My previous article on draft national education policy ofIndia published in GK edition of 7th July, 2019 highlighted the autonomy tocolleges and abolition of concept of affiliation from Indian higher educationsystem. In today’s column I shall be discussing the establishment of nationalresearch foundation and building a research capacity at all Indian universitiesand colleges as envisioned in the new draft national education policy.
Research is pivotal for the creation of knowledge andbetterment of society. The active research fosters economy and service tohumanity. Research, academia and industry are inseparable as far as social andeconomic relevance of education is concerned. A good academia lays thefoundation of a quality research which is sustained by a healthy industrialgrowth and vice versa, hence becomes this triangle critical for the nationaldevelopment. Therefore, academia and industry must work in concordance.Secondly, research is only purposeful when it creates new knowledge and latteris only meaningful when it is in the direction of human wellbeing and economicupliftment. Therefore, for a nation to become a true knowledge society andtorch bearer of development, education supplemented with research is a keycontributor.
The Draft National Education Policy of 2019 (DNEP-19) isaimed at boosting quality research with restructuring of higher educationinstitutions in India in light of research and innovation. It will result inconsolidation of existing and new institutions into three types of higher educationinstitutions as type 1 (exclusive research universities with teaching also),type 2 (exclusive teaching universities with research also), and type 3(autonomous colleges with both teaching and research). Therefore, theseinstitutions will function with equitable roles in multidisciplinary teaching,research and service. Demarcating universities as type 1 research and type 2teaching centres and then making it imperative for them to run teaching andresearch respectively seems a good move in the DNEP-19 to benefit the teachingfrom research and vice versa.
Teaching and research are inseparable and must go side byside in any institution if we want to achieve quality education and researchwith meaningful creation of new knowledge. Hopefully the DNEP-19 emphasises oncreating the new research facilities and strengthening the existing researchcells in colleges along with quality teaching. This will sensitise the collegestudents about research and develop interest in it from a very beginning andcreate opportunities for them for a career in research and industry. Theseendeavours will prove quite useful in creating research aptitude from a verybeginning among the undergraduate science students and pay a way forward tonurture a quality research culture when they transit to a higher level inhigher education sector. However, leadership and governance will ultimatelyinfluence to see the research and academia flourishing in the revived highereducation institutions. The DNEP-19 also plans to have facility of blockresearch grants and confer academic, administrative and financial autonomy overa period of time to all higher education institutions which will actuallyincrease the accountability of the stakeholders and administrators in realsense of the term.
It is being considered that education and research have notbeen among the top priorities of Indian government so far, to receive topfunding. Although research and innovation must receive keen attention of policymakers if nation has to prosper on modern lines. Pertinently the Indiangovernment has decided in the DNEP-19 to increase the budgetary support toresearch by making 0.1% of GDP available to NRF (national research foundation),which is to be established as an autonomous body by merging all existing publicfunding bodies and agencies). It comes to be roughly Rs. 20,000 crores (Rs. 2Kharab), however, this seems to be negligible when we compare it withproportion of GDP for research in some other countries. For example, 2.8% ofthe USA, 2.1% of China, 4.3% of Israel and 4.2% of South Korea. Therefore, itseems quite remote to see fostering research and innovation in the country inview of the small proportion of GDP investment in research.
Overall, the establishment of NRF looks promising for grantingadequate and timely funding to societally relevant research proposals andbuilding research capacity at all universities and colleges in the country. Itis expected that NRF will expand research and innovation in new India to boostresearch culture across all subjects and fields. Under the new educationpolicy, every HEI will be recognised and accredited by three major parametersincluding high quality research, teaching and service by the new and to berevived NAAC. The NRF will financially support the type 3 institutions todevelop s type 2 and type 1 HEI’s respectively under the Mission Nalanda andTakshashila. Under these missions, at least 100 type 1 and 500 type 2 HEI’s areto be made functional from the existing reputed institutions by 2030 which againseems quite promising to happen.
This new policy draft envisages on making quality andmultidisciplinary universities and colleges with international standards thedream long cherished in old education policies too, but could not be achievedtill date due to faulty public policies and political interference in thefunctioning of higher education institutions. The old educational policies havenot been in a position to eliminate or lower the challenges faced by Indianhigher education sector including the diminished enrolments, lack of access,lack of skill based education, negligible knowledge creation, lack of teacherand institutional autonomy, faulty recruitment procedures, inadequate measuresfor career advancement of faculty, lack of quality teaching and research,leadership problems and governance issues, and compromised regulatory systems,etc.
The positive aspect of DNEP-19 is that it has highlightedthe reasons behind the absence of quality research at most universities andcolleges which has drastically affected the outcome and expectations of Indianhigher education system. This has mostly happened because of lack of researchinterest in the faculty, poor funding or sponsorship and separation of academicand research institutions. Secondly, because of separate academic and researchinstitutions our student community does not get sensitised towards researchalthough they get benefited from quality teaching in academic institutions. TheDNEP-19 has, therefore, envisioned quality and innovative research in new Indiathrough NRF and network of revamped higher education institutions by creatinglinkages among researchers, industries and governments for the ultimate benefitof society.
The writer is Assistant Professor, Zoology, at IslamiaCollege of Science & Commerce