India
1. Brief description of the higher education system in India
The India higher education sector has expanded at a phenomenal rate in the last century. The
European system of higher education was introduced in India by the British in 1857 with the
establishment of universities for European education in three cities and withdrawal of support for
indigenous education. By India’s independence in 1947, an additional 18 universities had been
established. In 1950-51 when the country’s First Five Year Plan was launched, there were 27
universities serving 174,000 students. By 2006, there were 348 universities (composed of general
universities; science and technical universities; open universities; agricultural universities;
women’s universities; language universities; and medical universities), more than 17,625
colleges, and 10.5 million students, making India’s system of higher education the third largest in
the world in terms of enrollment and the largest in terms of number of institutions (Agarwal, 2006
5). Table 1 shows the breakdown of higher education between public and government aided and
unaided private institutions.
Table 1
Type
Number
of Higher
Education Institutions
(2005/06)
Public
Government
4,493
Aided
5,760
Private
Unaided
7,720
Total
17,973
Higher education in India is made up of regular education and distance education. There are four
types of regular education (general, technical, medical and agricultural) with each type divided
into university level and college level education. Distance education is university-based and is
limited to undergraduate and post-graduate degree and diploma courses in general and technical
education (Narayana, 2002).
Under the Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act of 1976, both the Federal/Central/Union and the
State Governments are responsible for the promotion and development of higher education. The
University Grants Commission (UGC), established in 1956 by an Act of Parliament, is
responsible for funding, coordinating, m