Turning a new leaf

Updated on: Monday, February 07, 2011

If there is one thing that the system of higher education in India needs right now, it is an effective and efficient Regulator. It has been proved time and again that neither the University Grants Commission nor the specific bodies such as the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) or the Medical Council of India (MCI), have performed their role objectively and effectively.

The mushrooming of engineering colleges in most parts of the country, without proper infrastructure or facilities, the blocking of new medical colleges that seem so badly needed to produce the medical practitioners India requires, and the proliferation of Deemed-to-be-Universities, which even got the sanction to call themselves just ‘Universities,' hang like the proverbial Albatross.

Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal has been battling with the system to bring about major changes, but that may not be an easy task. That is also a reason for his striving to keep HRD with him even after taking charge of the controversial Telecom and IT ministry.

Basically, if there is a good Regulator in place to deal with higher education, most of these problems we now face can be resolved. Though all these fora were created to deliver, they seem to have been misused by people who failed to realise the responsibilities cast on them. For instance, the AICTE, which is empowered to clear applications for the setting up of new engineering colleges or technical institutes, takes the responsibility to ensure that the applicant created the required infrastructure and provided a decent quality of education on the proposed campus.

But when an inspection team that visits the site to verify on the ground, the criteria to be fulfilled, chooses to look the other way and endorses the application, what can the AICTE do? That's the question. It is not so much the system as the people who run the system that failed.

What is expected of a Regulator?

The normal expectation among academics and educationists is that a regulatory body must look into the following issues before permitting somebody to start a new institution: 1. Is that area/region well served with existing colleges? 2. Is there a felt need for another college there? 3. Is the applicant capable of providing the infrastructure and facilities expected of such an institution? 4. Does the applicant possess the required land and financial resources to set up the college? 5. Before allowing admissions to begin, have the promised facilities been provided on the ground, or does it remain on paper (as it usually does)?

About six years ago, the entire country had only 1,346 engineering colleges. But now, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu alone have over 1,000 engineering colleges, with a capacity to churn out over 1.5 lakh graduates every year.

It is one argument to say that colleges here also cater to the requirements of other regions, but why are there not enough colleges coming up in the central, eastern, northern or even western regions? Why has there been a concentration of engineering colleges in the four southern States?

Official sources in Andhra Pradesh say that but for the late Chief Minister YSR's scheme to offer scholarships to thousands of students joining these colleges, many of the 500-plus engineering colleges would have closed down by now. More institutions came up hoping to cash in on this scheme. Now, Tamil Nadu offers scholarship and concessions to ‘first generation' students from the rural areas, and this had lured more boys and girls to the engineering admissions last year.

What should a college offer?

There are colleges and colleges, universities and universities. Obviously, all of them cannot be the same and do not offer the same facilities. So what should a college offer to its students, or put differently, what should students expect in a college?

“We need to provide a fair and transparent system of admission; a worthy infrastructure; qualified and academically-proficient faculty; good educational and recreational facilities on campus, including comfortable hostel and good food; and above all a sense of discipline. We need to provide an atmosphere that encourages academic activity, and facilities that enable the students to relax and stay fit,” says G.V. Sampath, vice-president, VIT, Vellore.

One of the prime requisites to upgrade the quality of education is the faculty. College managements insist that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find the right staff to teach the students.

“We need a combination of qualification, aptitude, capacity to handle students and also engage them academically,” says the Dean of a private arts and science college. Since the college is unable to attract outside talent, the faculty members encourage bright students in the postgraduate courses to take to teaching. In many of engineering colleges too, students find their seniors handling classes before long. These lecturers are egged on to take up M. Phil. or doctorate programmes while teaching.

AICTE sources complain that top professors lend their names to a few colleges in an area for “namesake,” because every department needs a well-qualified hand to head it or be on the visiting faculty at least. With more colleges coming up every year, this problem only gets aggravated.

Reviving the arts

Higher education, of course, does not end with technical or medical education. There is the whole sea of arts and science streams. Unfortunately, they seem to be losing steam. With tens of thousands of students, normally those securing above 75 per cent marks, going for the professional courses, who join the arts and science degree courses? Unless a student, or the parents (as in most cases) decide that he or she should take up Economics, Commerce, Physics, or even Literature for that matter, these undergraduate programmes no longer attract the best of students.

Principals say that many students who want to take up competitive examinations, especially the Civil Services, take to these courses so that they can take up postgraduate degrees and simultaneously go in for coaching for the qualifying examinations.

The reason is not far to seek, because except in some of the autonomous colleges, the syllabi remain in the British era and the 1960s at the latest. For instance, in many colleges affiliated to the universities, B.A. English Literature still has History of English Literature and Social History of England as the ancillaries. How relevant are they in today's world?

Institute-industry linkage

Ultimately, how employable are our graduates and postgraduates in any field? Unless the universities and colleges refashion their curriculum and objectives to produce more “employable” graduates, they will only keep adding to the growing number of unemployed or under-employed people.

This calls for a fresh orientation to undergraduate education, which necessitates a closer institute-industry linkage so that the colleges can produce the kind of talent or skill the industry needs. That may be the ultimate test.

When education is at a crossroads, when foreign universities are knocking at our doors to set up facilities here, the Central and State governments must wake up to the realities. Education may have become a profitable business now, but it should not become another industry.

With the privatisation of most of higher education, the costs have no doubt skyrocketed. But fees and profits should not be the only criterion for starting colleges.

We need to nurture talent and innovation, a scientific temper in students, and s

Turning a new leaf

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