Political Economy of Expansion of Higher Education Implications for Unequal Access in India

Abstract

The higher education has expanded dramatically during the post reform period in India. The gross attendance ratio (GAR) increased from 7.3 to 26.9% between 1995 and 2014. The most important concern vis-à-vis higher education is in terms of inequality in access, still prevalent at a worryingly high level in spite of increasing GAR among the disadvantaged groups during the recent period. The global trend suggests that higher education both in aggregate and at group levels increased only after the emergence of knowledge-based economy which resulted in massification of higher education. It is to be noted that transition of higher education from elitism to massification was accompanied with the changing role of higher education which is shifting from production of social knowledge to market knowledge. This shift is result of the changing global political economy from interventionism to laissez-faire leading to the dominance of free market forces. This paper argues that the shift in the political economic scenario resulted in private sector-led growth in India also. This led to the expansion of higher education as well as increased role of the private sector in higher education, which may adversely affect the access of the weaker section. This shift has ambivalent consequences as it is increasing the access of the weaker section in quantitative terms and reproducing inequality both in quantitative and in qualitative terms. The emerging scenario calls for increasing government role in higher education not only in terms of reducing inequality of access in quantitative terms but also in qualitative terms. The increased role of the government is indispensable in facilitating the production of social knowledge needed for social change. KeywordsPolitical economyHigher educationKnowledgeInequalitySocial change