2012 Cambridge Business & Economics Conference
ISBN : 9780974211428
Declining of Ethical Standard in Higher Education System in India
Ms. Kanchan Garg (Assistant Professor)
Dr. Kamaljeet Kaur (Assistant Professor)
Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University, Fatehgarh Sahib (Punjab, India)
Higher education is indispensable part of education system of India. Higher
education is considered a speedy vehicle for upward, social mobility, especially by the
socially and economically deprived and underprivileged sectors. Higher education has carved
out a special figure in the emerging knowledge society. Its contribution to the GDP of a
country is no less. A recent study conducted by World Bank in 192 countries reveals that
physical capital and natural wealth put together account for only 36% of the total wealth,
whereas a human capital account for the rest of 64% of the total wealth. In fact there is a
positive correlation between human capital and economic prosperity. Growth of capital
output ratio and supply of efficient and skilled labour force which are essential ingredients for
prosperity of a country are functions of human capital development which in turn depends on
higher education. After realizing the importance of the higher education, the developed and
the developing countries like India have promoted higher education in their education system.
Initially the investment on Higher education in India was sub optimal. With unprecedented
growth of knowledge typically in the area of information and communication followed by
globalization shrinking the world into a global village, competitiveness has become a
decisive force of growth. India has one of the largest higher education systems in the world
with around 430 universities and 22,000 institutions of higher education.
Need for Privatization of Higher Education:
Considering the Indian demographic environment the government has no choice but to rely
upon the private sector to meet the burgeoning demand of the students. Therefore, the
privatization of higher education in India has not come about due to an ideological
commitment but has been forced upon it. The private sector accounts for 91% of seats in
engineering , 64% in management studies, 95% in pharmaceutical studies, 92% in
physiotherapy, 50% in medicine and 94% in hotel management.
Impact of Privatization of Higher Education:
June 27-28, 2012
Cambridge, UK
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2012 Cambridge Business & Economics Conference
ISBN : 9780974211428
With the rise of private institutes, higher education in the modern era has acquired the status
of a marketable commodity, its quantity and quality and the fee charged being determined by
the market forces of demand, supply and profitability. The higher education is treated as a
commodity where educational institutes are the traders and students are the customers. The
mushrooming of private institutes and distance learning institutes in higher education has led
these institutes to become business entities dispensing poor quality of education.
Education as Trade:
At the international level, even the WTO has accepted that provisions of education are a
service that can be traded and it has been included under GATS. India, as a member of WTO,
has accepted that position. The teaching learning process has become mechanical and
pragmatic. The buyer is willing to pay a premium price for admission to prestigious courses
that also promise lucrative job opportunities. The entry of the private sector has necessitated
marketing of higher education to attract students, making a good bargain in this process. The
‘commodification of education’ process is complete.
Due to the mechanical and pragmatic process the institutes are unable to produce a complete
‘human capital’ with ethical standards. In contrary every year we are producing thousands of
money minded machines. Although India’s education sector is the world’s third largest in
terms of students next to China and United States but perhaps we have the world’s largest
number of unskilled, untrained and unpaid professionals.
It is no longer acquired for its own sake, nor is the teaching profession is a ‘noble’ profession
that used to be earlier. Student is a power while faculty is weak in these private institutions.
Indeed the faculty lacks the position, power and autonomy as they traditionally enjoy at
universities. Corruption in admission process like donations in different forms, mal
management of merit list and high fee structures are some of the factors which are the major
cause of depletion of student ethics.
Administration of Private Institutes:
The students are being sold the degrees, examination results are being manipulated and
students having never attended the college are being awarded the degree. The message is
clear “pay the fees and get the degree”.
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Cambridge, UK
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2012 Cambridge Business & Economics Conference
ISBN : 9780974211428
The selection system of the students during the admission is not up to the mark.
(Although,we are conducting a number of entrance tests for the admissions). A boom in
private institutions has given rise to numerous vacant seats in these institutions through
proper mode of selection. To fill their vacant seats these private business hubs sell the seats to
ineligible candidate/students on the name of management quota, NRI quota and many more.
Students with poor academic background used to become professional engineers, doctors,
management practitioners etc. Obviously these kinds of professionals mislead the society.
Even Gandhi Ji is of the view that the purpose of education is to establish a non-violent,
exploitative, social and economic order society where everybody is equal and nobody is more
equal, where the strong are just and weak are secure.
Poor quality of Professionals:
The quality of students being produced by these institutions is below satisfactory. As the
number of higher educated students is increasing in India similarly the unemployment rate is
also increasing day by day. The ultimate goal of a nation should not be just to produce degree
holders but it should try to produce an ideal citizen who is able to earn his livelihood after
completing his degree. The unemployed students get frustrated and further commit various
kinds of crimes. The root cause of unemployment is lack of skills, quality and talent among
these products of profit making private institutes.
So it is the major responsibility of the government to get some standards for admission
policy, infrastructure, recruitment of faculty, authenticity. The advent of the education
industry as an economic sector has depleted the ethical values which were present in the
Indian system of education. In ancient India education was given the status of Goddess and a
teacher was considered to be a Guru. Students at different levels of their education used to
imbibe their on the pretext of lessons of God and ethic. Ethics can form the basic moral
values in future professionals but institution are producing meritorious students these days
who are very weak in moral values because of lack of ethics in the revolutionized education
system. We neither have qualitative education in India nor are our educational system free
from arbitrariness and corruption. Our educational system is academic in nature that is far
from developing skills and practical acumen in our educated masses. The main motive
behind running educational institutions today is money making and not character building of
students.
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Cambridge, UK
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2012 Cambridge Business & Economics Conference
ISBN : 9780974211428
Edification of Ethical standards in Higher education institutes:
 To improve the ethical standards of higher education in India, government should
ordain a regulatory body to keep an eye on the overall working of an private institute.
The fundamental responsibility of this regulatory body is to check the infrastructure,
recruitment of faculty, recognition of institutions, admission policy, fair examination
procedure, authenticity of the degree etc.
 There should be proscription on the advertisement of non- recognised or fake private
institutes.
 It is the duty of UGC also to aware people about the fake universities through media.
To release a black list of the fake institutions is not the only solution.
 Ministry of education should fix a standard fee structure for the private institutes too.
 Ministry of education should appoint an admission officer in every private institute
during the allotments of seats for fair selection system
 Government of India should sanction the private universities establishment and
regulation bill (1995) as early as possible.
Thus to edify ethical standards of higher education in India is the need of the hour.
The declining of ethical standards will give rise to unskilled professionals,
undisciplined students, poor work culture and poor education system. India is known
for its ancient education system which inculcates ethics along with other skills
amongst students. We should preserve the sanctity of our ethical social system at least
for the sake of our nation.
References:
1 Dash L.N.,”Education and inclusive development in India”.
2. Thakur Anil Kumar and Dev Manish, “Education growth and Development”
3. Singh Abhinav and Purohit Bharathi,”Reconsidering privatizatiob for corruption
Free administration in Indian higher education”
4. Dash Mrutyunjay.”Policy perspective- Changing scenario in higher education in
India”
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2012 Cambridge Business & Economics Conference
ISBN : 9780974211428
5. Thakur Anil Kumar and Patel Mohan, “Challenges of Education growth in 21st
Century”
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