Out of sight, out of mind

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

Six out of the top 10 colleges in the recently released National Institutional Ranking Framework are in Delhi. Of the other four, one is in Kolkata, two in Chennai and one in Tiruchirapalli. This skewed distribution of places of quality higher education is alarming. If centres for academic excellence exist only in Delhi and one or two other cities, this means that students in the rest of India can only hope to get a second-rate education.

Even prestigious universities such as Osmania University, which celebrates its centenary this year, barely have any amenities to speak of. As recent reports have shown, students in the hostels don’t even have mattresses on their iron cots. 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.