Saturday, June 6, 2009

Importance of Reforms In Higher Education

Recently I read two articles in Indian Express by Shekhar Gupta & Ila Patnaik. Both the articles put forward some magnificent facts & figures...

Some of the facts & figures from Shekhar Gupta's articles are...

In his first innings as a politician, Dr Manmohan Singh liberated our economy. In his second, as prime minister, he brought about a paradigm shift in not only our foreign policy, but also our entire worldview. In each case, he persisted with change at great risk to his neck, and reputation. So what will be the change in his third stint in public office? Or, rather, what should he? Our guess, and wish, is that he now does to our higher education what he did to our economy and foreign policy in 1991 and 2008, respectively.

Various estimates put just the cost on Indian parents of educating their children abroad between $5 billion and $6 billion per year. This is an entirely one-way trade, as very few foreign students come to study in India, and some of those who wish to, like researchers, even Fulbright scholars, are given hell by our Orwellian (or you could coin an Indian equivalent, Arjunian, Murlimanoharian) HRD establishment.

India is now the kidney disease capital of the world. Yet, do you know how many nephrology MDs our medical colleges produce in a year? It is only 70. Neurology does worse, with 63, cardiology a little better with 88 and oncology, the specialisation to treat cancers, only 15. And we hope to earn foreign exchange from medical tourism! In each of these specialisations, India could absorb, and needs, at least 10 times as many per year. Can you imagine a country of 110 crores producing just 7332 MDs per year? America produces 16,000 and little UK 4200.

Some of the facts & figures from Ila Patnaik's articles are...

The best universities in India, those that we are particularly proud of, are not well rated by international standards. The Times of London’s Higher Education Supplement ranks universities around the world. In 2008, their data showed IIT Delhi at rank 154 and IIT Bombay at rank 174 globally. No other university in India made this top 200 list. By way of comparison, China has universities at ranks 50, 56, 113, 141, 143 and 144. In other words, China has six universities which are superior to IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay.

And for more details read the full articles....

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