On Planning University Development: Shibboleths Versus Stylised Facts?

Abstract

Reflecting on the nature and pattern of development of universities in India and abroad and drawing lessons from the past and also contemporary scene, the paper highlights a few major fallacies in planning university development, contrasting them with available evidence. It has been found that the whole approach to planning university systems seems to be guided more by immediate, short term, narrow and pecuniary considerations and compulsions and by questionable presumptions and fallacious arguments rather than by long term, broad national and global considerations and theoretically sound and empirically valid research. It also emphasises the need to resurrect the idea of the ‘ideal’ university.