The introduction of higher education reform bills is a landmark in the education sector, as these bills are probably the first major reform initiative in higher education in free India. Their potential impact will be to tighten regulation, improve governance and transparency, create infrastructure for benchmarking and quality rating, and lay the foundations for exposing this sector to foreign competition and eventually to for-profit institutions.

Kudos to Kapil Sibal, Minister of Human Resources and Development for delivering on his promise by introducing in the Lok Sabha four bills that will potentially overhaul the higher education system in India. While two of the bills address quality and benchmarking (mandatory accreditation and foreign universities), the third deals with malpractices, and the fourth aims to facilitate speedy resolution of disputes. This represents a landmark in the education sector, as these bills are probably the first major reform initiative in higher education in free India.

The existing education system has been characterized by a yawning demand-supply gap (which is largely explained by the low GDP spend of 0.6% on higher education), high entry barriers and overregulation that has rendered the higher education system incapable of coping with the soaring aspirations of a growing middle class and the requirements of a new world order. Only a small number of students get access to the few colleges providing quality education, while a limited number of students from families with higher disposable incomes study abroad in tier 2 and tier 3 universities. The remaining students are pushed to run-down government colleges and domestic private institutions, many of which offer low quality education and indulge in exploitative malpractices. The recent scandals in the awarding of deemed university status and recognition by the AICTE and MCI are stark evidence of the rot afflicting the existing regulatory regime, which under the guise of a socialist ideal of keeping education strictly a noble, not-for-profit activity, has raised so many barriers that rent-seeking has become the order of the day and honest investors prefer to stay away from the sector.

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