Quality Improvement in Higher Education in India
Abstract
The University Education Report had set goals for development of higher education in the country. While articulating these goals Ramakrishnan Commission on University Education, 1948-49 put it in following words: “The most important and urgent reform needed in education is to transform it, to endeavor to relate it to the life, needs and aspirations of the people and thereby make it the powerful instrument of social, economic and cultural transformation necessary for the realization of the national goals. For this purpose, education should be developed so as to increase productivity, achieve social and national integration, accelerate the process of modernization and cultivate social, moral and spiritual values.” The National Policy on higher education of 1986 translate this vision of Radhakrishnan and Kothari Commission in five principles goals for higher education which include Greater Access, Equal access (or equity), Quality and excellence, Relevance and Promotion of social Values . The policy directions and actions covered in the 1992 “Program of Action “have been developed in a manner such that it translates these goals in to practice, giving the importance of the first three goals namely Access, Equal Access and quality.