India's State Public Universities (SPUs), which teach 81% of the country's higher education students, are facing serious problems today. The quality of education and research is being affected due to the lack of faculty and old infrastructure in these universities. NITI Aayog has recently released a report, which states that more than 40% of the faculty positions in these universities are vacant and only 10% of the SPUs have good research resources, in such a situation students are facing difficulty in learning.

Government should spend 6% of GDP on higher education: Report.

This report also states that SPUs, which are the largest part of India's higher education, provide affordable and inclusive education to students. These universities are providing education to more than 3.25 crore students. But some measures are needed to solve these problems. The report suggests that the government should increase investment in higher education, that is, 6% of GDP should be spent on it. Apart from this, SPUs need to be made more autonomous and independent, so that they can work better and provide more facilities for research.

Only 32% of universities in the country have digital libraries.

The report also states that SPUs have old buildings and fewer research resources, due to which students are not getting proper guidance and help. There is also a problem with the digital library, as only 32% of SPUs have a fully functioning digital library. Due to this, students and teachers are finding it difficult to access research from around the world.

More than 40% of faculty positions are vacant: Report.

The report also revealed that more than 40% of faculty positions in SPUs are vacant, which is affecting the educational experience of students. The student-teacher ratio has increased a lot. While this ratio should be 15:1 in a good university, it has reached 30:1 in SPUs. This means that students are not getting enough attention and guidance. The report states that SPUs should first focus on measures to recruit and retain faculty so that the quality of education can be improved.

This is what the report said about tuition fees.

However, one good aspect is that the tuition fees in SPUs are much lower than in private institutions. This is the reason why these universities provide educational opportunities even for financially weak students. The report also states that the government needs to invest more to improve SPUs again. Along with this, SPUs will have to implement plans to give them more autonomy and promote research.

NAAC is not happening due to high cost

Apart from this, government colleges also face difficulty in getting quality improvement funds due to the high cost of NAAC (National Accreditation Board). The government needs to take immediate steps to solve all these problems.