For example, the university environment in India reinforces a divide between Dalit and nonâDalit, between those belonging to varying faiths and different sexes.
ICSSR – CPRHE/NUEPA Research Project On Higher Education for Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement: A Study of Diversity and Discrimination in Higher Education Institutions
Information Note
Centre for Policy Research in Higher Education National University of Educational Planning and Administration 17B Sri Aurobindo Marg New Delhi: 110016
Higher Education for Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement: A Study of Diversity and Discrimination in Higher Education Institutions Principal Investigator: Nidhi S. Sabharwal Co-Investigator: CM Malish Introduction to the Research Project CPRHE-NUEPA has recently completed a collaborative project with Indian Council of Social Science Research on Higher Education for Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement: Diversity and Discrimination in Higher Education. The universities play an important role in imparting democratic values and promoting democratic norms of behaviour. UNESCO’s World Declaration on Higher Education for the 21st Century (1998) underlines the mission of Higher Education as ‘training young people in the values which form the basis of democratic citizenship’ (Article 1e). It prepares young minds to become effective citizens by enhancing students’ knowledge regarding issues pertaining to inequalities, poverty, discrimination, injustices, and inculcating democratic values of equality, liberty, fraternity and skills needed for democratic engagement. The higher education sector in India has experienced an unprecedented expansion in the recent decades. The expansion was accompanied by diversification of the sector in terms of institutions, students, sources of financing and the nature of programmes of study offered. The student composition in the campuses became very diverse. Today a large number of non-traditional social group learners belonging to various social, economic, linguistic, gender, regional and physical ability backgrounds are present in college campuses. The widening diversity of the student body is reflected through varying ideological orientation, values, and differing styles of social interactions in the campuses. While diversity provides an opportunity to experience richness and variety, it also poses challenges of living in a socially inclusive way. The diversity tends to induce social and peers groups around ‘identities’ and develop divide in social relations based on caste, ethnic, class, linguistic, regional, and religious lines. Exclusionary behaviours also bring discrimination and physical violence for low castes and women. The campuses experience cleavages in terms of caste, ethnicity, religion, gender, and class. For example, the university environment in India reinforces a divide between Dalit and non–Dalit, between those belonging to varying faiths and different sexes. The diversity tends to induce social and peers groups around ‘identities’ and reproduce divide in social relations on caste, ethnic, class, linguistic, regional, and religious lines. In this context, the CPRHE/NUEPA in collaboration with and funded by ICSSSR initiated a research project with the objectives of understanding the issues of diversity and discrimination in college campuses, to develop policy and practices for promoting democratic engagement and citizenship amongst the youth. The study aims to address 1
research questions such as what is the extent of diversity in the Indian Higher Education Institutions; what are the nature and forms of discrimination in Higher Education Institutions and what are the institutional policies and strategies to address diversity and discrimination? It probes into diversity dynamics of selected higher education institutions using both qualitative and quantitative methods to collect information from students, faculty and administrators. The case studies include public institutions covering federally funded and State financed institutions, unitary universities and affiliated colleges across different regions. The study has been implemented in 12 higher education institutions located across six states, namely, Bihar, Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Study adopted combination of qualitative and quantitative methods for collection and analysis of data/information. A detailed questionnaire based survey among 3200 students was administered, close to 200 interviews were conducted with faculty and administrators and close to 70 focus group discussions with students were undertaken to develop an understanding on unique challenges faced by students from socially excluded groups and institutional response to changing nature of student diversity. The research report is completed and was submitted to the Research Advisory Committee in October 2016.
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