In India, there have been some relevant studies in the field of cost of education by not only individuals but by the Education Commission, NCERT etc. The present volume is devoted to discussing different components and reasons for the variation of education in a number of selected Universities of West Bengal. In developed economies like USA, many Universities have been asked to procure their own funds. Such a course of action may not be desirable in a developing country like India which is not only committed to growth but also to social justice. Here education is not only regarded as an instrument of development but also for achieving social justice.

The book is broadly divided into XI Chapters. Chapter I discusses introductory remarks relating to education from the inception of planning in this country. Chapter II is devoted to discussing “Public Expenditure on Education in Developed and Developing Countries”. Here, it is explained by means of data that the highest percentage of expenditure on education is registered by the middle income groups such as in Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, England etc. Chapter III discusses “Pattern of Public Expenditure on Education by Levels - Some theoretical considerations”. This Chapter deals with tenets relating to primary education, secondary education and higher education including University education. Here Lewis's statement quoted by the Author on pages 84–85 needs to be repeated; “W.A. Lewis informed us that in England a young engineering graduate starts with a salary which is less than that of a miner. A teacher in the United States earns less than the average income of the country while a civil servant in the UK or the United States gets only the average income of the respective countries. On the other hand, the premium paid for education in Asian and African countries is much higher because administrative services and the teaching posts of Universities and colleges in the colonial period were filled up by importing British people and the pay scales had to be made much higher to attract such people. Even for a school teacher in many African countries it was necessary to import foreigners because the natives did not have the requisite qualifications for the job. At this point, we may add that the continuance of traditional social values towards white collar jobs and a disdain for natural work and even for a blue collar job in a country like India exists because of the value system ingrained in the caste system. Hence, according to Lewis, an over supply of graduates may be necessary to scale down the income of such white collar jobs to a realistic level”.

Chapter IV deals with “Expansion of Educational Facilities in India with particular reference to West Bengal - An overview”. Chapter V discusses various “Stages of Education and their relative growth profiles in the major States in India and particular reference to West Bengal”. Chapter VI deals with “University Education in West Bengal”. It is observed that the total number of Universities in the country in 1992 was only 147, while it is more than 200 as of now. The latest statistics are not given in the book. The Universities in general have been classified into three types - Affiliating, Unitary and Federal. Likewise various Colleges have also been classified as: (a) Affiliated Colleges; (b) Constituent Colleges; (c) Autonomous Colleges; (d) University Colleges; and (e) Professional Colleges. Chapter VII discusses “Financing of University Education in West Bengal”. In this chapter there is a discussion regarding sources of finance of the State Universities such as grants from the State Governments, grants from the UGC, Tuition Fees, Registration Fees, etc. Likewise Chapter VIII deals with “Classification of University Expenditure in West Bengal”. Chapter IX deals with “Growth Profile of Students in Three Universities in West Bengal”. These three Universities are: Kalyani University, Rabindra Bharathi University and Jadavpur University. Chapter X deals with “Cost of University Education”. The last Chapter deals with “The Factors Determining the Revenue Expenditure in a University”.

On the whole, one gets the impression that the book is too general and not at all technical. This looks like a collation of various data relating to University Education, particularly in West Bengal. The data quoted is up to 1993–1994 for most of the indicators, which are more than 10–12 years old. This may not be useful for modern research. However, let us hope that this book will serve some purpose to people who deal with the cost of higher education in West Bengal.

Prof. B. Satyanarayan