Between the Public and the Private: Indian Academics in Transition

Higher education (HE) is in the midst of a fundamental shift in its relationship to society as a result of profound economic and political changes. On the one hand, public support of higher education is in question due to the dominance of market ideology; on the other hand, the social demand for higher education is rising. Higher education is being equated to a marketable commodity and as investment for profit. It is no longer viewed as a public good. The private sector is coming to play a critical role in higher education even in countries where it was, until recently, fully subsidized by the state. The question asked is, Is higher education no longer the social responsibility of the government? This is especially true when it is also being argued that higher education is a keystone to development—be it economic, social, or human. Additionally, since higher education is expected to ensure trained and responsible leadership, it can be said to provide the main thrust in development (Thompson et al., 1977). The universities and the academics are also being perceived as critical to knowledge production and to train the human resources for the restructured global economy. This is putting pressure on the universities to change their goals and functions, which impacts on its traditional functions and also on the academics. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.