EVENTS 2011

Seminar on Higher Education in India's North East: Issues and Concerns

Organised by the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla in collaboration with Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change, Gauwahti, 11-12 March 2011

Higher education at present has attracted a lot of attention the world over amongst different sections of society ranging from the academia to the policy makers. Its extraordinary role in augmenting economic and technological development in the present social order is widely recognized. However, a lot of ambivalence and confusion prevail in this sector. These relate to ideological issues of inclusion and exclusion, national interest vs. global commitments, market orientation vs. production of intellectuals capable of critiquing, confronting and contributing to the development trajectories for the benefit of people and society at large. The original ethos in the First University Education Commission of 1948 to train ‘intellectual pioneers of civilization' ‘in the universities, which are the sanctuaries of the inner life of the nation', has also been echoed in the Yaspal Committee Report on Higher Education. The first sentence of the report began ‘A university is a place where new ideas germinate, strike roots and grow tall and sturdy'. Quite contemporaneously the report also urged the university education to be linked to the job markets which are in tune with the emerging needs of the society.

Higher education in India today is facing radical changes; coping at times becomes disastrous for the systems across the country, which was not quite prepared for it, especially in those parts of the country where higher education was yet to take off. It is significant that the Neo-liberal approach towards the economy has left its imprint more decisively upon this sector of education. India's acceptance of higher education as a potential market and a means for economic growth seems to be complete and this is reflected in the opening up of higher education to foreign players and the encouragement to wide spread privatization. While international players like the World Bank see a lot of potentialities in India becoming a knowledge economy giving way to a new growth path and, hence the need for reforms in higher education, others critique it as a form of neo-colonization geared towards the market interest. Yet there are views that seem to approve the recent policy planning of the GOI towards Indian higher education as a move aimed at bringing positive changes in the education sector, even if there are some major obstacles on the path. However, notwithstanding whichever side one opts for, there is a pervasive recognition that Indian higher education is in crisis. The National Knowledge Commission in its Report to the Nation 2006 admitted that there is “a quiet crisis in higher education in India that runs deep”.

So far as India 's Northeast is concerned, it is now well accepted that the region is a late developer in the field of higher education. For instance, the first university in the entire northeastern region came up only in 1948 in Guwahati , Assam . Moreover, with the exception of the North Eastern Hill University which was set up in 1973, most of the universities in the region were set up only in the mid 80s and late 90s. Although the region received a new boost recently by the conversion of several state universities into central universities as well as the setting up of new central universities, yet overall there has not been any significant change in the academic deficit that the region started with. That the region suffers badly from the dearth of professional institutions, including Engineering and Medical colleges, perhaps needs no re-iteration. Most of the colleges in the region offer courses in the arts stream, putting the students in a further disadvantaged position in the job market. Although lately one can see the mushrooming of private initiatives in offering vocational courses with promises of placement etc., their authenticity and integrity are of doubtful variety in most of the cases, doing more harm than good. Even in those institutes of higher education which have come up in the recent past, and those which are already there, the demands outpace the limited seats, resulting in a large exodus of students to the metropolitan centers of the country which offer better infrastructural facilities and market oriented courses.

 

In view of the above, there is an urgent need to study and discuss the issues and concerns of higher education in the northeastern region thoroughly so that some ameliorative steps can be initiated.

The Seminar would revolve broadly around the following themes, with special focus on India 's Northeast.

  • Political economy of higher education
  • Funding and social auditing
  • Quality and quantity issues; human resource and infrastructure
  • Availability and access
  • Courses and curriculum--quality and relevance