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Harvard University gets huge grants and endowments every year that it has built up a corpus of about $ 7.5 billon, which is utilised partly to subsidise the brilliant yet poor students from the not-so- rich families in the U.S. and elsewhere, facilitating access and affordability.
That brings us to the pertinent issue what constitutes world-class quality in teaching, research or education in general. Is it the amount of money that is poured into institutions or is it the infrastructure or is it the way they are managed?
Are IIT / IIM graduates world class ? One has to only look at the number of top managers or even CEOs of the major multinationals of the world — all of them have at least one or a few IIT/IIM graduates at their helm invariably running the show successfully. You name them and you invariably find them all there. There are even senior advisory positions in the Federal Government of the U.S. being manned by Indian expatriates who passed out of the IITs/IIMs. Is it not proof enough of their being world class?
Jairam Ramesh, kicked off a controversy some time ago with his remark that the faculty at our premier engineering institutes, the IITs, is not world class, though he went on to make an equally implausible statement that students of the IITs are, however, world class!
Mr. Ramesh, an IIT alumnus, perhaps thought he knew better than anyone else — without anticipating the backlash his remark may unleash, apart from the potential for boomerang it can have on the subject itself.
Dr. P.V. Indiresan, a former IIT director, retorted jokingly that Mr. Ramesh probably was looking at the mirror when he made the remark, but added that the IITs cannot be world class considering that they are starved of funds for industry-sponsored research or grants from business houses. This was in contrast to the scene in the U.S. and other advanced countries, where funding for research — both basic and applied — is of the order of millions of dollars. He also cited other reasons as lack of infrastructure, lack of stress on research per se, and a ballooning teacher-student ratio contributing to mediocrity. He said that to qualify IIT students nevertheless as world class is ridiculous.
Prof. C.N.R. Rao, Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister, said the IITs were in no way comparable to the MIT or Cambridge in the quality of research or infrastructure.
HALLMARK
Prof Morton Schapiro, President of North Western University, Illinois, U.S., pointed out during his recent visit to India that access, affordability, and quality are the true hallmarks of a world-class university. He stressed that in the U.S., the institutions which churn out high quality research and graduates, invariably get huge grants by way of endowments from industry, alumni and the Federal Government, all the three working in close collaboration. North Western University operates on an annual budget of about $1.6 billion, of which almost 35% is spent on sponsored research.
Harvard University gets huge grants and endowments every year that it has built up a corpus of about $ 7.5 billon, which is utilised partly to subsidise the brilliant yet poor students from the not-so- rich families in the U.S. and elsewhere, facilitating access and affordability.
That brings us to the pertinent issue what constitutes world-class quality in teaching, research or education in general. Is it the amount of money that is poured into institutions or is it the infrastructure or is it the way they are managed?
Are IIT graduates world class? One has to only look at the number of top managers or even CEOs of the major multinationals of the world — all of them have at least one or a few IIT/IIM graduates at their helm invariably running the show successfully. You name them and you invariably find them all there. There are even senior advisory positions in the Federal Government of the U.S. being manned by Indian expatriates who passed out of the IITs/IIMs. Is it not proof enough of their being world class?
The Indian software major, Infosys, started by a few professionals — most of whom were from the IITs, including its chief, N.R. Narayana Murthy — is today rated as a world-class IT company. I personally feel that the work of our engineers and scientists in the atomic energy and space establishments can be termed high quality.
Does an institution get world-class status only when its members work and perform abroad and not when they work in India offering India-specific solutions for India-centric problems?
Take, for instance, the field of economics. The neo-liberal economic policies being pursued by the U.S. government have resulted in a high unemployment rate, hovering around 9-10 % which requires U.S.-centric solutions specific to the country's economic social and cultural milieu. Whereas, the same may not work in Third World countries such as India or China –with a vast difference in economic and skill levels. The content and delivery of primary and secondary education in India will not be quite the same as that of the U.S. or Europe or even some other Asian countries . The logistics and approach to disaster management during floods or earthquakes in India are very different from what they would be in the U.S. or Europe. Obviously, the research orientation and solutions have got to be different here to be relevant.
Good quality education is always in great demand. In today's competitive world, competitive exams play a very important role in the life of students as well as parents. The admission into a large number of institutes in the country that offer higher education is based on an exam in which thousands of students compete with each other. Test which students have to appear for and do well in for their chances to become brighter for admission (with financial assistance) into a good university.
Harvard University gets huge grants and endowments every year that it has built up a corpus of about $ 7.5 billon, which is utilised partly to subsidise the brilliant yet poor students from the not-so- rich families in the U.S. and elsewhere, facilitating access and affordability.
That brings us to the pertinent issue what constitutes world-class quality in teaching, research or education in general. Is it the amount of money that is poured into institutions or is it the infrastructure or is it the way they are managed?
Are IIT / IIM graduates world class ? One has to only look at the number of top managers or even CEOs of the major multinationals of the world — all of them have at least one or a few IIT/IIM graduates at their helm invariably running the show successfully. You name them and you invariably find them all there. There are even senior advisory positions in the Federal Government of the U.S. being manned by Indian expatriates who passed out of the IITs/IIMs. Is it not proof enough of their being world class?
Jairam Ramesh, kicked off a controversy some time ago with his remark that the faculty at our premier engineering institutes, the IITs, is not world class, though he went on to make an equally implausible statement that students of the IITs are, however, world class!
Mr. Ramesh, an IIT alumnus, perhaps thought he knew better than anyone else — without anticipating the backlash his remark may unleash, apart from the potential for boomerang it can have on the subject itself.
Dr. P.V. Indiresan, a former IIT director, retorted jokingly that Mr. Ramesh probably was looking at the mirror when he made the remark, but added that the IITs cannot be world class considering that they are starved of funds for industry-sponsored research or grants from business houses. This was in contrast to the scene in the U.S. and other advanced countries, where funding for research — both basic and applied — is of the order of millions of dollars. He also cited other reasons as lack of infrastructure, lack of stress on research per se, and a ballooning teacher-student ratio contributing to mediocrity. He said that to qualify IIT students nevertheless as world class is ridiculous.
Prof. C.N.R. Rao, Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister, said the IITs were in no way comparable to the MIT or Cambridge in the quality of research or infrastructure.
HALLMARK
Prof Morton Schapiro, President of North Western University, Illinois, U.S., pointed out during his recent visit to India that access, affordability, and quality are the true hallmarks of a world-class university. He stressed that in the U.S., the institutions which churn out high quality research and graduates, invariably get huge grants by way of endowments from industry, alumni and the Federal Government, all the three working in close collaboration. North Western University operates on an annual budget of about $1.6 billion, of which almost 35% is spent on sponsored research.
Harvard University gets huge grants and endowments every year that it has built up a corpus of about $ 7.5 billon, which is utilised partly to subsidise the brilliant yet poor students from the not-so- rich families in the U.S. and elsewhere, facilitating access and affordability.
That brings us to the pertinent issue what constitutes world-class quality in teaching, research or education in general. Is it the amount of money that is poured into institutions or is it the infrastructure or is it the way they are managed?
Are IIT graduates world class? One has to only look at the number of top managers or even CEOs of the major multinationals of the world — all of them have at least one or a few IIT/IIM graduates at their helm invariably running the show successfully. You name them and you invariably find them all there. There are even senior advisory positions in the Federal Government of the U.S. being manned by Indian expatriates who passed out of the IITs/IIMs. Is it not proof enough of their being world class?
The Indian software major, Infosys, started by a few professionals — most of whom were from the IITs, including its chief, N.R. Narayana Murthy — is today rated as a world-class IT company. I personally feel that the work of our engineers and scientists in the atomic energy and space establishments can be termed high quality.
Does an institution get world-class status only when its members work and perform abroad and not when they work in India offering India-specific solutions for India-centric problems?
Take, for instance, the field of economics. The neo-liberal economic policies being pursued by the U.S. government have resulted in a high unemployment rate, hovering around 9-10 % which requires U.S.-centric solutions specific to the country's economic social and cultural milieu. Whereas, the same may not work in Third World countries such as India or China –with a vast difference in economic and skill levels. The content and delivery of primary and secondary education in India will not be quite the same as that of the U.S. or Europe or even some other Asian countries . The logistics and approach to disaster management during floods or earthquakes in India are very different from what they would be in the U.S. or Europe. Obviously, the research orientation and solutions have got to be different here to be relevant.
Good quality education is always in great demand. In today's competitive world, competitive exams play a very important role in the life of students as well as parents. The admission into a large number of institutes in the country that offer higher education is based on an exam in which thousands of students compete with each other. Test which students have to appear for and do well in for their chances to become brighter for admission (with financial assistance) into a good university.
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