Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Quality Improvement Project
The Madhya Pradesh Higher Education Quality Improvement Project is a results-based financing (RBF) initiative aimed at improving access, equity, and quality in higher education across the state. The project supported Madhya Pradesh's more than 1,300 colleges and universities serving 1.6 million students, which represents 10% of India's higher education enrolment. Key objectives included:
- Increasing access for disadvantaged groups like scheduled castes and female students
- Enhancing the quality and relevance of education
- Strengthening governance and accountability in higher education institutions.
The project uses disbursement-linked indicators (DLIs) to incentivize the achievement of pre-agreed results, with financing provided based on meeting targets in areas such as scholarship provision, faculty development, curriculum improvement, and monitoring and evaluation systems.
Pros
Aligns financing with achievement of specific, measurable results
Incentivizes focus on outcomes rather than just inputs
Encourages innovation and efficiency in achieving targets
Strengthens accountability and governance systems
Potential for greater impact on access, equity and quality goals
Cons
Requires robust systems for measuring and verifying results
Risk of focusing only on measured indicators at expense of other areas
May be challenging to implement in low-capacity environments
Potential for unintended consequences if indicators are not carefully designed
Partners
Government of Madhya Pradesh
World Bank