We need academic freedom, says Baswan

Quality higher education is still the cause of concern for the government of India, said BS Baswan, senior consultant (education), planning commission, Government of India.

He was speaking on the talk on “Higher education in India: Towards a new policy paradigm”, organised by Rajiv Gandhi for Contemporary studies in the University of Mumbai (Kalina Campus). We need to make institution which is more transparent and answerable to people, he added.

Emphasising on the private participation, he said, we cannot avoid private participation in the field of education. We are not the quality provider of education, we must first have to improve our base and then expand to other countries. The WTO norms have pressurized to open education in India.

He said, only the not known universities are coming in India, whereas the Stanford and other big universities have given a miss to India.

Commenting on the reforms, Baswan said government was forced to reform and the reforms took place. We need to guard our universities interest in their freedom, we need academic freedom, he stressed, thereby increasing the fess in the higher education, other wise we are going to go nowhere, he cautioned.

Baswan recommended, private players should be allowed to raise the fees and this way they can help government school students.

The focus area of the education in the current scenario is engineering, hospitality, chemistry, aviation, Baswan said.

The norms decided by UGC and AICETE are good, but in the urban areas it is unpractical in setting up new college or universities, he said.

Asking why faculties are opting for private universities or even living the country, he said the remuneration set by the government is not at par at the private one, but he said government give other benefits, such as housing, etc.

In the US the faculty gets more than $160,000 per annum, but in India it is not even the 20 percent of it, it is learnt.

Giving more information on the Foreign Education Bill, Baswan said if the law come into force, foreign universities has to become deemed university. This law may encourage many foreign universities to come and operate in India thereby opening doors of investment in the field of education.

Commenting on the community radio role in higher education, he said it helps to create awareness in the field on education, but visual media is very important medium in higher education, he concluded.

The Vice chancellor of Mumbai University, Dr Vijay Kole was also present at the talk.