Higher education set for commoditisation in TS

Embedded in the very idea of the university not the story book idea, but the university at its truest and best are values that the market does not honour: the belief in a community of scholars and not a confederacy of self-seekers; in the idea of openness and not ownership: in the professor as a pursuer of truth and not entrepreneur: in the student as an acolyte whose preferences are to be formed, not a consumer whose preferences are to be satisfied. - David L Kirp

The TRS government in Telangana State is making efforts to allow setting up of private universities. This move goes against its major electoral promise of ‘KG-to-PG free education,’ and has raised eyebrows because the youngest state in India, considered backward in several human development indices, has chosen the shortcut of allowing private players in university education.

There was a high expectation from this government that it would allocate significant funds to revamp the universities which are in a state of shambles. Instead of strengthening them, the state government is opting for bureaucratic-centralisation of administrative structures of the universities and is preparing grounds for entry of private universities.

It is learnt that Reliance group is going to establish the first private university in the state. It seems the state government is treading the path of ‘competitive federalism’ and following the market-oriented pro-globalisation policies in the education sector. The doctrinal basis of today’s globalisation is neo-liberalism that advocates minimisation of government intervention.

Private universities and the question of equity Education is considered a public good and higher education at least is a quasi-public good, producing a wide variety and huge magnitude of externalities.There is an acknowledgment that higher education in Telangana has been facing problems like declining ethics, growing indiscipline, increasing politicisation, resource crunch etc.

In 1997, for the first time the Government of India accorded the status of a non-merit good to higher education, which means the state need not subsidise it. In 2000, the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry constituted a committee on higher education by two leading industrialists Kumaramangalam Birla and Mukesh Ambani.

This committee strongly favoured the withdrawal of state from the higher education sector. It envisaged a pivotal role for the market forces and the state is supposed to provide financial assistance to the economically marginalised students through user-pays, loans and grants. In contrast, countries like Australia, Canada, Czech, Denmark and Germany have 100 per cent student enrolments in public institutions.

Even in the US, nearly 70 per cent of the students in higher education are in public institutions.The problem with the state government proposal is that the higher education is a capital-intensive endeavour. The groups and individuals who lack required capital would be excluded from its ambit. As a fulcrum of social justice and welfare, the Preamble of the Indian Constitution promises to secure to all Indian citizens the laudable objectives of liberty, justice, equality and fraternity. This insightful vision has been sidelined by the idea of privatisation of higher education.

The Kothari Commission Report (1964) unambiguously differentiates a profit making company and a university. It opines that, “the character of a university as a society of teachers and students engaged in the pursuit of learning and discovery, distinguishes fundamentally the regulation of its affairs from, say, the profit motivated management of commercial or industrial concerns or the administration of a government department.”

Problem with mushrooming of private universities, apart from the problem of social equity, is deficiencies in infrastructure and availability of qualified faculty. States like Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan have witnessed the mushrooming of fake private universities. Education has various social goals, but the onslaught of commoditisation and careerism has been damaging it. Globalisation of education works in favour of elite who could buy quality education in the market by paying higher fees.

It might result in elitisation of education. The erosion of value also could result through the influence of exogenous influence. It may further degenerate into social tensions. Telangana government must consider the long-term repercussions of allowing private universities. The government should learn something from the Nizam, who despite being a feudal ruler, established several reputed higher educational institutions like Osmania University. Telangana government requires a vision, not any short-term commercial calculations. (The writer is Head, Social Exclusion Studies Dept, The English & Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad)