Expressing concerns that quality of education imparted by institutions to pass-outs was nowhere near international standards, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh noted that "deficiencies and imbalances" exist in country's higher education system.

"A major problem, which we face is the quality of higher education that our institutions impart. Unfortunately, most of them produce pass-outs, who are nowhere near international standards," Singh said today, while addressing a gathering at a special convocation of Panjab University here after receiving an honorary doctorate degree in law.

He said that the issue of quality would not get addressed by itself, even if the country meet its targets of higher access and enrolment, spends huge amounts on higher education and opens a large number of new institutions.

"In fact, one dimension of quality deficit is the difficulty being faced in recruiting top class faculty for the new IIMs, IITs, central universities and other such institutions that the Government has decided to establish in the last five years," he said.

He said that the Government had a mammoth task ahead in pursuing its goal of providing access to good education to every citizen of the country. On the current state of higher education, he said, "At present, in any year, only about 12 per cent of students, who complete secondary education enrol for higher education."

"This does not at all compare well with the figure of about 70 per cent in some developed countries. It is also much lower than the figure of about 20 per cent in some South East Asian countries," the Prime Minister said adding, "We must increase this proportion."

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