Red Tape in Indian Education - TOI - 25/12/2007

GIVING EDUCATION THE RUN-AROUND

Red Tape And Corruption Have Led To Bottlenecks In Quality Higher Education. Govt Needs To Loosen Up To Improve Supply

Hemali Chhapia | TNN

The Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, may boast of a sprawling campus and students who bag lucrative offers every year through campus recruitments, but so far as the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is concerned, it’s an “unrecognised” college.

In 2001, the S P Jain Institute of Management Studies applied to the AICTE to increase its intake from 150 to 180 seats. It took six years for the approval to come through. Compare that with S P Jain’s setups in Dubai and Singapore — they are less than five years old, but their total student intake is 900, which is five times the capacity on the 26-year-old Mumbai campus.
Post-reforms, the time to get an industrial licence in the country has reduced drastically. But the institutions that supply manpower to these business houses, it seems, are still under the licence raj.

Academicians point out that the only ones getting into the education sector are those who can circumvent archaic rules through political connections or the ones who have enough capital to pay for clearances.

“A group of scholars from Oxford could go and set up the Cambridge University. In India, that is surely not possible because of the huge black and white investments involved,’’ mocked a senior faculty member associated with the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies.
Clearly, the multiplicity of governing agencies at the local, state and central level forces institutions to go through a maze of bureaucratic and time-consuming procedures. In Maharashtra, for instance, to start a Bschool, an institute first needs a noobjection certificate from the government. Then it needs to apply to AICTE for recognition and then a local university for affiliation. For funds, the institute needs to send an application to University Grants Commission (UGC) and for accreditation (not mandatory) to NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council). And finally, the college needs to send its approval letters and brochures to the state government’s admission committee and fee fixation committee, the Pravesh Niyantran Samiti and Shikshan Shulka Samiti.

Unlike in the US, UK, Singapore or Australia, where an institution has to merely undergo two to three levels of clearance (see box: How Colleges Abroad Skirt Red Tape Get Recognition), professional institutions here need a nod from six to seven agencies before enrolling or adding more students.

Given such concerns, the Planning Commission, in a proposal approved by the Cabinet in early-December, had announced the setting up of a panel to suggest reforms in all regulatory bodies for education including the AICTE.

“It is imperative to review the role these organisations are expected to perform in the context of global change, with a view to enable them to reach out, regulate and maintain standards,’’ the Planning panel document read. The document included the recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) on restricting the role of regulatory bodies.

“The existing regulatory framework constrains supply of good institutions, excessively regulates existing institutions in the wrong places and is not conducive to innovation or creativity in higher education,’’ NKC chairman Sam Pitroda had said in his report submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year.

Not only is the list of approving agencies long, but Indian institutions can begin negotiating stage two of clearances only after they sort out paperwork at stage one. What this means is the institute cannot simultaneously process papers with different departments in order to save time.
On the other hand, governments across the developed world emphasise on single-window clearance — accreditation or recognition is handed out by one single body based on quality of facilities and curriculum. This body or agency makes a recommendation to the government, based on which the final decision is taken. And it’s a completely transparent process — assessment reports and rankings published by the accrediting agencies are put out on websites. “The reports are used as guides by students to find the university which best meets their needs and interests,’’ said Anu Jain, adviser-education, science and training at the Australian High Commission in Delhi. So, is India capable of adopting similar processes and does it have the will to do it?

Former secretary (education) of the Planning Commission B S Baswan points out that there is an urgent need to look at the demand-supply equation and not put barriers to entry for quality institutions. “If there is a demand supply mismatch, it will lead to rent seeking,’’ he added.

hemali.chhapia@timesgroup.com

HOW FOREIGN COLLEGES SKIRT RED TAPE AND GET RECOGNITION
In most countries, setting up a professional institute requires going through 2-3 levels of clearance. In India, on the other hand, the process of getting approvals and recognition is a long drawn-out process which involves a gamut of agencies at the local, state and central level

United States
The US Department of Education (USDE) publishes a list of accrediting agencies, which have powers to recommend institutes of higher education. All accrediting agencies are private bodies, which charge fees for evaluating colleges and giving them a certain ranking. Their credibility depends on how accurately they rank a college.

After setting up a professional institute like an engg college, the institute applies to an accreditation agency as well as a private body known as Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). The accreditation agency assesses facilities while CHEA evaluates courses.

After assessment, the agency submits a report to a National Advisory Committee, which then makes a recommendation to the US Secretary of Education. The Secretary, after considering the report, takes a final decision.

Australia For an educational institute to operate in Australia, it has to get accreditation from a regulatory body and seek approval from the state.

Professional courses need to be accredited by the relevant professional regulatory body. For engineering, the body is Engineers Australia; for accounting, it is CPA Australia; for MBA, it is the Graduate Management Association Australia — which does not accredit the program but rates the university’s MBA course.

Apart from the state and the accrediting agency, there is the AUQA which is an independent, national quality assurance body that audits key activities such as teaching, learning, research and management in Australian varsities every five years. AUQA reports are available to the public on their website.

United Kingdom
To award a higher education degree in UK, an organisation needs to be authorised by a Royal Charter or Act of Parliament.

Applications by an institute for powers to award degrees or carry out research must be made to the govt’s Privy Council. The Council forwards the application to a minister.

Permission is granted by the Privy Council on the basis of background checks on the group interested in setting up the institution as well as the people associated with it.

After getting permission from the Council, the institute has to seek accreditation from the Quality Assurance Agency, an independent body funded by subscriptions from UK universities and colleges of higher education, which reviews standards of infrastructure, admission processes, academic programmes, placement records, etc.