Focus on Internationalisation
In order to make our universities world class and emerge as centers of excellence, Indian institutions need to focus on ‘Educating the Educator’. Faculty members in existing higher education institutions (HEIs) need to upgrade their qualifications. If they can be encouraged to take up enrollment in Master/ Doctoral programmes, while on the job, many purposes will be served – more qualified faculty, improved quality, more research output and more publications. For encouragement, multiple benefits in terms of tax-relief, student loan eligibility, and longer duration pay-back would provide the right impetus. To improve ranking in the near future, Indian institutions need to focus on ‘Internationalisation' with utmost priority.
To build the research capabilities of our universities and bring in innovation, it may be quite useful to hire foreign faculty. The benefits of hiring foreign faculty lie only with those institutions which the Government is seeking to promote as heavyweight competitors in world university rankings or ambitious private institutions which have the same goal. We need to ease Foreign Faculty hiring as it is one of the factors that pull-down ranking of Indian Universities. Foreign faculty hiring norms in terms of duration and minimum wages are restrictive and clearance cumbersome. To help Indian institutions employ global faculty to augment the institutional performance, a little ease on both fronts will give the required.
The cost of education is, however, increasing rapidly. In fact, the cost of studying at reputed institutions is already quite high. An education loan, therefore, plays a vital role in such a scenario by helping to bridge the gap between the shortfall and the required amount. Therefore, we need to increase the duration of education loan deduction from eight to 15 years.
— Dr Sanjay Gupta, Director General, World University of Design
Exempt higher edu from GST
“I hope that the Budget increases the overall spending on higher education. In addition, there is an urgent need to exempt all higher education institutions from the GST regime. The levy of 18 per cent GST on incidental and ancillary services provided by higher educational institutions will affect the 34.2 million students enrolled in higher education institutions. This tax comes at a time when 22 million of these 34.2 million students are enrolled in private educational institutions that account for more than 76 per cent of all higher educational institutions in India. We must remember that in our Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER), we are at 23.6 per cent and are still much below Brazil (46%), China (30%) and Russia (76%). Cost of higher education affects access to higher education and we must not increase this cost by burdening services provided by higher education institutions with 18 per cent GST. I hope the Finance Minister revisits this Policy.”
— Professor (Dr) C Raj Kumar, Founding Vice-Chancellor, Jindal Global University
Decrease loan rates
Education and skill development should be looked at as an investment for the growth agenda. To make domestic higher education more affordable, the Government must take adequate steps to decrease education loan rates across the board.
To promote research and development and to bring our institutions at par with the best in the world, an additional allocation of funds is needed to increase grants for Research and Development, introduce more scholarships and support in bringing good quality teachers to the country.
To attract the best brains into the profession of teaching, tax benefits could be offered to the teaching fraternity. This will also help in bringing back Indian teachers working in foreign shores.
There is a need for greater transparency in fund allocation for the education cess collected over the years. Proper utilisation of this cess with earmarked schemes would ensure that the benefits of education reach all sections of the society. The budget should also provide for institutional strengthening and implementation of existing initiatives.
— Dr Prashant Bhalla President, Manav Rachna Educational Institutions
Right implementation of NEP
According to the 2017 World Employment and Social Outlook Report brought out by the United Nations International labour Organisation (UN IlO), as of 2018, the projected number of unemployment stands at 18 million in India. It is therefore crucial for the Government, which came into power with the promise of creating one crore jobs, to boost employment before the 2019 election. The much-awaited National Employment Policy (NEP), expected to be announced in the 2018 budget, could possibly be a game changer if implemented in time for the election. In the recently released Three-Year Action Agenda for 2017-18 to 2019-20 by the NITI Aayog, wherein the national think tank has made a case for reforming India's labour laws challenging the current status quo of low-productivity and low-wage jobs dominating the landscape, the NEP, if executed in the right spirit and method would be a step in the right direction.
Additionally, talent gaps and skills mismatches in key industries need to be addressed as it is estimated that 37 percent of jobs in 2022 will require drastically different skill sets from those that exist today.
With the government signalling green to 100 per cent FDI in single brand retail via automatic route, doing business in India will get easier as foreign investments coming into the country will be liberalised. This will definitely play a key role in creating more jobs in the organised sector. Also, with the recent move towards clean labelling, many start-ups are flourishing in the space with potential to create more jobs.
— Sashi Kumar, Managing Director, Indeed India
Increase in GDP on Education
There is an expectation that Government spends on education GDP will increase from the current 3.71 per cent to get on par with other developing countries. There are reports that the budget allocation for school education is expected to rise by 14 per cent in the 2019 fiscal year, which is welcome news but we still need to examine if the increased outlay is enough and if the Indian Government is allocating the spends wisely.
A sufficient budget must be allocated for education and the increased expenditure should be looked at as an investment for the growth agenda, rather than as a development element.
Other important expectations from the budget is the implementation of the much delayed New Education policy (NEP), effective school assessment like the national assessment survey, innovation in schools and mapping of learning outcomes, which should find significant mention in the budget presentation.
— Rajesh Rao, Founder & CEO, Connecting The Dots
