Mumbai University on its deathbed, but here’s how it can still be saved

Great universities make a nation great. Its soft power resides and grows in its labs, libraries and lecture halls. To know how, here is a true story from Israel. When Yitzak Rabin, its former prime minister, was visiting China in 1993, he was asked: “How has a tiny nation like yours, which is severely short of resources, managed to become a global technology leader? Rabin’s reply: “Because we have seven world-class universities.”

Donald Trump may be hastening USA’s decline, but America still has 41 universities in the global Top 100. Xi Jinping’s China has unveiled an ambitious project to elevate 42 of its higher education institutions to a world-class level.

India is a late starter in this race. The Modi government’s goals are also far less ambitious. Yet, it has taken some welcome steps. Ten public and ten private universities are to be supported to compete with the best in the world. In another first, the HRD ministry’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) has introduced a much-needed competitive spirit among public institutions of higher education.


Obviously, every state and every major city must help India find its rightful place on the global education map. However, one state (Maharashtra) and one city (Mumbai) are utterly indifferent to this opportunity, and this responsibility to the nation.
Mumbai University (established in 1857) was once among the best in India and Asia. In NIRF 2018, its national ranking has nosedived into the 150-200 range. Not a single Mumbai college is among the Top 10 colleges in India. Delhi has five, and Chennai three. In law and medical streams, too, the city has slipped badly.

How did Mumbai become a back-bencher in higher education? The answer can be found in the title of a book Mumbai De-Intellectualised authored by one of its thought leaders, the late Dr Aroon Tikekar, a decade ago.

The book bemoans the steady enfeeblement of the life of ideas in the city and its university, which in the distant past produced more distinguished alumni than any other Indian university — Mahatma Gandhi, Lokamanya Tilak, B R Ambedkar, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Jamsetji Tata, Homi Bhabha, M F Hussein, Nani Palkhiwala, Charles Correa and scores of others.

Mumbai was once India’s media and book publishing capital. No more. It has not bothered to build prestigious intellectual spaces like the India International Centre and India Habitat Centre in Delhi.

The descent gathered speed after Bombay became Mumbai, and the city came under the vicelike grip of linguistic chauvinism. Its votaries silenced debate with dadagiri. Constant eulogy of the state’s medieval past became more important for them than promotion of academic excellence and cosmopolitan diversity, which is the life-breath of vibrant intellectual life.

The main entrance of Mumbai University’s original campus, with its majestic Britishera buildings, has a name plate only in Marathi, no English! Its other 250-acre campus, located near India’s priciest real estate (Bandra-Kurla Complex), is among the worst maintained university campuses in India.

If the university’s physical infrastructure is pathetic, its administration and academic life are stifled by casteism, corruption and bureaucratism. After its vice chancellor was sacked last year because of an examination scandal, it has remained headless for the last eight months. No ruling party in Maharashtra in the past three decades Congress, NCP, BJP or Shiv Sena has shown even a modicum of vision, commitment or interest to stem the rot.

Can Mumbai be re-intellectualised? Yes. The effort must begin with saving its university, which is now on its deathbed. Here are five must-do action points.

First, with nearly 800 affiliated colleges, the institution has become simply ungovernable. It should be split into five new universities on the lines of the multiple-campus University of California system. The parent institution should be turned into a central university, so it receives more funds and better guidance.

Second, appointment of the vice chancellor and teachers must be strictly on merit. Third, the university must enjoy full functional autonomy, with accountability.

Fourth, its wealthy alumni from major corporates such as Tatas, Ambanis, Mahindras (some of whom have donated several hundred million dollars to US universities) should be approached to support specific facilities and new projects.

This writer has established ‘Friends of Mumbai University’, an alumni and well-wishers’ platform, for this purpose. Fifth, fees should be raised to ensure better salaries to the large of number of highly exploited and demotivated non-permanent teachers, while guaranteeing financial support to needy students.

Here is an example of the political parties’ absurd feepopulism — the regular MA (Economics) course has an annual fee of only Rs 8,000, whereas a similar course in a private institution affiliated to the university goes for Rs 6 lakh a year!

Lastly, in the true spirit of any great university, the community of students and faculty should become international, and regain the missing research focus.

The malaise in Mumbai University is symptomatic of the larger crisis of quality afflicting most of our state public universities. India needs new private universities, no doubt. But if its government-run institutions are allowed to die, this will surely lead to the death of dreams of a majority of Indian students who depend on them for their higher education needs.

(The writer was an aide to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the PMO)