Journal Press India^®

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Uttarakhand is a young state of India, formed in the year 2000 by carving out hilly part of Uttar Pradesh. Despite various geographical, economic and social challenges, the state is trying to achieve its mission of imparting quality education throughout the state. During the period of 16 years of its inception, the number of universities has increased from 5 to 20 and government colleges from 34 to 100. More than 1.50 lakh students are enrolled in higher education institutions (HEIs) of the state. By taking a step of social welfare, the government has waived the tuition fee for all students in the state. It has also lowered down the norms for opening new HEIs. These popular steps have emerged as a threat to the quality of higher education. State Universities and government colleges are mainly dependent on grants received from state government and some agencies of central government such as- UGC, DST, ICSSR, ICHR, DBT, ISRO etc. Fee structure is decades old and is not sufficient for present needs. If government wishes to increase the quality of education in the state, it will have to make huge investments in land and buildings of the colleges and fill the posts of teaching and not teaching staff for making Teacher-Taught ratio favourable. Additional facilities in class-rooms, laboratories, hostels, sports etc. also need additional funds. Government is facing the challenge of getting both the quality education and social welfare simultaneously.

Keywords

Higher education institutions (HEIs); Teacher-taught ratio; Gross enrolment ratio; University Grants Commission; Education

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