Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Higher Education Landscape in India: Government Expenditure and Its Implications on Growth and Access

Abstract

India’s higher education system grapples with myriad challenges perpetuated by scarcity of resources. This study seeks to analyse the quantitative growth of India’s higher education since independence, particularly focusing on the post-reform period. The research employs regression models, including the semi-log, Gompertz and multiple linear models, to determine growth rates and forecast variables up to 2035. The study reveals a significant expansion of higher education during the examined period, though it falls short of meeting the increasing demands. To achieve the goal of a 50 per cent Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) by 2035, the Government of India must take steps to boost its expenditure on higher education. The analysis powerfully underscores that despite the extensive proliferation of higher education in India, its efficacy might be limited without concurrent implementation of robust policies directed towards amplifying government expenditure within the sector.

Keywords

Higher Education, Access, Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER), Dropout Enrollment Ratio (DER), Government Expenditure, India

pdf

References

  1. Abdullah, M. B., Harun, M., & Jali, M. R. (2017). Government funding in education industry. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 7(6), 769–772. https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v7-i6/3036 DOI: https://doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v7-i6/3036
  2. Aruchami, M. (2003). Private initiatives and quality imperatives in higher education. In Privatisation of Higher Education (1st ed., pp. 13–19). Essay. Association of Indian Universities.https://openlibrary.org/books/OL3444712M/Privatisation_of_higher_education
  3. Behera, P. K., & Khatei, R. (2018). An analysis of public finance on Education Sector in India. VISION : Journal of Indian Taxation, 5(2), 72–83. https://doi.org/10.17492/vision.v5i2.14521 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17492/vision.v5i2.14521
  4. Carnoy, M. (1999). Globalization and educational reform: What planners need to know. UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning.
  5. Choudhary, S. K. (2008). Higher education in India: A socio-historical journey from ancient period to 2006-07. Journal of Educational Enquiry, 8(1), 50–72. https://ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/EDEQ/article/view/484
  6. Committee for Review of National Policy on Education. (1990). Towards an enlightened and humane society. National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration. http://14.139.60.153/handle/123456789/143
  7. Deb, R. (2023). Improving Indian higher education quality: Challenges and opportunities. Indian Journal of Public Administration, 69(2), 275–288. https://doi.org/10.1177/00195561221142620 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00195561221142620
  8. Duraisamy, P., & Duraisamy, M. (2016). Contemporary issues in Indian higher education. Higher Education for the Future, 3(2), 144–163. https://doi.org/10.1177/2347631116648437 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2347631116648437
  9. Garg, A., Sharma, A., & Garg, N. B. (2020). Impact of web-based learning and teaching in Higher Education in India. Journal of Computational and Theoretical Nanoscience, 17(6), 2689–2694. https://doi.org/10.1166/jctn.2020.8968 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1166/jctn.2020.8968
  10. Ghosh, S. C. (1995). The History of Education in Modern India 1757-2012. Orient Blackswan Private Limited.
  11. Ghosh, S. C. (2000). The History of Education in Modern India. Orient Longman Limited.
  12. Government of India (GoI). (1950). University Education Commission, 1948-49 Report, Part I. Government of India.
  13. Government of India (GoI). (1966). Education and National Development, Report of the National Commission on Education (1964-66). Government of India.
  14. Government of India (GoI). (2009). National Knowledge Commission Report to the Nation 2006-2009. Government of India.
  15. Government of India (2021). National Education Policy 2020. Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. https://www.education.gov.in/nep/about-nep#:~:text=National%20Education%20Policy%2C%202020%20(NEP,quality%20education%20to%20all%2C%20thereby
  16. Government of India (GoI). (2023). Social infrastructure and employment: Big Tent. Economic Survey 2022-23 (pp. 144–215), Ministry of Finance
  17. Gujarati, D. N., & Porter, D. C. (2004). Multicollinearity: What happens if the regressors are correlated? Basic Econometrics (5th ed., pp. 348–350). The McGraw-Hill Companies.
  18. HEA (2008). National Plan for Equity of Access to Higher Education 2008-2013. National Office of Equity of Access to Higher Education, Higher Education Authority.
  19. Jain, R. (2022). Skyrocketing cost of higher education in India. Edumpus. https://edumpus.com/blog/SKYROCKETING-COST-OF-HIGHER-EDUCATION-IN-INDIA
  20. Khan, J. (2001). Decolonising: Implications for english education. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325145509_Decolonising_-_Implications_for_English_Education
  21. Khemani, T., & Narayan, J. (2006). Higher Education Sector in India: Opportunities and Reforms. Foundation for Democratic Reforms.
  22. Krishnan, C. (2021). Financing of state universities in India: A case study. Issues and Ideas in Education, 9(1), 7–19. https://doi.org/10.15415/iie.2021.91002 DOI: https://doi.org/10.15415/iie.2021.91002
  23. Kohtamäki, V., & Kaila, E. N. (2021). Access to higher education. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95882-8_1 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95882-8_1
  24. Ministry of Education and Culture (MoEC). (2020). The report of the university education commission (December 1948- August 1949). Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/dli.csl.2222
  25. Ministry of Education and Social Welfare (MoESW). (1990). Towards equality report of the committee on the status of women in India. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/dli.csl.107/mode/2up
  26. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). (1992). National Policy on Education 1986: Programme of Action 1992. Ministry of Human Resource Development.
  27. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). (2020). National Education Policy 2020. Ministry of Human Resource Development. https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf
  28. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) (2021). All India Survey on Higher Education: 2019-20. Department of Higher Education, Government of India.
  29. Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI). (2024). Per-capita monthly household consumption expenditure more than doubled during 2011-12 to 2022-23. Press Information Bureau. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=2008737
  30. Malik, Y. (1984). A study of the attitude of students of Jawaharlal Nehru University Towards Higher Education. JNU, Unpublished M.Phil. Dissertation.
  31. Ministry of Education (MoE). (2020). Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+). Department of School Education and Literacy.
  32. Mohanty, J. (1993). Dynamics of higher education in India. Deep and Deep Publications.
  33. Naik, J. P. (1965). Educational planning in India 1965. Allied Publishers, New Delhi https://archive.org/details/EducationalPlanningInIndia1965
  34. National Scholarship Portal. (2022). Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Protsahan (PM-USP) Yojana. https://scholarships.gov.in/public/schemeGuidelines/Guidelines_DOHE_CSSS.pdf
  35. Pal, Y. (2009). Report of the committee to advise on renovation and rejuvenation of higher education. Ministry of Education. https://www.education.gov.in/report-committee-advise-renovation-and-rejuvenation-higher-education-prof-yashpal-committee-report
  36. Panigrahi, J. (2023). Financing of public higher education institutions in India. Financing of Higher Education, 63–83. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7391-8_5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7391-8_5
  37. Perkin, H. (2006). History of universities. (J. J. Forest, & P. G. Altbach, Eds.) Springer. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4012-2_10
  38. Powar, K. B. (2002). Indian higher education: A conglomerate of concepts, facts and practices. Concept Pub. Co.
  39. Powar, K. B. (2012). Expanding domains in Indian higher education. Association of Indian Universities Publications.
  40. Prakash, V. (2007). Trends in growth and financing of higher education in India. Economic and Political Weekly, 42(31), 3249-3258.
  41. Prodan, A., Maxim, E., Manolescu, I., Arustei, C. C., & Guta, A. L. (2015). Access to higher education: Influences and possible implications. Procedia Economics and Finance, 20(1), 535–543. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00106-9 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2212-5671(15)00106-9
  42. Rao, S. M. (2023). Demand for Grants 2023-24 Analysis: Education. PRS Legislative Research. https://prsindia.org/budgets/parliament/demand-for-grants-2023-24-analysis-education
  43. Rani, P. G. (2022). Provision and financing of higher education across States: Does it converge? Journal of Educational Planning and Administration, XXXVI(2), 93–115. https://doi.org/https://www.niepa.ac.in/download/Publications/JEPA/2023/JEPA%20April%202022%20Issue.pdf
  44. Rathore, M. (2023). India: Annual cost of higher education by type. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1287401/india-annual-cost-of-higher-education-by-type/
  45. Ravi, S., Gupta, N., & Nagaraj, P. (2019). Reviving higher education in India. Brookings Institution, India. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Reviving-Higher-Education-in-India-email-1.pdf
  46. Rout, B. C. (2015). Determinants of students dropout in Indian higher education. In R. Ramdas (ed). Democracy, Governance and Tribes in the Age of Globalised India - Reality & Rhetoric (pp. 71-90). Gyan Publishing https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279292048_Determinants_of_Student_Dropout_in_Indian_Higher_Education
  47. Sargent, J. (1948). Progress of education in India 1937-1947. Decennial Review. Osmania University: Central Bureau Of Education. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/progressofeducat031833mbp/page/n3/mode/2up
  48. Sharma, Dr. M. (2022). Principles, practice, and policy problems in the financing of higher education in India. International Journal of Innovative Research in Engineering & Management, 9(1), 401–404. https://doi.org/10.55524/ijirem.2022.9.1.84 DOI: https://doi.org/10.55524/ijirem.2022.9.1.84
  49. Sharma, S. (2019). Access to higher education in India: An overview. Amity Management Review, 8(1), 39–49. https://doi.org/https://www.amity.edu/jaipur/amr/pdf/jan-dec-2019-vol8/5.pdf
  50. Sharma, S.K. (2015). Financing of higher education in India: Present state & challenges. Academic Discourse, 4, 76-83. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Financing-of-Higher-Education-in-India%3A-Present-%26-Sharma/9e50a16922443e19345af7f31bc07a1bd4b8bf93
  51. Sharp, H. (1920). Selections from educational records part I 1781-1839. Bureau of Education, India. https://archive.org/details/SelectionsFromEducationalRecordsPartI1781-1839/page/n1/mode/2up
  52. Tilak, J. B. (2004). Public subsidies on education in India. Economic and Political Weekly, 39(4), 343359.
  53. Tilak, J. B., & Biswal, K. (2015). The transition to higher education in India. C. Wing, The Transition from Secondary Education to Higher Education - Case Studies from Asia and the Pacific (pp. 47-66). UNESCO.
  54. Tjørve, K. M., & Tjørve, E. (2017). The use of Gompertz models in growth analyses, and new Gompertz-Model Approach: An addition to the unified-richards family. PLOS ONE, 12(6), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178691 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0178691
  55. Tobenkin, D. (2022). India’s higher education landscape. NAFSA. https://www.nafsa.org/ie-magazine/2022/4/12/indias-higher-education-landscape
  56. University Grants Commission (UGC). (2015). “Ishan Uday” for North-Eastern Region. University Grants Commission. https://ner.ugc.ac.in/
  57. UNESCO. (2009). Communique: 2009 World Conference on Higher Education: The New Dynamics of Higher Education and Research for Societal Change and Development. UNESCO UNESDOC Digital Library. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000183277
  58. UNESCO (2009). Education Indicators Technical Guidelines. UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
  59. Varghese, N. V. (2021). Financing of higher education in India. Quality Mandate for Higher Education Institutions in India (pp. 223–235). University Grants Commission. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/355394277_FINANCING_OF_HIGHER_EDUCATION_IN_INDIA_Public_versus_Private_Financing_of_Higher_Education.
  60. Varma, S., (1970-71- 1971-72). Educational policy of mountstuart elphinstone (pp. 202-214). Bulletin of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute, 31/32(1/2), https://www.jstor.org/stable/42930903
  61. Walker, M. (2019). The achievement of university access: Conversion factors, capabilities and choices. Social Inclusion, 7(1), 52–60. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v7i1.1615 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v7i1.1615

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.