Authors : Rakhi Uppal and Kirti Sharma
Page Nos : 74-82
Description :
accountability, skills-oriented curricula and stronger expectations of institutional quality. These changes create opportunities for rural colleges, but they do not affect institutions equally. This paper examines how globalisation is shaping quality assurance in rural higher education, with particular attention to Indian policy and institutional conditions. A structured narrative review was undertaken using recent academic literature, Indian government documents and international reports, with emphasis on evidence published mainly between 2020 and 2026. The review identifies four linked findings. First, globalisation has widened access to knowledge through digital platforms, online courses and international academic networks, but the benefit depends on reliable infrastructure and digital capability. Second, quality assurance has shifted from a narrow accreditation exercise towards continuous institutional improvement, transparency, learning outcomes and stakeholder responsibility. Third, NEP 2020 and related reforms create a stronger policy environment for multidisciplinary learning, skills, industry linkages and internationalisation, but implementation capacity remains uneven. Fourth, rural institutions face a distinctive risk: adopting global benchmarks without adapting them to local language, socioeconomic conditions, student needs and available resources can reproduce rather than reduce inequality. The paper therefore argues for a context-sensitive quality assurance model in which global standards are treated as reference points rather than uniform templates. The strongest evidence supports investment in digital infrastructure, faculty development, student support, transparent internal quality processes and locally relevant employability pathways. (Nagy & Robinson, 2013).
