The Contribution of Private Participants to the Indian Higher Education System and the Impeding Role of the Regulatory Structure

A long standing debate in India relates to the extent to which the Indian Government be duly allowed to intervene in the supervision of the higher education institutions. Increasingly, it is being suggested that the “invisible hand of the market” be allowed to modulate the higher education system through the free play of the rising and dipping arms of the scale of demand and supply. The judgement of quality of education rests with the student, as much as it does with other entities. It is being stressed that student perceptions and judgement is an important, albeit neglected, marker of institutional quality. Similarly, it is also being put forth the world over that the boundaries between public and private universities are superfluous and must be relegated to the background. It is about time that the “licence Raj” be made to give way to regulatory methods that allow for authentic quality assurance.