They said it in November
“Not reading specific ideas or text can be a layman’s way of dealing with contrarian thoughts. The academic style of demolishing an idea is by presenting a more logical and robust theory or idea.” Dilip Mandal, senior journalist, on Delhi University’s proposal to drop three books written by Dalit activist Kancha Ilaiah from its MA syllabus (www.theprint.in, November 1) “Technology doesn’t solve humanity’s problems. It was always naïve to think so. Technology is an enabler, but humanity has to deal with humanity’s problems. I think, we’re both over-reliant on technology as a way to solve things and probably, at this moment over-indexing on technology as a source of all problems, too.” Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, in an interview with New York Times (November 8) “Except in producing quality engineers, the IITs have failed the country on many fronts today. They have not become thought leaders in ushering in any radical thinking that could alleviate some of the burning concerns of contemporary India. They have not been able to provide academic leadership to a country that still has a staggering number of illiterate people…” Gourishankar S. Hiremath and H.S. Komalesha, IIT-Kharagpur faculty, on ‘How IITs turned from Nehru’s vision of technology to catering engineers for MNCs’, (thewire.in, November 14) “If man can walk on the moon, what problems are there we cannot resolve?” Imran Khan, Pakistan prime minister, on settling India-Pakistan disputes (November 28) “We have to make economic growth relevant to our people, especially to those at the bottom of the socio-economic pyramid. Distributive justice, as a higher goal of democratic polity, can be achieved only through a sound education system.” Pranab Mukherjee, former President of India, addressing students at Greenwood High International School, Bangalore (November 28)
Building world-class universities
India’s aspirations to build world-class universities that promote excellence in teaching, research and knowledge creation are as overdue as they are laudable. The early history of higher education institutions in India and the contribution of Indian civilisational heritage to the world is truly remarkable. Against this backdrop, there is palpable disappointment that contemporary India doesn’t host any world-class universities in the forefront of research and institution development. While there’s been a steady decline in the quality and academic standards of most higher education institutions in India, Asia has witnessed a dramatic rise in the number of universities fostering teaching and research excellence. Some of the leading universities of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan are at the forefront of promoting academic excellence in Asia. Indian universities need to draw inspiration from the top-ranked higher education institutions of Asia which have succeeded in dramatically upgrading their universities in a relatively short span of time. There are several challenges that need to be addressed, if we are to move towards building a world-class higher education system, without which this country cannot attain first world status. Regulation and governance. India’s higher education system is over-regulated and under-governed. This is evident in recent government policies designed to reduce regulatory oversight through initiatives such as graded autonomy for well-performing institutions, and the Institutions of Eminence project that allows selected institutions to self-regulate critical functions such as recruitment, admission and collaborations. However given huge gaps in scale, access and relative quality of higher education across the country, further reforms to keep pace with the rapid expansion of the education sector are urgently needed. We also need greater engagement from the private sector, including industry, to promote quality in higher education. If one were to examine the parameters on which international ranking agencies such as THE (Times Higher Education), QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) and the Shanghai Jiao Tong ARWU (Academic Ranking of World Universities) assess universities, common metrics such as research, reputation and internationalisation are prominent. Yet Indian universities are insular and primarily focused on teaching. The functions of internationalisation (i.e, hiring international faculty, admitting international students and building student mobility programmes) within higher education institutions are over-regulated by government. For the higher education system to flourish and prosper, greater balance between government oversight, institutional autonomy and a diversified funding ecosystem within the country is necessary. Research and funding. Indian universities need to prioritise research impact and outcomes. This requires larger fund flows which ought to come from public and private sources. Moreover, regulations that encumber the internationalisation efforts of universities need to be eased and institutions of higher education need to be encouraged to promote all forms of internationalisation. We need to build an ecosystem in which students all over the world should want to study in India just as we have created student mobility programmes under which Indian students go abroad for short and long-term programmes. All this requires substantially greater financial support from government, private industry and philanthropists. While public universities commendably provide…