Given the diversification of higher education system and the consequent diversity in the student population, this research project aims to explore the diversity and discrimination in the higher education campuses in India. As a result of higher education expansion and enhanced aspiration levels of families cutting across the class and caste boundaries, campuses have now become a diverse social space. As more non-traditional social groups enter into college campuses, homogenous characteristics of college-going population are gradually disappearing. Campuses are now occupied by a wide variety of students belonging to various social, economic, linguistic, gender, regional and physical ability backgrounds. Although it appears to be a positive development, existing research has raised concerns that social divisions and its associated practices, prejudices and values are getting reproduced in higher education campuses.

The research project attempts to understand the nature and forms of diversity in the campuses; and the structures and mechanisms that exist to deal with diversity and discrimination. The project also examines how the opportunity provided by the growing diversity can be better leveraged for inculcating civic and democratic learning and to transform the institutions which are assumed to have a crucial role to play in the contemporary society. The research will explore the nature and process by which HEI can be transformed to a secular social space where students acquire knowledge and skills to learn, work and live in an increasingly diverse and multi-cultural society.

The study adapts a combination of quantitative and qualitative methodology for collection and analysis of information. It involves questionnaire survey among the students, interview with faculty members, institutional leaders, faculty in-charge of various cells/committees and focus group discussions with students belonging to various socio-religious groups and gender.

The study is being implemented in institutions located across six states i.e., Bihar, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. The institutions are Patna University and Patna College; Zakir Husain Delhi College, New Delhi (affiliated to Delhi University); National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, Karnataka; Sree Kerala Varma College, Thrissur (affiliated to the University of Calicut), Sree C Achutha Menon Government College, Thrissur (affiliated to the University of Calicut); RTM Nagpur University, Vasant Rao Naik Government Institute of Arts and Social Sciences, Nagpur; Institute of Science, Nagpur; RTM Nagpur University; Jai Narayan PG College, Lucknow; and Lucknow University. The preparation of the case study reports and national synthesis reports are in progress.

The project is funded by the ICSSR.

Project Coordinators/Principal Investigators: Dr. Nidhi S Sabharwal and Dr. Malish C M.

The rapid expansion of Indian higher education and diversification in terms of courses, providers and mode of delivery necessitates the understanding of the emerging governance and management structures which are more complex than before. The role of universities in expanding knowledge continues, while at the same time the institutional alternatives to them focus on skills’ development in areas linked directly to the market economy. The universities are becoming entrepreneurial. There is shift in resource allocation from an input-orientation to output and outcome-orientation. The diversified structure has made it imperative to study the governance and management structures to understand the changing role of the state, examine the issues of autonomy and accountability with measures to improve efficiency in operation, improve performance of institutions and staff and resource allocations, based on institutional performance.

The broad objectives of the research project are firstly to discuss the evolution of the governance structure and processes at the national, state and institutional level. The project also aims to understand how the Ministry of Education, Directorate of Higher Education, State Councils of Higher Education and higher education institutions interact. Further, the project will examine the role and functioning of governing bodies at universities and colleges. Finally, the project aims to study the management of higher education at the institutional level.

The research study explores how the governance and management of Indian higher education has evolved and also aims to understand the functioning of governance and management of higher education at the national and state level. The study also examines how higher education institutions are governed and managed. The study follows a descriptive and analytical research design and a comparative approach, analysing the similarities and differences in the governance and management in the selected institutions. The study has been launched in institutions from the following states: Banaras Hindu University in Uttar Pradesh, and state universities and their affiliated colleges i.e. Bharathiar University in Tamil Nadu University of Rajasthan in Rajasthan, and Savitribai Phule Pune University in Maharashtra.

Project Coordinator/Principal Investigator: Dr. Garima Malik

Teaching and learning is considered vital for all educational sectors. The landscape of higher education in India is continuously changing, with increased international competition, diverse student composition and types of educational service providers and increasing demand of value for money and efficiency. This calls for new teaching methods among other reform prerequisites. However, there seems a lack of substantial empirical evidence on the status of teaching and learning and development of higher education faculty in India.

This study intends to know how the teaching-learning process varies among disciplines and institutions and what measures are to be taken to improve teaching and learning in Indian higher education institutions. The study looks into faculty profiles, i.e. the social, academic and professional profile of the individuals teaching in Indian higher education institutions; perceptions of teachers about their roles, their articulation and understanding about teaching, their professional development needs and priorities; what transpires as teaching-learning and institutional support to the faculty in and out of the classroom to promote teaching-learning across disciplines; and students’ perception and assessment of the quality of teaching-learning experiences in their primary programs of study.

The specific objectives are to understand the process of teaching and learning in the higher education institutions (colleges and universities) in India and identify possible diversities and different practices; to understand the dynamics of teaching across a range of disciplines at bachelors’ and masters’ level programs; to analyse the effectiveness of teaching and institutional environment in the learning of the students in order to understand the policy priorities and policy responses in terms of teaching and learning, faculty and learner development in higher education.

The research project is a multi-state, multi-institutional study and employs mixed-methods’ approach to examine teaching and learning in various academic programs across the chosen set of higher education institutions (One University and one of its affiliated colleges) in five states. The Guru Ghasidas University, Chattisgarh; Calcutta University, West Bengal; Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Gujarat and Periyar University, Tamil Nadu are part of this project on Teaching and Learning in Indian Higehr Education.

Project Coordinator/Principal Investigator: Dr. Sayantan Mandal

The governments and individuals/households have been increasing their investment in higher education leading to massification of higher education in many countries. Committees and commissions on higher education in India have reflected on the need for institutions to seek resources in addition to the resource allocated from the government. The availability of resources at the institution level has been found to be inadequate to meet the growing demand for student enrolment. Consequently, many higher education institutions (HEI) have started cost-recovery measures, mostly in the form of levying higher rates of student fees and resource mobilisation strategies, with varying success.

There is a need to understand the resource allocation, patterns of utilisation of resources received in terms of grants as well as through income- generating activities in the Indian context. This study aims to map the diversified sources of funding of (HEI), to analyse adequacy or inadequacy of the resources, to understand the relative challenges in the mobilisation of additional resources by the diversified higher education institutions, to identify the activities that could not be carried out due to paucity of funds and to analyse the expenditure and utilisation pattern of the resources by the higher education institutions. The research methodology for the study is descriptive in nature, analysing secondary and primary data collected at the institutional level. The study attempts to find out about the different sources of funding of HEI; the utilisation pattern of the resources by the HEIs and the extent of resource gaps at the institutional level; activities affected by reduced resource availability and the strategies adopted by the institution to mobilise additional resources.

The study is based on the case studies of five states of the country representing five major zones of India i.e., Bihar, Odisha, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Telangana, the government departments that allocate fund to the respective higher education institutions, the universities located in these selected states and an affiliated college from each of the selected universities, and the SHECs that are operating in a few of these states. The study was launched with a workshop where all the research team members from B. R. Ambedkar Bihar University, Muzaffarpur, Bihar; Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha; Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab; University of Hyderabad, Telangana; and Kumaun University, Uttarakhand participated.

Project Coordinator/Principal Investigator: Dr. Jinusha Panigrahi

The national assessment and accreditation council (NAAC), established in 1994, is responsible for setting of standards of higher education institutions in India as an external quality assurance (EQA)agency. Till recently, not many institutions have approached NAAC for accreditation. We do not have enough empirical evidence to say whether there has been any change in quality of the institutions that have approached NAAC. Quality assurance and role, nature and mandate of QA agencies, what they do and what they achieve, how it affects the institutions and whether the spending on the exercise of QA at the central/state and institutional level is worth it, can be addressed only by taking up a study in this area. The broad objectives of this research study are to understand how the EQA agencies impact the higher education institutions and programmes; to analyse the structure and function of IQA at the institutional level; to assess how EQA and IQA enhance quality at the institutional level. The research questions relate to the relationship between EQA system and IQA system, with focus on input, output and outcome; effect of EQA on the functioning of the University/affiliated college; organisation of IQA across selected subjects and interaction of IQA cells (IQAC) with departments; nature of feedback from IQA cells to the departments and colleges; effect of EQA on quality in terms of students’ learning.

This study follows a descriptive research design and interpretive approach, with substantial focus on interviews and questionnaire survey with faculty, administrators, and students; analysis of documents such as annual quality assurance reports, self-study reports submitted to NAAC, peer review reports of the institutions; analyses of student-related data maintained at the IQAC at the institutions.

Five universities in the 2nd or subsequent cycle of NAAC accreditation and an accredited college affiliated with each of the selected universities have been selected from five states. Three-member research teams in each state have been constituted, with faculty from each of the selected institutions. The study has been launched with the first research methodology workshop of the research teams from Mysore University, Karnataka; Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalay, Madhya Pradesh; North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Meghalaya; Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Rajasthan; and Osmania University, Telangana.

Project Coordinator/Principal Investigator: Dr. Anupam Pachauri

The problem of graduate employability has both supply and demand side aspects. Also the problem of employability and skills deficit cannot be completely delinked from the employment, unemployment and labour market conditions. Most studies look at one single aspect. In addition, massification and the experience of unemployment have challenged the Humboldtian idea of the research-oriented university and necessitated to look at the problem in a broader context of external as well as internal factors like general labour market conditions, local and global labour market demand at the macro level ;quality of education, possibilities for career counselling, provision of training courses, transition opportunities, Demand Supply Context at the institutional level; Effectuation factors like personal circumstances, willingness and preferences of individual employees as well as conditions and attitudes of employers.

The present study would try to fill this gap by combining both external and internal as well as demand and supply factors affecting and influencing graduate employability. The study proposes to understand the issue of Graduate Employability and Higher Education in India along three interlinked domain at the macro, institutional and individual levels:

• Macro Economic dimensions of Educated Employment/unemployment trends
• Changing Industry demands and Dimensions of University/ Higher Education
• Individual Stake holders’ changing perceptions/expectations regarding Higher education participation and provision in terms of employment readiness.

Against the backdrop of changing employment/unemployment scenario of the educated youth in India, the study shall seek to explore the following questions.

The study shall try to explore the above questions with a focus by generating perspectives of the major stakeholders - the employers and the new employees, students and teachers. The focus shall be to understand what is their awareness regarding the concept of “employability skills”, identify the types of employability skill gaps existing among the new job entrants , the differences existing therein by gender and social groups and the expectations of the employers from the universities in preparing industry ready graduates. The study shall also try to explore the challenges the new employees experience in their work place, to what extent they are required to supplement their university education with external trainings of different nature to fill in this gap.

Project Coordinator/Principal Investigator: Prof. Mona Khare