Governance and institutional leadership in higher education in India

This issue of IAU Horizons offers a selection of thought-provoking papers on Leadership challenges and strategic management, thus fueling a reflection on one of the key thematic areas of work for the Association.
Governance and institutional leadership in higher education in India, by N.V. Varghese
The higher education sector in India has been experiencing slow growth and low GER for a long time. The acceleration in the rate of growth and increase in GER in this century helped the country enter into a stage of massification of higher education. With around 30 million students, 700 universities and 36 thousand colleges, the Indian higher education sector is not only massive but also second largest in the world. The fast expansion of the sector is accompanied by the diversification of the sector in terms providers, study programmes and sources of funding. The private institutions, open universities and online courses such as the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become an integral part of the changing higher education landscape in India. It is a major challenge to govern and manage such a large and diversified system. More...