Thursday 25 May, 2023

12 - 1:00pm, Room S2.12 Social Sciences Building

Abstract: The Indian higher education, as in other emergent post-colonial contexts, has witnessed an increasing trend of female participation due to various interventions. However, attainment of gender equality at different levels of access, retention, employability, curriculum and social inclusion remains elusive, more so with widening inequalities in context of internationalization, public/private provision, and digitalization of Higher Education. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is a significant step in this direction and realisation of India’s commitment to international development agenda such as the Sustainable Development Goals. Our study conducted jointly by Brunel University London and Savitribai Phule Pune University in Maharashtra, India, analysed the working of NEP 2020, with reference to the achievements of the UK higher education, focusing on access, campus climate, retention, and inclusion of gender in curricular and institutional practices in India. It was conducted in five states in India selected on the basis of socio-economic diversity of the regions, their gross enrollment ratio and gender parity index and has achieved an in-depth investigation of the multiple marginalities, which exist in the socially differentiated Indian context and impact achievement of gender equality goals. Our intersectional, institutional and regional analysis of qualitative and quantitative data complicated the narrative/myth of gender parity as equality and unravelled the intertwined relationship of gender institutional regimes, caste patriarchal norms and neo-liberal logic alongside the recent diversification of India higher education.