QUALITY OF HIGHER EDUCATION: CURRENT STATE AND RELATED ISSUES (WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO RURAL AREAS OF PUNJAB)

Abstract

: Besides employment, education is as an important determinant of any economic activities. Apart from its monetary returns, education appears to be linked to other dimensions of well-being, including health outcomes, investments in the next generation, social networks, and civic participation. Most importantly, ensuring equal access to education is increasingly viewed as a basic duty of a mature civil society. The changing business environment and the various complex forces operating in a developing country demand for good quality education. Moreover, the challenges towards higher education are no longer the responsibility of one country only. It had already attained worldwide dimensions, especially after trade in services has been brought under the purview of the WTO regime. As a result, knowledge is not only going to be the driver of Indian economy, but also, it is going to infuse into all the sections of Indian society for a better quality of life and living conditions. Though, India has the largest education system with number of universities and colleges, yet we have to pay more attention to higher education system as a source of growth. But, the major challenge before the Indian higher education system is to bring equity in quality of education across the length and breadth of the country. This is more close to the heart of students living in rural and urban areas, because they also wish to be able to participate in the new economic revolution. School Education is therefore rightly regarded as the foundation for accelerating academic performance. However, in spite of the universal agreement about providing the quality education, we still lagged behind in achieving this objective. Based on primary research, with special reference to rural areas of Punjab region, this paper focus on numerous issues, responsible for not having good quality education and identifying various factors that contribute to improve the standards of Higher Education in India and Region.