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Published online 1 July 2009 | Nature | doi:10.1038/460022a
Indian university system overhauled
National commission set to regulate higher education.
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Late but never too late. The ruling government deserves appreciation for implementing certain changes that are needed to bring the country to forefront. Education is one such area - where accountability has been lacking. Irrespective of the age, sex or race rewarding the good work and punishing failures in the field of education/research is important. Students from India, in general, do good given the right circumstances. Nurturing these young brains by offering right environments will go a long way. Kapil Mehta, Houston
Nothing much will change from such efforts. We have seen that in past as well. As a result there are so many Govt agencies trying to control higher education and the quality of higher education and research is going down day by day. In reality, Indian elites are hyper obsessed with higher education and research and are the main stumbling block for school education reform sice the days of British raj. India must reform its core, basic school education in Govt schools, on which majority of Indians depend. Quality of our private school is not much better. They are more interested to make students street-smart, well dressed and knows how to use forks and knives while eating, not much substance so far ?education? is concerned. Currently private tuition and coaching enabled students have forced originality and creativity out from Indian education. Success in many fiercely competitive examinations means nothing in reality. Such competitions are not among the students but among the parents, private tutors and coaching centers. Our so-called elite institutes like IITs may be great for teaching (Bachelors degree) but its research quality is not among the top even in Indian standard. We still depend on foreign technology for almost anything. You do not need much brain to teach why an apple comes down from a tree but it needs original talent to discover gravity. IITs take so-called ?the brightest? students according to their criteria, and make them just average and feel proud by supplying them to manpower starved western countries. A institute/university must have an active and original research program to become successful in teaching at the top level (masters and PhD). All the famous universities and institutes in the world are mainly famous for their original research, not for teaching much, although their teaching quality can be judged by their quality of research (and which complement each other). Our minister, Kapil Sibal?s attempt to introduce reform in basic school education by is more encouraging to me. Indian policy makers should remember that it?s useless to cut the root and then water on the top. Without drastic reform in our school education, nothing is going to change the pathetic condition of higher education and research in India.
Hope this time we all are optimistic for a change. I think along with these modifications, Indian government should take a serious note of coaching higher institutions(tutorials for cracking entrance examinations in various institutes). These coaching institutes takes the chance away from a equally eligible aspiring students who cant afford the extra tuition fee. These costly private coaching institutes should be banned from operation.Interestingly, these private coaching institutes have special entrance exams and coaching to get in to it. Let all the competing student to face the exams by their stable acquired knowledge over a period not with the instant infusion information in the crash course to out compete other people. Let us hope for a change....................
I sincerely hope this would cause a significant change in the quality of education imparted at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. However, as long as a reservation system exists, the quality of students are not going to meet international standards. When the reservation system in education is abolished, and when students are judged for their merit rather than muscle and power, Indian education and graduates from India would drive science on the international scene more constructively
Pushpa Bhargava, a biologist and founder of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, says the recommendations "should be implemented seriously". As an example of shoddy accreditation, he says he has been approached by a private college that asked to borrow academic staff on a short-term basis so that it could have professors on hand for a three-day visit from regulatory body the All India Council for Technical Education. This speaks volumes about the higher education system
This is really a very important move, and its implementation will demonstrate the quality of qualified persons of the future. This is an excellent initiative
The system in place for higher education in India has become too complex. It is subject to manipulation by well entrenched vested interests. Let us hope that the proposed dispensation may be able to act boldly and independently to give it a new direction. Attempts to reform the system of higher education in the country are not knew. In a letter dated April 3, 1950 to Mr Nehru Dr.Homi Bhabha, renowned nuclear scientist bemoaned the fact that "the quality of men and women who are being turned out by the universities has been gradually deteriorating since 1940". One of the reasons "being that the universities are admitting far more people than they are capable of teaching adequately with their limitations of staff and equipment"... .."another important reason is that some of the best scientists have today been drawn away from the universities to our research institutes" He proposed that research institutes should be sited close to universities so that the outstanding researchers can actively help in the work of a university. He insisted that the researchers must be required to give a few advanced courses in their own subject to the students of the university. ..."conversely universities should be required to appoint such outstanding research workers to the respective faculties". He went on to state that "the separation of research from teaching can only be to the detriment of both", He asserted that "advanced teaching of science in the universities should be under the same department as research". He followed up the proposal with another letter to Nehru on February 28,1952 quoting from a "Note on Scientific Education and the Utilization of Scientific Manpower" he sent to the Planning Commission in September 1950. Bhabha's proposals are as applicable today as they were 59 years ago when he brought them to the notice of the then policy makers. Let us hope that the members of the proposed National Commission for Higher Education and Research will not hesitate to consider afresh the earlier proposals. They cannot ignore the fact that Dr. Bhabha has ably demonstrated what India can do in mission oriented programmes of research and development. Posted by K.S.Parthasarathy
If a report is not freely available, say, on net, for going through, the comments based on statements of individuals (ministers and others) or filtered excerpts can't help in forming an informed opinion. The education, basic and higher, as well as research need revamping, is no doubt true. In fact, it may be so for almost all countries. But given the enormity of India, unless a plan of execution is specified, suggestions are likely to be lost in bureaucratic jungle despte the most well meaning thinkers who write reports. One also has to see whether the issue was advertised enough to have attracted the comments of a wide cross section. Most often, it's the metrocentric opinion that reaches the committee members. A much wider discussion may be appropriate before implementation. By the way, whatever happened to the famous and much talked about 'make the school bag lighter' report headed by a well meaning Prof. Yashpal? Ch. Mohan
One of the greatest problems in present-day education system worldwide is blindly following American system and holds that as gold standard (mainly by third world countries). American education is one of the most negative forces ruing human civilization since Second World War (and more drastically after Ronald Regan era that practically made education a profit making industry, out of reach of common citizens) and distorting the definition of ?education? and ?development?. Here in USA, education is not earned by talent, but auctioned (just the way India is heading nowadays). Social obligations of education are not much appreciated in US education. Despite of having about 4317 universities, US cannot produce its own manpower (yet import huge foreign workers simply because they are cheap and easy to exploit) although huge number of US students are under-employed or unemployed. If your parents have money and proper connections and if you are just an average student, you can get any degree from any university in USA. No wonder higher education in US is governed by foreign students. USA?s own industrial houses are very worried about quality of technology development, novel research in US. US scientific agencies like NSF, NIH are now admitting that mentoring is almost absent in higher education in US. European (British/Swiss/German etc) education models are much better, so far society and the country is concerned, as a whole. India needs to formulate a long term policy for basic and higher education. Currently everything is on ad-hoc basis. One minister says something and the next one changes 180 degree. There is no continuity, no long term vision. Some vague dreams are circulated but nothing materializes after spending a lot of money. Without witnessing ground level result, it's too early to comment on any such effort from our policy makers. Our past experiences do not allow us to be very optimistic.
One of the greatest problems in present-day education system worldwide is blindly following American system and holds that as gold standard (mainly by third world countries). American education is one of the most negative forces ruing human civilization since Second World War (and more drastically after Ronald Regan era that practically made education a profit making industry, out of reach of common citizens) and distorting the definition of "education" and "development". Here in USA, education is not earned by talent, but auctioned (just the way India is heading nowadays). Social obligations of education are not much appreciated in US education. Despite of having about 4317 universities, US cannot produce its own manpower (yet import huge foreign workers simply because they are cheap and easy to exploit) although huge number of US students are under-employed or unemployed. If your parents have money and proper connections and if you are just an average student, you can get any degree from any university in USA. No wonder higher education in US is governed by foreign students. USA's famous industrial houses are very worried about quality of technology development, novel research in US. US scientific agencies like NSF, NIH are now admitting that mentoring is almost absent in higher education in US. European (British/Swiss/German etc) education models are much better, so far society and the country is concerned, as a whole. India needs to formulate a long term policy for basic and higher education. Currently everything is on ad-hoc basis. One minister says something and the next one changes 180 degree. There is no continuity, no long term vision. Some vague dreams are circulated but nothing materializes after spending a lot of money. Without witnessing ground level result, it's too early to comment on any such effort from our policy makers. Our past experiences do not allow us to be very optimistic either.
Even though, most of the things are already clear from above discussion, I would like to discuss some of the missing facts about Indian higher education system. In all the universities and institutes, education system in India is mostly based on lectures and theory. One lecturer, can easily take care of 60 students in a classroom for one hour giving his last night crammed lecture and institute is also very happy with the money it is getting from mass population of students. But quality of education is not only based on the bookish basic knowledge and some traditional set of practicals/experiments for the sake of writing practical book and practical marks in the final exams. There is a big scope of improvement in this particular aspect of higher education in India, Institutes should admit only limited number of students in different courses and should provide quality hand on experience of actual research work rather than traditional practice we are following.
Hardly anyone in India is looking for ?education? at any level, but more interested in purchasing degrees. Highly expensive private schools/universities, coaching centers etc are not famous for producing world class scientists or technocrats, but for teaching the ?tricks? to go abroad, having ?proper connections? to get almost 100% ?suggestions?. So without finishing 50% of the syllabus some students can perfectly answer 100% even in fiercely competitive exams, like CSIR NET, IIT JEE, UPSC etc. Now we have doctors with MS degrees who rarely know a disease by staying with a patient (he knows that from books of course), we have IAS officers who are ?the most inefficient and corrupt in Asia?, we have ?scientists? who think techniques are more important to do ?research? than to risk one?s career in pursuit of some novel knowledge (in India or abroad). Our so-called ?development? in science and research field is limited to produce generic drugs and doing BPO jobs, and more importantly feeling proud by doing that. Our corporate controlled media empires do the rest by loudly advertising how great we are. Of course that is true for few people, but the rest and majority of the country is paying a heavy price for that. Money is fast replacing true education and perfection in any profession. Debates are not encouraged. Blind loyalty is openly solicited if you have any ambition in any field, at any age (starting from pre-school). People who strive for perfection in his/her profession are pushed aside and mediocrity rules, since long. We must remember that scientists are not coming from a different planet, but the product of the same society. We have prepared ourselves for long to achieve the unique distinction of being ?among the least innovative nations in the world?. We need fundamental change in our society and the way we groom our future generations if we ever like to establish ourselves as knowledge based, developed nation in distant future.
Hardly anyone in India is looking for "education" at any level, but more interested in purchasing degrees. Highly expensive private schools/universities, coaching centers etc are not famous for producing world class scientists or technocrats, but for teaching the "tricks" to go abroad, having proper connections to get almost 100% "suggestions". So without finishing 50% of the syllabus some students can perfectly answer 100% even in fiercely competitive exams, like CSIR NET, IIT JEE, UPSC etc. Now we have doctors with MS degrees who rarely know a disease by staying with a patient (he knows that from books of course), we have IAS officers who are "the most inefficient and corrupt in Asia", we have "scientists" who think techniques are more important to do "research" than to risk one's career in pursuit of some novel knowledge (in India or abroad). Our so-called "development" in science and research field is limited to produce generic drugs and doing BPO jobs, and more importantly feeling proud by doing that. Our corporate controlled media empires do the rest by loudly advertising how great we are. Of course that is true for few people, but the rest and majority of the country is paying a heavy price for that. Money is fast replacing true education and perfection in any profession. Debates are not encouraged. Blind loyalty is openly solicited if you have any ambition in any field, at any age (starting from school level). People who strive for perfection in his/her profession are pushed aside and mediocrity rules, since long. We must remember that scientists are not coming from a different planet, but the product of the same society. We have prepared ourselves for long to achieve the unique distinction of being "among the least innovative nations in the world". We need fundamental change in our society and the way we groom our future generations if we ever like to establish ourselves as knowledge based, developed nation in distant future.
My only hope is that whatever happened to the famous and much talked about 'make the school bag lighter' report will not happen to this report.
Minimum beurocracy gives maximum result in democratic system. In that sense NCHER is cetainly better then old system. But just by changing the name of a train it can not be run faster until and unless overall servicing of the system. Anurag chaurasia
Indian system overhauled- Its a brave statement lacking substance. Its an ambitious plan launched by the new government (govt) motivated with an idea to gain political gains. The reason I say this is that for overhauling an education system the government has to get rid of reservation in every aspects of Indian scenarios. Th reservations in jobs education,public in private firms is letting non-qualified personnel get in to the system and these non-qualified people in turn start regulating educational bodies like the one Prof Yash Pal has suggested. It is also suggested that the members to this educational body be selected by politicians. These politician by themselves are people most of whom are not even graduates. If they are even graduates then it is from a non science subjects like geography, politics etc. So I thnk its follows the simple priciple of GARBAGE IN (the search committee comprising of non-qualified politicians)GARBAGE OUT (politician select people who are ineligible or committee chosen keeping political gains in mind). The whole thing becomes more complex (or simple) keeping in mind the high corruption level of the democratic system in India. So I dont understand why anybody should be excited education overhaul.
This is a nice approach by Govt. of India. These may improve the quality of education but its difficult to give competent graduates to world because of reservation they are giving based on cast, these is nothing but a political move to create vote bank. if they really want to improve they should implement in on economic basis.In the country like India there are lots of bright students from villages who are unable to study because of financial constrains. now a days there is a very high prevail of self finance institutes which collect huge amount of fees. An one more thing they should battle is corruption in admission and other academics handlings.
We should appreciate the new steps to be taken in the field of higher education in India. However, detailed discussions should be held at all levels of higher education before implementing such reforms, so that such reforms will benefit all sections of higher education. Also, once taken decision to implement, strict and uniform procedure should be followed all over India in the field of higher education.
Yet another commission and a report to follow. I wonder what happened to the commission set up by the government a few years ago under the chairmanship of Professor Govardhan Mehta who was IISc director at that time. The main problem with India's education system is that all the money and attention is given to the so called elite institutions (and PM Singh wants to open many more IITs, IIScs and IIMs for rich and socially uplifted Indians to move to the western world) and national laboratories while schools (high schools and degree colleges) and most universities barely have any facilities. Their laboratory facilities are primitive. The system has to be overhauled starting from the primary schools not only in the cities but also in the villages which have been in even worse shape. Classrooms are half empty because teachers are busy running private tutoring classes which are a must if students want to get good grades in the exams. Admissions to half of India's technical schools are made by donations, connections and reservations and not by merit. No one is accountable while promotions are automatic and jobs are permanent in all government or autonomous bodies. Universities have more professors now than lecturers while research output is poor and substandard. I was looking at CSIR labs and counted nearly 80 deputy directors (Scientist F - F should be for failed) at IICT Hyderabad. Why would anyone work if promotions are handed down every five years and jobs are secure until retirement. THE SYSTEM IS BAD/CORRUPT, DISCOURAGES COMPETITION AND ENTHUSIASM, LACKS ANY ACCOUNTABILITY. Take a lesson from China and South Korea who invested heavily in education and research at all levels and encourage and provide incentives and necessary funding for scientists/engineers abroad to return. China has overtaken India in research publications and Korea is about to do so or may already have done and they are publishing in high impact journals. I must point out that there is no shortage of talent - it's just neglected, wasted or destroyed by the system and its leaders. Anil
People speak of csir, tifr, Net, UPSC to be fiercely competitive. I dont understand how it could be so, when to score in u have to mug up the whole chapters and answer them . For eg if we are asked to design a primer... the ans usually starts with " Once upon a time when he was walking through the woods... an idea struck him". Our education system tests how much of the mugged up subject we can vomit.. not how much we understand. Until that changes... its a mere waste of public money to form comittes. I think its better if the politicians gobble up the money without another delay..... becuase in our education system the guy who writes and answer starting with " Once upon a time when he was walking through the woods... an idea struck him" scores better than the guy who answer with the rules of primerdesign and the steps involved in 4-5 sentences.
The results are going to be both positive and negative. As Prof. Bhargave pointed out, it may help eliminate mediocre evaluation bodies like AICTE-which mindlesslly give approval to all and sundry- but at the same time it may impose another set of bureaucrats on top of the present lethargic and corrupt. However, an overhauling of the entire eductaion system is overdue in India. Any genuine move towards it must be commented.
I strongly feel that people need be held accountable for the funds they use to undertake their research. I've seen labs procurring huge amounts for a crap research project and at the end publishing bigger crap. With regards to a comment made above, I have seen the way funds are dealt with the "NON-IIT/IISc" institutes. The concept of common equipment hasnt caught on very well. I have seen people buy microscopes worth 15 lacs with its utility being the bare minimal. Its just that "I have the money and i'm going to blow it up" attitude. And guess what, these projects are going to receive more funds during the next renewal! I might sound very vocal about this but it really troubled me seeing tax payers money going down the drain. Forcing scientist to change this attitude would be the best way to improve the quality of research and education back home. They should also borrow a few features of the American education system at the undergraduate level itself.
There is no competitive original research going on in most of the indian universities. They are very much of degree producing units. Each day they start new couses simply to milk money from the students. See these courses, "Microbial gene technology, Gene cloning, Genetic engineering, Microbial genetics, Molecularbiology" all are one and the same and lot of overlapping. In these process we missed the hard core basic course "The biology". Same thing happened with physics and chemistry and there is no takers for this imporatnt basic science. Simply there is a hype over Naotechnology, biotechnology, bioinformatics etc. We should understand these are just part of the basic sciences. I am afraid whether botany and zoology depatments will survive in the universities in the future.