Higher education gets a growth pill

Concerned over declining public expenditure on higher education, India’s central government is ready with an ambitious scheme to encourage states to improve the quality and reach of higher education, writes Ritika Chopra for Mail Online India.

The Rashtriya Ucchatar Shiksha Abhiyan, or Rusa, is aimed at increasing the gross enrolment ratio in higher education to 30% by 2020. It now has the Planning Commission's nod. As part of the mission, state governments will be encouraged to create new universities and engineering colleges in under-served areas, increase the intake of colleges, and address the issues of faculty shortage and quality of academic programmes.

Rusa will also subsume the government's proposal to establish 374 model degree colleges.
Data with the human resource development ministry indicate that investment in higher education by state governments, as a percentage of GDP, declined precipitously from 0.48% in 2000-01 to 0.35% in 2007-08.
Full report on Mail Online India site