Reflections from Education World Higher Education Event 2023

Last Saturday, I attended the EducationWorld - The Human Development Magazine Higher Education Event in Delhi. Over the last 12 months, I have found myself in the midst of various industry events from HolonIQ Global Impact Summit, ASU+GSV Summit and now the Education World Conference. This has been a drastic, yet pleasant change versus the first two years of building our advisory practice at Loestro where we mostly met promoters and founders over zoom.

Having had the time to reflect over the weekend, I am trying to pen down some of my takeaways from the panel discussions, 1-on-1 meetings and corridor chats.

On National Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020)

To nobody’s surprise, there was a lot of discussion on NEP 2020. While there was an almost unanimous agreement on the ambitious task it has set out on in reforming higher education, concerns were also raised on lack of proper implementation, resulting it in becoming a philosophical document at best, in the words of Gautam Menon , Dean of Research at Ashoka University

Further to quote, Prof. V Ramgopal Rao (Group Vice Chancellor, BITS Bilani, and ex-Director IIT Delhi),

“it is India’s Morrill Land Grant Act Moment”

On Internationalisation of Higher Education

Competition with foreign banks allowed India’s domestic banks to level up and compete neck and neck, a similar story is expected to play out in Indian Higher Ed, wherein universities will have to learn and level up. On the question of indian public institutions going global, the response wasn't as enthusiastic.

Will IIT's foreign campus expansion without adequate funding provisions result in their brand dilution on the global stage? Apart from dilution, should there be focus on depth and transformation of Indian Higher Education at home first than on foreign land?

On Excellence without growth

There has been a modest increase in GER (currently at 27%) primarily due to expansion of Tier 2/Tier 3 institutions and mostly through private capital. While India's hallowed institutions like IITs are starting to find their place in global rankings, their growth pales in comparison to India's youth population growth.

For example, the 23 IITs combined admit approximately 16,500 undergraduates each year, whereas a single large public funded university in the US admits around 20,000. Though India has made progress in establishing new institutions to meet growing demand, its record of scaling up established institutions remains below expectations. This is mostly due to the way the government provides block grants to existing institutions and the lack of a financial model thereof.

This problem is further compounded by the fact that IIT's, IIM's and NIT's recruit just 3% of the total students but receive more than 50% of government spending on Higher Education.

On Private Universities leading the charge

Private Universities in India have been more agile and are at the forefront of the transformation in Higher Ed. These institutions have embraced multidisciplinary learning, recognizing the significance of cross-pollination of ideas across diverse fields.

[The introduction of Professors of Practice positions, filled by seasoned professionals with industry expertise, has enriched the learning experience are few such examples] Munish S. , President & Dean at Shoolini University

Their autonomy has helped them scale faster than the stunted growth in State and Central Universities. Newer funding models such as crowd-funding, corporate backers and philanthropic capital are required to drive the transformation agenda forward.

However, private univeristies have been too closeted in their efforts to shape education policy in India, and need to play a far larger role in driving advocacy and change.

On Research & Innovation

Lastly, Dabiru Sridhar Patnaik brought forth the notable disparity between research and innovation, which has led to a significant gap in translating research outcomes into practical applications.

India ranks 4th in research output but ranks 40th in the Global Innovation Index ranking, though it has come a long way from its 81st rank in 2015.

Each of these themes are very relevant and require us to further unpack them to understand the nuances. Follow us on our Medium blog as I write further on this space.

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Special thanks to Dilip Thakore , Bhavin Shah Education World and my colleague Riya Sinha for inputs!