Regulation, Higher Education and Transformation

This article examines recent ongoing churning around independent regulatory authorities in higher education in India in the context of the changing relationship between polity and policy in the emergent neoliberal state discourse. The disconnect between polity and policy needs to be examined concerning people’s power in liberal democratic theory. People’s power and higher education are intertwined since the former has legitimate claim over the latter. Hence, this article, at the outset, examines the anatomy of regulation vis-à-vis people’s power. Thereafter, regulation and knowledge are examined congruently. Regulation and higher education in India are explained by way of clarifying the constitutional provisions and analysing emerging policy proposals regarding centralisation, commercialisation and regulations. This article highlights the importance of higher education for transformation. In this regard, ten challenges are outlined in the end