Government Support for Higher Education and Research: A Critical Study of Patterns, Procedures and Policies

The system of education in general and higher education in particular has been subject to criticism for its apparent in capacity to provide education relevant to the needs of the terming millions of India. It has been pointed out that higher education has developed an in-built process of metabolic degeneration in that about half of the student population is thrown by the wayside resulting in huge loss of human and physical resources. The author in this scholarly work has attempted to analyse the patterns, procedures and policies of financing of higher education and research evolved by the federal and the state governments and their specialised agencies. He has also sought to discuss certain basic policy issues pertaining to government support for higher education based on a micro-level investigation of four states representing the four regions of the country. The study represents a significant attempt to analyse the problems of higher education finance with particular reference to government to support for research. It has tried to lay bare the distortions and dichotomies that the system of higher education finance has developed. An attempt has also been made to offer suggestions for revamping the financial policies and procedures of the central and the state governments. It is earnestly hoped that the problems highlighted in this study will enable the administrators, academics and others concerned with educational finance to realise that basic structural modifications are needed in order to enable the institutions of higher education to become effective instruments of socio-economic regeneration.