Extended education at college in India. Advancing equity through the extension of public academic support programmes for students from the socially and economically disadvantaged groups

The paper seeks to expand our knowledge on the importance of public academic support programmes (ASPs) in higher education (HE) in India, which extend supplementary instruction with the aim to improve academic performance and support academic efforts of students from the socially and economically disadvantaged groups (SEDGs). This paper shows that students from the most disadvantaged amongst the SEDGs, that is, those residing in rural areas and women who experience multiple barriers that compound the effects of their disadvantages, have taken advantage of supplementary instruction classes. These classes have allowed HEIs to account for students\u27 academic needs and challenges related to their socioeconomic disadvantages, that remain unmet in regular classrooms. By targeting educational resources to students who are most disadvantaged, these programmes compensate for the absence of parental support and recognises the underlying socio-economic obstacles of students from achieving academic success at college. Given the acknowledged role of higher education in providing economic and social benefits to individuals, the paper argues that oncampus state enabled ASPs targeting students from the SEDGs make HE in India more equitable and contribute in reducing social inequalities in the wider society. (DIPF/Orig.

Understanding Students’ Attitudes Towards Affirmative Action Policy in Higher Education in India

To mitigate the severe educational horizontal inequalities in India, affirmative action (AA) measures in higher education (HE) have been implemented for socially excluded groups, such as the Scheduled Castes (former “untouchables”), the scheduled tribes (whose status resembles indigenous groups in other countries), and other classes lower in the caste hierarchy. Despite the introduction of AA measures, societal attitudes generally remain resistant to caste‐based reservation policies. Interestingly, very few studies in India have examined AA support among the most directly affected group of people when it comes to AA measures in HE—college students. The current article aims to fill this gap. It asks: Which factors (such as students’ background characteristics, pre‐college credentials, experience in college, and caste‐based beliefs) underlie college students’ attitudes (support or resistance) towards AA? This study builds on a large‐scale survey conducted among 3200 students studying in 12 public higher education institutions across six provinces in India. The results of the empirical analysis indicate that students’ attitudes towards AA are shaped and influenced by their social identity and educational experiences in college. It is also noteworthy that caste‐based biases and prejudices affect students’ attitudes particularly and may explain opposition to AA

Gendered conditions of higher education access : advancing a gender prism analytic through the case of Haryana, India

This article argues that a holistic, nuanced analytical framework for analysing gender and access to higher education (HE) would be of great benefit to the field, especially in an era where many country contexts are declaring that gender inequalities in HE access are solved due to the use of the gender parity index (GPI) as a measure of success. As such, this article proposes a framework to analyse gendered conditions of access to HE, referring to the various ways in which young people of different genders arrive in HE but with different gendered backgrounds behind them and different gendered expectations of their futures ahead of them, even when they were born into the same families and communities. Drawing on feminist sociological and poststructuralist thinking, the proposed framework promotes a refractive perspective to unpack the varied gendered influences that shape young people’s educational trajectories. The article illustrates the framework with the case of the north-Indian state of Haryana, based on an in-depth mixed-methods empirical study of gendered HE access in government colleges. The analysis reveals enduring gendered disparities that are otherwise masked by the use of GPI, including gendered differences in the perceived purpose of HE for young people, which results in differentiated prioritisation of e.g. quality of institution or subject choice. The article aims to provide future studies in this area with a framework that can be applied in and beyond the Indian context

Student Diversity and Challenges of Inclusion in Higher Education in India

With an enrollment of 34 million students and a gross enrollmentratio passing 24 percent in 2016, India is in a stage of massification. This article addresses challenges surrounding the issue of growing student diversity on higher education campuses.

Analyzing the Culture of Corruption in Indian Higher Education

Academic corruption occurs in all institutions and all countries.  It is, however, an area of research that is often difficult to study.  The intent here is to understand what systemic corruption is and how it is done in India.  The authors find a broken culture which enable corrupt practices to occur throughout the system

Academic Freedom in the World’s Largest Democracy

India is the world’s largest democracy, but does democratic governance ensure that academic freedom is the same regardless of geographic location?  We review recent developments pertaining to academic freedom in India and consider the limitations being placed on faculty in the classroom, in their research, and with regard to extramural speech and actions

Analyzing the Culture of Corruption in Indian Higher Education

Academic corruption occurs in all institutions and all countries.  It is, however, an area of research that is often difficult to study.  The intent here is to understand what systemic corruption is and how it is done in India.  The authors find a broken culture which enable corrupt practices to occur throughout the system

From gender parity to gender prism : looking beyond enrolment parity to explore gendered conditions of access to higher education in Haryana, India

The most common analytic used to explore women’s higher education participation is the gender parity indicator, which assesses the gender balance of women and men in higher education institutions and systems. It is cause for celebration when gender parity is reached, as has recently been the case in the GER for higher education in India (MHRD 2019). Gender parity refers to equal proportions of women and men in higher education but does not capture the differentiated conditions that underlie women and men’s access to higher education, especially in the context of patriarchal gender regimes, which result in differentiated choices for sons and daughters. These conditions relate to educational pathways, including schooling background (e.g. medium of instruction, school type) and family educational background (differentiated education of mothers and fathers). A refinement of the gender lens is required to address persistent gendered differences in educational choices as higher education massifies and gender parity increases across disciplines and courses. Based on the mixed-methods study of gender and higher education access and choice in government colleges in three districts of Haryana, this chapter argues that a refractive approach, where gender acts as a prism for analysing young people’s lives from different angles, is necessary to understand the complexity of how gender and higher education participation intersect