| Education is becoming dearer on the home grounds; cost of higher education is likely to increase every three years. A 10% hike in the fees every three years is on cards as the chancellors of state and central universities recommend this as a measure to meet the financial needs of the universities. In the national council meeting organized by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the ministry of Human resource development. Vice Chancellors were of an opinion that the universities at the central and state level are required to revise the fee structure once in three years. Recommendations given at the conference are yet to be approved by the ministry of HRD in case of central universities and state government in case of state universities respectively. A similar recommendation was given to raise the fees in the IIT's and it was rejected by HRD minister Kapil Sibal. On the education reforms they were of the opinion to introduce semester system across all universities with credit based system. With respect to retaining quality faculty in the universities, incentive based programs ought to be introduced particularly in the state and in the remote areas. In order to prevent the concept of brain drain, universities are encouraged to have tie ups with foreign universities, student exchange programmes etc. Just two weeks back we witnessed the news about private engineering colleges in Karnataka asking to hike up the fees for the engineering courses. Added to that, this comes in as another surprise to the students though the plans are not materialized however it comes as a shock to the student community. Higher education is an important stage in every student's life. It is a phase where the student focuses and adds quality to one self. The quality of educations offered by the universities is a question for debate. With the stake holders of the higher education concerned about the quality of education against the backdrop of declining funds it is the need of the hour to look at options having the socio economic scenario in mind? With the increase in fees for higher education, would the policy makers guarantee quality education? With these recommendations there are two questions that arises in the minds of common man, with the rising cost of living in our country, if higher education becomes dearer will it be accessible for all the sections of the society?? Would the levels of people who want to pursue higher education drop thus creating a bigger problem? |
