New India needs free and quality higher education

At a time when there is a growing demand for quality education and research in premier universities in India and advanced countries, the staggering tuition fees demanded by reputed universities, apart from preventing the meritorious from pursuing their degrees from world class universities , creates compulsion. Turning businesses into business propositions rather than opportunities for service and excellence.

Creating a place in the history of global education architecture, New York University’s NYU Grossman School of Medicine announced that from the 2021-22 academic year, it will pay tuition fees for all of its students admitted to its MD program, regardless of their financial needs, thus becoming the first major US medical school to do so.

Kenneth G. Langone, chairman of the board of trustees of NYU Langone Health, who built his US$3.5 billion fortune as co-founder of Home Depot, along with his wife, Ellen, gave US$100 million to fund the tuition package. NYU has already raised over US$450 million out of the US$600 million that is needed to fund the program.

In India too, the burden of tuition fees for professional courses is becoming unbearable. Moreover, it is raising serious concerns of reducing quality vocational education as a commodity instead of good service.

Education loans, even with government collateral guaranteed, are no answer, as rising debt of educational loans will cripple the economy of development and public welfare. We need a university system that fosters a learning environment in which world-quality education can be provided without taxing the learners with the burden of tuition fees.

nordic model

The Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – offer free higher education to their people, and foreign students were able to study for free until recently. In Denmark, however, tuition fees for international students from outside the European Union and the European Economic Area were introduced in 2006. Sweden followed suit in 2011. Only Finland, Norway, Iceland and Germany do not charge tuition fees for international students. This ensures that students receive quality education in the streams they want, and not pursue streams that allow them to earn exorbitantly to pay off their student loans.

As stated in an article in January 2022: ‘The Nordic model has attracted considerable attention from other countries. Many wonder whether this provides a template for smaller countries where citizens are more homogeneous in terms of their opinions and experiences, yet live in poverty or oppression as a result of government policies.

Despite some attempts to impose fees, all of these countries are foreigners in a world where international students are often a valuable source of revenue for institutions. Last year, the topic surfaced again in Finland when the government recommended that institutions be allowed to charge tuition for international students from outside the EU. After a heated public debate, the Finnish government opted not to proceed with the proposals.

All Nordic countries have a strong legacy of equality, which extends to equal opportunities in the education system. The Nordic countries have measures to promote gender equality and help students from lower socioeconomic categories gain access to higher education. It is no surprise that these countries continue to top the World Happiness Index (Finland at No. 1, Denmark at No. 2, Iceland at No. 4, Norway at No. 8 and Germany at No. 14. World Happiness Index 2022) ).

It reshapes student choices

NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine offers a glimmer of hope in developing a progressive university system in vocational education. In its announcement, NYU pointed to the fact that “heavy student debt” is transforming the medical profession in ways that are bad for the health care system. Such loans motivate graduates to pursue higher-paying specialties, rather than careers in family medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology. The leadership taken by NYU is bound to inspire many other leading universities to consider and value a student’s intellectual prowess rather than a financial investment.

But again, universities need funding for education and research. Education is a noble service and an investment for the bright future of humanity. If students pay for education, they will be forced to earn from the degree they have obtained. Then the profession becomes a privilege to earn rather than a privilege to serve and excel, as it should have been.

There is a strong case for reviving philanthropy and community support for higher education in India. Corporate, liberal alumni and the public at large can get involved to build strong philanthropic support for higher education and make quality education tuition-free. The government, for its part, should have been generous enough to announce such philanthropic donations to higher education and research tax-free, now that the treasury is full of money from a growing list of income tax and goods and services tax (GST). Donor.

So can we make the prediction of the great management guru, Philip B. Crosby, come true in higher education, who advocated during the quality revolution in the late 1970s that “quality is free!”

Rajesh Mehta is a leading consultant and columnist working on market penetration, innovation and public policy. Pritam B Sharma is a renowned Indian educationist, former President of the Association of Indian Universities and the founder Vice Chancellor of Delhi Technological University and Rajiv Gandhi University of Technology.