This book focuses on the theory and practice of financing higher education in India.

Contributed papers presented at the National Seminar on Financing of Education at New Delhi in 2003.

This book critically examines the questions related to the access to and financing of higher education in India. The rapid expansion of knowledge economy in the neo-liberal era of globalisation has created an unprecedented demand for higher education, especially skill-based advanced learning. However, the inability of the government to meet the demand for public education, the massification of the higher education and the rapid privatisation of the education sector have now created concerns over financing education and ensuring its equitable access. The volume discusses the challenges faced by aspiring students to meet the rising cost of higher education, as educational policies increasingly favour marketisation of higher education. It sheds light on several alternative and innovative methods of financing, with a focus on educational loans, to highlight how inequities and inequalities affect access to educational loans in countries like India. The book thus explores how this impacts students from the deprived/disadvantaged sections of the society who are unable to access courses and institutions of their choice, and therefore remain unsuitable to get absorbed in the evolving market economy. An incisive read on the economics of education in India, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of education, higher education, public policy, sociology, development studies, political science and governance, as well as for the policy-makers.

This is one of the first volumes to comprehensively discuss resource constraints and institutional challenges in realizing the Fundamental Right to Education (RTE) in India. It looks at various aspects of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the primary vehicle to implement RTE and a flagship programme to universalize elementary education in the country. The book presents a comparative perspective across regions and states and evaluates the effective delivery of SSA at the grassroots level. Using rich empirical data, not yet available in the public domain, it provides valuable lessons for the planning and financing arrangements of SSA-RTE between the centre and the states, and towards understanding access, equity and quality of education. The work will be a major resource for scholars and researchers of education, economics, public policy, development studies, and politics.