Envisioning a world-class university system for India

While there continues to be considerable discussion on world-class universities, there has been little discussion on world-class university systems. Ideally, a world-class university system is an ecology of institutions with highly differentiated but tightly integrated visions. These universities are differentiated by their emphasis on research, teaching and service; their global, regional, national and local scope; their aspiration to be a premier, leading or a generic institution; their specialization in the arts, humanities, sciences and professions. Yet they have to act in concert for the development of the society. They have to form a coherent, coordinated, albeit complex network to generate knowledge, store it, propagate it and apply it to the development of society. This article presents a framework for envisioning such a system for India, a case study of application of the framework and suggestions for strategically planning for such a system.