Out of sight, out of mind

Don’t focus only on rankings, provide better amenities to higher education institutions in non-metro cities

Sof places ix NationalDelhi.of out and qualityOf of one the the Institutionalhigherin othertop Tiruchirapalli.10 educationfour, collegesone Rankingis is in Thisin alarming.the Kolkata, skewed FrameworkrecentlyIf two distributioncentres releasedin are Chennai for in academiccities,hope to this get excellencemeans a second-ratethat exist students education.only in in Delhithe rest and of one Indiaor two can other only

which Even celebrates prestigious its universities centenary suchthis as year, Osmania barely University,have any amenitiesin the hostelsto speak don’t of. evenAs recenthave mattressesreports have on shown,their iron studentscots. Science labs, outside of the elite colleges and IITs, have terrible infrastructure. In smaller universities, even the bare essentials for labs are hard to come by. In such a scenario, Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar has said educational institutions performing well in the annual ranking will be awarded with more funding, enhanced autonomy and various other benefits. This could create a vicious circle, in which those who have the infrastructure do well, and get more funding; and those who don’t have any facilities continue to do badly, and yet receive no financial help. This approach will strengthen those institutes that already have the best benefits available to them.

What is required is not a government-funded ranking system, but more investment in education and allied infrastructure; and more attention to smaller, State-funded universities. Bodies such as the UGC need to make sure that non-top-rung universities too have the basic necessities. As more and more private universities come up, government universities and colleges have a responsibility to provide affordable, good quality educational opportunities to those living outside metros.