Bangalore: India and China are battling to overtake one another in terms of economic growth in the coming decade. However, higher education enrollment is the principal indicator of economic growth as per World Bank statistics. When a nation significantly increases the number of university students it educates, that nation is likely to see an increase in economic growth in the decade that follows, reports William H Avery for the Economic Times. The same was witnessed in case of Japan and Korea in the early and late 1980s respectively.
China is noted to have an annual $250-billion investment in higher education, which will reward them soon. China has increased the number of institutes of higher education two-fold and increased the enrollment by five times in the last decade.26 percent of China's university-age population is enrolled in an institution of higher education, while it is just 18 percent in India. However, in 1990 and 2000 India had outdone China in university enrollment rates.
In India the IITs and IIMs are considered as the driving force of higher education, but they reach a ridiculously small section of students and higher education for the masses is not well delivered. On the other hand China provides quality and quantity in terms of higher education to the masses.
