RESEARCH STUDY

On

Perceptions of the Youth Regarding Higher

Education in Rajasthan: Evidences from
Survey Data
By

Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur

Submitted to:

Working Group on Education

State Planning Board
Government of Rajasthan

August 2013
Working Group on Education (WG-Edu.)

1. Dr. Ashok Bapna, Chairman, WG-Edu & Member, SPBE

2. Dr. M. M. Salunkhe, Member, WG-Edu & VC, Central University of Rajasthan
3. Dr. Sandeep Sancheti, Member, WG-Edu & VC, Manipal University, Jaipur
4. Dr. K. B. Kothari, Member, WG-Edu & Managing Trustee Pratham, Rajasthan
5. Mr. Rajeev Swarup, Member Secretary, WG-Edu & Principal Secretary, Higher and
Technical Education, Government of Rajasthan
Study Team at Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur

1. Dr. Prabhat Pankaj, Director, Jaipuria-Jaipur (Principal Investigator)

2. Dr. Swati Soni (Co-investigator)
3. Dr. Sunil Kumar Pandey (Co-investigator)
4. Raj Kishor Kampa (Co-investigator)

Youths participated in focus-group consultancy meeting:

Focus Group 1: Jaipur Focus Group 2: Jaipur Focus Group 2: Goner Focus Group 2: Gunsi
City City Village Village
Gaurav Baid Tanu Sharma Ashok Sharma Kamlesh Kumar Singh
Vishal Sharma Ankita Gupta Lokesh Tiwari Naresh Kumar Meena
Levish Sharma Aman Ashwani Monu Meena Rakesh Saini
Tuhina Rohan Maheshwari Imtiyaz Manish Jangir
Prerna Jhawar Sanjay Mehta Nitin Sharma Vishnu Jangir
Ashish Bandawala Akriti Jafar Mohd Vikram Singh
Ashish Kumar Mishra Joel Mathews Jitendra Sharma Sonu Prajapat
Ujjawal Abhishek Pandey Ramawtar Jangir Rahul Meena
Nidhi Goyal Diwakshi Jain Raju Lal Saini Govind Prajapat
Vipul Babber Rajat Ranjan Mukesh Saini Hanuman Meena
Laxmi Narayan Totaram Saini
 Acknowledgements

The first word of gratitude goes to Prof. Vijay S. Vyas and Prof. Ashok Bapna for giving us
this wonderful opportunity to undertake the study on Perceptions of the Youth Regarding
Higher Education in Rajasthan: Evidences from Survey Data . We consider this as an honour
for us at Jaipuria-Jaipur for being a part of a futuristic and important exercise in policy
making towards higher education in Rajasthan. We are also grateful for the comments made
by the members of State Planning Board, Rajasthan (SPB-R) during presentation of
preliminary findings of the study. Special thanks to Prof. V. S. Vyas, Prof. Ashok Bapna, Prof.
K. B. Kothari, Prof. Sandeep Sancheti, Prof. Upender Dhar, and Ms Kirti Singh for their critical
inputs and comments in shaping the course of this study.

We are thankful to all the youths who spared their valuable time and filled in seemingly long
questionnaire and given their views. We would also like to express our thanks to the group
of youths who spent time with us and expressed their opinion during focus-group
consultancy meeting.

During this study we visited Goner village in Bagru Tehsil in Jaipur district, and Gunsi village
in Niwai Tehsil in Tonk district. It was amazing to see the warmth with which we were
received by village panchayat people and youth. We are extremely grateful to Smt. Kamla
Meena (Sarpanch, Goner village) and Smt. Suman Devi (Sarpanch, Gunsi village) for the
support extended to us in the general interview process and in recording of some of the
proceedings.

We would also like to put on record our appreciation and thanks for the support extended
to us by Jaipuria management in carrying out this study. Special thanks to Shri Shreevats
Jaipuria and Dr Pankaj Gupta for their support. Our sincere thanks to Shri Sharad Jaipuria ji
for his words of wisdom and constant encouragement.

This study ould t ha e ee o pleted without the support of Prakash C. Sharma, Raj
Prakash Singh, Sukhram Bhincher, and Rakesh Sharma (Senior). They provided the entire IT,
logistic, and ground work support.

Finally, we would like to dedicate this study to the wonderful youth of Rajasthan and wish
for their bright future.

Dr. Prabhat Pankaj

Dr. Swati Soni
Dr. Sunil Kumar Pandey
Raj Kishor Kampa

Jaipuria Institute of Management, Jaipur (Rajasthan)

 Executive Summary

Youths are the takers and seekers of higher education. Therefore, it is imperative that
perceptions of youth regarding higher education are mapped and analysed. This study was
designed to capture the perceptions of youth regarding higher education using survey data.
The study also used focus group discussion as a tool to find the perceptions and to ascertain
the factors to be captured during the survey. A total of 294 youths from Jaipur city were
surveyed using structured and pre-tested questionnaire. A comparison was made with the
perceptions of youths in rural areas in Goner village in Bagru Tehsil in Jaipur district, and
Gunsi village in Niwai Tehsil in Tonk district. Comparative methodology was used to capture
the perceptions of rural youths. The discussions have been video recorded and content
analysis method was used for analysing the information. In this way, the survey used both
quantitative and qualitative method to understand the perception of Rajasthan youth
towards higher education. The rural survey was primarily based on interview recording
method. A visual comparison method was used to ascertain the differences in perceptions
across samples from three areas.

The study suggests that youths are motivated towards three imperatives in life—money &
material comfort, the pursuit of giving back to society, and taking care of own family and
supporting them in times of need. There are primarily four types of expectations with which
youths enter higher education. These expectations are degree seeking, academic input
seeking, job seeking, and life skills seeking. The survey reveals that there are overlapping
across expectations. Results indicate that today s youth is hoosi g higher edu atio
majorly for seeking jobs, about 63% of them are expecting higher education to bring better
employment. About 12% of them are looking beyond jobs and are ready to imbibe all
possible life skills which will make them face challenges of life. They are highly self-
motivated and ready to learn. There are about 9% degree seekers who are neither bothered
on academics nor on employability. There are about 16% academic seekers who would feel
good inside the classroom when serious academic inputs are provided while they would
consider outside classroom activities for employability skill building as non-serious inputs.

It is in this backdrop that youths expect higher educational institutions to come up with
market-oriented courses and to provide better employability prospects. Higher educational
institutions should focus on quality and delver life-time value for them. Higher educational
institutions should have good industry linkage. Youths expect teachers to be knowledgeable
and helpful who can bring practical inputs in the classroom and have good industry connect.
There see s to e ariety of i flue es o youth s areer hoi e. This ra ges fro peers to
fa ily, so iety, a d e o o y. There is a tre e dous role of te h ology i youth s life. They
i fa t, lo e a d li e o s ree s . There are three s ree s that defi e their te h ologi al
canvas—Computer Screen, Mobile Screen, and Television Screen. Youths seem to be
learning from all sources, however, more pronounced from internet sources and other
social media based sources.

What emerges from the statistical analysis of survey data is that employability drive for
youth would depend upon how we understand them and how we engage them. Institutions
responsibility towards employability would not end up with good plans rather it would
depend upon their ability to channelize youths towards it.
Youths seem to have a clear view about what they expect from higher education. The main
thrust of their perception is that higher education and higher educational institutions must
deliver according to the need for employability. Higher education is not merely about
knowledge imparting and dissemination. It is also about how and with what mix of theory
and practice the knowledge is being imparted. This is also about using variety of alternatives
in generating and disseminating knowledge. It is also about how technology is integrated in
the teaching-learning process. Youths feel that online open source learning is a good way to
do it.

There is, however, urban-rural difference in the perceptions of youths. In rural area,
accessibility to higher education and availability of resources is a concern. There is also need
for inculcating good teaching-learning environment in rural areas. Rural youths are missing
on availability of professional courses. The focus for policy making towards future of higher
education must take cognizance of youth perspectives. All individual mean responses across
aspects and sample have been found statistically significant. Further, the study also did not
find any statistical difference in mean responses between male and female in most cases.

In nutshell, it is to be reiterated that the traditional view of higher education needs to

change and any future policy towards it should be accommodative of new and fresh
perspectives.