Higher education & research in India

In higher education and research, as in all else, India displays a range of contradictions. Its first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, deeply believed in the importance of science and of education, launching India on to the path of innovations that were to serve it well in its development trajectory and that today place it among the leading nations of, for example, satellite delivery in space. He believed passionately in greater access to education at all levels, a commendable response to the highly selective colonial policies that had left much of India illiterate.


In subsequent decades, literacy rates climbed, and significant progress was made on access to primary and secondary education. As well, the numbers of institutions of higher learning and of university students grew, but, perhaps as a by-product of the priority devoted to wider access, the quality of teaching and student support did not always follow. In contrast to the Indian Institutes of Management and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIMs and IITs) and other elite institutions gaining international fame, many universities, colleges and deemed universities barely bumped along, serving their students poorly. Student discontent, in these circumstances, was altogether rational — although, manifested in excess, it further weakened the fragile capacity of many such institutions.

During my years in India, I tried to speak in local universities and colleges wherever I went. Everywhere, I was met by bright, inquiring students, radiating ambition and an appetite for work. This was not always so evident among faculty members, while it was also clear that leadership of institutions of higher learning in India called for management skills, creativity and patience of such a high order that this was not universally achieved.

Indians today are aware that all is not well in the universities (although some of them thrive, generally under brilliant leadership). The Knowledge Commission, ably led by Sam Pitroda and with members of very high calibre, has done much to focus attention on the specific challenges and what could be done about them.

The last Indian government announced the creation of eight new IITs and also of 14 new world class universities. Governments everywhere are fond of announcements, especially those heralding new initiatives. But the enthusiastic response to news of new institutions provoked should not obscure the sorry state of many of the second tier universities and colleges on which young Indians will continue to rely. A whole-scale re-investment in these institutions, focussed on upgrading the quality of teaching and the infrastructure on many of the campuses, will be at least as important as the launch, however welcome, of new flagship institutions.

I am greatly encouraged by the appointment of Kapil Sibal to take on the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry. He and his able team in the Ministry of Science and Technology during the last government turned it into a dynamic, results-oriented focal point for Indian S&T development and for the promotion of interaction of foreign and Indian scientists. The government will doubtless open higher education to more foreign content and players, a good thing in moderation. But profit-oriented foreign institutions will cater only to those able to pay and, hence, the HRD’s responsibility to the mass of Indian higher education students remains undiminished.

Policy-relevant research


Generally, although not always, independently of its universities, India has evolved quite a large number of high quality research institutions well positioned, because of their excellence, field of expertise, or both, to provide vital advice to policy-makers. And India’s recent governments have been energetic and self-confident in seeking out such advice, elements of which sometimes then shape or form the core of legislation or new regulatory approaches, including the establishment of national standards. Changes within the Union public service — long a critical but remote and self-regarding asset for the country — have made it less hermetic and overbearing and somewhat more open to outside advice and to the inclusion from time to time in its midst of leading figures from the policy research world in key positions.


In the economics field, the National Council on Applied Economics Research (NCAER) stands out, as, on economic diplomacy does the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). But there are many others. In the field of agricultural research, the M.S. Swaminathan Foundation is internationally recognised for its signal contributions, as is, in a narrower but no less useful way, the Central Food Technological Research Institute of Mysore, led with great skill by Dr. V. Prakash.


Such institutions, supported at times by my own centre in Canada, proceed from an ambition by successive Indian governments and strong capacities among many Indians to guide policies of the country through the application of evidence-based research outcomes, be they scientific or from the realm of the social sciences.


I was struck, as I travelled India’s cities and byways, how often the best Indian research institutions had, at their outset or in their early years, been attended by the financial support of the Ford Foundation, whose legacy in India, dollar for dollar, must rank as the proudest of all of the donors. The Rockefeller Foundation also has great achievements to its credit in India, particularly with respect to agricultural research.


Today, a new effort is afoot globally to further develop the capacity of policy-relevant research institutions, addressing a specific shortcoming in donor pathologies: project-based financing with short-term goals. While many NGOs and a number of research institutions, by default, have had to survive on this type of funding, capricious and donor-driven as it too often is, it can do little to build core capacity in the institutions involved.


The “Think-Tank” Initiative


Having for many years and in many forms funded research in developed and developing countries, including India, the leadership of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation decided recently to set aside a very large sum dedicated solely to general support grants that strengthen the core capacity of recipient institutions. It sought out Canada’s International Development Research Centre to work with it on a flagship project, soon dubbed “The Think-Tank Initiative.” We were then joined, with a very generous contribution, by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, producing a total of nearly $100 million between the three donors for core capacity support to research institutions in the developing world. The Gates Foundation has, of course, already done much to advance medical research on diseases afflicting many Indians, much of it carried out in India itself.

Earlier this year, a competition produced 24 grants, some quite large, to institutions in 11 African countries for core capacity support.

In late July, we will be seeking applications from five South Asian countries, including India, as well as seven Latin American ones, from research institutions focussing on economic and social policy. Obviously, foreign donors can play only a catalytic role, and even then, only a modest one on the scale of South Asia as a whole. It can never substitute for commitment and achievement within countries of the region itself to improve public policy. In India, as elsewhere, relevant questions include: whether universities are producing the sort of graduates interested in, and capable of, shaping policy through research; whether universities themselves are engaging in research that aims to and can influence government policies; and whether think-tanks have the ambition and means to reach beyond research outcomes to the realm of policy impact.


Various Indian stakeholders of research have set a fine example to countries elsewhere on how policy-relevant research can be put to good use: first and foremost, the research institutions themselves, often attaining admirable standards of excellence, sometimes in challenging conditions; secondly the Union and some State governments that have sought out and often acted on the evidence and conclusions of research; and finally, India’s educators and much of its media which have highlighted the importance of innovation, research and sound policy rooted in the facts.


It will be a privilege for the three partners of the Think-Tank Initiative to support South Asian research institutions. We are confident that this funding will lead to strong results.