions:- 

PROPOSED SOLUTIONS FOR RESOURCE CRUNCH
1.	Subsidy should be targeted in backward regions - Institutions should become self reliant in next 2 years. The subsidy should be done away  in urban areas ( concentrate on giving in the backward areas only).
2.	PPP model for existing institutions - Vidyalaya Samiti be authorised to raise resources and recruit deficient staff as per their terms and conditions and run the  institute.
3.	More assistance from UGC scheme - Targets for each institution.
4.	Use of Boys fund and other charges.
5.	Public donations to be encouraged.
6.	MP LAD and MLA LAD schemes -  Proposal to productive approach
7.	Costs to be brought down
8.	Encourage taking up of projects - for self financing
9.	Proficiency of enhancement in English language classes are being introduced.
10.	Edu-Sat project would be launched.
11.	On line video conferencing, internet and intranet connectivity of colleges libraries, Universities and Commissionorate.

 

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