Remaking Higher Education?: An Analysis of Media Discourse on Online Education in India

Conference: The Asian Conference on Education (ACE2022)
Title: Remaking Higher Education?: An Analysis of Media Discourse on Online Education in India
Stream: Higher Education
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
Authors:
Juhi Sidharth, FLAME University, India
Chaitanya Ravi, FLAME University, India

Abstract:

India has the second largest higher education system in the world with 42,343 colleges and 1043 universities, and improving access to higher education is a major policy priority of the government. Online education emerged as the preferred form of education during the COVID-19 milieu. The media has served an important forum for debates on online education in India and this debate intensified during the two pandemic years. This paper undertakes a detailed analysis of the media discourse surrounding online and blended education in India from 2020 to 2022. It identifies a focus on three key issues: 1) cost , 2) access and 3) learning outcomes as salient features of this discourse. The paper uses the concept of Framing to categorize the aforementioned focus of this discourse into an “access-outcome” frame. The paper then situates this “access-outcome” frame into a broader milieu of enabling state policies in India and the global discourse surrounding online education. The authors conclude that online education is likely to gain greater momentum in India over time because of a combination of political, (right-wing Modi government) economic, (neo-liberal policies) and social (rise of the new, aspirational middle class that views education as a product and institutions as service providers) developments. These developments are likely to result in continued favourable coverage of online education by the media.



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