And except for a small percentage of well-managed and well-endowed arts, science, and commerce colleges —which account for 70 per cent of our 1.1 crore students —the rest can be stacked at various levels of mediocrity.

Many factors contribute to the malaise: outdated curriculum; obsolete equipment; teachers who don’t update their knowledge base; managements that lack commitment to academic excellence; rote learning; exam-oriented teaching; lack of activity-based learning through team effort.

The biggest failure of our university system is that students are not taught “soft skills” — the competence to discuss, analyse, innovate and communicate.

Clearly, India’s failing university system needs urgent reforms to remove the mismatch between education and employment. Let me mention five measures here:

• Allow, and create opportunities for students to do short-term diploma or certificate courses along with their degree courses. These courses should be linked to areas in which employment opportunities are opening up. The UGC has already recommended this innovation.

• Only 20 per cent of our colleges and 50 per cent of our 317 universities have been assessed for minimum quality by NA&AC. Since the task is too large for as single body to perform, a state-level mechanism for assessment and accreditation should be evolved, rewarding institutions that perform well.

• Liberate India’s higher education from three foes: bureaucratic clutches of the HRD ministry and state education departments; corruption in regulatory bodies like the AICTE and MCI; and unscrupulous private players.

• Raise college fees for the basic BA, BCom and BSc courses. They totally disproportionate to the cost of running these degree courses. Since fees are low, neither students nor managements take the courses seriously. Poor students may be helped with scholarships and loans.

... contd.