Private Higher Education in India: Expansion, Costs, and Financing

Indian higher education has witnessed a massive expansion over the past two decades. The phenomenal expansion of Indian higher education can be attributed to surge in demand for higher education as a result of increase in income levels of the population and augmented supply of private providers. The share of private-unaided institutions has steadily increased while the share of private aided and government colleges declined in this century. The enrolment in private-unaided institutions has increased during the same period and the enrolment in private aided and government colleges declined. This chapter analyses implications of the rapid growth of private sector for quality, disciplinary balance, disparity between regions and inequality among social groups. The chapter shows that growing participation of private sector has direct bearing on sharing of costs of higher education through cost recovery measures in public institutions and in unaided self-financing institutions. These measures which moved from state to the market reforms have increased financial burden of the households.