Universalising Indian Universities…….

In one of my earlier posts, I had raised the question about the justification in starting eight new IITs at the cost of quality of education. I had two major concerns – lack of high class faculty and adequate infrastructure that could produce such a huge number of world beaters, assuming of course, that all new IITs would command as high a respect as their existing counterparts do.

Well, there is one way to mitigate at least one of those issues. That is of quality of education imparted which would affect the quality of students passing out. That mitigating factor is infusion of foreign faculty into our educational system. It is a pity that our universities do not embody universality, which it should do to flourish in today’s challenging environment. Even though the IITs, IIMs, Jawaharhal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi University (DU) and University of Calcutta (CU) have sustained high quality education in India, we still have fallen behind relative to the rest of the world. It is also feared that India’s “youth bulge”, which we keep on iterating as our strength over China, would turn into a social and political nightmare if we do not improve and expand university education.

Bringing in foreign faculty would help our university system. No other foreign university of any repute is as insular as any of India’s universities. The presence of foreign faculty would not only bridge the gap in quality teachers, but it would also have a gigantic impact on Indian colleagues. Teacher absenteeism, lack of professionalism and a lackadaisical approach to supervision would be things of the past. Foreign colleagues would both embarrass and inspire their Indian counterparts.

More than any exhortation from the hierarchy, it is this infusion that would energize the Indian faculty. Hiring foreigners would cost us money and also would require adjustment to our VISA and Residency rules, but all these issues are not beyond the reach of our government. India’s national interest obliges us to stand up to this cause and construct an entry system for foreign teachers. After all, we want to be world beaters in science and technology in the next 20 years, don’t we?