Abstract
Higher education is the refinement of teaching–learning and research acumen. It is the epitome of a learning system before entering the job market or venturing into new start-ups. Various studies indicate that the growth of an economy is positively associated with development in the higher education ecosystem. The state-run institutions have their inherent stereotypical challenges for propelling the essence of excellence. Barring a few, the mushrooming of private institutions has diluted its holistic objectives at par with the national standards. The quality outcome of higher education research brings momentum to all the development vectors across society, nation and the global community. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in developing countries have failed to secure top positions in various global rankings, causing concern for all stakeholders. This paper attempts to develop a comprehensive strategic model best suited to developing nations like India that can transform the higher education ecosystem par excellence to the apex institutions across the globe. The paper strongly suggests establishing a unitary institution that would pool the best talents from the existing HEIs through a stringent and unbiased scoring instrument that would augment the quality of life, resurgence of the economy, superior Human Development Index and sustainable development.
Keywords
Introduction
Overview of the Global Higher Education Scenario
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030 has identified 17 goals that all member nations aspire to achieve by 2030. In SDG Goal 4, quality education has been earmarked as one of the critical priorities worldwide. It has been observed that countries in the west, mainly the developed nations, consistently emphasize education and the allied sectors. There are few nations from the Asia-Pacific region that are promising higher commitments. The developed countries, particularly the United States, have given maximum thrust to developing the primary and secondary education by providing optimum grants by the respective states. Apart from a substantial contribution by the state in running public universities and Research and Development (R&D) centres, higher education has been entrusted to the hands of big corporates, social entrepreneurs and the public–private partnership model. Table 1 exhibits the indicative list of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) (Universities and the Institutes of National Importance) in select major education destinations.
HEIs in the Global Top 100 List (as of June 2022).
Education in India is in the Concurrent List of the Constitution, where the union and the state governments work together to achieve the desired objectives. It is observed that apart from the state-run framework and dedicated infrastructure, primary and secondary educational institutes are dominated by privately managed trusts. The state predominantly runs the HEIs in India. In the last few years, many private institutions and universities have mushroomed in the country, most of which are not at par with the national standards. According to QS World University Rankings 2022, only 30 of the 765 state-run and 11 of the 410 private universities could make it to the top 1,500 global universities.
In contrast, 207 of the United States and 90 of the universities from the UK have made it to the rankings (Department of Higher Education, 2022; International Universities Guide, 2022; Kreznar, 2022; QS World University Rankings, 2021, 2022; Tega, 2022; Ukuni, 2022). This gap is a serious concern that India must aspire to address at the earliest. The syndrome of command bureaucracy and red-tapism attempts to covet the university structure executing the mechanistic form of operations that supersedes organic creative ambience in these temples of learning, resulting in HEI’s failure to create an environment of a higher order of knowledge, innovation and incubation ecosystem.
Glimpses of the Indian Higher Education Scenario
The number of HEIs in India has surged manifolds since independence. The number of HEIs rose 34 times, from 20 in 1950 to 677 in 2014. Statutory bodies and councils, such as the All India Council for Technical Education, the Medical Council of India, monitor and control specific programmes of study. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has been established to provide guidelines, advisory and necessary grants to all universities and colleges. Every state has a Higher Education Council or Directorate to monitor and control the state-run HEIs. Indian HEIs are consistently not achieving superior ranks on the global scale. Barring a few private players, most privately run institutions do not have a clear commitment and vision for making transformative changes and excellence in science and technology. It has ruined the sole purpose of privatization of education as most private institutions have been limited to being a degree disbursing agency. The Gross Enrolment Ratio in the country is considerably low (28%) compared with the global average of 38% and substantially lower than the developed countries, such as the United States (88.2%), Germany (70.3%), the UK (60%) and China (51%) (ETGovernment, 2020; Rao & Sachan, 2022).
The role of universities in knowledge creation, filing patents, innovation, propelling new inventions and absorption of technology through incubation somehow took the back seat and needed to shift from quantity focus to quality focus (Patwardhan et al., 2015). Moreover, the present education system does not encourage high-end entrepreneurial aspirations, evident by a low score on the Global Entrepreneurship Index in subsequent years. India ranks 68th among the 137 rated countries (GEDI, 2019). Prof Bhusan Patwardhan pressed for devising novel mechanisms to ensure the originality and relevance of research carried out in India at various levels (Chatterjee, 2018). Prof Deepak Pental recommended the adoption of global parameters to determine the research quality standards. The UGC decided to review the quality of PhD theses awarded to the scholars of various state universities, central universities and deemed to be universities of the country in the last decade and evaluate the quality concerns (Jebaraj, 2019). The UGC formulated the ‘Consortium for Academic Research and Ethics’, commonly known as the UGC-CARE Reference List of Quality Journals, in 2018 to tackle the problem of unethical practices and quality control of research publications by Indian scholars (Patwardhan & Nagarkar, 2021). The commitment of HEIs is to explore ways for a superior quality of HEIs is to explore ways for a superior quality of life and to nurture citizens who can profess, progress and protect the spirit of the law and overall sustainability.
The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has strongly advocated for an innovation ecosystem so that the lab ideas should be transformed and transferred to the market. Unless the concept is converted into a product, process or service available in the market, it is challenging to expedite economic development in the system. Higher education research must create new dimensions and avenues to launch new-generation products or services to enhance the market. The market would be able to accommodate fresh talents by generating job opportunities, and thereby the perpetuity of the economic development can be ascertained. This study has devised a thematic framework for universities to function in a multifaceted manner in collaboration with various stakeholders through a Comprehensive Education-Research-Integration-Incubation Ecosystem.
Objectives of the Study
To explore the role of HE educators in transforming India into a superior knowledge society.
To propose a comprehensive framework for achieving excellence in the academic research ecosystem in India.
Analysis and Interpretation
The Spectrum of Roles for HEI Educators to Transform Society
HEI educators should contribute to teaching–learning dissemination strictly in congruence with the learning objectives and the Learning Outcome Based Curriculum Framework. A teacher should give teaching–learning dissemination the top priority. In addition to the routine academic assignments, an HEI educator is expected to contribute to various facets of research-related work. HEI educators can additionally contribute to the administration and institutional development work. It is imperative to understand that all the expected roles of HEI educators have their dedicated set of beneficiaries embedded with their short-term and long-term outcomes. These outcomes converge into society’s holistic and sustainable development, leading the nation to achieve higher-order human development and happiness indices. HEI educators’ potential roles, their corresponding beneficiaries and the expected outcomes to achieve excellence are depicted in Figure 1.
Figure 1 demonstrates how the knowledge-skill momentum attempts to enlighten the educated society, and that aspiration percolates down to the bottom of the pyramid (Prahalad et al., 2012). In developing nations, the higher education ecosystem is supported mainly by public/government investments. So, the country’s people must have greater expectations from these institutions for elevating their livelihood, quality of life, holistic development and achieving a superior Human Development Index (HDI). The teaching–learning process should be considered an indispensable affair in academia to transform into a society of knowledgeable and sensible people. HEI academicians and researchers are also expected to contribute to the following dimensions:
Figure 1 exhibits how in-depth and explicit contributions of HEI educators essentially encompass each segment of society and trigger various trajectories to the journey of excellence.
Developing a Comprehensive Framework for Excelling Research–Innovation-Incubation Ecosystem
Academicians and researchers lead society through their boundless intellectual capital, innovative ideas and result-oriented solutions that progress the social ecosystem towards the journey of excellence. A conservative approach limits the span of HEI educators to teaching–learning dissemination or educating and graduating society youths. But the locus of HEI educators has no stipulated boundaries. The journey of research, innovation and incubation, that is, the idea of concept development in the laboratory to the market, must be led and mentored by their active manifestations. In the line of NEP 2020, it is worthwhile and value-adding to involve retired professors, domain experts and industry professionals so that the process of high-end research, innovation and incubation should achieve the ultimate results. It is understood that every faculty should not practice all the roles to focus on precision, perfection and quality outcomes.
Apart from academic assignments, HEI educators should undertake at least two additional areas (as specified in the model in Figure 1) in a meaningful manner in consonance with the competency mapping. It is observed that Indian educators are mostly overburdened with non-academic–administrative responsibilities leading to severe compromise with the intellectual faculty, quality of research work, etc. However, in case of non-conformance of the desired level of performance, HEI educators can voluntarily opt for administrative acumen and outreach programmes. This option would justify their position while the high-end researcher can devote time to the research, innovation and incubation ecosystem.
The indicative outcomes would further be mentored and moderated by retired domain experts, professors or industry experts. Their mentoring would augment and manifest high-end research publications, patents, copyrights, policy documents, new product prototyping and process development. The experts would act as catalysts to foster higher-order research and extension, new-generation product development, entrepreneurial opportunities, start-ups and generating employment. The NEP 2020 has earmarked the engagement of retired domain experts, professors and industry experts in the process of value addition through research, innovation and incubation ecosystem in a continuous manner. Figure 2 describes the coverage of HEIs in terms of accelerating the holistic development process within the country and even across the nations.
In Figure 2, it may be noted that HEI faculty members must contribute to teaching and learning. They must undertake any two of the seven dimensions from a broad set of seven options from ‘B’ to ‘H’, in line with the National Academic and Research Recognition Score (NARRS) protocol (discussed in Table 2). If anyone can contribute to more than two dimensions, they may be financially/non-financially incentivized. The National Academic and Research Leadership Score (NARLS) may be considered for awarding superior academic/research positions in respective HEIs so that their intellectual wisdom percolates in research policy, performance monitoring and delivery system in a top-down approach. At the same time, the research ideas, aspirations and insights from the young minds would also be respectfully accommodated in the policy following the organic, bottom-up approach.
NFRF: NARRS and NARLS.
Figure 2 depicts the expected roles of HEI educators and the progression of outcomes through various strategic interventions so that the process of research, innovation and incubation ecosystem can yield the society improved quality of life, holistic development and a progressive HDI. The framework also suggests a lateral progression of the learned faculty members igniting their administrative acumen to build the essence of institutional development. The highly acclaimed academician turned administrator can lead institutions and organizations (government/corporate) in a superior capacity. This way, the nation may achieve an improved quality of life for its citizens and superior HDIs. The academic and research activities would result in immediate outcomes in the form of quality research publications, conferences, special lectures, creation of knowledge.
For a long time, the HEIs have been facing issues in ensuring a cohesive interface between the functional units of academia and administration. It has been witnessed in recent times that the power arrangement between the two has also changed and been contested. Uniting the two units has been a challenge. Weik (1998) advocated structural distancing between the two (which he termed as being ‘loosely coupled’) to reduce crossroads and increase organizational flexibility (Preymann et al., 2016). Figure 3 demonstrates the multifaceted roles of HEI educators that lead to achieving excellence either through the research-innovation-incubation path or the proliferation of administrative excellence within the existing system of governance. Cohesive interfaces of academic orientation blended with administrative reforms would result in a perfect model leading society towards a glittering future.
Academic acumen explores, experiments and adopts fresh ideas and innovative thoughts to commission into real-life practice. These open the floodgates of boundless opportunities, new-generation technology and superior dimensions of cognitive discourses. On the contrary, administrative acumen polishes the existing systems and practices so that the process outcomes bring the best possible results within the constraints. Academic discourse ignites transformative ideas that can act as a key to solving future critical problems. At the same time, the administrative wings attempt to enhance efficiency, efficacy and ease of implementation by eliminating unwanted processes. Academic fraternity evolves creative resonance in the system where the administration looks at its effectiveness execution so that the desired goals can be delivered at its best possible capacity and time-bound manner. Figure 3 renunciates the aspirations of academic orientation and administrative acumen that traverse through different routes and summarily converge to achieve holistic development.
The long years of imperialism have diluted the structure of value-based academic research ethos in India that existed during the ancient university system of the world, like the Nalanda, Vikramshila and Takshashila Universities. The command bureaucracy, red-tapism and mechanistic armature have been attempting to grab the aesthetics and the essence of academics and research in most developing nations. India is not an exception. The question arises whether the academic orientation should lead the HEIs, or the admin-driven governance should overshadow the purity and divinity of academic research. Figure 4 reflects the indicative overhauling of administrative wings over academics through a schematic exhibit.
If the administrative wing is allowed to doctor academics, the urge for creativity gets its notion limited, and it becomes a deterrent to the faster growth of society. Excessive overhauling of mechanistic governance pushes research creativity backstage. It would promote the syndrome of inertia, that is, staying within the comfort system and distance from the zone of innovative exploration.
Figure 5 depicts if the mechanistic form of administration is allowed to gain power-momentum over academics, the faculty members will concentrate more on conformance to compliances, and routine work, while undermining the drive for excellence in achieving transformative outcomes. The syndrome of defence mechanism would overshadow the research aspirants to confine within their comfort zone. Suppose this culture is allowed to persist for a long time. In that case, the regressive and retrograde tendency may diminish the research acumen towards collapse in a spiral unless any igniting change agent attempts to reform the ecosystem.
India needs to develop a National Faculty Scoring Framework. The nomenclatures of the proposed online portal-based scoring system are proposed to be NARRS under the broad protocol called the National Faculty Ranking Framework (NFRF). The protocol would be linked to all research-related prime databases for making objectively devised unbiased academic and research performance indicators for all who enrol their profile and update voluntarily in the dedicated software platform. To achieve excellence in academics and research, it is essential to devise an unbiased dynamic scoring system. The NARRS protocol should be planned with appropriate scoring criteria that ideally and equitably encourage superior academic and research outcomes with augmented grades. The protocol would not award grades for accomplishing unworthy claims or predatory publications. The system would inherently discourage the faculty from achieving such underscored contributions. The scoring system would universally accord all faculty members nationwide with appropriate markers and multipliers. There is a need to rank faculty members from each discipline or broad subject area, irrespective of any boundaries (institutional, regional, provincial, etc.). The NARRS protocol would provide cumulative and year-wise scores for every faculty who enrols and upgrades their achievements on the portal. The portal would be able to retrieve the NARRS score instantly for every faculty and make rankings of faculties across the nation discipline-wise, irrespective of any institutional jurisdiction. The entire framework is already conceived and prepared by the authors for perusal by appellate authorities for its possible implementation.
Similarly, it is crucial to have a highly qualified academic administrator who would run the Indian HEIs. Today, certain stipulated qualifications are laid out for recruitment for administrative positions. But certain discrepancies are also identified in such appointments (Times Higher Education, 2021). To offshoot any such situation in the recruitment process, NARLS has been developed. The NARRS score would be multiplied by the number of substantive service years in positions in any Indian HEIs (or equivalent institutions) to be considered for appointment. The NARLS score should be given special weightage in high-ranked administrative positions in the Indian HIEs to enhance transparency and credibility. If this modus operandi is developed and implemented, any untoward confusion or discrepancy can be easily wiped out or avoided. So, NARRS and NARLS protocol under the NFRF system have been developed, and the crux of the proposed model has been mentioned in Table 2.
The NFRF protocol should be implemented across all HEIs in the country. Faculty members will generate individual profiles blended with the NARRS instrument portal, irrespective of their institutional affiliations. By NFRF protocol, a real-time faculty resource database would be created, segregating the domain of experts belonging to each subject area (Figure 6). The HEI faculty members across the nation would be ranked subject area-wise using NARRS, irrespective of hierarchical positions in their respective institutions.
Here, SA1, SA2…, SAn denote Subject Area 1, Subject Area 2, …, nth Subject Area;
SA1R1, SA1R2, … represent the national ranking of faculty on Subject Area 1 in the order of the NARRS score, that is, SA1R1 is the first rank holder in terms of NARRS, followed by SA1R2 is the second rank holder, and so on, in a particular subject area across the various HEIs in the country.
The NARRS scoring system under the ambit of NFRF would portray the relative positioning of faculty members on a particular subject or discipline across the nation, irrespective of belongingness or biasedness to any institution. It is observed that high-performing faculty from ordinary institutions are rated below regular faculty representing a top-notch institution and are attributed with a higher rating (Halo Effect). This stereotyping error poorly impacts judging people for any selection process, awarding projects, etc. At times it is extrapolated to a level that the works and contributions of a faculty from a lesser reputed institution are inferiorly perceived, and they become victims of the Horn Effect. The NARRS would diminish all sorts of biases, perceptual errors and occurrences of poor judgement. It would instead act as a stimulating agent to motivate good performers irrespective of their locus standing.
A higher order of academics and research results from years of commitment, inculcation of cognitive faculty, substantial state, corporate and philanthropy resource contributions. The high-value endowments and towering budgetary provisions help the institutions and faculty members get groomed, grow and consolidate as a pillar of the authoritarian knowledge body. If we compile the endowment values of the top 50 global universities, it is found that the average endowment grant amongst these HEIs comes to around $15.5 billion, along with $69.21 billion (University of Texas System) and $2.30 billion (Osaka University) as the reportedly highest and the lowest endowment grants (Nonprofit Colleges Online, 2022).
The older Indian premier educational institutions receive more endowment grants, donations and alumni contributions than the newer ones. For instance, IIT Delhi managed around $35 million and is expected to receive $1 billion as an endowment fund from global alumni by 2025 (Niazi & Sharma, 2019; Sharma, 2022). Suppose India pledges to elevate all its public-funded HEIs to the level of premier global institutions. In that case, each of the 765 (as of June 2022) HEIs should be provided with around $15.5 billion by the government and other stakeholders as an endowment fund value. It will amount to an overall outlay of $12 trillion to be at par with its global counterparts. Additionally, India needs to invest heavily in developing state-of-the-art infrastructure for all the public-funded universities in the country.
State-run HEIs cannot compete on the global canvas as the present GDP share of education in India is below 4%. Moreover, the country invests only about 0.67% of its GDP in the R&D sector (Pental, 2022; UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2021), while other developed and emerging economies are spending several times more on R&D (Figure 7).
The average expenditure of the top 10 universities in the United States rests between $1 billion and $2 billion (as of 2019), while $83 billion is spent on R&D at the US universities (National Science Foundation, 2022). On the contrary, India could spend a meagre $1 billion equivalent on R&D in its HEIs. India’s expenditure on R&D is nearly 84 times less than the United States. It is understood that it is next to impossible for any developing nation like India to fulfil its growing demands for the allocation of resources in elevating the HE ecosystem. Developing countries also suffer from little or no participation in corporate philanthropic funding and alums support in the HE system, most of which continue to be funded by the state.
The study identifies an impending need for creating a National University for Excellence (NUE) where the best talent across disciplines in the country would be pooled from respective HEIs in order of merit by the descending pattern of NARRS and NARLS. The state can provide international standard resources, infrastructure, lab facilities, databases and software par excellence with apex international institutions. The respective HEIs can fill an appropriate number of faculty if the NUE pulls faculty from these institutions, following the country’s existing recruitment norms and practices.
The overall framework of the NUE may be visualized in Figure 8. The NUE should be given full autonomy and an uninterrupted flow of resources without any legal stipulations regarding recruitment, promotions, etc. It would work only in the spirit of achieving excellence, nationally and internationally. NUE would be formulated as a unitary but multi-campus institute following the feasibility, viability and suitability for research acumen and infrastructure. Students of other Indian HEIs can be admitted through a national-level entrance after their second and subsequent years, subject to the availability of seats. It would boost India’s chances with higher-order academic engagement and research augmentation at par excellence with the apex institutes across the globe.
Participatory Model and Self-sustenance Approach for the Proposed NUE
The proposed NUE would be projected as an ‘Institution of National Pride (INP)’ by the collective and collaborative association of the union and state governments, along with a strategic partnership with corporate and philanthropic organizations. Appropriate amendments must be enacted by the Parliament of India as per the constitutional provisions so that the central and state governments can work together on the doctrine of ‘cooperative federalism’ in line with the Goods and Services Tax Council in India. The state would fully fund the NUE.
The corporate sector is expected to fund NUE through donations, grants, endowments, etc. by offering academic Chair Professors, developing infrastructure, etc. The contribution shall be made entirely tax-free. Or else, the firms need to contribute a meagre percentage of their annual profits to the NUE, as in the case of Corporate Social Responsibility. Corporate participation energizes the R&D ecosystem and reflects their expectations of the skill sets to be embedded in the curriculum that would reinforce the quality of human resources and employability. The third sector of the economy would improvise its mission of inclusive growth and holistic development by partnering with the NUE and its various research linkages. The Indian learners shall be exempted from paying fees for any courses they study at the NUE. However, the industry-sponsored candidates would be charged fees from their respective sponsoring agencies. International students would be required to pay fees. The non-resident Indian (NRI) students would be allowed a partial fee exemption to strengthen the nation’s bonding with the NRIs. Apart from student fees, the NUE would also generate revenues from various sources, such as consultancy, projects, Section 8 firms created under the Indian Companies Act, 2013, undertaking projects and their implementation and the genesis of university-centric Intellectual Property Rights capital.
Student fees (industry-sponsored and foreign learners), consultancy, income from project overheads, patents, advisory, licence fees and income from Section 8 company within the organization, development of technology leading to reducing technology gap or slightest occasions of technology transfer from the developed nations, earning from indigenous products, process and goods.
A highly acclaimed mentor group would govern the proposed NUE for devising and designing the vision, mission and objectives document for the institution (Figure 9). The mentor group would formulate policies and incubate the varsity in a highly professional manner so that the NUE could rise at par with the global apex universities in terms of research outcomes, innovation, incubation and tangible outcomes in the form of high-quality patents, copyrights, technology, process development and policy reports. Initially, the NUE would broadly comprise four schools, that is, the School of Science and Technology, the School of Liberal Arts, the School of Social Sciences and the School of Sustainability Studies.
The mentor group would formulate respective working groups for the schools where the members would discuss and deliberate on the policies that lead to the highest order of research and innovation in the domains. However, the working groups would also interact amongst themselves with the vision of interdisciplinarity of research which is similarly echoed in NEP 2020. The structural and functional framework of the proposed the NUE BoM and its embedded mentor group has been devised in such a fashion that the BoM would primarily be led by the executive body, which would function with its wisdom and expert views of the BoM Knowledge Body (Mentor Group) while taking policy decisions. In the BoM executive body, the honourable Prime Minister of India would be the ex-officio President of the NUE, the honourable Chief Justice of India shall remain the ex-officio Chancellor, and the honourable Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha would act as the Pro-chancellor of the proposed NUE.
The composition of the NUE executive body is envisaged as the epitome of wisdom, towering transparency, diplomatic insight and the highest order of national pride and priority that are bestowed to achieve the vision and mission of the university. The collective commitment of political executives, irrespective of the differentials in their affiliation, essentially reinforces the Chancellor, being the head of the judiciary and another key functionary of the university to achieve its objectives. Relevant implementing agencies would strictly execute the decisions of the BoM in a time-bound manner. The implementing body is accountable to the BoM. The stewardship of the BoM and its functionality is earmarked in Figure 10.
The NUE would pool meritorious faculty members, as per the NARRS protocol, from all the centrally funded institutions, state universities, deemed universities and even private universities across the nation. As education comes under the concurrent list of the Indian Constitution, there is a need for creating a special act where the central government, state governments and privately managed HEIs would have to share their resources as per provisions of the law for achieving excellence in academics and research by strengthening NUE. With the wholehearted support of all stakeholders, the NUE would revolutionize the academic fabric of the country. The government of India would fund the newly conceived NUE for creating infrastructure and recurring expenditures. Other stakeholders would extend their cooperation by sharing human resources, research laboratories, research/seed grants, project funding, etc.
Student Intake Policy at the Proposed NUE
The entry of scholars into the NUE system shall happen directly through an entrance test conducted by the NUE Entrance Board. The PhD holders are considered a strategic resource for any knowledge economy in the contemporary era (Parenti et al., 2022). The NUE would enrol qualified students directly for full-time PG and PhD programmes from India and abroad through a very stringent competitive admission process. However, the NUE would admit postgraduate students as lateral entry from the Indian HEIs after completing their first year (two semesters or six trimesters) in respective disciplines through a comprehensive selection process through credit transfer compounded with fulfilling the equivalence criteria in the line of the NEP 2020. Similarly, international students can also be admitted by international credit transfer and by conforming to the appropriate equivalence system. The idea may be visualized in Figure 11.
Indian students shall be exempted from paying fees; however, the industry-sponsored candidates from India should pay appropriate fees. The postgraduate students must actively participate in significant research projects under the guidance of supervisors. This way, they can generate revenue for the organization. Learners can be awarded appropriate accolades enriched by high-end real-life research exposure that would enhance their employability and market value.
Discussion
The essence of excellence in higher education determines the holistic development of a society. Developing nations, like India, are under critical observation as many of the indicators of SDGs are not up to the mark. In fact, ‘Quality Education (SDG 4)’ is directly and indirectly associated with many other agendas in the evolving ‘Environmental Social and Governance (ESG)’ protocol. The global front-runner nations are leading the world through their supremacy in economic indicators, technology and resource mobilization resulting in a higher quality of life. Developing and underdeveloped countries struggle with an increasing technology gap and lower HDIs. Emerging economies, like India, must bargain on various dimensions across global platforms to protect their sovereign interests, diplomatic positioning and strategic advocacy.
At this critical juncture, it is easily perceived that with the current pace of development and HE policies, hardly a few Indian universities would make it to the top 50 positions in the next ten years. Projects like the ‘Double World-Class’ envisioned in China have resulted in improved competition and the achievement of desirable outcomes for them in recent years (Gao & Li, 2020). India needs to act along similar lines and secure frontier positions in the highest global academic forum, along with its vivid, valuable and versatile research outcomes in the form of higher precision technology, patents, formula, product prototype, policies, etc. This paper has strived within its limitations and constraints to devise and design pragmatic, achievable and strategic policy reforms that can transform the country’s HE ecosystem. The proposed NUE is expected to act as a torchbearer for the academic and research ecosystem in the country through its multifaceted deliverables. It can mentor and superintend the HEIs of the country.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.
