Indian Higher Ed: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

I was pleased to read this month that India plans to introduce a performance-based system for promoting university lecturers. Among the many difficulties facing India’s universities, which are plagued by what Philip Altbach and N. Jayaram have termed “a culture of mediocrity,” is a civil-service based professoriate in which faculty are poorly paid, most promotions are based solely on seniority, and no financial incentives or other career rewards are provided for research productivity or teaching excellence. No wonder Indian universities face a severe faculty shortage; one in four faculty slots nationwide is vacant. Under the new policy adopted by the University Grants Commission –- over the initial opposition of faculty unions –- lecturers will be eligible for promotion on the basis of a points system in which they are graded on the quality of their teaching, research, and publications.

This move takes on added significance, I think, in tandem with a widely discusssed bill now before India’s Parliament, which would –- at least in principle –- significantly open its underserved market to foreign universities. A culture of meritocracy and openness to competition has been crucial to the development of rising academic powerhouses such as the National University of Singapore. Similarly, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (Kaist) president Nam Pyo Suh has pushed hard to boost the quality of his university through merit-based tenure decisions that have put an end to faculty sinecures. There are signs, at least intermittently, that similar impulses may gradually move India in the same direction.

Alas, just last week India’s Supreme Court took a step backward with a ruling that permits state governments to increase quotas in government employment and university slots for members of “backward castes” and other disadvantaged groups who have been victims of the nation’s entrenched history of caste prejudice. I can’t speak to the legal reasoning behind this decision, which raises a previous cap of 50 percent –- 50 percent! –- established in a ruling 17 years ago. And, to be sure, many institutions have quotas that fall well short of the 50 percent limit and that are not always filled. But if state governments push postsecondary institutions to reserve still more student places and faculty positions for members of backward castes, they will further compromise the merit principle that ought to be fundamental to universities. That’s bad news for Indian higher education, which badly needs to improve its compromised standards if it is to meet the needs of a population hungry for the economic advancement that comes with high-quality education.