Envisioning the future for our Higher Education system goes beyond the traditional human capital initiative that links education, skills and employment. Looking at the increased efforts put in by various segments of the society for increasing the enrollment in higher education through out the Indian states, we need to be happy that we could, to a great extent achieve equity and equality in this system. Equity as it is better understood is the provision of equal opportunity and concerns with fairness in resource mobilization and allocation. Equity issues in particular relates to how different approachesare adopted to people with different characteristics so that the basic minimum threshold level of education can be reached by all encompassing; urban-rural disparities, interstate variations, and gender differences against the backdrop of the national policy of providing quotas or reserving admission seats for the marginalized castes etc. In this context, we need to look at the impact on the mainstream demand and supply factors that have shaped higher education in India by analyzing the present trends and happenings on multiple dimensions such as; privatization and regulatory mechanisms, financing and management as well as employment market links and their relation to the rest of the world.

Despite being a big player in global higher education enrollments, there still appears to be no clarity on how Indian higher education system should be addressed by our educational administrators. It is time for us to learn the developmental strategies by looking at the progress made by China’s higher education system, with extensive network of higher education training and research institutions. We need to identify the gaps in our higher education system and its relation with the globalized world. With the number of Indian students studying abroad increasing every year due to the extensive efforts put in by Countries like United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland and the approaches made by non-English speaking countries like; Germany, France and Holland to attract Indian students, we need to know the economics of the Indian higher education and its global implications in order to understand the reciprocities and the complexities of the Indian higher education system vis-à-vis the rest of the world.

India is one of the four fast growing developing countries commonly known as the BRIC economies. It is said to have the highest annual numbers of graduating engineers and doctors, yet it concurrently hosts the world’s largest  population of adult illiterates. This dichotomy is causing concern and putting us on continuous search for exploring alternatives in strengthening the role of our higher education in the development of the domestic and international workforce. We have to address problems like; skill shortages,rising unemployment and underemployment linking to the exponential rise in the private higher education sector that promises a “job guarantee” to attract students and with a consideration of the increasing spread of foreign education providers in India and their modes of delivery which ranges from having branch campuses, franchised programs,validated programs, distance or open learning etc.

With the number of private higher education institutions mushrooming in India, we need to look at the quality of higher education and the regulation of the sector by incorporating new accountability systems using advancements in information and technology, for with the rise of the private institutions, “simply leaving the demand and supply factors to the market will not necessarily deliver outcomes for higher education that represent the best use of resources or that are just and socially optimal”. Our endeavor should be to set right the regulatory framework making it to function as a facilitating institution and not as the controlling body adopting the pragmatic approach instead of the present adhoc approach.

It is evident that the recent economic crises also adversely impacted the global highereducation industry. It is reported that enrolment of first-time graduate students from India registered a massive 16-per cent decline in 2008-09 because of the financial meltdown. Therefore, given the current scenario, we need to examine the funding pattern of our higher education system with consideration of financial returns limiting the investments by Government and enhancing the provision of student loans by the Banks. Student aid in the form of Scholarships is another self-funding opportunity that is granted based either on merit or is targeted towards the marginalized sections of the society needs to be increased plugging the disbursement leakages.

Scholars, practitioners and policy makers will have to put efforts to get a comprehensive understanding of the current issues and trends in with an aim to rectify the defects and to strengthen the developmental programmes. First, by attempting to answer the question: is the Indian higher education reaching out to the marginal population?. Second, making the optimum utilization of public spending on higher education linking the resources with the needs for maximizing the performance. Lastly, making the Indian higher education to function as a leading player in the globalized context.

We would gain a great deal more by comparing and understanding similar issues in other countries in the context of “vertical” and “horizontal” linkages both domestically and across the globe. In other words, we get a sense of the demand and supply factors that have shaped our higher education from multiple perspectives such as; the socio-economic standpoint, the political aspects, demographic advantages, historical trends as well as the governing policy formulations and implementation strategies. The analysis could also be extended to evolve strategies and methods that would strengthen not only the mainstream courses like; engineering and technology, architecture, pharmacy, business administration etc., but also incorporating recently established courses on Gandhian Studies, Human Rights and Peace Education. We need to broaden our vision highlighting the need to learn about the reciprocal relationships between educational structures around the world using a comparative lens putting an end to the criticism that the Indian higher education is “a sick child” or a “quiet crisis” with an awareness and gigantic presence with determination and power to influence education systems elsewhere.