From the editor- in- chief
The month of June is one of high anxiety for lakhs of students and their parents across India. The results of the Class XII examinations are out and the admissions season at the country’s top colleges and universities is in full swing. The 16th edition of the INDIA TODAY- Nielsen Rankings of India’s Best Colleges, I hope, will be a useful guide to those seeking a college education, across different streams and disciplines. We began the Best Colleges Survey 15 years ago as a much more limited exercise than it has since become. In 1997, we ranked India’s top 10 colleges, without breaking them into science, arts and commerce streams. We also ranked the top five medical and engineering colleges. In 2011, we ranked colleges across six different streams— arts, science, commerce, engineering, medicine and law. This year, we have added five new streams— bachelor of business administration ( BBA), bachelor of computer applications ( BCA), mass communication and journalism, fashion design and fine arts— to the existing six. This is in recognition of the evolution of the higher education space over the last five years.
It is no longer just engineering, law and medicine, which are regarded as top professional degrees. The five new streams we have added this year are increasingly sought after by young people looking for jobs directly after an undergraduate education. Until it began stuttering some months ago, India’s growth engine was powering the demand for skilled professionals in certain sectors. The private sector, the driver of India’s growth engine, is hungry for managers. MBA degrees alone cannot churn out the requisite numbers. BBA has therefore become a valuable degree. The IT sector desperately needs programmers. The BCA degree, to be found only in India, is a timely market response. The mass media has been a sunrise sector over the last decade. Unsurprisingly, the number of colleges and institutions offering courses in journalism has mushroomed. It is also a good time to be in the fashion business and in the fine arts in India. India is now a global player in these arenas.
Even as much has changed in the higher education space, some things remain the same. The Government has failed to respond adequately to the changed scenario. It continues to exercise too much control over the institutions it finances. The IITs would do even better if the Government gave them greater autonomy. The Government has also made a mess of private sector participation. After a brief period in the 2000s when indiscriminate permission was given to private universities, allowing some dubious operators into the system, the Union Government has moved to the other extreme of closing the door on private universities.
Two reformist legislations which could change this situation are stuck. The Foreign Universities Bill, which could potentially allow top universities from the world over to come to India, is pending passage in Parliament. The National Commission for Higher Education and Research Bill, which aims to set up an independent regulator for higher education, in place of the inefficient UGC and AICTE, is also languishing.
Quality education holds the key to the emergence of India as an economic superpower. So far, despite islands of excellence reflected in these rankings, the country does not have the thousands of top quality institutions needed to educate its youth. There can be no demographic dividend without a world- class college system, only a demographic disaster of millions of ill- educated unemployable youth.