– Dr. Brajesh Kumar Tiwari, Associate Professor, Atal School of Management, JNU
54 Indian institutions have found a place in the ranking of the best universities worldwide by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a London-based company specialising in higher education analysis and services. From just 11 institutions featured in the prestigious rankings in 2015, India has registered a remarkable five-fold increase in a decade. This makes India the fastest-growing G20 country in the rankings and the fourth most represented country on the list (54), after the US (192), the UK (90), and China (72). A total of 12 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) feature in the list. However, only three Indian institutes are included in the global top 200, among which IIT Delhi is at the top with a rank of 123.
The QS World University Rankings evaluate universities on a variety of performance indicators, including academic reputation, faculty-student ratio, research impact, international student diversity and graduate employability. According to the QS rankings, India is one of the fastest expanding research hubs in the world with the country’s research output increasing by 54 per cent between 2017 and 2022, which is not only more than double the global average but also far higher than its Western counterparts.
India’s Focus for the Future
To have a truly strong economy, the country needs to have a long-term and meaningful level of knowledge system that powers the economy. The more intellectual property is created, the more jobs will be created. Along with the great achievements, there are also challenges ahead as much still needs to be done to improve access to higher education for all, global competitiveness and standards.
India has set an ambitious target of 50 percent gross enrolment ratio by 2035 in its National Education Policy 2020. As of May 2024, India’s gross enrolment ratio in higher education was 28.4%, with over 43 million students enrolled in around 1,200 institutions. However, this is well below the current global average of 36.7%.
Research and innovation are indispensable
We are proud to be a young country but the country’s population will not remain young for long. Therefore, the education budget should be increased immediately. India’s expenditure on research and development, which is about 0.7 percent of its GDP, is well below the world average of 1.8%. The private sector contributes less than 40% of gross expenditure on R&D while it is more than 75% in advanced countries. There are only 26 Indian companies in the list of top 2,500 global R&D spenders in the world.
Vishwaguru without Guru
Today, the biggest problem of Indian universities, already struggling with the lack of basic infrastructure, is the shortage of teachers. Recently, the minister of state for education, Sukanta Majumdar, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, said that as of January 31, 2025, more than 5,410 teaching posts are vacant. Similarly, a recent report of Niti Aayog suggests that more than 40% of the teaching posts in the state universities across the country are vacant. New centres of learning and knowledge are opening across the country but there is a huge shortage of teachers in them. Due to shortage of teachers, academic sessions are not being completed on time. How can we become ‘Vishwaguru without Guru’?
Today, the number of ad-hoc teachers is continuously increasing from primary level to university. Recently, to enhance the internationalisation of Indian Higher Education, the UGC recommended that HEIs implement a 2022 circular allowing for the creation of up to 25% “supernumerary seats” for international students, in addition to their total sanctioned enrolment for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
The guidelines indicate that a seat that remains unfilled in the supernumerary category will exclusively be allocated to an international student. The significant question arises regarding the circumstances and motivations that would lead international students to enter a scenario where the current student-teacher ratio has escalated to 30:1, in contrast to the ideal ratio of 15:1. International student enrollment represents less than 1% of total enrolment in higher education, with the majority being from Nepal and Afghanistan.
The Way Forward
The government should also focus on teacher training programmes in its budgetary allocations as there is a great need for teachers to be well versed with the latest technologies. This has also been emphasised in the NEP and can only be achieved through significant investment of time, effort and money on skill development of teachers.
It is important that fellowships in higher education be increased and teachers are appointed on time. Arrangements should be made for education loans to students at affordable rates and subsidy should be given on skill-based courses. The recommendations made by Prof. Yashpal Committee in 2009 are relevant in which it recommended allocating more funds for higher education and strict regulation and monitoring of private bodies so that these world rankings continue to improve. The new National Education Policy (NEP 2020) is completing five years this July and without additional fund allocation, implementing its recommendations across the country is practically an impossible task.
The government should continuously work towards making the country’s higher institutions ‘Institutes of Eminence’ so that they can become competitive according to the times. India is celebrating ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ and the next 25 years will decide the fate of the country. We must know that in ‘Developed India’ the quality of education will have a strong foundation.
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