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The Wire
22-07-2025
- Politics
- The Wire
'A Quiet Crisis': Deepak Nayyar on the State of Higher Education in India
Professor Deepak Nayyar speaks on pressing questions, challenges and concerns over higher education in India. Deepak Nayyar speaking at the B.G. Deshmukh Lecture 2025 at IIC, Delhi. Photo: YouTube New Delhi: At the 2025 BG Deshmukh Memorial Lecture at the India International Centre in New Delhi on July 9, Deepak Nayyar, Emeritus Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University and former vice-chancellor of Delhi University, reflected on the challenges facing India's higher education system. He cautioned that a combination of structural neglect, political intervention and institutional decline has brought public universities to a point of serious concern. Placing higher education within the broader developmental trajectory of nations, Nayyar said that while foundational schooling is critical, it is universities that enable the skills and ideas necessary for long-term economic and social progress. He described India's limited investment in higher education as one of the country's most significant post-independence shortcomings. Describing the issue as a 'quiet crisis', Nayyar traced its evolution over several decades. He highlighted the growing gap between demand and supply for quality higher education, the decline of academic standards, and the erosion of previously well-regarded institutions. "The challenges confronting higher education in India are clear. It needs a massive expansion to educate much larger numbers without diluting academic standards," he said. While expressing caution over global university rankings, he acknowledged that India's poor performance on these indices pointed to wider structural issues. He also raised concerns about the rapid expansion of elite institutions such as the IITs and IIMs, noting that it had created challenges around quality control and institutional coherence. "Alas, the comparative advantage that India had, at least in a few of its universities, has been slowly yet surely squandered over time. And sadly, even that little that remains is being progressively undermined by the growing intrusion of politics in universities," he argued. By contrast, countries like China and others in Asia, he said, had managed more effective reforms. Nayyar also discussed the trend of Indian students seeking higher education abroad. In 2023, over 900,000 students reportedly studied overseas, spending close to USD 27 billion – roughly equivalent to India's foreign exchange earnings from tourism, Nayyar noted, adding that such a significant outflow of resources could have been channelled into building and improving domestic institutions. A major portion of the lecture focused on political and bureaucratic interference in public universities. Nayyar described how, since the 1970s, central and state governments have increasingly influenced key academic appointments and policy decisions, often prioritising political alignment over academic merit. He noted that the period after 2014 had seen this trend accelerate, adding that "The past five years since 2019 have witnessed a rapid acceleration in this process. It has now reached a stage where the future of public universities in India is at grave risk, if not already over the edge of the precipice." Nayyar also expressed concern about the functioning of the University Grants Commission (UGC), calling it an institution with significant power but limited accountability. He argued that its emphasis on standardisation has often come at the cost of institutional diversity and academic excellence. In several cases, he said, leadership roles were filled based on loyalty rather than expertise and mechanisms for academic dissent were steadily weakening. Even the IITs and IIMs, which traditionally had more institutional autonomy, were now increasingly subject to central oversight, he explained. On the subject of academic freedom, Nayyar underlined the importance of open inquiry, critical thinking, and independent research. He described a growing culture of self-censorship and administrative scrutiny, sharing instances where faculty were required to sign undertakings to not criticise the government in order to attend international conferences. He also noted that private universities were not immune, often adopting restrictive internal policies in response to external pressures. For Indian universities to flourish, he argued, academic spaces must be protected from both political and commercial influence. Stressing that the health of the education sector is connected to India's long-term development goals, he said, "I'd like to examine the implications and consequences of the crisis in higher what this might mean for realising the aspiration of a Viksit Bharat, a developed high income country, in 2047." "Indeed, selections are shaped by political preferences and political networks. The quality of those appointed to leadership positions in higher education, even if for limited tenures, is critical, because they willingly cede the autonomy of their institutional space for their political commitment, or simply their career paths. The quality of those appointed to faculty positions is perhaps even more critical, because it will shape the future of higher education," he noted. Without serious investment in knowledge systems and the protection of institutional autonomy, he argued, the country's vision of becoming a developed economy by 2047 would remain difficult to achieve. He said that innovation, productivity and technological advancement are all linked to a strong higher education framework. Ending on a note of cautious hope, Nayyar urged academic communities to actively reclaim their role in shaping institutions. 'Autonomy,' he said, 'is not given – it is taken.' The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
Indian Express
09-07-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Political interference has undermined institutions beyond repair, says Deepak Nayyar
Deepak Nayyar, Emeritus Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, said on Wednesday that India's higher education system is in crisis because of political interference, underfunding and lack of autonomy. Speaking at the BG Deshmukh Memorial Lecture 2025 in New Delhi, Nayyar also criticised the University Grants Commission (UGC), saying it has stripped institutions of independence and imposed 'one-size-fits-all' regulations that stifle excellence and diversity. 'The fortunate few who do well in the Class 12 examinations take up limited seats in public universities. Most others make do with expensive, low-quality private institutions. And a growing number now simply go abroad,' he said, noting that nearly $27 billion was spent by Indian students overseas in 2023 alone, roughly equal to India's foreign exchange earnings from tourism. 'It is no accident our universities have not produced any Nobel laureates. And I think they never will in the next 25 years, the way we are going,' he said. Nayyar argued that without high-quality education and research, India risks falling into the 'middle-income trap' that has afflicted many Latin American and Asian economies. 'India has the potential to attain upper-middle-income status by 2035, but reaching high-income status by 2047 is close to negligible unless higher education is transformed,' he said. Nayyar emphasised an urgent need to restore autonomy, encourage academic freedom, and overhaul governance structures if universities are to reclaim their role in nation-building.
The Hindu
09-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
There is a quiet and visible crisis in higher education in India that runs deep: Deepak Nayyar
There is a quiet crisis in higher education in India that runs deep, distinguished academician and former Chief Economic Advisor Deepak Nayyar said here on Wednesday (July 9, 2025), delivering the 2025 B.G. Deshmukh Lecture on 'The Crisis of Higher Education in India: Disturbing Present and Worrisome Future'. Holding the Narendra Modi government responsible for the crisis in higher education sector, Prof. Nayyar said the period since 2014 had witnessed a pronounced increase in political intrusion and government intervention in the universities, which had gathered further momentum since 2019. 'There is a quiet crisis in higher education in India that runs deep. It is visible. The educational opportunities for school-leavers are simply not enough, and those that exist are not good enough. The pockets of excellence are outcomes of an enormous reservoir of talent and Darwinian selection processes. It does little for those with average abilities or without social opportunities,' the eminent economist said. The challenges confronting higher education in India appear to need a massive expansion to educate much larger numbers, without diluting academic standards, Prof. Nayyar said. 'Indeed, it is just as important to raise average quality. What is more, in terms of access, it needs to be far more inclusive, and it needs some institutions, each with a certain critical mass that are exemplars of excellence at par with the best in the world. Such excellence, I am sad to say, is largely missing, while it is diminishing rapidly in the few pockets where it existed. Indeed, in terms of world university rankings, which have become the fashion in recent years, our performance is most disappointing,' he said. Political intervention and encroachment by the government gathered momentum after the General Election in 2014, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won an absolute majority in Parliament, and Mr. Modi assumed office as Prime Minister. 'The past five years since 2019 have witnessed a rapid acceleration in this process. It has now reached a stage where the future of public universities in India is at a grave risk, if not already over the edge of the precipice,' he said, adding that the decline of public universities in India had been an inevitable consequence of this encroachment. 'There are two apparent manifestations of this unfolding reality. First, there is a visible emergence of institutionalised control mechanisms that design what universities can or cannot do. Second, appointments in universities, which would be the domain of universities alone, are increasingly influenced, if not shaped by the political motivation, and the invisible hands of governments in office,' he said. 'Now, even admission processes have been centralised by the National Testing Agency. The rationale for such a centralisation is questionable and flawed. Why the need for centralisation? There is no transparency, there is no accountability in this process,' Prof. Nayyar said. The selection process for faculty members was manipulated through a purposive selection of subject experts, mostly not qualified for the role, he said. 'It would be no exaggeration to state that faculty appointments at universities and undergraduate colleges are increasingly driven by RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) ideology, and BJP preferences in politics rather than talent or merit,' Prof. Nayyar said.
