Growth of Higher
Education System
There were only 20 Universities and 500 Colleges
at the time of independence. As per Annual report
2007-08 of the Ministry of HRD (Govt. of India),
416 universities at present- 251 State Universities,
24 Central Universities, 103 Deemed Universities,
5 Institutions established under State Legislations
and 33 Institute of National Importance established
by Central Legislation. In addition, there are
20,677 college including around 2,166 women colleges.
In academic year 2007-08, the total number of
students enrolled in the Universities and colleges
has been reported to be 116.13 lakhs. The regular
faculty strength was 0.81 lakhs in universities
and 4.24 lakhs in colleges totalling 5.05 lakhs
in the beginning of the academic year 2007-08.
As per Knowledge Commission (Govt. Of India),
minimum 1500 universities and 2 lakh college is
required.
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATION
FRAMEWORK - DEGREE STRUCTURE
There are three principle levels of qualifications
within the higher education system in the country.
These are:
Bachelor / Undergraduate level Master's / Post-graduate
level Doctoral / Pre-doctoral level
Diploma courses are also available
at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. At
the undergraduate level, it varies between one
to three years in length; postgraduate diplomas
are normally awarded after one year's study.
Bachelor's degree in arts, commerce
and sciences is three years of education (after
12 years of school education). In some places
there are honors and special courses available.
These are not necessarily longer in duration but
indicate greater depth of study. Bachelor degree
in professional field of study in agriculture,
dentistry, engineering, pharmacy, technology and
veterinary medicine generally take four years,
while architecture and medicine, it takes five
and five and a half years respectively. There
are other bachelor degrees in education, journalism
and librarian¬ship that are second degrees.
Bachelor's degree in law can either be taken as
an integrated degree lasting five years or three-year
course as a second degree.
Master's degree is normally of
two-year duration. It could be coursework based
without thesis or research alone. Admission to
postgraduate programmes in engineering and technology
is done on the basis of Graduate Aptitude Test
in Engineering or Combined Medical Test respectively.
A pre-doctoral programme - Master
of Philosophy (M.Phil.) is taken after completion
of the Master's Degree. This can either be completely
research based or can include course work as well.
Ph.D. is awarded two year after the M.Phil. Or
three years after the Master's degree.
SYSTEM OF GOVERNANCE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
INSTITUTIONS
The Universities are various kinds: with a single
faculty, or multi-faculties; teaching or affiliating,
or teaching cum affiliating, single campus or
multiple campuses. Most of the Universities are
affiliating universities, which prescribe to the
affiliated colleges the course of study, hold
examinations and award degrees, while undergraduate
and to some extent post the colleges affiliated
to them impart graduate instruction. Many of the
universities along with their affiliated colleges
have grown rapidly to the extent of becoming unmanageable.
Therefore, as per National Policy on Education,
1986, a scheme of autonomous colleges was promoted.
In the autonomous colleges, whereas the degree
continues to be awarded by the University, the
name of the college is 'also included. The colleges
develop and propose new courses of study to the
University for Approval. They are also fully responsible
for conduct of examination. There are at present
276 autonomous colleges in the country.
A BOON FOR THE YOUTH
On a global level, for any country let us assume
that 2.5% of the world’s GDP is attributed
to the software industry while the balance 97.5%
is attributed to the rest of the economy. While
Trading and retail is about 1.5 times bigger in
size compared to IT, manufacturing is 11 times
bigger than IT sector. Compared this to Tourism
industry which is 6 times bigger to IT, whereas
Health care is about 4 times bigger than IT, not
to mention about Education which is 4 times bigger
than the core IT sector. This means the employment
opportunities are spread everywhere but what is
needed is to enhance the “employability
quotient” of every individual.
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