Lack of funds top issue for southern varsities

Bangalore: A survey conducted by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and the Confederation of Indian Industry on higher education institutions in the southern states highlights that obtaining funds, focus on innovative research and lack of committed faculty plague the system.

On analysing the responses from the institutes, it is revealed that obtaining funds is the most important challenge faced across all categories of institutes. The other key challenges vary on the basis of category of institutions, like technical/engineering, arts & science, management and multi-faculty.

The report, ‘Status of Higher Education in South India 2013’, also indicates that fostering entrepreneurship through education and implementing industry-institute interaction initiatives have been a key challenge in making the education system more employable.

On admission and intake of students, respondents felt that the inadequate level of fee structure fixed by the government ranked as the top challenge. Further, differential fee structure across states and universities, lack of uniformity in admissions system and process across states and universities and low number of students from professional backgrounds are other important challenges.

On the difficulty faced in terms of fostering entrepreneurship through education, the respondents cited that perception among students that entrepreneurship as risky is the most significant challenge. In addition, difficulty in accessing government supported strategies and lack of understanding among faculty members towards entrepreneurship education feature as the other important issues that come in the way of nurturing entrepreneurship through education.