The Hindu : Self-financing colleges: look to China for answers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 28, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

Self-financing colleges: look to China for answers

By Dr. Francis Abraham

The controversy over the distribution of seats between the Government and the managements of self-financing colleges masks a deeper malady in our higher education policy. Only in India, and only in Kerala, will a popularly elected Chief Minister unleash such a diatribe against a private institution that has invested crores in public education.

The Chief Minister's virulent attack on the Pushpagiri Medical College and his continued and repeated legal manoeuvring for 50 per cent Government seats even after the Supreme Court ruling, betray his lack of vision. On the one hand, politicians of all hues and colours clamour for private foreign investment in the State and on the other impose the most irrational restrictions on them.

In my 30 years of experience in the U.S. as a Professor of Sociology and Director of International Studies at a university there, I travelled to more than 40 countries and negotiated faculty and student exchange agreements in over two dozen countries including democratic, Islamic, Marxist and other totalitarian nations. Nowhere in the world does one see the kind of restrictions on higher education that are in place in the largest democracy in the world.

Would you believe that in Marxist China there is a private Catholic university chartered in the U.S.? The China Incarnate Word University near Guangzhou is an independent campus of the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, run by an order of Catholic nuns, and it is ranked as the number one educational venture in Guangdong Province by the Ministry of Education. The university is free to set its own policies, recruit its own staff and students, design its own programmes and offer its own degrees. The Chinese Government has now asked the Catholic university in Texas to establish a series of institutes and centres in China for intensive ESL (English as a Second Language) training because it wants every Chinese to learn English in order to compete in the global arena. Most countries in the world have private universities and many of them including Egypt, Morocco, Kenya and Mexico have universities chartered in the U.S. Their programmes and degrees are recognised by the Government and all universities in the country. Yet, our Communists and Congress activists who compete with Marxists to establish their socialist credentials, speak of some mysterious special circumstances in Kerala as the reason why self-financing institutions in the State should be stifled. However, none of them has explained what the special circumstances in Kerala are! If it is the rate of literacy, level of development or the mix of religious groups (Hindu, Christian and Muslim), there are several small nations in the Caribbean and Central America which are almost in the same boat.

What, in fact, are the special circumstances in Kerala? In spite of the fact that we have the highest literacy rate, we are close to the bottom on almost every other educational index. Kerala has one of the lowest success rates in the all-India competitive examinations that are conducted by the Union Public Service Commission, the IIT entrance examinations, etc. Not a single professional college in the State officially (as opposed to self-proclaimed status) makes the top 10 list in the country. It has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the country. It has one of the lowest success rates in securing admissions to good U.S. and European universities. Among the Indian States, Kerala records the least presence in international scientific publications. In the U.S., most of the software industries are owned by Indians who are non-Keralites. At major U.S. universities, where once there were hundreds of outstanding scholars from Kerala, now there are a handful. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have marched past Kerala as the State continues to lag behind in education. These are the "real'' special circumstances in Kerala. Yet, our Chief Minister has the audacity to threaten a self-financing institution that has invested crores of rupees to offer quality education to the citizens of Kerala and suggest that it leave the State and take its business elsewhere.

Then he goes to the Global Investment Meet and invites every body in the world to come and invest in Kerala. The fact of the matter is that instead of encouraging unfettered liberal investment in education, our politicians play the caste and communal card for self-preservation.

Let us remember that education is yet another service industry like transportation, health and entertainment. I do not share the concern that private investment in education is commercialisation for profit because, unlike other service industries where there is no public mechanism for quality control, in the field of education there are several checks and balances such as accrediting agencies, University Grants Commission, university examinations, etc. which ensure quality of education. Moreover, with the increase in population and literacy rate, the Government will find it increasingly difficult to establish the number of colleges and universities needed in the future. And, who would want to borrow crores of rupees and invest in education for purely altruistic reasons? In fact, the Government must be mighty pleased that private individuals and institutions are prepared to invest heavily in education and thus fill the void created by the lack of resources at the disposal of the state. Indeed, the Government must provide special incentives such as free land, tax benefits and reduced electricity rates in order to attract more investors in education. This is what the Marxists are doing in China. But our Marxists who are sworn to the Constitution of Democratic Republic of India want to be more ``socialistic'' than Marxists.

There shall be no restrictions placed on any self-financing institutions, whether run by a minority or majority; the minority status has no relevance to this equation. Hundred per cent of the seats in any self-financing institutions should be filled by the management who shall have the absolute right to determine fees, policies and admission requirements. The only responsibility of the university shall be to monitor the quality of education. Here again, the world over private institutions usually offer much better quality education. Just compare any government high school with any private high school. The self-financing institutions that do not provide quality education will self-destruct and vanish promptly from the education scene. Indeed, I would even argue that every self-financing college should be an autonomous institution with absolute freedom to set its policies and fees, its courses and degrees without any interference from the university. Right now self-financing institutions are required to pay a large affiliation fee to the university. These are fees for fetters which bring bureaucratic red tape, party politics, delayed examinations and extremely low quality syllabi. Then many self-financing institutions add special courses and offer their own diplomas in order to enrich the curriculum. Indeed, given autonomy, every self-financing institution will offer not only the best quality education but also the best possible curriculum in any field. Otherwise, they will disappear like rabbits in the magician's hat.

I understand the argument that many poor and deserving students will not be able to attend the self-financing institutions because of the fee structure. But look at the bright side. When private parties run so many quality institutions of higher education, the Government will not have to start new colleges; they can use the money to improve the quality of education in state-run institutions and to offer scholarships and low-interest loans to deserving students. Self-financing institutions can easily be convinced to allot ten per cent or so of their seats to meritorious poor students. Eventually, when self-financing institutions establish themselves and become financially viable, they will offer scholarships and tuition waivers to many students. This is the story of all private college and universities in any country around the word. There are no special circumstances in Kerala except for the overwhelming presence of a species of politicians who cannot see beyond the tip of their nose! Let us put our students first. Let us liberate higher education in Kerala.

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