Dr. Souvik Bhattacharyya is vice chancellor of BITS-Pilani. An alumnus of Jadavpur, Cincinnati and Texas A&M universities, Bhattacharyya served as vice chancellor of Jadavpur University, Kolkata and deputy director of IIT-Kharagpur, prior to taking charge at BITS-Pilani in 2016.

How satisfied are you with the Rs.85,010 crore provision made for education in the Union Budget 2018-19, of which a major share — Rs.49,530 crore — has been allocated for higher education?

The allocation to the education sector which was 6.15 percent of the total budget in 2014-15, has been gradually reducing during the past five years and brought down to 3.48 percent of the Union budget 2018-19. This indicates reduced priority to the sector as a whole. 

The fundamental issue that needs to be addressed is the quality of education — school as well as higher education — and it mainly revolves around good teachers delivering effective learning together with enabling physical resources. Any strategic move towards meeting this huge challenge isn’t visible. 

There are other seemingly generous provisions for higher education — RISE (Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education) which has been allocated Rs.100,000 crore over the next four years, establishment of 20 Institutes of Eminence, and selection of 1,000 best engineering students for pursuing Ph D studies in the IITs and Indian Institute of Science. What’s your comment? 

RISE, which will be funded by a newly constituted Higher Education Financing Agency, is a commendable initiative. The strategic steps and year-wise allocation under it haven’t been specified. Likewise, the proposal to create Institutes of Eminence (IoE) is also welcome. It needs to be duly complemented by giving institutions the freedom to excel. However, excellent non-government institutions awarded IoE status will receive zero financial support. 

Similarly, regarding promotion of research, only IITs/NITs/IISERs/IIITs — Central government institutions — are eligible for government funding. Disqualifying designated private sector IoEs from receiving public funding is unwarranted discrimination. Unfortunately, ownership of chosen IoEs rather than performance indicators remain the criterion for government funding.

Not even one of India’s 800 universities is ranked among the Top 200 World University Rankings of the London-based ranking agencies QS and Times Higher Education. What are your Top 5 priorities for remedying this dismal situation?

To build institutions of eminence that could figure in international rankings league tables requires the following strategies: 

• Freedom and flexibility to innovate.

• Research of high quality that should not only result in publications but also patents and new ventures.

• Regulatory bodies should give complete freedom to IoEs irrespective of whether they are government or private sector institutions.

• Close collaboration between academia and industry for curriculum development, introducing new study programmes, teaching, training and research. 

• Greater involvement of high networth and high intellect corporate leaders with building and shaping academic institutions.

How realistic is it to hope that the Indian economy will realise its demographic dividend in the near or medium-term future?

To realise our demographic dividend, we have to give priority to entrepreneurship and skills development. This requires strategic initiatives to improve quality of education at different levels with emphasis on skills development, innovation and entrepreneurship.