Dr. Susheel Kandalgaonkar has written a major treatise, namely, Higher Education in India: Building Robust Institutions. The book fills a major void felt by thinkers in the field of higher education in India. The book is a serious reference book covering all the important aspects. It provides broad conceptual frameworks, models, case studies, and authors’ insightful interpretations. The book is divided into three sections. In the first section of the book there are 11 essays; second section has 7 case studies; the third section gives learning resources under 4 heads.

I am reproducing titles of the 11 essays in the first section so that the reader gets an idea about comprehensive coverage in the book:

One: Challenges in Institution Building for Higher Education in India

Two: Technical-Economic Perspective of Higher Education: A Critique

Three: The Quasi-Market of Higher Education in India

Four: Corporatisation of Higher Education: A Critique

Five: Understanding Behavioural Processes in Higher Education Institutions

Six: Building Institutions: Theory and Application of Organisational Development and Institutional Development

Seven: Leadership Styles and Processes in Higher Education Institutions

Eight: Institutional Purpose: Vision, Mission, and Strategic Planning

Nine: Human Development in Higher Education: A Humanist Perspective

Ten: Quality of Higher Education: Measuring Institutional Performance

Eleven: Qualitative Research Methods for Personal and Institutional Change and Transformation

Throughout the book Professor Kandalgaonkar has given enough evidence and arguments to support his major conclusion, “The root cause of problems in building robust Institutions of Higher Learning in India lies in the fact that they operate within the education policy of the State that covertly encourages private universities and corporate norms and values. It is claimed that it would lead to competitiveness and quality improvement. The neoliberal economic policy expects them to consider students as customers and faculty as service providers and treat higher education as a part of private and individual goods rather than part of public goods.” 

The author’s choice of cases is mainly based on first person accounts of the leader at the helm of the affairs, so that the reader gets a view from the top.  Of course, then there is a danger that the leader does not point out the weaknesses which he did not realise when he was at the helm of the affair and has not realized them even in retrospect.  However, the cases do bring many real-life problems for the readers. I am particularly happy that the author had chosen the case of Nirman and the case of MKCL as these would not have normally been included in the discussion regarding higher education; both the cases highlight the principle of Nai Talim as suggested by Mahatma Gandhi, which is based on learning through productive work for society.

I find it rather surprising to note the absence of discussion regarding (Brahminical) Elitist Ethos at the top of the Institutions of Higher Learning in India. There are passing references and a detailed discussion of suicide note of Rohit Vemula’s: “hopelessness and despair emerge from his experiences in the struggle for inclusion and acceptance. He repeats the phrase twice, ‘fatal accident of my birth’, and his image as a lonely child haunts him even when in adulthood. Institutions of higher education, like universities, have not made any serious attempt to include and accept Dalits as a part of the learning community on campus. Neither the university administration and faculty nor the student community have made any social investment in this direction. Therefore, the problem has remained unresolved for decades due to deep rooted prejudices of caste based social culture”. 

 On the whole the book is an important contribution and I recommend that every educationist concerned with improving the quality of education in India and building Institutions of Higher Learning reads the book carefully and thinks seriously about the issues raised.  

I thank Prof. Susheel Kandalgaonkar for having contributed to my education regarding higher education in India.