Do high fees at private universities make liberal arts education ‘elite’?

NEW DELHI: For Navya, it is her upper-middle class family that facilitated her education at Ashoka University. Her parents are doctors and she graduated from a convent school in Jaipur. In May 2024, she graduated with a BA (Hons) political science and a minor in media studies.

“The fee is so exorbitantly high that a middle-class family cannot afford education at Indian private universities. The students from tier-1 and tier-2 cities find Ashoka University approachable as the outreach team of Ashoka organises events in schools of big cities to promote their university,” Navya told Careers360.

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From application form to writing the test to interview – the admission process of liberal arts courses in private universities is in English only.

“This creates a situation where students from a Hindi-medium background are chucked out from the system to quite an extent. Students from government schools and rural areas find it very difficult to even appear for the interview, even if they clear the written test. They often lack the soft skills required to crack interviews which convent school students already have. Most of my classmates hailed from urban areas and studied in private schools. Ashoka University is still heavily dominated by rich kids from upper caste backgrounds,” Navya said.

Liberal arts education is still considered the province of the elite in India, mainly because that structure of choice and flexibility is offered, for the most part, in private universities. Only the very well-heeled can afford the high fee of liberal arts education, even teachers from the institutions agreed. Plus, the admission process itself favours rich and English-speaking students.

The introduction of liberal education in public universities – which the National Education Policy 2020 envisions and public universities find very hard to implement – will enhance access to quality interdisciplinary education, teachers believe.

Liberal arts in India

In India, liberal arts education is mainly offered by private universities and at a very high fee. The liberal education system offers flexibility and options to students to choose from multiple disciplines according to their own interests.

Prithvi Datta Chandra Shobhi, dean, School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences (SIAS), Krea University, Sricity explained that liberal arts typically is an approach that is followed in American universities and that model has been indigenised and adapted to the Indian context by some elite private universities.

“By studying liberal arts, you get a very thorough training in a particular discipline, become good thinkers, understand what’s going on in the world and intervene in ways that make the world a better place. So this is a critical sensibility, a constructed sensibility that education offers in a liberal arts curriculum,” he said.

Divya Balan, assistant professor in international studies at FLAME University, Pune, said, “The concepts of interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity, and transdisciplinarity have always existed in the Indian education system. However, these ideas are truly implemented in a liberal education setup, where students can transcend the boundaries of different disciplines.”

Faculties at the private universities believe that liberal arts education in India is slowly becoming more mainstream.

Ravi Chakraborty, director of communication for liberal arts at Alliance University, Bengaluru, stated, “Liberal arts was initially a place for the elite. Many middle-class parents still prefer conventional choices like engineering or business. However, mindsets are gradually changing.”

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That said, teachers still have to explain how a liberal arts programme is different from a standard BA. “We have to convince them about the values and prospects of the courses. Now, parents and students ask us about placement opportunities after pursuing BA (Hons) liberal arts,” said Ashita Chadha, director, University Institute of Liberal Arts and Humanities (UILAH) at Chandigarh University.

“Liberal arts programmes can play in enriching the lives of the students,” added Priya Nair, dean, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, RV University, Bengaluru. “It is about building knowledge and skills that will be useful in all kinds of careers that the students choose to opt for in the future.”

High fees at private universities

In India, liberal arts education comes at a high cost. Typically, students can earn a BA (Honours) or BSc (Honours) degree after a four-year programme, with the option to exit at the end of the third year with a BA or BSc. The total cost in a year can range from Rs 3 lakh to over Rs 10 lakh.

Private universities, fees and expense

Source: Official websites of the universities

In India, Ashoka University is the most expensive institution offering liberal arts education. The high costs can be attributed to its faculty and infrastructure. Faculty at Ashoka comprises authors, scientists, historians, journalists, artists, and entrepreneurs. Its website claims a faculty ratio of 11:1.

Chandigarh University is the most affordable. “Though we charge less fees than other private universities for our liberal arts courses, we do not offer anything less. All the faculty at UILAH are doctorates from the best universities of the country. I believe that every student should have a chance to study more than what is being traditionally offered in government universities,” Chadha said.

However, there is some disquiet about the cost of the programme and what it means for classroom diversity.

An economics teacher at a private university in South India offering liberal studies said such universities are essentially catering to the rich and elite. “It is too costly to graduate from foreign universities. So, most of these students do their graduation here and prepare themselves for studying masters-level courses abroad,” he said, asking not to be named. “At least 90% of the classroom strength at private universities comprises students from rich backgrounds. However, universities also offer scholarships to attract meritorious students from the marginalised communities.”

At Krea University, the teacher to students ratio is around 1:6 to 1:7 which is likely to rise to around 1:10 in five years. “Unfortunately there is some merit in the statement that liberal arts are mainly studied at private universities by rich students. None of the private universities are being subsidised by the government. Someone has to pay for it. And unfortunately, in this case, it’s either corporate CSR funds or parents who can afford these courses. But that cost has nothing to do with the quality of it,” Shobhi said.

According to Balan, liberal education is currently offered in private universities, and the fees are relatively higher. “At FLAME, we offer full fee-waiver scholarships to students from marginalised backgrounds to ensure inclusivity and diversity. But, the problem of accessibility still exists. Hence, I believe it is imperative to introduce liberal education in public universities, where students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds study. It is not at all fair to say that private universities charge high fees solely because they are private, as the infrastructural facilities and academic exposure offered to students are immense,” she said.

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Admission at private universities

A typical selection process at private liberal arts universities include an online application, an online test and an interview. The whole admission process is conducted in English and the medium of instruction is also English. This creates a situation where “the admission process favors the elite”, said the economics teacher.

Balan disagreed and said that the admission process does not favour candidates from elite backgrounds. “Liberal education is for everyone. We interview students to admit them into various programmes. We get students from public schools who may not speak English fluently. There were instances where we asked questions in English during the interview process, and students responded first in English and then switched to Hindi. If their answers make sense to us, we don’t have any problem with their language proficiency. In interviews, we don’t just focus on the English language but check students’ motivation, interest, and knowledge about the subject,” she said.

Liberal arts universities: Private vs public

Balan believes that liberal education can be offered in public universities as well, but with proper planning and arrangements.

“The combination of various disciplines is possible in a liberal education setup, not in the public university system, but this is changing. Until the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, our public universities allowed students to graduate in a specific discipline of their interest. Now, FYUP is being implemented, offering choices of studying different subjects in various public universities as part of NEP,” she said.

She also cautioned that teachers should receive proper prior training to adjust to and transition to liberal education.

Chadha said that government institutions are still offering traditional courses and don’t want to become contemporary. “They have become irrelevant because of their curriculum and syllabi. Their faculties are responsible for this loss of trust among students and then they claim that liberal arts courses are for elites. This is not the case. We have courses that impart among students relevant skills for modern society. Because of the affordable fee, we have students from both rich and middle-class backgrounds,” she said.