Prof Rajita Chaudhuri follow some off-beat trends like organizing make up sessions
If private educational institutions perform well, the government should be forthcoming in recognising and aiding them
G. Viswanathan
Chancellor, VIT University
The Government of India's education policy is three-pronged. It's about expansion, excellence and inclusion. Currently, access to higher education is only restricted to around 11 per cent of our country's people whereas the world average is 27 per cent. So we have a long way to go before we catch up with the rest of the world. To achieve this, the government's spending on education should be increased. Even though the Education Commission had recommended six per cent of the GDP to be spent on education (that too 50 years ago), only four per cent is actually spent.
The government is concentrating on school education. No doubt it is much needed but higher education is necessary to maintain the country's economic growth. Economic equality can only be a reality when the middle and the lower middle class reap the benefits of higher education. However, this cannot be achieved by the government alone. The private sector, too, would have to participate. Liberalisation and privatisation should apply to the education sector as well so that expansion takes place. But unless we take care of the tuition fee of students coming from weaker sections of society, they may not be able to join the institutions, especially the private ones, even if seats are available. Some kind of financial assistance is desperately needed for them apart from the bank loans. Even getting bank loans is not that easy for them. This model is available in China. I am told by Chinese students in my institution that their education is funded by the Chinese Government. Such a model is worth considering in our country as well.
Now, since we are liberal in permitting engineering colleges, the number of seats has gone up to 10 lakhs in India. This is a very unique situation. Such expansion should take place in other sectors as well such as medical education where there is a dire need for expansion. Our students, who are mostly going out of the country, are studying medicine in many East European countries. The cost of medical education there is comparatively cheaper than in India. It is high time that our students get enough seats in our country. As for quality, it will take some time. For a college, it usually takes about ten years. For a university, it requires 20-25 years to develop full-fledged teaching, research and other capabilities that include dispensation of social responsibilities. The present Union government wants to expand the reach of education and improve its quality. But the way it is implemented goes against private initiatives in the education sector. We can bring about quality only if there is competition between the government and private institutions.
We are also expecting foreign universities to land in India. If they are here, we'll have to compete with them. We have an acute shortage of teachers in our country. This holds more true for engineering and medical colleges. So we have to offer extra benefits to teachers. We should have more scholarships for those going for Master's degree if they give an undertaking that they will take up teaching. Only then will we be able to tackle the shortage of teachers.
I would make a request to the industry, especially the senior executives, to come and share their experiences with students and teachers. It will go a long way in improving the practical knowledge of students in engineering colleges. Another thing I would suggest is that the teachers must go to industries at least for a short period every year to brush up their theoretical knowledge with some practical knowhow.
If you ask me what I learnt from my experience in building VIT as a reputed institute in India, I would just say 'patience'. Certainly, we need the blessings of and the cooperation from the state and the Central governments. At present, there are rules and regulations which can punish an institute if it violates them. But if an institute performs well, there is nobody to recognise it. It is high time that the government recognised them so that many institutes can compete and quality goes upward. And, perhaps the cost of education would also go down due to increased competition. Since there is no competition, the cost of medical education is very high. As far as VIT is concerned, we were under the University of Madras for 16 years. We didn't have any major problem. But the curriculum was not revised during that period. We had to teach subjects from outside the syllabus which we called 'augmentation programme', because it was useful to them in the industry. Students would study certain things under that programme but would not have to write the examination.
Once I wrote to the university for introducing the credit system. They sat on the application for about two years and then replied, asking us to wait for better times!
In 1999, I applied for autonomous status and went to the university. They said that we didn't have permanent approval from AICTE. So, we were asked to go and get that first. The AICTE in those days was giving temporary approval and the university was giving temporary affiliation. Then I went to the AICTE. There I was told to go to the University of Madras and get permanent affiliation first! This game went on for two years. Finally, I withdrew my application for autonomy and applied for the deemed university status and got it. Now, we are into our tenth year as a deemed university.
I have visited many foreign universities and find that there is no problem of finance. It's largely because the former students and big business houses and industries around the particular city contribute a lot. They donate very liberally to educational institutions. This is happening in a big way in the US. So the universities there allocate enough funds for research. There are lot of scholarships to avail too. That is why they attract large number of students from all over the world.
It would be a good idea if our universities have collaborations with them. I also suggest that when the foreign universities come here, they should have a local partner here so that even if they leave, there would not be a complete void.
Bringing too many restrictions on the functioning of universities, particularly the private ones, will hamper their growth. It will eventually affect the growth of education and too many restrictions will also increase corruption. Fifty years ago, Dr Radhakrishnan Commission suggested that governments should not interfere in the autonomy of universities. It should be applicable both for private and government universities.
This year 1,52, 000 students wrote entrance examination for our university for the 3,000 engineering seats. This shows the faith that parents and students have in us. When we look at the West, all the best universities have more than 25,000 students and yet they maintain quality. MIT has 30,000 students yet they maintain the number one status in the world. I want MIT as the role model for VIT.
In Tamil Nadu, we have more than 450 engineering colleges. If somebody wanted to start a new engineering college, they should concentrate on specialised courses instead of the routine ones. In this age, one has to innovate or perish.
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If private educational institutions perform well, the government should be forthcoming in recognising and aiding them
G. ViswanathanChancellor, VIT University
The Government of India's education policy is three-pronged. It's about expansion, excellence and inclusion. Currently, access to higher education is only restricted to around 11 per cent of our country's people whereas the world average is 27 per cent. So we have a long way to go before we catch up with the rest of the world. To achieve this, the government's spending on education should be increased. Even though the Education Commission had recommended six per cent of the GDP to be spent on education (that too 50 years ago), only four per cent is actually spent.
The government is concentrating on school education. No doubt it is much needed but higher education is necessary to maintain the country's economic growth. Economic equality can only be a reality when the middle and the lower middle class reap the benefits of higher education. However, this cannot be achieved by the government alone. The private sector, too, would have to participate. Liberalisation and privatisation should apply to the education sector as well so that expansion takes place. But unless we take care of the tuition fee of students coming from weaker sections of society, they may not be able to join the institutions, especially the private ones, even if seats are available. Some kind of financial assistance is desperately needed for them apart from the bank loans. Even getting bank loans is not that easy for them. This model is available in China. I am told by Chinese students in my institution that their education is funded by the Chinese Government. Such a model is worth considering in our country as well.
Now, since we are liberal in permitting engineering colleges, the number of seats has gone up to 10 lakhs in India. This is a very unique situation. Such expansion should take place in other sectors as well such as medical education where there is a dire need for expansion. Our students, who are mostly going out of the country, are studying medicine in many East European countries. The cost of medical education there is comparatively cheaper than in India. It is high time that our students get enough seats in our country. As for quality, it will take some time. For a college, it usually takes about ten years. For a university, it requires 20-25 years to develop full-fledged teaching, research and other capabilities that include dispensation of social responsibilities. The present Union government wants to expand the reach of education and improve its quality. But the way it is implemented goes against private initiatives in the education sector. We can bring about quality only if there is competition between the government and private institutions.
We are also expecting foreign universities to land in India. If they are here, we'll have to compete with them. We have an acute shortage of teachers in our country. This holds more true for engineering and medical colleges. So we have to offer extra benefits to teachers. We should have more scholarships for those going for Master's degree if they give an undertaking that they will take up teaching. Only then will we be able to tackle the shortage of teachers.
I would make a request to the industry, especially the senior executives, to come and share their experiences with students and teachers. It will go a long way in improving the practical knowledge of students in engineering colleges. Another thing I would suggest is that the teachers must go to industries at least for a short period every year to brush up their theoretical knowledge with some practical knowhow.
If you ask me what I learnt from my experience in building VIT as a reputed institute in India, I would just say 'patience'. Certainly, we need the blessings of and the cooperation from the state and the Central governments. At present, there are rules and regulations which can punish an institute if it violates them. But if an institute performs well, there is nobody to recognise it. It is high time that the government recognised them so that many institutes can compete and quality goes upward. And, perhaps the cost of education would also go down due to increased competition. Since there is no competition, the cost of medical education is very high. As far as VIT is concerned, we were under the University of Madras for 16 years. We didn't have any major problem. But the curriculum was not revised during that period. We had to teach subjects from outside the syllabus which we called 'augmentation programme', because it was useful to them in the industry. Students would study certain things under that programme but would not have to write the examination.
Once I wrote to the university for introducing the credit system. They sat on the application for about two years and then replied, asking us to wait for better times!
In 1999, I applied for autonomous status and went to the university. They said that we didn't have permanent approval from AICTE. So, we were asked to go and get that first. The AICTE in those days was giving temporary approval and the university was giving temporary affiliation. Then I went to the AICTE. There I was told to go to the University of Madras and get permanent affiliation first! This game went on for two years. Finally, I withdrew my application for autonomy and applied for the deemed university status and got it. Now, we are into our tenth year as a deemed university.
I have visited many foreign universities and find that there is no problem of finance. It's largely because the former students and big business houses and industries around the particular city contribute a lot. They donate very liberally to educational institutions. This is happening in a big way in the US. So the universities there allocate enough funds for research. There are lot of scholarships to avail too. That is why they attract large number of students from all over the world.
It would be a good idea if our universities have collaborations with them. I also suggest that when the foreign universities come here, they should have a local partner here so that even if they leave, there would not be a complete void.
Bringing too many restrictions on the functioning of universities, particularly the private ones, will hamper their growth. It will eventually affect the growth of education and too many restrictions will also increase corruption. Fifty years ago, Dr Radhakrishnan Commission suggested that governments should not interfere in the autonomy of universities. It should be applicable both for private and government universities.
This year 1,52, 000 students wrote entrance examination for our university for the 3,000 engineering seats. This shows the faith that parents and students have in us. When we look at the West, all the best universities have more than 25,000 students and yet they maintain quality. MIT has 30,000 students yet they maintain the number one status in the world. I want MIT as the role model for VIT.
In Tamil Nadu, we have more than 450 engineering colleges. If somebody wanted to start a new engineering college, they should concentrate on specialised courses instead of the routine ones. In this age, one has to innovate or perish.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM BBA MBA Institute: Student Notice Board
Run after passion and not money, says Arindam Chaudhuri
Award Conferred To Irom Chanu Sharmila By IIPM
IIPM’s Management Consulting Arm - Planman Consulting
IIPM Lucknow – News article in Economic Times and Times of India
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