NITI Aayog Releases Policy Report on State Public Universities (SPUs)

Syllabus: GS2/Education

Context

• NITI Aayog launched a policy report titled ‘Expanding Quality Higher Education through States and State Public Universities’.

About

• The report is a first-of-its kind policy document in the higher education sector focused specifically on States and State Public Universities (SPUs).
  • State Public University (SPU) is a university established or incorporated by a Provincial Act or by a State Act can be termed a State (Public) University.  
• It provides detailed quantitative analysis on vital indicators of Quality, Funding and Financing, Governance and Employability over the last decade across the themes. 

Key Findings of Report

• Highest Funding: Maharashtra leads in higher education funding, followed by Bihar and Tamil Nadu.
• Lowest Funding: Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagaland have the lowest higher education budgets.
• University Density: The national average university density is 0.8.
  • Sikkim has the highest density of 10.3, followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Uttarakhand.
  • In Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra, density at the state level is below the national average.
• Female Enrolment: Kerala, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh have higher female enrolment rates than males.

Challenges

• Dearth of good quality infrastructure.
• Shortage of faculty and staff.
• Insufficient expenditure on R&D.
• There is a low enrolment of students at the MTech and Ph.D. levels, presenting a significant challenge in fostering advanced research and academic growth.
• Courses, syllabus, curriculum not being industry-ready.
• Issues in funding: They face financial challenges due to dependency on traditional revenue sources such as admission fees and state grants.
  • There are administrative delays in fund sanctioning along with the lack of framework for bank loans as major challenges for funding and financing of SPUs.

Recommendations

• It has presented nearly 80 policy recommendations to address various issues related to four areas of SPUs: quality of education; funding and financing; governance; and employability among students enrolled in them.
• Increasing the combined investment of Centre and States on education to 6% of GDP as recommended in NEP 2020. 
• Increasing the R&D Investment (public and private) to 2% of GDP as recommended in the Economic Survey 2017-18.
• Clusters of SPUs should identify 2 to 3 local issues and establish Centres of Excellence dedicated to addressing these challenges.
• States may consider establishing a finance agency similar to the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA), dedicated specifically to SPUs.
  • HEFA is a joint venture of the Centre and Canara Bank set up in 2017.
  • This agency should focus on bolstering infrastructure and research facilities.

Source: TH