Govt inaction or fear of foreign univs
Umesh
Varun
Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2008 11:20:57 +0530
Subject: [FutureFocusFoundation] AICTE Update - IV : Let minds fly
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1146322.cms
Let minds fly
18 Jun 2005, 2207 hrs IST , MEN AND IDEAS/GURCHARAN DAS
It is with anguish that I sit down to write this column. Two years ago, I met
a distinguished friend in Delhi, who is the president of a prestigious American
university that has produced several Nobel laureates. He loves India and he
told me with some pride that India is increasingly perceived as a future
knowledge capital of the world. He thought he would contribute to this future
by setting up a branch campus here so that Indians could acquire his
university's degree at a fourth of the cost in America. I was delighted. Here's
a chance for a world-class education for our young, I thought.
Two years later I heard this tale of woe. His university's application to the
Association of Indian Universities (AIU) for an equivalence certificate went
unanswered despite three reminders. Their meeting with the All India Council of
Technical Education (AICTE) resulted in the demand for a huge bribe. Their
efforts with the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Ministry entangled
them in miles of red tape. After knocking about like this for a year they
concluded that their only hope was to go to Chattisgarh, which allowed private
universities. Just as they were about to acquire 25 acres of land and make the
Rs 2 crore mandatory deposit came the infamous Supreme Court ban on Chattisgarh
universities.
"Infamous", I say, because the court judgment did not distinguish between good
and bad private universities in Chattisgarh. All of them were asked to go and
take UGC's approval. But if UGC had been willing to give approval in the first
place, why would they have gone to god forsaken Chattisgarh? And wait hasn't
UGC, in fact, killed off higher education? Only two dozen out of its 200 plus
universities offer reasonable teaching and most of these existed prior to the
birth of UGC. For 50 years it has promoted rote learning, incompetent faculty,
and mediocrity. It has punished original thinking and failed to create an
employable graduate. Hence, students have been pushed into a parallel universe
of coaching classes, which ironically take their obligation to students far
more seriously. The eminent Prof Yashpal, the former UGC chairman and the mover
of the Public Interest Litigation should look himself in the mirror. If he is
an honest man, he will confess that UGC has
betrayed our trust.
Along with his letter, my friend has attached draconian new AICTE guidelines
for private universities, which he says "will decide our fees, student intake,
and even the size of our buildings, and prosecute us like criminals for
non-compliance. Even if we get their approval, it's only for a year, and
meanwhile the courts could overturn things as they have done in Manipal's
case." Sadly, he concludes that India is a hopeless cause and he has decided to
set up a campus in China. After reading his letter I felt like weeping.
Who could be against enlightened regulation of private higher education? We
all wish for a body that ensures standards. But if this is how we regulate-with
corruption and red tape-isn't it better to give universities autonomy and leave
it to parents and students? A private education costs less than a car, and we
don't protect car customers via AICTE or UGC. Rather than fall into the trap of
case-by-case approvals, good regulators everywhere provide lots of
information-such as our magazines, who now rate colleges by polling students
and faculty. These ratings are not precise but they help students make an
informed choice. A free society must offer autonomy to its universities only
then will minds be able to fly.
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__,_._,___
Umesh Sharma
Washington D.C.
1-202-215-4328 [Cell]
Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005
http://www.uknow.gse.harvard.edu/index.html (Edu info)
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/ (Management Info)
www.gse.harvard.edu/iep (where the above 2 are used )
http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/
http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/
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