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A Wag Whenever unmatched sits down to bring finished on the mess that one finds in the atomic number 18na of higher education, one is struck by a sense of dJ vu as well as a sense of inability to say nything new. Pawan Agarwals any-round(prenominal) paper that he wrote for CRIER, the excellent report by issue association Commission (headed by the irrepressible Sam Pitroda) are Just ii of the more articles that easily come to mind. The premier one called, has exhaustive information at a sanely disaggregated level so that this aspect unavoidableness not detain us here.The issues and challenges in this context -that are fairly well understood are diverse not typical. Thus, the challenge is not epistemological but one of political will and at a more mundane level of implementation. In India, it oes not take a genius to point out the problems in any sphere, least of all in the higher educational sector. The point moreover is (ought to be) to identify practicable solution s. In this article I will concentrate on the capacity, flexibleness and forest issues that beset the higher educational sector in India and fire some steps that need to be taken to remedy the situation.Rest assured, at that place will be no magic wand and no undivided solution. Help and initiative from whatever quarter essential be desire and grabbed by both hands. A bouquet approach will still if be realistic, driven by ragmatism rather than ideology. Whilst finance is undoubtedly important, I argue that governance is the key. The essentials of the story are easily t grizzly Despite howling(a) expansion in the sector, at that place is inadequate capacity and hence memory access after all we fuck off 350 universities with bulky enrollment (one of the largest in the world).The governance is characterized by rigidity with absolutely no flexibility we have degrees existence offered in a rigid framework with very little plectron for the students (who should matter the m ost) and the regulations are archaic with peculiar unresponsiveness to the current context. convey to the perverse hiring policies and protracted procedures (not to mention politics with and without state interference) the quality of aptitude is in a state of rapid decline. The reasons and solutions are well know and yet some of them bear repetition.Having made a first bound off let us revisit the issues in some detail, but first some preliminaries. India is at cross roads. It has all the pretensions of emerging as a know conductge economy and yet the snip is running out for it to set out the bus. Surely, we dont require Thomas Friedman to point out the gravity of the situation. After all, what we o today by way of investment will have a decisive influence fifteen years from now. For that is how long (even in these speedy paced times) it takes for changes in educational system to fructify.It is no secret that a current knowledge has a prerequisite of solid foundation provid ed by educational institutions characterized by relevance and excellence in training and research. This then must provide us with the parametric environment for what follows. The long queues in reconcile of the colleges as well as the screaming headlines in the newspapers, starkly present the scarcity of capacity in the higher educational sector. The premium that the put in better colleges for almost all the courses attract is common knowledge.Whilst there are supervisory mechanisms in place (de Jure) we know that supervision many a time means additional side payments. As an aside, the only solution lies in self enforcing system design which in this guinea pig would clearly imply removal of striuctural and overall scarcities through increased capacities. The National Knowledge Commission (NKC) report talks of background up 50 National Universities (over a period) with augmented resources leading to capacity enhancement.There is the private universities touchstone which should help too. There is a scope for great enhancement of capacity in the PPP mode, for which the regulation has to be more welcoming if not friendly. Whilst there is a need to think out of box, there is no denying the fact that the traditional state funding mode will however continue to be of importance for at least some time to come. We must once and for all put an end to view that improvements are possible witn Just non-monetary means.This implies a self binding commitment on the part of governments at all levels to provide the necessary financial resources. The urrent using up on higher education that is pegged at around 0. 7% of gross domestic product must be doubled. This will require a serious lobbying effort. In this context, it may be noted that there is much that can be done by the institutions on their own in terms of pinnacle resources. Alumni represent a huge potential source, so also context up of off shore campuses and attracting foreign students are other lucid sources .However, this will require some amendments in the existing provisions of the Act, also, get a line suggests that such efforts are rewarded by cut back in aid, quite of matching incentive grants being proffered. Such efforts in the past have been post facto subjected by the government, to severe restrictions on the use of monies so collected. clearly there is a governance issue involved here. This apart, the required modify (through regulatory changes) of private sector is a must for the purposes of raising subsidiary resources.The private endowments which at one time were significant, have to be restored through incentive based legislation. At the same time the interference as distinct from engagement of the State in all aspects of education has to be significantly reduced, especially in the operations and rocedural aspects. This has been a major cause that led to the Universities being converted into patron saints of mediocrity The state must unfeignedly practice private enablement with oversight from a distance. Of course, the processes involved in the setting up in the national universities (or even investing in old ones are so long drawn and convoluted that with the given immersion capacity of the institutions it will be some time before the contrive becomes a reality. Also, and more importantly, the paucity with regard to the attendant requirement of quality faculty (which we shall ook at later) is so great that even with physical infrastructure the delivery will not be assured. This requires some bold and modern thinking and application which requires a key governance initiative. The external agencies corresponding the corporations and industries will have to play (be enabled to do so) a major role.In the interim, I would suggest that IT enabled distance learning mode as well as the platform for e-learning have to be exploited to the fullest extent. This will require huge organization and collaborative effort of the best minds. It is espe cially required to mention this here ecause these avenues (particularly the first mentioned) are pretty much have accepted step treatment and have been left to the whims and fancies of the second raters. This has created sections of milch awe that fraudulently extract money from the hapless students and give nothing in return.