Engg courses get most funds

The largest chunk of private spending in the higher education sector in India is on the engineering discipline.

The largest chunk of private spending in the higher education sector in India is on the engineering discipline. Of the Rs 30,700-crore private investment in education in 2008-09, 30% (Rs 9,838 crore) was on engineering courses, according to a report released by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Thursday.

HT Image

Titled ‘The Status of Higher and Technical Education in the Western States’, the report looks at various aspects of higher education in Goa, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Among all the western states, Maharashtra has seen the largest private participation.

“Since the 1990s there as been rapid growth in privatisation in the higher education sector and the public growth has been marginal in these 20 years,” states the report. “The distribution of private institutions across the country is, however, uneven, with growth concentrated in a few states.”

The next largest chunk of private investment, Rs 5,366 crore, was on graduation courses in arts, science and commerce. Setting up colleges that offer diploma courses came third and the private sector pumped in Rs 4,919 crore, followed by the medical education sector where private investment stands at Rs 4,473 crore.

Private participation went up in the 10th Five Year Plan when the share of private unaided higher education institutes increased from 42.6% in 2001 to 63.21% in 2006.

While the report illustrates the constraints the public funding and the need for private investment in education, it also rues the impact of many private institutes on quality.

“Rise in number of private institutes also raises some concerns about quality of education imparted in these institutes. Quality is not standardised across institutes. The accreditation system is also not functioning in the way it should,” states the report.