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Stay abreast of the fast moving economic super-power — India!
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India: Consensus needed for educational reforms in India: Expansion of IITs, Kangra Govt Medical College, Educomp plans, Economic slowdownIndia’s educational investment is equivalent to that of sub Saharan Africa. The education sector needs reforms. The industry is keen on forging public-private partnerships to improve quality of higher education. However, there is lack of consensus on specifics of educational reforms. Online education providers are optimistic that the slowdown will encourage executives to sign up for courses. Companies associated with technology aided education are gearing up to meet the demands of the Indian market. Chillibreeze Business Research Team
Trends Government Policy Plans- academic institutions and corporates Surveys and Reports Executive Education Technology Assisted Learning TrendsUS students, researchers to start coming to India from 2009 Come 2009, a new trend is set to begin in Indo-US science and technology relations. It would no longer be a one-way street for students and researchers. American students and researchers — to start with, at least 50 — are expected to come to universities and research institutes in India for a minimum period of six months. A decision facilitating this, through the Research Internship in Science and Engineering (RISE) programme, would be announced soon by the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSTF). So far, it has been a rush of students from India, a large number of researchers going to the US for higher studies, or collaborative work. From 2009, a beginning to make it two-way will start. IUSTF, which has been catalysing partnerships and projects between the two countries, is also setting up three more Centre of Research Excellence in the country. Optimism takes the back-seat in B-schools now Even six months back, business school campuses brimmed with optimism, where students constantly made references to India’s growth story at almost every seminar and guest lecture. Smartly dressed in corporate suits, they churned out case studies, documenting every modicum of India’s scorching growth across a number of sectors. The suit is still in place, but minus terms like ‘9% GDP’ and ‘knowledge economy’. They have been replaced by worried looking students who talk about hedging their risks career-wise and considering a trade-off to take what is available in the job market instead of waiting for the perfect opening. Though placements at these Bschools haven’t started as yet, the total intake and salary is expected to moderate this year. The institutes on their part are trying to prepare their students for the job market by conducting special seminars and guest lectures. There is help coming from other quarters as well. The alumni network is helping the current crop of graduates figure out the current scenario and opportunities in store for them. Expansion of IITs could affect quality Earlier this year, the HRD ministry announced eight new IITs, addressing the need for expanding technical education and the aspirations of large numbers of students. But hasty implementation is likely to substantially reduce the quality of the IIT system, the future of which will depend on how this major expansion is executed in the first few years, the critical period during which the quality of many of our IITs, which have very different curricula and academic and administrative cultures, was compromised. While the first five IITs established a world-class brand for undergraduate education, mainly through the success of its students, they failed to establish world-class postgraduate programmes and world-class standards in research and innovation. Without proper execution, the new IITs could turn out to be just more undergraduate factories. Some background is necessary for understanding the reasons for this apprehension. The first four IITs at Kharagpur (1951), Bombay (1958), Madras (1959) and Kanpur (1960) resulted from the visionary, preindependence S N Sarkar committee report, the implementation of which was championed by Jawaharlal Nehru. Recognising that existing engineering colleges did not have the required academic culture, the Sarkar committee recommended the setting up of new institutes, a lesson that now seems to have been forgotten. IIT Delhi was set up in 1962. These five IITs were aided, respectively, by UNESCO, the Soviet Union, West Germany, the US and the UK, which influenced their curricula and academic cultures. The initial faculty, drawn from local engineering colleges of varying quality, had a largely negative influence on the curriculum. The lack of faculty mobility, and the hurried, poorly planned and executed starts reduced the long-term quality of the institutes, as did the uninspired choice of directors who were more interested in rules, regulations, and hierarchy than in academics. Three years after IIT Kanpur started in the same mode, the personal chemistry between the visionary founding director and the MIT professor heading the US-funded project resulted in revolutionary changes in faculty hiring, curricular reform, and academic and student governance. Emphasis on qualifications rather than on experience resulted in a young PhDdominated faculty. The egalitarian atmosphere encouraged by the visionary director empowered the faculty, who felt a sense of ownership in all aspects of the institute. Committees with members chosen by rotation from each department determined academic policies. Lively debates and quick decision-making resulted in a new, engineeringscience based curriculum that had not been tried anywhere. Rotation of the department headships helped establish an open, egalitarian atmosphere that nurtured innovations in education. Academic inbreeding and lack of faculty mobility converts such institutions into degree-awarding factories. Technology evolving at ever increasing rates requires frequent curricular changes, but academia is notorious for resisting change. Prime ingredients for continuing reforms are faculty qualifications and quality and an environment that encourages ownership of the academic process. Because India did not have a tradition for postgraduate technical education, the pool of qualified faculty with postgraduate degrees was very small. And, the prevailing wisdom was that experience was more important than academic qualifications. Many institutes fill up all faculty positions from the candidates that apply and hire internal candidates, the resulting inbreeding stifles injection of new ideas. This passive facultyhiring strategy reduces quality. In contrast, IIT Kanpur was able to hire much better faculty by using an aggressive, proactive policy to actively seek out the best candidates and to then coax them to join. Hiring outstanding faculty is not sufficient: long-term quality depends on traditions created by in-house research contributions. IIT Kanpur showed that retention is helped by an egalitarian environment. But financial compensation is also very important. World-class academic institutions have outstanding engineering researchers and innovators as role models for new faculty members. Such role models are not available to young Indian faculty, especially in institutes that did not emphasise qualifications. Also, enormous energy was expended in creating new undergraduate engineering curricula. And the recent eightfold increase in the undergraduate student population is bound to curtail the original objectives of the IIT system. It is, therefore, surprising that one existing technical institute was elevated to an IIT and another one, with a very lacklustre academic record, is slated to become an IIT. In the short term, the current policy will produce more graduates, but of decreasing quality. In the long term, India will fall behind in the race for technology leadership. Quality does not follow from quantity. Attaining world-class standards in research and innovation, which has long gestation periods, requires a long-term strategy for science and technology leadership. Hopefully, these issues will be debated at the highest levels, and a new policy, in the spirit of the Sarkar committee report, will be developed and executed for putting India on a time-bound trajectory for achieving technology leadership. Government PolicyRs.150 crores for developing Kangra Govt Medical College Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College, Kangra at Tanda would be developed at par with All India Institute of Medical Sciences and additionally Rs. 150 crore would be spent to make the college self-contained and equipped with best of the medical education and diagnostic facilities. Education sector is poised for reforms, like industry was in pre-1991 era Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) are holding the annual Higher Education Summit 2008 titled "Higher Education at the Crossroads: Imperatives for Policy & Practice" .Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said, "There is no doubt that education sector is poised for reform. Today, the education sector is like the industrial sector in the license-raj of pre-liberalization era. We need to invite private sector to participate more vigorously." Mr Ahluwalia however pointed to the "lack of consensus" as to what should be the nature of these reforms. Said Mr Ahluwalia, "It is unclear what specific changes are needed in the education system, and if the stakeholder like students, faculty and parents are aligned for accepting those changes. We need to build a broad based consensus on the specifics of education reforms." Shortage of teachers a major concern As the government has embarked on a major expansion plan of higher education in the 11th Plan, quality remains an area of concern in view of unavailability of teachers for the elite institutes, including IITs. At present, about 30 per cent of the faculties in the existing IITs are vacant. The rate of appointment of teachers in these institutes has been slow. The government will have to recruit an average 800 teachers annually for these institutes. Currently, the existing IITs are recruiting about 150 teachers every year. The global meltdown has proved to be "beneficial" in a way as many faculty members abroad have evinced interest to come back to India. The government is encouraging private sector to invest for expansion of higher education in the country. The proposed 20 new IITs will come up on a public-private partnership (PPP) mode. China has overtaken India in higher education in the recent year. While Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in India is 12 per cent with youths in the age group of 18 to 24 years are enrolled in higher education, the GER in China is 22 per cent. As the higher education sector in India is marred by poor funding, inadequate infrastructure and low enrolment rate, Public Private Partnership (PPP) could be a viable option to improve quality and expansion. Plans-Academic institutions and CorporatesIndian University of Petroleum and Energy Studies Signs MOU with Canadian institutions University of Petroleum & Energy Studies has taken a step forward and has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with University of Waterloo, Canada and the Centennial Energy Institute (CEI), for Scientific Research and Educational Cooperation with UPES. Both institutions will encourage institutional facilitated contact and cooperation between their students, faculty members, departments and research institutes under provisions of this Memorandum with UPES. University of Petroleum & Energy Studies has immerged in the education sector as the fastest growing University which has successfully raised the benchmark for Indian Education by designing its courses to train its students, as domain specialist professionals. UPES is approved by UGC. UPES offers 33 specialized programs across Oil & Gas sector, Power sector, Transportation, Infrastructure, Logistics & Supply Chain sectors. It is also the first institute to set Bio-Diesel Laboratory and first to implement SAP. Educomp plans to set up private varsity in Delhi Making its second innings in the education sector, online learning solutions provider, Educomp Solutions is planning to enter the higher education space by setting up a private university in New Delhi. The company is looking at acquiring anywhere between 25 and 50 acres of land in and around the Dehil-NCR region. Experts say setting up a full-fledged private university would require an investment of around Rs 500 crore. India’s higher education sector is worth Rs 100,000 crore today and is expected to treble over three to five years, note industry players, as faster economic growth raises the demand for qualified people. The company has recently entered into collaboration with Ansal API, along with associate company KTIL, to provide land and infrastructure on a 60 years’ lease basis for building up schools all over India. Educomp is present in three streams: content licensing to schools, professional development of tutors and bridging the ‘Digital Divide’ (by taking IT to rural areas). IIFT ties up with global B-Schools In an effort to maintain its pre-eminence as one of the leading B-Schools in the country, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) is set to embrace new global partners to offer new courses in the state-of-the-art education on business management, international trade and marketing. The institute, which has been awarded the deemed university status, is in talks with two global B-Schools now. IIFT is also eyeing a partnership with a London-based royal institute to explore the opportunity of offering a specialised course in logistics and supply chain management. In step with its strategy to help create a pool of skilled workforce for different industries, IIFT is soon going to introduce an exclusive PG diploma course exclusively for the executives of Larsen & Toubro. IIFT, as a nodal institute for offering training and education programmes on bilateral and multilateral trade issues in developing countries, has been invited by the governments of Namibia and Rwanda to launch those programmes in those states, in collaboration with local Bschools . These programmes are being facilitated by multilateral trading fora/funding agencies, including WTO, UNCTAD and Swiss International Development Organisation. Earlier in the year, IIFT, under the regional resource development programme, had conducted two programmes on management development for SMEs at Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and at Kuo-Ming in China , in collaboration with the local institutes. IIT Madras, HP Labs to work on research project Professors and students at IIT Madras will join hands with HP Labs India’s researchers in exploring newer forms of human-computer interacting, including hand gesture and speech, to influence virtual objects on a computer monitor or projection screen. They will be working along with a team from the State University of New York in the project. For the next three years, HP Labs will provide IIT Madras annually $50,000-$70,000 to work on the project. HP Labs selected IIT Madras for HP Labs Innovation Research Award 2008 to fund the joint research project. The award is part of the HP Labs Innovation Research Programme that aims to create opportunities at universities and research institutes globally for breakthrough research. Surveys and ReportsInvestment in education as good as Africa's For a government that has prided itself on its commitment to education, Unesco’s Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2009 came with a severe indictment. According to the report, public investment in education in India was at 3.3% of the country’s gross national product, a figure that put India’s public investment in education at lower than sub-Saharan Africa’s median. On the positive side, the report states India is on track to achieving the enrolment targets for elementary education. India is one of the 17 countries with the highest number of out-of school children. In what should come as a wake up call to the UPA government, Unesco’s annual report on the progress of the millennium development goals has suggested strengthening of policy commitments to quality education. The UPA government has after four-and-half years of delays finalised and approved the Right to Education Bill. The legislation, which is expected to be introduced in Parliament when it reconvenes in December, would help create the requisite environment to ensure quality in education. The report also draws attention to ensuring that children have basic literacy and numeric skills. This has been an area of concern for India. The Unesco report draws on findings by Pratham’s ASER report. “In a 2007 survey in India, fewer than half the children in grade 3 could read a simple text and only 58% could subtract or divide”. Teacher absenteeism is another issue of concern. However, the report found that contrary to popular perception, absenteeism among teachers plagues both private and government schools. The report suggests greater commitment to reducing inequalities and sustained political leadership to reach education targets. But it is not all negative for India. The report makes an example of how India was able to lead the aid relationship while finalising funds from the World bank. This the report suggests is a result of low levels of aid dependence, high levels of government capacity and strong national institutions for capacity development. PPP model will boost education infra: Report Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models are imperative for the expansion and accessibility of higher education infrastructure in India, says a Ficci-Ernst & Young report titled ‘Leveraging Partnerships in India’s Education Sector’. The report states that without adequate funding from the government, public institutions find it difficult to develop infrastructure to enhance student intake and expand enrollment. “It is important to incentivise higher education if we want to take it to the next step ...Despite having the talent we are unable to attract the same to teaching and promote research,” said Amit Mitra, FICCI secretary general at the FICCI Higher Education Summit 2008. The report also draws attention to India’s low Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) of almost 11 per cent in higher education as compared to about 60 per cent in the US and Canada and around 21 per cent (average) in BRIC countries. The higher educational infrastructure in India can enroll only 7-8 per cent of the college-age students of the country. “Public resources can be leveraged through land grants to attract not-for-profit private investment,” said Mitra. The report highlights that while public expenditure on education has increased, the percentage share of GDP spent on higher education has come downfrom 0.77 per cent in 1991 to an estimated 0.7 per cent in 2008. The share of expenditure spent on higher education as a percentage of total education expense has remained stagnant at around 13 per cent for the past three years. Further, the Indian higher education system suffers from imbalanced reach of education institutions across the country which in turn impacts the GER. For instance, the rural areas of the country, which represent about 65 per cent of the total population, have just 20 per cent of the total professional colleges. India to achieve 97% NRE in primary education by 2015: UNESCO India alongwith Bangladesh and Brazil are on track to achieve net enrolment rates (NRE) in primary education in excess of 97 per cent by 2015 as per the 'The Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report' of the Unesco released today. These are the only countries hoping to achieve this target among the 17 countries with most children out of school, the seventh EFA report said. The NER in India now is 94 per cent while that of Bangladesh is 89 per cent. On the other hand, the enrolment in secondary education in India has increased from 39 per cent in 1999 to 43 per cent in 2006. In Bangladesh, it is slightly better improving from 49 per cent to 50 per cent. In Brazil, the rate is 52 per cent. It attributed rising wage inequalities in India, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam to widening gaps between those with tertiary education and those with lower education attainment levels. But it said that progress towards the EFA has benefited the poorest most with a decrease in difference between richest and poorest in India, Nepal and Ethiopia as much as 15 per cent. The report also undelines the role of the private sector in the fast spreading reach of education though in an unregulated manner. It says that with the share of government expenditure on education dropping between 1999 and 2006 in 40 countries including India (by one per centage point) low fee private primary sechools were filling the slot. Poor quality in government provision and a lack of public schools are important factors in this growth, it said. It refers to the trend of hiring para teachers on contaract in India and said that they are often less qualified and more inexperienced than the government teachers and raised the concern about providing teaching of equal quality to all sections of people. While it raises questions about the quality of often unregulated private schools, the report says the low fee schools are not catering for real demand. Executive EducationEconomic slowdown to impact management education and training sector positively, says U21 Global Leading online management education provider U21 Global believes that more working executives will get attracted to education and training in these troubled times. Responding to MBAUniverse.com query on impact of slowdown, Mr. Shrikant Sinha - Director - West & South India, U21Global, said, "Evidence from previous recessions shows us that business schools and universities tend to benefit as people undertake courses to improve their marketability and expand their options. While it is still a little too early to tell, we think individuals will seek options to arm themselves against job uncertainties. We expect our student base to continue growing to meet the global demand." When asked which executive management programmes are in greater demand in recent months, U21 says that apart from the MBA & the MMIT degree awarding program, there is huge demand for customised "Finance for non Finance professional" program in the Corporates. Short term competence building program on Project Management Methods, Supply Chain Management, Operations Management are also in demand presently. U21 is also getting ready to launch by the first week of December a Certificate of Global Business Leadership, a program focused on providing leadership inputs on being successful during these tough times. U21Global is an online Graduate School backed by an international network of leading universities from around the globe. Established in 2001, it is affiliated to universities like Fudan University (China), Korea University, Lund University (Sweden), National University of Singapore, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (China), Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico), University College Dublin (Ireland), University of Birmingham (UK), University of Delhi (India), and several others. Technology Assisted LearningTCS' ITaaS gains currency among SMEs The Information Technology as-a-Service (ITaaS) offering from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country's s largest software company, is finally catching the fancy of India's small and medium enterprises (SME). The IT giant has recently signed an agreement with Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), one of the largest industrial councils in the country, to provide end-to-end IT solutions and services to its nearly 11,000 members. Other than the manufacturing segment, TCS is focusing on verticals like education, retail, and healthcare. In the education sector, the company plans to target universities. Tandberg will talk to UGC, varsities to sell video-conference products With the levels of higher education in India continuing to be at a low of 13 per cent, Tandberg Visual Communications Company of Norway has decided to talk to University Grants Commission, Indian Space Research Organisation and academic institutions to reach out to a large audience and experience faculty. The company, a leader in high-definition video conferencing and mobile video solutions, has deputed two top executives to the Association of Commonwealth Universities Conference, being held here, to speak on the use of video-conferencing solutions in distance education. The company, which approximately earned $100 million (in a total of $650 m), from the education vertical globally last year, opened offices in Mumbai, Delhi and a research and development centre in Bangalore. Tandberg already sells its video-conference solutions to manufacturing, banking, finance, information technology, oil and healthcare sectors. Tandberg is also involved in State-wide Area Network initiative of the Union Government envisaged to provide connectivity up to the block level. The solutions could help utilise educational resources in resources-poor locations. Tandberg is currently working with Microsoft and Apple to develop video-conferencing products that will enable users to keep in touch with the world on their laptops and hand-held devices such as iPods. Technology-aided learning set for a leap in schools Technology-aided learning in schools is getting a shot in the arm with private companies investing into innovative teaching methodologies and technologies to raise academic standards in both government-run and private schools. The Indian education system despite being largest in the world with over a million schools has less than five per cent of the classrooms that are digitally enabled. Companies such as Educomp, Polycom and Smart Technologies are upping their presence by investing in research and development. Educomp Solutions Ltd, in collaboration with Intel, has launched Educomp O3 Learning System for One-On-One Learning in schools. The company will be deploying its technologies in not just private-run institution but also government-run schools and has also bid for technology-aided educational projects at 9,000-odd government schools pan-India. US-based Polycom too has tied up with various State-sponsored initiatives to take tele-education to the next level. Polycom currently has tie ups with seven States for deploying tele-education through state-wide area network scheme. It also has a research and development in Hyderabad for voice Internet protocol technology. Catura Broadband Systems, which has a private equity infusion of Rs 15 crore from Draper Fischer and Jurveston, is investing into digitising course content. The company, which has launched its education portal TopChalks.Com, said students can get deeper insight into course curriculum by logging into the education portal. NIIT-Adobe pact for multimedia courses Learning and knowledge solution provider NIIT has partnered with Adobe to offer web and multimedia course to schools. NIIT plans to launch the course in the top 50-100 schools in the first year. Adobe's Creative Suite is a package which includes a host of applications used by multimedia professionals to design computer applications and rich internet content. The cost of the curriculum would work out to be Rs 60-80 per student. NIIT will be responsible for the curriculum, sales and support, while Adobe will look after the licensing of the product. Marketing will be handled jointly by the two firms. The course includes training on Photoshop (taught in Class 6, Illustrator (Class 7), Flash (Class 8), Premiere and Encore (Class 9), Soundbooth and After Effects (Class 10), Fireworks (Calss 11) and Dreamweaver (Class 12). ATTEST delivers over 2.2 million tests ATTEST, the testing and certification arm of the Global Learning Solutions major Aptech Limited, has successfully delivered over 2.2 million tests globally. In a short span of 4 plus years, ATTEST has created a niche for itself in the emerging testing and certification field in India and abroad. The services offered by ATTEST include Question Bank Development and Management, Application Processing, Online Test/Survey Delivery, Certification and Cash Flow Management. It caters to a wide range of needs including Entrance and Certification Exams, Semester-end Exams, Recruitment and Promotion Assessments, Aptitude Tests, Surveys and Pre & Post Training Evaluations. ATTEST offers testing & certification services in English as well as Hindi, thus reaching across to a wide section of the society. ATTEST’s clients include Multinationals, Government Organizations, Service Companies in verticals such as Insurance, BFSI and top-notch Educational Institutions among others.
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