Higher Education in India: Status, Challenges and Remedies

The higher education system plays an important role in the overall development of a country, which includes social, economic, and industrial security and the well-being of individuals.The Indian higher education system is the third largest in the world, next to the United States and China.The role and responsibilities of Indian higher educational institutions such as colleges and universities are to provide quality-based education to empower youth for self-sustainability.However, Indian universities are in a state of considerable disarray characterized by a total lack of motivation, vision, monitoring and commitment to implement policies with purpose and firmness.Significant problems are the lack of funding resulting in poor infrastructure, outdated laboratories, crowded classrooms, under-stocked libraries with poor digital resources, lack of basic amenities, and presence and recruitment of undeserving and incompetent faculty members.Another serious problem is the lack of faculty members, such that India's best universities have student-faculty ratios of 20:1 or higher.In this article, a brief discussion is presented on the status and key challenges that India is facing in the higher education system.Also, the urgent initiatives (or remedies) required to be taken on a priority basis to improve the higher education system are pointed out.