Despite an increase in the number of Universities and Colleges, India has fared poorly on various indicators for higher education such as global rankings, employability of graduates, gross enrolment ratio (26.3%), research publications etc. Some of the major problems currently faced by the higher education system in India include:

• A severely fragmented higher educational ecosystem, for example, complex nomenclature of higher education institutes (HEls) in the country such as ‘deemed to be university’, ‘affiliating university’, ‘affiliating technical university’, ‘unitary university’ etc.
• Outdated curriculum with less emphasis on imparting practical knowledge and lack of industry-academia collaboration.
• Rigid separation of disciplines, with early specialisation and streaming of students into narrow areas of study.
• Limited access particularly in socio-economically disadvantaged areas, with skewed geographical distribution of the Higher Education Institutions (HEls) in the urban districts.
• Lack of adequate number of qualified teachers in HEIs.
• Lesser emphasis on research at most universities and colleges, and lack of competitive peer- reviewed research.
• While the bulk of the enrolment in higher education is handled by State Universities and their affiliated colleges, they receive very small amounts of grants in comparison to Central Universities.
• Management of the Indian education faces challenges of over-centralisation, bureaucratic structures and lack of accountability, transparency, and professionalism.

In this context, New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 seeks to implement various measures aimed at improving higher education in India:

Institutional Restructuring & Consolidation

• All higher education institutions are to be restructured and consolidated into three types of institutions: Research Universities, Teaching Universities, Autonomous degree-granting colleges.
• It envisages that every college would develop into either an autonomous degree-granting College, or a constituent college of a university.

Holistic Multidisciplinary Education

• It envisages an undergraduate education with flexible curricula, creative combinations of subjects, integration of vocational education and multiple entry and exit points with appropriate certification.
• The National Research Foundation will be created as an apex body for fostering a strong research culture and building research capacity across higher education.

Internationalization of HEIS

• It envisages internationally relevant curricula, meaningful opportunities for social engagement, quality residential facilities and on-campus support etc.
• Research collaboration and student exchanges between Indian institutions and global institutions will be promoted.

Regulation

• Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) will be set up as a single overarching umbrella body for regulation of entire higher education, excluding medical and legal education.

Equity and Inclusion

• Government to set clear targets for higher GER (50% by 2035) and earmark suitable government funds for the education of Socio-economically Disadvantaged Groups (SEDGS).
• HEls to provide more financial assistance and scholarships to SEDGs and mitigate opportunity cost and fees for pursuing higher education.

Thus NEP envisions a complete overhaul and re-energising of the higher education system to overcome various challenges and thereby deliver high-quality and inclusive higher education.