Commitment to quality in higher education: A missing ingredient Kaur Baljit Research Scholar, Department of Public Administration, Punjabi University, Patiala, India Email id: baljitphd@gmail.com Online published on 17 September, 2019. Abstract Quality is the most important ingredient in Higher Education. It is not enough to provide only higher education, but it is also very important to ensure quality in it for development of any society. But question arises here: from where this quality comes? There are three agencies to ensure quality in higher education i.e. government or private management of educational institutions like universities & colleges, teachers and students. Unless all the stakeholders play their role sincerely, it is not possible to ensure a good quality in higher education despite huge budgetary allocations, modern infrastructure and technology. In the present study, the focus is only on the third part, that is, students. The rationale is if students are not committed to quality in their studies, whatever efforts are done by other two agencies, they come to a naught. It is very important that pupils play their role earnestly which will help to attain quality in higher education field. The present study aims to examine whether the students are committed to quality in their studies or not. The main focus of this study is on research scholar aspect of students’, because they can play an important role to develop their discipline. On research scholars depends the quality of research work done in any university to a large extent. It is the general perception that there is a serious lack of morals and ethics in the youth of India. If research scholars have no ethics and values, they will never be serious about their research work. There are many problem areas in this regard in India and the UGC with the objective of improvement in the quality of higher education in the country has notified several regulations. University Grants Commission undertakes maintenance of standards in teaching and research and quality assurance in universities, deemed to be universities and colleges through the mechanisms like framing regulations and schemes, disbursing grants to the eligible institutions. The main focus of this study is to see the commitment of research scholars towards quality, which is the key ingredient of education system and also to find out the reasons for the lack of their commitment towards quality in their research work. For the completion of this study both primary as well as secondary sources have been taped. The area of study is limited to research scholars of Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab (India) only. Punjabi University is a State University of Punjab, established on April 30, 1962 in the erstwhile princely state of Patiala. The paper will present the findings with the suggestions that how we can commit the research scholars towards quality, ethics and values in higher education in India, because if they have committed to quality in their research work, only then their research can be useful to the development of their discipline and the country too. Top Keywords Higher Education, Research Scholars, Quality, Commitment, Development. Top |