Higher Education in China
Content
What India can learn from China’s Higher Education?
Rahul Choudaha Economic Times Friday November 02, 2012, 01:43 PM China and India are the two largest higher education systems in the world with a total enrollment of 2.91 crore and 2.67 crore students, respectively. While both Indian and Chinese higher education systems are evolving in the context of developing economies, they have taken different paths and this has also shaped their social and economic makeup. Indian higher education system is highly concentrated at the undergraduate (bachelor’s) degree level. In fact, with 1.98 crore students, it is the largest system in the world in terms of undergraduate enrollment as compared to 1.27 crore in China and 1.04 crore in the U.S. As a proportion of the total student enrollment in higher education, India has nearly 75% of all its students pursuing a bachelor’s degree as compared to 43% for China and half for the U.S. This concentration at the undergraduate level is quite unique to India not only due to three-year degree in Arts, Science and Commerce, which form more than 85% of all undergraduate enrollment, but also due to its sociocultural environment which has positions bachelor’s degree as a more successful pathway for upward mobility. The undergraduate concentration has implications on all other key levels of education-vocational, postgraduate (master’s) and doctoral--by expanding the master’s level enrollments but stunting the vocational and doctoral level enrollments. However, availability of too many bachelor’s degree holders for a smaller economy as compared to China or the U.S., has created a situation of credential inflation, which simply means, devaluation of a degree with time due to oversupply of graduates. This is evident from many unemployed and underemployed college graduates. It also reflects poor quality of education and skills imparted at many institutions. Due to employability challenges, many continue to aspire for master's education in a hope for finally getting their dream jobs and career mobility resulting in overrepresentation at the postgraduate level. Despite smaller population and size of higher education system as compared to China, India has more than double the number of students at postgraduate level (27 lakhs vs. 12 lakhs). At the vocational education level, India with young and ambitious population is missing the opportunity of engaging them as a part of the mainstream economic growth through manufacturing. This is where China leaped forward and engaged the masses through lowcost, volume-based manufacturing. However, China did not achieve this by chance, instead it expanded vocational education system to develop a skilled manpower base for manufacturing related activities. China enrolls nearly 96 Lakhs students in vocational education as compared to 40 Lakhs in India. Likewise, at the other extreme, while overall Indian higher education continues to grows, it is seriously lacking faculty to teach at academic institutions. Granted, not all
institutions need to have faculty with research orientation but research is important to build the foundations of critique and problem-solving for any field. Unfortunately, momentum for getting advanced degrees suddenly stops at the doctoral level where India (~72,000) has one-third the number of students enrolled in China (~236,000) . While China’s higher education has its own limitations, it highlights how India is losing opportunities of maximizing societal and economic impact through higher education. An informed and radical change in higher education is needed to address qualitative and quantitative challenges at all levels of education and providing diverse pathways of educating and engaging talent.
Rahul Choudaha Economic Times Friday November 02, 2012, 01:43 PM China and India are the two largest higher education systems in the world with a total enrollment of 2.91 crore and 2.67 crore students, respectively. While both Indian and Chinese higher education systems are evolving in the context of developing economies, they have taken different paths and this has also shaped their social and economic makeup. Indian higher education system is highly concentrated at the undergraduate (bachelor’s) degree level. In fact, with 1.98 crore students, it is the largest system in the world in terms of undergraduate enrollment as compared to 1.27 crore in China and 1.04 crore in the U.S. As a proportion of the total student enrollment in higher education, India has nearly 75% of all its students pursuing a bachelor’s degree as compared to 43% for China and half for the U.S. This concentration at the undergraduate level is quite unique to India not only due to three-year degree in Arts, Science and Commerce, which form more than 85% of all undergraduate enrollment, but also due to its sociocultural environment which has positions bachelor’s degree as a more successful pathway for upward mobility. The undergraduate concentration has implications on all other key levels of education-vocational, postgraduate (master’s) and doctoral--by expanding the master’s level enrollments but stunting the vocational and doctoral level enrollments. However, availability of too many bachelor’s degree holders for a smaller economy as compared to China or the U.S., has created a situation of credential inflation, which simply means, devaluation of a degree with time due to oversupply of graduates. This is evident from many unemployed and underemployed college graduates. It also reflects poor quality of education and skills imparted at many institutions. Due to employability challenges, many continue to aspire for master's education in a hope for finally getting their dream jobs and career mobility resulting in overrepresentation at the postgraduate level. Despite smaller population and size of higher education system as compared to China, India has more than double the number of students at postgraduate level (27 lakhs vs. 12 lakhs). At the vocational education level, India with young and ambitious population is missing the opportunity of engaging them as a part of the mainstream economic growth through manufacturing. This is where China leaped forward and engaged the masses through lowcost, volume-based manufacturing. However, China did not achieve this by chance, instead it expanded vocational education system to develop a skilled manpower base for manufacturing related activities. China enrolls nearly 96 Lakhs students in vocational education as compared to 40 Lakhs in India. Likewise, at the other extreme, while overall Indian higher education continues to grows, it is seriously lacking faculty to teach at academic institutions. Granted, not all
institutions need to have faculty with research orientation but research is important to build the foundations of critique and problem-solving for any field. Unfortunately, momentum for getting advanced degrees suddenly stops at the doctoral level where India (~72,000) has one-third the number of students enrolled in China (~236,000) . While China’s higher education has its own limitations, it highlights how India is losing opportunities of maximizing societal and economic impact through higher education. An informed and radical change in higher education is needed to address qualitative and quantitative challenges at all levels of education and providing diverse pathways of educating and engaging talent.
