Introduction

India’s higher education system is facing a deep and multi-dimensional crisis—one that goes far beyond issues of infrastructure or rankings and strikes at the heart of student well-being, academic quality, and institutional credibility. This reality has been starkly underlined by the Supreme Court of India in a recent case concerning student suicides, where the Court issued nine important directions to both the Central and State governments. The Court’s intervention recognises that the crisis in higher education is not accidental or episodic, but structural in nature, driven by unchecked privatisation, declining academic standards, chronic faculty shortages, and growing student distress. What is at stake is not only the future of millions of students, but also the intellectual and social foundations of the country.

The Supreme Court’s Intervention: A Signal of Institutional Breakdown

• The Court invoked Article 142 of the Constitution, underlining the extraordinary nature of the situation and the need for immediate corrective action.

• It directed:

  • Mandatory record-keeping, reporting, and tracking of student suicides in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

  • This is significant because, until now, data on student distress and suicides has been:

    • Fragmented

    • Underreported

    • Often institutionally ignored

• The Court also ordered steps to:

  • Fill long-vacant posts of Vice-Chancellors and Registrars.

• It explicitly recognised that:

  • Stable leadership and functional administration are not optional extras

  • They are essential for student welfare, grievance redressal, and institutional health

This judicial intervention is less a matter of activism and more a reflection of how far governance in higher education has deteriorated.

Problems Plaguing Higher Education

The Court’s observations bring into focus several deep-rooted problems.

1. Massification Without Quality

• India has rapidly expanded access to higher education over the last two decades.

• While enrolment has increased, this “massification” has not been matched by:

  • Adequate investment in faculty

  • Infrastructure

  • Academic support systems

• The result is: Overcrowded classrooms, Under-resourced campuses, Falling academic standards

2. Student Distress and Suicides

• Many students today face a toxic mix of:

  • Financial stress

  • Social and cultural alienation

  • Academic pressure and uncertainty about the future

• For first-generation learners and students from marginalised backgrounds, this burden is even heavier.

• The rising number of suicides is not merely an individual mental health issue—it is a systemic failure of institutions to provide support, dignity, and hope.

3. Chronic Faculty Vacancies

• In many public universities, nearly 50% of sanctioned teaching posts remain vacant.

• This leads to:

  • Overworked existing faculty

  • Reliance on poorly paid ad hoc or contractual teachers

  • Decline in mentoring, research, and academic engagement

4. Administrative Paralysis

• Governance crises have become routine.

• A telling example is the University of Madras, where the appointment of a Vice-Chancellor has been stalled for long periods due to the Governor’s inaction.

• Such paralysis:

  • Creates uncertainty

  • Weakens decision-making

  • Erodes institutional morale and accountability

5. Decline in Teaching and Research Quality

• With Faculty shortages, Delayed appointments, Bureaucratic control over academic processes

  • the core mission of universities—teaching, research, and knowledge creation—has been steadily undermined.

Deeper Structural Challenges

Behind these visible problems lie more entrenched structural failures.

• UGC recruitment processes are notoriously slow and cumbersome, often taking months or even years.

• Even when selections are completed:

  • Budgetary constraints delay or block actual appointments.

• Increasingly, political and ideological considerations influence appointments:

  • This undermines merit

  • Erodes trust in institutional processes

  • Creates factionalism and instability

• There has also been:

  • A steady retreat of the State from sustained investment in public universities

  • Growing reliance on self-financing courses and privatisation, which shifts the burden onto students and families

The cumulative effect is a system that is expanding in numbers but hollowing out in quality and purpose.

This Is About Systemic Reform, Not Firefighting

• The Supreme Court’s directions are not meant to be seen as:

  • Temporary crisis management

  • Or a response limited to the issue of suicides alone

• The underlying message is clear:

  • Without accountability, stable leadership, and filled vacancies, no higher education system can function in a humane or effective way.

• The Court has implicitly pointed out that:

  • Grand visions such as Viksit Bharat or becoming a “global knowledge power” are unrealistic

  • If the basic governance and academic foundations of universities remain broken

Why This Crisis Threatens India’s Future

• Higher education is not just about producing degrees.

• It is about: Creating critical thinkers, Training professionals and researchers, Enabling social mobility, Sustaining democracy and innovation

• A system where:

  • Students are distressed and unsupported

  • Teachers are absent or demoralised

  • Administrations are paralysed
    cannot perform any of these functions well.

Over time, this leads to:

• Loss of public trust in universities

• Flight of talent

• Further privatisation and inequality

• A vicious cycle of decline

Way Forward: What Needs to Change

India needs a comprehensive and courageous structural reform of higher education, not piecemeal fixes.

• Fill faculty and leadership vacancies on priority:

  • Through time-bound, transparent, merit-based processes.

• Restore institutional autonomy:

  • Reduce excessive political and bureaucratic interference in academic matters.

• Reinvest in public universities:

  • Treat them as national assets, not fiscal burdens.

• Build student support systems:

  • Mental health services

  • Academic mentoring

  • Financial and social support mechanisms

• Ensure accountability and transparency in appointments, administration, handling student grievances and welfare

Conclusion

The Supreme Court’s intervention is a wake-up call to the nation. India’s higher education crisis is not a marginal or technical problem—it is a civilisational issue that affects the country’s intellectual, social, and economic future. Without serious reforms focused on quality, accountability, academic freedom, and student welfare, public universities will continue to lose credibility and relevance. A society that fails to care for its students and teachers ultimately undermines its own future. If India truly wants a knowledge-driven and inclusive development path, it must begin by repairing, strengthening, and reimagining its higher education system from the ground up.