NEP 2020: Reimagining the future of Higher Education

The launch of the National Education Policy 2020 augurs a new era in Indian higher education. It is an outstanding vision statement and an inspiring policy document that seeks a fundamental transformation in the landscape of higher education. It has recognised the complexity and challenges of the higher education system with integrity and candidness. It has envisaged a vision for seeking substantive change with a view to harnessing the extraordinary potential of human development and India’s demographic dividend.

The NEP 2020 has the following 10 big ideas for reimagining the higher education sector.

World-class education, pursuit of excellence: It has boldly aspired to build a world-class higher education system and has recognised that this is critical and central to the future of India and for building a knowledge society.

Multi-disciplinarity, liberal education: It has envisaged the creation of a liberal, multidisciplinary and inter-disciplinary education ecosystem with strong emphasis on the liberal arts, humanities and social sciences along with studies in STEM and Medicine.

Regulatory reforms: It has sought fundamental and substantive regulatory reforms in higher education by removing the old barriers and distinctions between the public and the private higher education sectors.

Expansion with quality, access: It has envisaged the focus in policy relating to expansion, access, equity, inclusion and excellence – all of which are equally important goals and aspirations that need to be fulfilled simultaneously.

Research ecosystem: It has emphasised research and a culture of innovation that is central to the imagination of higher education in the future, with an effort to creating significant funding impetus and grants for research through the National Research Foundation, while envisaging a higher investment in education.

Faculty focus: It has paved way for the recruitment of outstanding faculty with a strong focus on mentoring, retention, incentives, achievements and faculty development programmes, recognising that the faculty members are the most crucial aspect of the higher education system.

Governance and leadership: It has highlighted the importance of governance and leadership in the administration and institution-building efforts in which all aspects of the effectiveness of the institution will depend upon the leadership and governance structures that are in place.

Academic freedom, institutional autonomy: It has underlined the significance of academic freedom and institutional autonomy in funding, curriculum development, student admissions, and faculty recruitment with substantial freedom and academic flexibility in determining the duration of the degree programmes.

Public funding, private philanthropy: It has strengthened the framework for funding, with a promise of increased investment in higher education and recognising the role of both the public and the private sectors, with strong emphasis on philanthropy.

Internationalisation, accreditation, digitalisation: It has appreciated the importance of internationalisation with a view to promoting global partnerships with leading universities around the world. It has taken accreditation and global benchmarking of universities, including rankings, seriously. It has envisaged the need for providing significant support to the digitalisation of higher education and to the promotion of online education and upgradation of digital infrastructure. In addition, NEP 2020 has also reimagined the regulatory architecture of the higher education system to create a comprehensive and integrated higher education commission, besides renaming the HRD ministry as the Ministry of Education.

However, for NEP 2020 to be implemented, it is important for the government to focus on some of the institutional challenges and behavioural aspects. The higher education ecosystem and, in particular, the government agencies and regulatory bodies need to commit themselves to five key areas of reform, re-imagination and transformation.

Building trust: We need to build a culture of trust, respect and collegiality between government agencies, regulatory bodies and higher education institutions (HEI). At present, this is a major challenge and is adversely impacting all our efforts to develop a unified and robust higher education system.

Transparent decision-making: We need to create transparent and accountability-based mechanisms for swift decision-making within government agencies and regulatory bodies in a time-bound manner. There are numerous bottlenecks in this effort and precious time is lost in various aspects of decision-making.

Institutional independence: We need to empower all HEIs to take decisions with responsibility and accountability vested with the institutions themselves. There is a need for giving more power and in that process, more responsibility, to HEIs.

Active, participative consultation: We need to promote active and participative consultation mechanisms with higher education institutions by government agencies and regulatory bodies, especially while creating new regulations or amending existing regulations that may impact institutions in any manner.

Empowering IoEs: We need to empower the ‘Institutions of Eminence’ and those that have attained ‘Graded Autonomy’ to fulfil the vision of Indian universities to become world-class universities and to achieve high global rankings. There is an urgent need for providing more autonomy and freedom to the IoEs and similar institutions.

While the government has important national priorities to handle, developing trust among all stakeholders, creating transparency within the regulatory system, providing autonomy with responsibility and accountability and empowering institutions within a participative framework are indispensable for the success of NEP 2020.

The NEP 2020 is a watershed moment for higher education. Effective and time-bound implementation is what will make it truly path-breaking.

(The writer is the Founding Vice-Chancellor of OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana)