Education Raj

Just a quick note to tell you about an article in today's Economic Times by Pankaj Jalote, a professor in Computer Science at IIT-Kanpur.

Pankaj proposes a new way of regulating higher education that would allow students to make an informed choice when they consider different institutions to pursue their college/university education in. In his model, which is based on how the corporations are regulated, only minimal criteria are imposed on those who wish to start colleges (or, even universities), such as minimum initial capital, college size, college type, etc. But the regulations would impose strict (though simple) conditions regarding disclosure: tuition fee, living expenses, infrastructure fee (if any), faculty strength, faculty qualifications, curriculum, track record on campus recruitment, and so on. Such a full monty would give prospective students and their parents a good idea about what they are getting into.

I just want to say I am in total agreement with Pankaj. I too was thinking about posting my views, but Pankaj has beaten me to it.

Update (19 April 2005): Education in India, a blog that is full of news, views and insights about its subject, was there with this idea (together with a "rating agency" model) even before Pankaj; Satyanarayan, the author of this truly wonderful blog, is not only thoughtful, but also graceful in expressing his agreement with Pankaj's views in ET.