Abstract

The paper examines the quality of higher education in the Indian context in terms of subject knowledge (curriculum) coupled with analytical thinking and communication skills. The study identifies the factors that determine the quality of higher education and further explores whether there exists any difference in the quality of higher education based on the above three parameters between women and men and if so, in what way is this difference more revealing. In order to accomplish the aforementioned objectives, 416 students belonging to Commerce stream from 21 colleges affiliated under four universities in Kerala were selected as the respondents for an achievement test. The results indicate a low mean with a high variance in the learning outcomes. Although Kerala is one of the states in the country which has been remarkably successful in providing quality school education, when it comes to higher education, the State has not held its mark in providing quality education. Besides, an analysis based on the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition technique shows that a significant difference existing in the learning outcomes of male and female students related to analytical thinking is because of the coefficient differences. This implies that even with similar individual characteristics of students a significant difference exists, which can be attributed to the presence of gender discrimination in higher education.

摘要

本文从学科知识（课程）以及分析思维和沟通技巧方面考察了印度高等教育的质量。该研究确定了决定高等教育质量的因素，并进一步探讨了基于上述三个参数的男女之间的高等教育质量是否存在差异，如果存在，这种差异以何种方式更能说明问题。为了实现上述目标，来自喀拉拉邦四所大学下属的 21 所学院的 416 名商科学生被选为成绩测试的受访者。结果表明，学习成果的均值较低，方差较大。尽管喀拉拉邦是该国在提供优质学校教育方面非常成功的州之一，但在高等教育方面，该州在提供优质教育方面并没有留下自己的印记。此外，基于 Blinder-Oaxaca 分解技术的分析表明，男女学生在分析性思维方面的学习成果存在显着差异是因为系数差异。这意味着即使学生的个人特征相似，也存在显着差异，这可以归因于高等教育中存在性别歧视。基于 Blinder-Oaxaca 分解技术的分析表明，男女学生在分析性思维方面的学习成果存在显着差异是因为系数差异。这意味着即使学生的个人特征相似，也存在显着差异，这可以归因于高等教育中存在性别歧视。基于 Blinder-Oaxaca 分解技术的分析表明，男女学生在分析性思维方面的学习成果存在显着差异是因为系数差异。这意味着即使学生的个人特征相似，也存在显着差异，这可以归因于高等教育中存在性别歧视。