Privatization of universities is a recent phenomenon and is also a subject of recent debates in the education circle in India. Some claim that it is the way forward for the education system in our country while others consider it as a grave mistake; However as in other things there are both pros and cons.
The country has a very large education system starting right from the nursery level to the post graduation level. According to data in 2012 India has the third largest higher education system in the world,still the country is facing shortage of employable people. India’s national literacy rate is around 75% ,however 75% of graduates pursuing technical education and more than 85% of general graduates are unemployable according to NASSCOM (according to data in 2012).
The main reason behind this is that the educated populace is actually of poor quality.This can be attributed to the flourishing practice of giving private tuition which has converted education into a business,moreover the teachers are also not skilled enough, poor infrastructure preventing students from attaining adequate knowledge etc.
Privatization of universities will attract investment from many foreign organizations. As the process of setting up a university will be eased a number of foreign universities will set up branch here.This will help a number of individuals as they will be not be required to leave the country ,this will save money and will also help in preventing brain drain.Moreover those individuals who would have otherwise found it impossible to enroll to these universities will also be able to avail of it.The setting up of a number of colleges will increase the competition and this in turn will improve the quality of education.Moreover if the colleges are privatized then it will help in improving the infrastructure of the colleges.
However it is not that there will only be advantages.There is a strong possibility that with the advent of privatization of universities there can be a steep increase in fees.This will in turn pose huge problems as the students from humble background won’t be able to afford it.This will in turn result in lesser number of individuals enrolling themselves for higher education .If lesser number of people opt for higher education then there will be a shortage of knowledgeable individuals.Moreover the work load of the professors might increase but there salary might not increase in the same way.There working condition might deteriorate and lastly but not the least there is no guarantee that the universities will maintain the same level of education here.
There are positives so are there negatives. Instead of all the colleges getting privatized we can consider privatizing a few of the colleges and understand the effects and finally act accordingly.
~ Privatization of Universities ~
