Higher Education in India : Challenges of Quality and Accessibility in the Context of Inclusive Growth

India is now considered a knowledge-economy. Despite financial constraints, higher (tertiary) education is changing significantly in terms of its content and context. Its immense contribution to the country's human capital and economic development is well accepted and acknowledged. However, many crucial issues still confront us. While the present system of higher education is still largely alien to the land and its traits, the fast globalisation seems to justify the end. Further, deficits in educational infrastructure are hindering quality in input and output. Last but not the least higher education is still inaccessible to lakhs of aspiring people, the marginalised. Thus, while the burgeoning expansion of the economy along with knowledge expansion is noteworthy, it does not go well with growing educated unemployment, apathy for good research, side-lining of humanities, increasing teacher burnout, indifference towards teaching-learning outcomes and life-long learning skills, low-key in accreditation etc. Much time and money is wasted over issues of admission policies, medium of instruction, private versus public universities, and so on. Teachers and the students often get stuck with ‘experimental' learning instead of moving to ‘experiential' learning.In this context the present paper analyses the needs of the system in making higher education viable, relevant and meaningful to society. Some suggestions and (re)orientations are also attempted to ensure balancing of quality with accessibility for the sake of universality and equity at the same time. It is time that we gave serious thought to making higher education a platform for freedom from inequality and exclusion. This is in-keeping with our vision of a transformative society that is socially inclusive and economically progressive one in which all Indians feel valued and has the opportunity to participate fully in the life and activities of our society and economy. Essentially this means that all Indians will have the resources – available and accessible – and capability to learn, decide, work and enjoy equally for their growth and welfare. This is the essence of inclusive growth or broad-based and sustainable development