Yogesh K. Upadhyaya

Post 1991 liberation era, when the government control and norms are relaxed and economic reforms are carried out, our country has suddenly become a land of plenty. However, if you need to make a professional career and plan to join a reputed college of your choice, the nightmare begins with the entering in high school.

Look at the statistics. Each year about 2 crore (20 million) students in our country appear for exam for one of the 40 high school (12^th grade) boards, out of which about half are successful. From the successful students, about 3 to 4 million join colleges every year, including about 600,000 to 800,000 for science stream, 300,000 to 350,000 for degree engineering, 27,000 for medicine and rest for arts, commerce, other degree and vocational courses. Here we shall discuss mainly about admission to professional colleges.

Engineering and Technology:

Among the professional disciplines, engineering is the first choice of students, where a 4-year degree is enough to land a comfortable job. The demand for engineering seats has increased post-independence, from about 3,000 in 1947 to 20,000 in 1970 to 80,000 in 1985. Currently, it is estimated that between 300,000 to 350,000 engineering graduates pass out from over 1300 colleges. However, as a member of AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) states, the quality of education provided by these colleges drops sharply after first 50 to 100 colleges.

Still, the competition is fierce. This year, 300,000 students (a jump of over 50% over last year) appeared for IIT-JEE exam for 5,444 available seats at seven IITs, IT-BHU and ISM, Dhanbad. For AIEEE (All India Engineering Entrance Exam), 525,000 students appeared for about 10,000 seats at 20 NITs and also for equal number of other colleges. For admission to BITS (Pilani and Goa campus), 53,842 candidates appeared for 1,400 available seats.

During first 10 years (1952-1962), five IITs were established; while in the next 40 years, only two IITs were set-up. Surely, there is a need for more IITs.

Our country is shining in software sector and majority of engineering graduates are joining IT or IT related jobs. Still, we have only 3 IIITs (Indian Institutes of Information Technology) and 3 IIIIT clones (colleges with similar names) for imparting international-level of education.

Medicine and Management:

Our country produces about 26,800 medical graduates from 244 medical colleges. It is essential for a medical graduate to obtain an advanced degree for a bright career. However, there are only 4,400 seats available for MD, 2,250 for MS and 470 for super specialty courses. All India Pre-Medical Test is conducted for 2,200 available undergraduate medical seats (15%) in medical colleges, for which 280,000 candidates appeared this year.

Our govt. has announced a plan to set up six more AIIMS (All India Institutes of Medical Sciences) and upgrade the six existing colleges. This plan (basically the same plan proposed by former National Democratic Alliance govt.) will help bring the sea-change in medical education in our country.

Currently, there is one doctor per 2,000 of population in our country, and as per World Health Organization, the desired ratio is 1:600. This means that there is scope of increasing medical manpower to three times the existing pass outs.

There are about 1,000 management colleges in our country, producing about 100,000 MBA each year, with only a few dozens providing high-quality education, including IIM-Ahmedabad, which was established with Harvard collaboration. Last year, 158,000 candidates appeared for CAT-2005 (Common Admission Test) for MBA programs at six IIMs and 70 other management colleges.

Grand Plan:

To firefight the decision about reservation, the govt. has embarked on the massive expansion plan, by increasing the total number of seats by 54% across professional colleges (to keep the number of seats same under general category) beginning next year. According to the Oversight Committee working on the proposal, the proposed expansion will likely cost about Rs. 16,000 crore (Rs.160 billion) with annual expenditure of Rs. 4,000 crore (Rs. 40 billion). If the govt. keeps its promise, and if the news leaking out to media is correct, then this will be the biggest expansion of educational facilities in our country’s history.

Apart from huge funding requirement (which is not a problem to solve the political problem), it will need vast upgrade of infrastructure and massive recruitment of faculty. This will be a big challenge, as in this rising economy, very few select an option of pursuing the study of PhD. The number of PhDs should also be increased. Last year India produced about 850 engineering PhDs, while Peking University (considered as MIT of China) produces more doctorates in the same field!

Hopefully, something good will come out of this turmoil. With the green signal from the govt. and required funding from the planning commission, a number of international-quality institutes will be coming up in next few years, and decision pending for past few years will be taken very quickly. There are at least a dozen more IIMs, AIIMS and IIITs (Indian Institutes of Information Technology) planned across the nation. There is also a proposal to double the number of NITs from the current 20. The govt. will also announce its long-awaited decision about granting IIT/Deemed IIT/INI status to seven short-listed engineering colleges.

Foreign Solution:

Not everyone gets stuck by the limited opportunities available in the premier colleges. Those who can afford, migrate to foreign countries where they can get quality education in a learning environment. Last year, more than 60,000 students left our country to join undergraduate courses such as engineering, information technology, management, medical, etc., to countries such as USA, UK, Australia, and Canada.

Sensing a big business opportunity, reputed foreign universities have tried to offer courses in our country itself. Among the leading universities who applied to govt. for permission include; Georgia Tech University, Stanford University and Harvard University. Since India signed GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) two years ago, it is supposed to allow foreign universities to set up shops in our country. Sensing indifferent attitude by our govt., all except Georgia Tech. have withdrawn their applications. The coming up of foreign universities in India will certainly benefit our students and faculties alike.

Government Actions Needed:

Since our country has so far depended upon the initiatives and controls from the central government for higher education, it is the government’s responsibility to come out with an action plan to solve this persistent problem about difficulty faced by otherwise qualified students in getting admission to professional institutions.

Since the govt. can not handle the problem of shortages alone, it should allow private colleges from Indian and foreign organizations/universities to set up more colleges or expand the existing ones. This can be achieved by simplifying rules and providing necessary grants to the deserving institutes.

In Conclusion:

As per our planning commission, the number of college-going population will double in next 10 years. We need to plan in advance to meet that eventuality. United Nations forecast predicts India to be at number three country economically by the year 2020, which is not possible without a sound knowledge and higher education for masses.

The Committee headed by Veerappa Moily has submitted its interim report to government in July and the final report will be made public in next couple of months.