Dates can be changed but yes it will be an exciting event to all.

it should be noted that AIEMD is one of the best colleges of engineering and technology in West bengal , The college is affliated to West Bengal University of technology, kolkata.

Image via Wikipedia

The traditional Indian general universities i.e. those established by legislation, largely lost out on evolving meaningful syllabi and courses, with few honourable exceptions. Problems that arose were:

• Universities, affiliated colleges and their personnel largely forgot that they exist primarily for students, and not for career bureaucrats or faculty.
• Students, and perhaps even faculty got few opportunities to discover or build their talents, academic or otherwise.
• Small-mindedness and blinkered mindsets probably subdued talent at the faculty level as well as at the student level.
• Many administrators, faculty, bureaucrats, etc., became arrogant with power, disdainful of others’ abilities and ideas, and inaccessible, especially to students.
• By and large, cramming was emphasized. Real skills, like communication and social skills (essential for employability) and vital subject-based understanding, problem-solving and applicability in the real world were generally not. 
• Often, exam results became lotteries due to erratic or wrong valuation, and evaluation units became dens of iniquity and inefficiency, probably affecting lakhs of innocent students.
• Providing evaluated answer scripts, even photocopies, to students for authentication of results, and to enable learning from mistakes, was very rare.
• Frequently, minds and campuses became cobwebbed. Faculty often became intellectually lazy, resistant or immune to new demands and developments.
• Creative thinking, applicable knowledge, entrepreneurship, innovation and career skills were seldom emphasized.
• Meaningful research and intellectual capital generation are sporadic. Research topics tend to be obscure.
• Research infrastructure is generally considerably below state-of-the-art, and research funding and links with industry are lacking. , which is probably why few teacher-scientists and students at Indian universities, despite intrinsic ability, are likely to do Nobel-level, or at least meaningful work. A top American university is likely to invest at least a hundred times more money, annually, than even our IITs or IIMs do! And these, in turn, spend much more on infrastructure than the general universities.
• Many aided colleges affiliated to universities actively discouraged their faculty from focusing on research because it meant they would have to be granted leave. In many government colleges, the UGC’s Faculty Improvement Program, FIP, was misused, and became a Family Improvement Program!
• Once it became obvious that the colleges which denied permission to their faculty to do research would indeed lose out when the system became more demanding due to accreditation processes, faculty were rushed into M.Phil programs. Sadly, faculty often obtained Ph.D’s in subjects that were NOT what they taught E.g. many Chemistry faculty, for instance, obtained Ph.D’s in Education because that was easier, no tedious lab work was necessary and could even be outsourced, perhaps even to the so-called guide! Obviously, these teachers would NEVER advertise thereafter that their Ph.D’s did not pertain to their core teaching area, or that they were done by proxy!
• Unfortunately, colleges often dumbed down the quality of Ph.D’s by favoring sublimely mediocre flunkies/toadies for the FIP program, sidelining merit. Thus, a Ph.D just became a meaningless suffix, just a term to be written after names, significant only for accreditation or boosting images!  Often. zero research is done after the degree was obtained, which unfortunately, yet again, was frequently by hook, crook or proxy! 
• Well-meaning policies were flouted by some managements, while the concerned (?) government department/s conveniently looked the other way.

Indifferent and meandering general universities inadvertently made deemed universities seem a good idea. Ergo, many ‘educationists’ were born, and some, again!

Deemed universities (those not established by legislation, and instead deemed to be universities by the UGC) are but microcosms of the general universities, with most of the above problems! Indeed, most were part of the general university system till recently! A pall of secrecy and cosmetic mechanisms, if preferred, could preclude transparency, which is required when students lives depend on proper functioning of educational structures and processes. Largely manned by people who have been part of the general university system, their infrastructure is often newer, better, even awe-inspiring. However, their research-level, if any, is likely to abysmal, despite the attempts of some of these institutions to self-print arguably pretentious ‘research journals’.

Because of smaller numbers of students, and due to speedy in-house evaluation, deemed universities score heavily over general universities by bringing out the results of all their students well on time. This vitally ensures that these students get timely access to higher studies and jobs, a duty which some general university monoliths seemed strangely unable to comprehend.  Also creditable is that some deemed universities have tried to design ‘novel’ courses. Subjects like Biotechnology, Nanotechnology etc. sound very cutting edge, but the acid test isn’t fashionable terminology, it’s generation of employability/employment. If fresh thinking is indeed part of some deemed universities DNA, more strength to them!

Let’s now analyze recent developments. Lots of colleges were suddenly granted deemed university status during the tenures of a couple of Human Resource Ministers. Others, arguably academically much more qualified, were not, maybe because they did not apply for deemed status. Is not deemed status awarded based on proven performance and excellence? Are excellent colleges with highly qualified faculty and in-house research facilities ineligible, if they don’t apply? Did some opt not to apply for deemed status, and if so, why?

An intriguing question is whether revenue, along with the number of out-of-state students and pass percentages sky-rocketed after deemed university status was achieved by colleges?

In one case, infrastructure was actually shared by 2 adjacent deemed universities, the common factor being that the same powerful person was associated with both! This is manipulation of the system, and cheating. In some deemed universities, students had complained about modalities, infrastructure or restrictions. Another such institution allegedly foisted a Director who was a postgraduate in biology on its School of Law, with nary a law diploma or degree.

In some Private and Minority institutions, students have no forum, including elected student bodies, where complaints can be voiced freely, where harassment and other grievances can be addressed. Any student, mentally shattered by being subjected to, say, sexual harassment by a previously favourite faculty, will be in no frame of mind to fight the alma mater which prefers to save its reputation and not the (more expendable) student. Any raised voice is likely to be silenced. Most students may be unaware of this dark side of their own institution. This is an area where any university may fail miserably, because an institution of higher learning, by definition, has to be open and free, and not repressive to young minds.

The respected newspaper The Hindu reported that angry students of a deemed university argued that the institution’s independence clearly had a flip side, as dissenting voices were “unceremoniously silenced” by the management, and that microphones were shut off at a meeting when questions were raised about the rising fee structure and the quality of teaching. The deemed university officials in turn said that there was “no question of any confrontation as has been alleged.” Deemed universities probably have a PR system quite adept at presenting completely rosy facades even when mayhem happens!

The HR Ministry’s investigation into the functioning of deemed universities was probably absolutely warranted. As it was done by eminent people of proven integrity, it is likely to have been fair, objective and out-of-the-box. Chances are that the Human Resource Development ministry’s recommendation that deemed university status be withdrawn from 44 institutions would have been thought through. It is likely that there no hidden motive, simply because this recommendation was guaranteed to upset some powerful, rich apple carts! Was it just a shift in policy?

On January 29, 2010, a writ petition in the Supreme Court of India questioned if the UGC and its appendages have constitutional sanction to confer deemed status.

Are deemed universities the ultimate solution? Let’s pose a counter question. Is establishing deemed universities the only way towards excellence in India’s educational system? If the answer is yes, it connotes that (a) the University system in India has utterly failed(b) we are out of desperation opting to create a few islands of perfection in an ocean of mediocrity.And guilty of washing our hands of probably more than 99 percent of our starry-eyed, aspiring youth, who cannot access these posh (and perhaps well-run) institutions due to prohibitive distance and cost. Should they be denied an effective education at a cost that does not ruin their families?

If questionable methods, practices and money bags indeed prevail in autonomous or deemed (or even in general) universities, it seems logical to effect an immediate policy change to prevent any cancer from spreading. The HR Minister has very clearly said that under no circumstances whatsoever will any deserving student in these deemed universities lose out.

If however, to confer deemed university status on colleges is the only way we as a nation can achieve at least a modicum of quality and excellence in our system of higher education, let’s create more and more deemed universities.

But let’s ensure that the functioning of ALL universities is transparently and constructively monitored by responsible and educationally aware agencies / groups/ people with integrity, not necessarily governmental. And that their facilities are somehow made accessible to those with talent and aptitude, who may be unable to afford their fees (especially that of deemed universities), perhaps even by paying their fees after securing employment?

Please also see: To Deem or to Redeem?

Related articles

• Reprieve for 44 deemed universities (hindu.com)

“Over 2 million children in 2,200 private schools across the country use his ‘Smartclass’ every day; 4 lakh kids so far are registered with online tutorial site WiZiQ; 4 lakh teachers have been trained just this year in skills they would have learnt if they had done a basic BEd; 14,000 computer labs have been built in government schools …

As for whether the distance education model is flagging, Prakash points to how its share in his revenues (65 per cent at the moment) is rising — just 2,200 of the 75,000 private schools have his Smartclasses and just 14,000 of the 925,000 government schools are covered by his computer labs, an indication of how much more scope there is.

According to a CLSA brokerage report, Prakash says, Indians spend $25 billion (Rs 112,500 crore) a year on education till Class 12 and another $5.5 billion on tutoring — needless to say, he wants to be part of this great business where, to quote him, demand outstrips supply by a huge margin and the business is cash-flow negative.

Much is known about 15-year old Educomp and its success — Revenues are up from Rs 112 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 517 crore in 2008-09; Return on Investment (RoI) from 12.92 to 16.04 per cent in the same period; Return on Capital Employed (RoCE) from 28.5 to 27.8 per cent; Return on Net Worth (RoNW) from 24.1 to 35.6 per cent … today, with 400 people just developing education content, in ten Indian languages, Prakash says, he has the largest team doing such work in the world.” (via Lunch with BS: Shantanu Prakash).

After 60 years …

More than 60 years after the departure of the British, Indian media at least seems to adore ‘phoren’ educated politicians as the following news extract shows. Another journalist was effusive in praise when a DMK minister, Azhagiri took oath of office in ‘faultless’ English.

Indian-English language media today finds merit just because these Central ministers are ‘phoren’ returned. While, Indian Universities have become recruiting grounds and supply centres to the West for trained and qualified manpower, Indian media thinks that only ‘phoren’ educated and returned are good enough.

Team Manmohan crammed with A-listers

Manmohan Inc’s team would be any multinational corporation’s dream. Resume for resume, its key members are in a league of their own.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) council of ministers, led by the 78-year-old Cambridge-educated economist, has at least 14 ministers who have graduated from Ivy League universities like Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and of course, Oxbridge. There are also Cabinet members who have degrees from US universities. (via Team Manmohan crammed with A-listers- Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times).

English language media in India is still in its colonial haze – and to see such decadent, colonial ideas, 60 years after the British were thrown out, boggles my imagination. To approve of a politician, because he has English-language skills, or their ‘phoren’ education seems so important to these journalists, who seem to be wagging their ‘colonial’ tail with such approval – and vigor.

These journalists instead should have been worried that 60 years on, Indian Universities don’t seem to be meeting standards. And looking at the (seeming) failure of these Universities.

Higher education in India

This (mixed record) of Indian Universities can largely be laid at the doorsteps of the faulty educational policies that Indian Governments have been following. For one, why is the State increasing its role in education. For another, why is the Indian State supporting English language education with thousands of crores of subsidies – while Indian language education languishes.

80% of India’s population is excluded from higher education as Indian higher system is predominantly in English. Hence, this puts a premium on English – and discounts Indian languages in the educational sweepstakes. The negative effect this on Indian self esteem is not even a point of discussion here.

The principle of exclusion (a colonial idea) is a dominant marker of the entire Indian education system – rather than inclusion. British (and before that Islamic rulers’) colonial practices supported foreign languages on the backs of the Indian taxpayers’ contribution – and actively worked on destruction of local cultures.

For instance, in the erstwhile State Of Hyderabad (equal to about 10%-12% of modern India), ruled by the Nizam, a large non-British kingdom, 2000 year old local languages like Telugu and Marathi were considered uncouth and barbaric languages – compared to a 700 year old language like Urdu, which was supported by the State. Thus anyone without the knowledge of Urdu was excluded from the system. So it is now in India, with English.

This restricts 80% of India’s population from contribution and access to opportunity. Without looking at it from an ethical point, but purely as an economic question means we should look at the cost of this policy.

English In Higher Education Institutions

The problem is actually higher education. What is the future of Marathi medium students once they reach higher education institutions? The Indian state is penalizing the Indian tax payer by granting a monopoly to English in higher education.

Cost to the Indian economy

How does this hinder India? India loses every year about 200,000 highly educated people to the West. These 200,000 people have been educated at subsidized Indian Universities at a considerable cost to the poor Indian taxpayer. What return does the tax payer get from this? Negative returns.

What happens when English stops being an important language in the global sphere? What use will India’s investment in English be at that time? And this will happen sooner than we imagine – at a greater cost than we believe.

The Indian tax payer is creating a large body of English trained graduates, who are finally picked up by Western economies at zero cost. If these Indian graduates were trained in Indian languages, the West may find it difficult to absorb them at zero cost.

English education is now clearly a liability.

What is the cost of switching from English?

Assuming that a 100,000 essential books need to translated into local languages, at a cost of say Rs.100,000 per book, it still amounts to Rs.1000 crores. Is that a large sum of money for modern India. Hardly.

What is the loss to India? How much does this reduce India’s growth rate by? Hard numbers – but definitely big numbers.

So why is India persisting with this policy. Because all the high and mighty, finally want their children to ‘escape to the West’, with a good education from India – at the cost of India’s poor. This vested interest makes this policy go around.

And a lot of propaganda.

Backdoor privatization

The Vedanta industrial group is setting up a University in Orissa. From a campus at the new Lavassa township, Oxford is going to start offering courses. These and other represent the quiet backdoor ‘privatization’ of Indian higher education.

Hidden subsidies

Large tracts of lands are being acquired by the Government, and handed over for a pittance to the private sector. Soon, we will have competition between State Sector subsidized English education – and private sector subsidized education.

Who will help Indian languages get back on their feet

While Indian language Universities are struggling – for funding, respect, status, support, foreign Universities, using paper money, backed by the Bretton Woods fraud, will impose their ideas, culture, etc in India.

While the English speaking economic bloc is struggling, India is not focussing on the French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese Blocs which are large, excellent opportunities.

This can be a way out …

This actually is a good way out. There is a significant demand for English language education – at least currently. This demand can be met by the private sector. In the meantime, misdirected State subsidies can be gainfully used to help Indian language education get back on its feet.

In the not very long run, the state must get out of business of making up the minds of its citizens.

India starts investing in Indian languages?

On the ground, classical language status has meant substantial funds and awards. The solution to such vexed claims and counterclaims may rest in the central government giving up its partisan patronage of Sanskrit and Hindi, and providing the wherewithal for all languages. What languages are classical or not is best left to the scholars. (via Is classical language status meaningless?- Et Debate-Opinion-The Economic Times).

It has taken India 60 years to start with some small investments in Indian languages.

The Indian education system excludes a vast majority of Indians from the higher education system – which is predominantly in English. This puts a premium on English – and discounts Indian languages in the educational sweepstakes. The disadvantaged students who have studied in Indian languages ensure that their children get the ‘advantage’ of English education.

The negative effect this on Indian self esteem is not even a point of discussion here.

End of the road … the bankrupt model

This Indian education model was, till about a 150 years ago, unique in the world. With the highest literacy ratio in the world, and completely privately funded, it set global and historic benchmarks. This model has been buried under a mound of silence – and once in a while you get a glimpse of this.

My first glimpse of this model was through the draft of Parag Tope’s forthcoming book – Operation Red Lotus.

I say without fear of my figures being challenged successfully, that today India is more illiterate than it was fifty or a hundred years ago, and so is Burma, because the British administrators, when they came to India, instead of taking hold of things as they were, began to root them out. They scratched the soil and began to look at the root, and left the root like that, and the beautiful tree perished. (Gandhiji, at Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, Oct 1931 - extracted from Indian Models Of Economy Business And Management By Kanagasabapathi; Page 60).

Gandhiji, in correspondence with Sir Philip Hartog, (chairman of the Auxiliary Committee on Education), laid out the the pre-colonial scenario, which has now been buttressed by research by Dharampal, a Gandhian, in his book, Beautiful Tree, Indian Education in the 18th century.

Sreelatha Menon, seemingly, depends on Tooley’s own PR handouts to write this up. In the entire post in Business Standard, she never makes a mention of Dharampal, whose work is the most authoritative today. Tooley, a (for sometime) IFC-World Bank employee, this research resulted, (funded by the Templeton Foundation) in a book - of course called, The Beautiful Tree.

Between a rock and a hard place

Dharampal’s pioneering work, in 1983, has, not surprisingly, been ignored by the Amartya Sens and The Jean Drezes of the world – all their avid followers in India. Kapil Sibal has been trying to further the colonial British efforts by laying out a red carpet for foreign universities – while tying up Indian institutions into-knots-into-knots-into-knots. The ‘modern’ theory about Indian education goes that all credit for Indian education should go either to the British Colonial Raj or the Christian Missionary Benevolence.

The health care (USA), social welfare (USA), employment benefits (UK), showcase countries (Japan), are running countries into the ground. India has, as yet, not gone down that path. Though, the Indian State has been trying – quite hard.

Clearly, it would be extremely difficult for the largely urban and Western-educated ruling class—the current UPA government has the largest number of MPs who studied in American and British universities — who are also among the richest in the country (300 crorepatis in the Lok Sabha, mostly businessmen) to relate to axe-wielding women who seek justice and honour in the rough backwoods of the country. And it matters little what the political persuasion of the rulers is. States ruled by parties as different from each other (or perhaps not) as the Congress, the BJP, the CPI(M) or the BJD are all struggling with the problem of alienation and extremism. (via Latha Jishnu: Dealing with bow and arrow).

For nearly 40 years, India’s Naxalite problem is known, recognized – and unresolved. This extract above by Latha Jishnu in Business Standard, summarizes the problems and history well – and connects to this interesting document from India’s Planning Commission.

These are the Santhal tribesmen, who made the British Raj look weak in the knees. These are frugal people who have little to lose – and they will not let anyone take away what little they have.

The Big Government in India and the Big Business in India are cosying up to loot these poor tribals. Indian media is so besotted with English speaking politicians and ‘phoren educated ministers, that they fail to notice the disconnect between India’s poor and non-Westernized masses, who will not submit.

There are more ... where they come from ...

When so many women come out in the open, with bows and arrows, one thing is clear.

There are more where they come from.

Manmohan Inc’s team would be any multinational corporation’s dream. Resume for resume, its key members are in a league of their own.

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) council of ministers, led by the 78-year-old Cambridge-educated economist, has at least 14 ministers who have graduated from Ivy League universities like Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and of course, Oxbridge. There are also Cabinet members who have degrees from US universities. (via Team Manmohan crammed with A-listers- Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times).

More than 60 years after the departure of the British, Indian media at least seems to adore ‘phoren’ educated politicians. A few days, another journalist was effusive when Azhagiri took oath of office in ‘faultless’ English.

Today, the same media finds merit just because these ministers are ‘phoren’ returned. While Indian Universities have become recruiting grounds and supply centres to the West for trained and qualified manpower, Indian media thinks that only ‘phoren’ educated and returned are good enough.

English language media in India is still in its colonial haze – and to see such decadent, colonial ideas, 60 years after the British were thrown out, boggles my imagination. To approve of a politician, because he has English-language skills, or their ‘phoren’ education seems so important to these journalists, who seem to be wagging their ‘colonial’ tail with such approval – and vigor.

These journalists instead should have been worried that 60 years on, Indian Universities dont seem to be meeting standards. And looking at the (seeming) failure of these Universities.

This (mixed record) of Indian Universities can largely be laid at the doorsteps of the faulty educational policies that Indian Governments have been following. For one, why is the State increasing its role in education. For another, why is the State supporting English language education with thousands of crores of subsidies – while Indian language education languishes.

Editor’s Note: This entry has been kindly prepared by Tim Gore, now Director of The Centre for Indian Business, University of Greenwich, London, UK.  Prior to this, Tim was Director of Education at the British Council in India, where he was responsible for growing the knowledge partnership between India and the UK. Tim also led the establishment of the UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) that is profiled in an earlier blog entry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How will President Obama’s ambitious plans for a new diplomacy translate into practical international relations and how will this impact on the education sector? An early example of this may prove to be relations with India and some clues may be in the newly released Asia Society Task Force report: Delivering on the Promise: Advancing US Relations with India.  

The high level rhetoric for the US-India relationship may not have changed that much after all President Bush declared ‘the world needs India’ on his 2006 visit to the Indian School of Business (ISB) – Hyderabad -  a school touted by the new report as an example of what can be done with good US-India cooperation. The School works in partnership with Wharton and Kellogg and prompted a Bush accolade ‘You’ve got a great thing going’!

However, the tone of the report is a substantial departure from the Bush years. Democratic colors are now firmly fixed to the mast and references to ‘reciprocity’ and ‘understanding India’ abound, while the ‘world needs India’ has changed to ‘the USA needs India as an ally in its foreign policy issues’.

The education agenda is a little buried in this report. It has been classified under the second track ‘Joint Public-Private Partnerships for Complex Global Challenges’. Is this code meaning that there will be little Government funding available (seed-corn funding is mentioned briefly)? After all, educational relations between the two countries have flourished over the years, despite a relative absence of visible policy and public sector involvement. There are over 80,000 Indians studying in higher education in the US every year and the US dominates the ‘market’ for doctoral studies. Also, many commentators (see, for example,  Anna-Lee Saxenian’s book The New Argonauts: Regional Advantage in a Global Economy) have pointed out the seminal role of talented Indian entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and elsewhere and research links with the US are strong and growing.

There are also quite a number of US tertiary collaborations with India (although surprisingly bearing in mind the respective sizes of their tertiary sectors, not more than the number of UK collaborations). However, the use of ISB as a beacon of attainment highlights the key issue with US-India educational relations and the nuances of policy that the US will need to get right.

ISB is an exceptional institution, undoubtedly in the top tier of such institutions globally, in terms of how hard they work their students if nothing else! However ISB, with its powerful private sector Governing Board and influential international links (US presidents don’t drop into every management college with a foreign badge on the gate), is not accredited in India by the relevant regulatory body the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

Similarly, the campus of the US Western International University run by the influential Modi family has no official status in India. If pressed, officials will say that it is ‘not legal’.

Australia, New Zealand and UK have a multilateral forum with India on quality assurance, regulation of cross border education and other issues of mutual interest, The US approach thus far has been to lobby for liberalisation of the sector. Alienating the Human Resources Ministry may not matter in trade relations, but it will matter in education and knowledge partnerships.

The report shows little understanding of the education sector. It claims that direct investment in education is not allowed in India. This is not really the case as a recent MoU to establish a campus of Georgia Institute of Technology in Andhra Pradesh (near the ISB) demonstrates. Regulation of foreign provision in India is unclear with the relevant legislation frozen in parliament but accreditation can be achieved. The UK’s Huddersfield University has both invested in, and achieved, official recognition of its joint venture in ‘Hospitality Management’ with the Taj Hotel Group in India.

Similarly, the report claims that the higher education sector is overwhelmingly public which is again not the case. Over 50% of higher education provision in India is private and the vast majority of audiences the US would like to address at secondary level will attend private schools which dominate the urban areas. This brings me to a second point.

The ISB example, while interesting, also misses the point raised, as the main way the US can build an educational relationship with India is claimed to be partnership in meeting the training requirements for India’s large population. ISB and similar Tier 1 institutions will never address this demand with their tiny elite intakes. More relevant are the 1800 engineering colleges with Tier 2 aspirations that are currently achieving less than 30% employability according to the IT industry body Nasscom. Here the community colleges and Tier 2 US institutions could play a bigger role (briefly touched upon in the report). And here, also, the private sector becomes very relevant with the enormous number of Tier 2 private institutions springing up all over India.

Finally, the potential of the partnership is less than fully explored here. The US already has a substantial knowledge partnership with India which transcends the main objective in the report; of helping India to produce its next generation workforce. The complex research and innovation links with US through entrepreneurs and highly qualified graduate technicians and scientists are of immense value to both countries but largely ignored in this report. The overall impression is of a hastily prepared report to encourage the new administration to focus on India.

Many of us have wondered what would happen if the sleeping giant awakes and the US take a more pro-active and coherent approach to its knowledge and education partnership with India.This report may be the alarm clock going off..!!

Tim Gore

]]> http://indiainsights.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/indias-challenge-education-for-all/ Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:39:42 +0000 indiainsights http://indiainsights.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/indias-challenge-education-for-all/

14 million Indians are added to the labour market each year, the vast majority are unskilled and poorly educated. With 40% of the population aged under 18 years old an effective education system is essential if skilled jobs are to be found and poverty levels reduced.

 Arun K Mishra, a senior legal professional based in Delhi sets out the challenge for India’s Government.

The world values India’s human resource, why don’t we?

India has 40-45 million registered unemployed, however many believe the real number is closer to 300 million. A waste when you consider the success of our outsourcing industry, an indication that the world values India’s human resource.

There are a number of reasons for this high figure; the main factor is a lack of literacy and skills. China’s literacy rate is 93%, India’s just 63%.

Low investment

Our total expenditure on education is only 3.3% of GDP. The total amount spent on education in India is R’s 910,000 crores (£113.3 billion), of which 85% comes from state government and 15% from central government. R’s 7000 crores (£871.2 million) is collected through the education-cess (local form of taxation).

Estimates suggest we need additional annual investment of R’s 100,000 crores (£12.4 billion) to have a reasonable quality of primary and secondary education and improve literacy rates.

We need to develop a knowledge society and supply highly skilled manpower to the world. However, it is shocking to know that only 8% of school students enter college. Only when we succeed in increasing enrollment to 20% will we be able to satisfy India’s own manpower requirement.

Centers of excellence

India has just 362 universities (China has 900, the USA 3650 and Japan 4000). To reach the level we require we need 1500 universities. Reaching this target is impossible in the current environment; the private sector needs to participate if we are to achieve this aim.

More centers of excellence, following the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of Management model are needed. By all the methods possible the drop out rate needs to fall to 10%.

Another problem is related to the quality of graduates leaving university, there is a mismatch between industry requirements and what is being supplied to them, closer coordination between the Human Resource Ministry and the Labour Ministry is required. Other areas needing attention include curriculum reform, teacher recruitment policy, course fee structures and industry research coordination.

Major challenge

Along with inequality in income distribution and bad governance due to corruption, low enrollment in schools, colleges and universities is one of the major challenges that India must overcome.

The education challenge is serious and the treatment has to be effective if India’s global ambitions are to be realized.

Arun is currently Senior Manager – Legal with Tilda Riceland Private Limited, Gurgaon.

Dr. Chakrabarti (AB Harvard; MA, PhD Princeton) is a chemical physicist at the Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, and founding member of the Chakrabarti Foundation, a nonprofit that supports education in developing countries. He works with several leaders in the arena of international higher education to develop strategies for higher education reform in India. He also moderates an international forum on science education in developing countries in collaboration with the Infinity Foundation, Princeton, NJ.

Mr. Bartning (BS, Georgetown University) is Director of Institutional and International Strategies at Keeling and Associates, a higher education consulting firm located in New York City that specializes in student support infrastructures and institutional assessment strategies. He is currently involved in managing the International Center for Student Success and Institutional Accountability (ICSSIA), which aims to set international standards for quality assessment, with a particular focus on institutions of higher learning in developing nations. The issues they discuss below are examined more comprehensively in their article, ‘Developing Globally Compatible Institutional Infrastructures for Indian Higher Education’, submitted, Journal of Studies in International Education (Sage).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Much has been written in recent months on the challenges facing India in her efforts to develop an expansive university system that is capable of educating a larger subsection of the growing population. We consider here a different, oft-overlooked challenge confronting institutions of higher learning in developing countries like India – namely, the cultivation of an academic environment that is focused on the holistic development of globally conversant students (Keeling, 2004). In North America and Europe, numerous studies have suggested that a dominant factor that contributes to the success of the most highly ranked universities is the attention afforded directly to the student and complementary support structures that exist for the primary goal of maximizing the productivity of the student experience (Schulz, Lee, Cantwell, McClellan, & Woodard, 2007). Most of these schools demonstrate a strong commitment to addressing student needs and issues that affect student learning and engagement.

As a general rule, Indian universities – especially publicly funded institutions – have not been held to any systemic level of accountability when it comes to student support structures. Attention to the individualized learning needs of students has historically been lacking in India, as well as in most other developing countries. However, within the past several years, a small group of Indian institutions have begun to prove themselves the exception to this norm. These institutions appreciate the benefits resulting from delivering comprehensive student services. They understand how these services can be integrated throughout every level of the institutional infrastructure. Moreover, they acknowledge that offering student services can provide them with competitive advantages they need for success in a rapidly evolving, increasingly global educational landscape.

Strikingly, these changes have not typically been made by traditional public universities, but rather among privately funded schools, which are trying to fulfil a national demand and distinguish themselves among the elite world institutions. Through their introduction of student affairs programs and services, these newly created, non-traditional institutions are fostering the development of a generation of socially, developmentally, and globally competent Indian graduates.

Here, we profile one such innovative private institution – Heritage Institute of Technology (Heritage) in Kolkata – to illustrate what is rapidly becoming a new trend in the Indian higher education landscape. Heritage is a premier privately funded educational institution, created and financed by the Kalyan Bharti Trust, which was established by a consortium of successful North Indian entrepreneurs and professionals. Heritage has only been in existence for seven years, but in that short time, it has become a model for the new generation of private Indian institutions of higher education, even pulling faculty away from prestigious government funded universities (Probir Roy, Vice Chancellor, Heritage & Pradip Agarwal, CEO, Kalyan Bharti Trust, personal communication, October 28, 2007). Heritage has focused on enhancing the overall student experience and creating structures and metrics that will accurately gauge student success. Some examples include the formation of a functional Alumni Association, creation of a Student’s Council consisting of committees like Cultural, Academic, Magazine, Games, and Sports, and approval of student chapters of the Computer Society of India (CSI), the Instrumentation, Systems, & Automation Society (ISA), the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE) and the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers—which frequently organize seminars and workshops.

Heritage is also in pursuit of very progressive student support systems, which are modeled closely after the most popular student support models currently employed in the US and Canada—inclusive among these models are the best practices for primary health care and mental health services. The school provides medical insurance for all students (virtually nonexistent among Indian public universities), disseminates free textbooks and laptops, and operates a sophisticated information technology and communication infrastructure that is supported by private industry. Heritage maintains a strong relationship with students in advancing their academic standing in a global setting: students have received prestigious awards such as the World Wide Topper distinction, and won international engineering contests. Due increasingly to administrative efforts that promote civic engagement, Heritage students are encouraged to reach beyond the walls of the institution to partake in integrative and service learning programs, such as teaching computer software skills to underprivileged children in India.

Perhaps most importantly for the globalization of Indian higher education, progressive institutions like Heritage have a substantial advantage over public institutions in developing partnerships with Western schools, primarily because of their flexibility and willingness to adopt student support infrastructures aligned with Western models. Many foreign universities have begun to contact private Indian universities in search of collaborative student exchange programs. For example, the London School of Economics (LSE) and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) entered into negotiations with Heritage in 2007, and this year, Heritage is sending a consortium of students to take courses for a semester at NJIT. In turn, Heritage seeks to offer international students an academic experience on its own campus similar to that of Western institutions.

The accelerated development of such private Indian institutions – and their ability to outpace public institutions even in their relative youth – was recently underscored by the remarkable ascent of the Indian School of Business (ISB), located in Hyderabad. Like Heritage, ISB was founded by a consortium of Indian professionals. In February 2008, ISB was listed as one of the top 20 global business schools by the Financial Times (FT) annual MBA 2008 rankings—even above Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business. Although it has only been in existence for 6 years, the ISB is the first Indian institution (public or private) to rank within the top 300 schools in its category at an international level. The FT ranking criteria include international mobility and career progression of alumni. In this regard, ISB has developed a career advancement service that supports students in career choices and works with employers to help make job placements.

While Indian institutions such as Presidency College, the University of Mumbai, and the University of Delhi are the analogues of top-tier western universities, they lack serious channels of horizontal communication across schools and departments (Keeling, 2007), and vertical communication between students and faculty. For example, students interviewed at Presidency College cited depression and career questions as commonly overlooked issues, and expressed frustration at the dearth of places to turn for advice or counselling. A small number of Indian public institutions – including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) – have taken preliminary efforts to establish such communication channels. As of the time of this writing, these services are proving inadequate to deal with the rising stress at Indian universities. For example, between 2005 and 2008, five students at IIT Kanpur (often regarded as the nation’s top engineering school) committed suicide. Such incidents have focused international attention directly on the quality of the student experience at Indian public institutions.

As competition in the Indian higher education market grows, it will become increasingly difficult for top Indian institutions to globalize without student support services and internationally recognized methods for gauging student learning outcomes. Although in the West the value of a degree from a top traditional university holds a value with which for-profit institutions are unable to compete, institutions of higher education in India operate on an increasingly level playing field where integrative programs can make even the newest university an attractive candidate for international partnerships, exchange programs, and domestic demand. With minimal international standards for assessment and student support services*, such progressive institutions could witness a growth far exceeding that of similar institutions in the West, where the target audience is much smaller and more limited in scope.

* International consortiums, such as the recently founded International Center for Student Success and Institutional Accountability (ICSSIA), may play an important role in the development of such compatible infrastructures

References

Keeling, R.P., Underhile, R., and Wall, A.F. (2007). Horizontal and vertical structures: The dynamics of organization in higher education. Liberal Education. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Keeling, R.P., ed. (2004). Learning Reconsidered: A Campus-Wide Focus on the Student Experience. Washington, DC: National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and American College Personnel Association.

Schulz, S.A., Lee, J.J., Cantwell, B.J., McClellan, G. & Woodard, D. (2007). Moving Toward a Global Community: An Analysis of the Internationalization of Student Affairs Graduate Preparation Programs. NASPA Journal.

Raj Chakrabarti (rajchak@princeton.edu) and Augustine Bartning (augustine@keelingassociates.com)

Three Days on a Boat

Posted from: On the way to Wijint
I never want to see a boat again in my life. We've been on this bloody boat for three days now and still haven't got there. The river is low and strewn with fallen trees. And we damaged the propeller on the first day so progress is painfully slow.

Gerson, the boatman, is a man of incredible stamina – he drives from before dawn till well into the night every day, relieving his boredom periodically by shouting obscenities at David, the little kid at the front whose job it is to spot submerged trees before we hit them. I think it must be his first time out, because he's really crap at it and we hit pretty much every tree in the river and Gerson explodes with indignation. I can't see them staying together.

Gerson also gets pretty cross with us as we move about on the narrow boat trying to find cameras and kit and film the journey. I think he just likes shouting.

The team sail down the river Rio Ene

It feels like we are going somewhere extraordinary. We've been travelling up smaller and smaller rivers, heading north into the heart of this great forest. This is one of the most bio-diverse places in the world and one of the least developed parts of the Amazon rainforest and it feels like a very special place. There are birds everywhere, and massive electric blue butterflies along the banks of the river. I saw three pink river dolphins today too, something I've always wanted to see.

We're living on frankfurters and tinned peaches. Not great, but morale is good anyway. And we're all sleeping for about 20 hours a day. Especially Matt and Zubin, who are travelling in Business Class in the middle of the boat – extra leg room, space to stretch out and sleep. I'm back in Economy and my back is killing me. Almu is travelling like the Queen of Sheba, perched on a luxurious nest of duffel bags on the second boat.

The river Rio Ene

We're staying in little tiny Indian villages along the way, slinging hammocks wherever we can and having a nip or two of whisky to put us to sleep of a night. The stars here are incredible, the night sky is deep black with no ambient light for hundreds of miles, so you can see everything. I saw two shooting stars last night.

We get to Wijint tomorrow, stay the night, then move on again.

Find out more about the Achuar /* Audio & Music Interactive Social Bookmarks */ #blog_entries .ami_social_bookmarks { margin: 0 0 0 0; padding: .9em 0 2.8em 0; border-top:1px dotted #cccccc; } #blog_entries .ami_social_bookmarks li { list-style:none; display:inline; font: 11px; } #blog_entries .ami_social_bookmarks li.bookmark { color:#333333; } #blog_entries .ami_social_bookmarks li.help { font-size:xx-small; font-style:italic; }

• Bookmark with:
• del.icio.us |
• Digg |
• Newsvine |
• NowPublic |
• Reddit -
• What's this?

• Relatively independent foreign university campuses and centres (e.g., NYU Abu Dhabi; Lim Kok Wing University in London and Botswana; Carnegie Mellon Heinz School Australia).
• Joint venture foreign university campuses and centres (e.g., the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China or Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University; Warwick University’s new policy objective, though with foreign universities located within its own campus).
• Overseas colleges for university students (e.g., the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) network of five Overseas Colleges; the private GlobalCampus Network that contracts out to universities).
• Substantial joint programs in one or more locations (e.g., the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School).
• New types of foreign government-funded centres (e.g., EU Centers of Excellence in the US) and professorships that create programs and posts anew in strategically important territories and institutions.

This focus links back to our interest in the construction of new forms of knowledge/spaces in a globalizing era; many of which perforate the ‘national’ in fascinating ways. Some of these entries will be lengthy and analytical, and some will be short and descriptive. By the end of 2008 we hope that the aggregate effect is the creation of a global mapping of this phenomenon; one that is raising a whole series of opportunities and challenges for host governments, universities, disciplines/fields, students, quality assurance systems, and so on.

It is thus noteworthy that the Judge Business School at Cambridge University, under the leadership of Arnoud De Meyer (whom I briefly spoke about in the NYU Abu Dhabi entry) announced, on 3 January, that the Indian Government has donated £3.2 million “to celebrate the centenary of Pandit Nehru’s arrival at Trinity College Cambridge, where he studied for a degree in Natural Sciences”. These monies will fund an endowed professorship who will help lead the Cambridge Centre for Indian Business, which has partially been funded by the BP Group. As Dr. Ashok Jhawar, Country Head, BP India, put it:

BP was founded right around the time that Jawaharlal Nehru was studying in Cambridge. What could be more appropriate, one hundred years on, than for BP to support an important new subject of scholarship, the Indian economic and business models, at one of the world’s leading centres of learning. We are pleased to be supporting this great initiative in partnership with the Indian Government, and we look forward to formally launching the new Centre later this year.

The Judge School of Business notes that:

The Cambridge Centre for Indian Business will support the work of the Jawaharlal Nehru Professorship of Indian Business & Enterprise and would initially focus on contemporary research themes relating to today’s business environment. Themes to be covered in the first three years include technology innovation, emerging global economies, the relationship between economic development and knowledge economy and entrepreneurship. BP’s support of the Centre includes funding for the ‘BP India PhD Scholarship’ for an outstanding graduate student from India to work under the supervision of the newly- appointed Nehru Professor on a research topic agreed with the donor, as well as support for operational costs.

This model – a foreign government-funded professorship – is the most targeted of options for establishing a presence of sorts in a foreign territory, making a symbolic statement, and building capacity. From the funder’s perspective the strategy here involves using and honouring an iconic national figure to enhance particular forms of knowledge about India, but via a globally recognized centre of educational excellence in a foreign territory; a context relatively free of the constraints such a professorship (and centre) would face in the challenging circumstances associated with the Indian higher education system. Apart from the leveraging on Cambridge/Judge element, this is also a relatively simple model to create and regulate. It also effectively denationalizes and diversifies higher education funding streams, providing the Judge Business School (and Cambridge) with greater autonomy from the UK state.

Small scale? Yes and no. High impact? We’ll have to see who they hire, and what they do…

Kris Olds

A friend’s sister created this site, and me thinks it should make life a lot easier for students looking for any sort of info regarding college (and this means including of listings of who is selling second hand books in which college, which city etcetera. Oh, and carpools! There is car pool info as well! )

I don’t think anything like this exists as of now…so best of luck to the creators

LINK

The only consolation for India is that IIT Mumbai and IIT Delhi find mention among the world’s top 50 technology institutions, at ranks 33 & 37 respectively.

Source: http://www.topuniversities.com

Thought for the day: What exactly are the flaws in Indian Education?