Saturday, October 10, 2009

M. Anandakrishnan on the state of higher education in India


M. Anandakrishnan is the chairman of IIT-K Board of Governors and was a member of the Yash Pal Committee. He seems to have gone completely ballistic in a meeting organized by CII to discuss the state of higher education in India.

Some excerpts from The New Indian Express report:

The exam systems are so archaic. You cannot prepare students for an obsolete market. Public universities are extraordinarily handicapped by political interference. At least in central universities like IIT, no minister says promote my son-in-law,” he pointed out.

The private institutions were not spared either. “In India, private institutions are family-controlled organisations that need to be restructured. In Tamil Nadu, there are two political parties that are running only with capitation money collected from colleges. Eighty per cent of the colleges collect money and don’t issue receipts. PhDs are sold to professors for Rs 30 lakh. Deemed universities are a rotten concept altogether,” he said. [Bold emphasis added]

9 Comments:

  1. Anonymous said...

    Bravo! More people should come out openly about our education system.

  2. Anonymous said...

    I used to follow him occasionally in the media. Seems he is fiery than ever before!!!!!!! One could imagine pathetic situation in other states, considering the statistical fact that southern states are placed relatively higher than north!

  3. Sachin Shanbhag said...

    It is easy to see his point, and easier to worked up about it.

    But what are practical alternatives? I can come up with a few idealistic solutions, none of which will be able to withstand one minute of reality.

    But maybe that is just my problem.

  4. Anonymous said...

    Investing in tier-1 instis(IIXs) (necessary and good) without doing anything abt tier-2 (state/central univs and colleges) will be a hollow expansion of the educational system. The strength of the western system is just not Ivy league schools but very good/strong/above-average middle-ranking schools who also do exceptional research centered around national labs, big-science and infrastructur-intensive research.

  5. Anonymous said...

    Reg. the capitation fees and large money collected by private colleges - if for that money they can give excellent educational infrastructure (getting good teacher is a whole different issue) that can beat the govt. instis then the process of collecting that money can be streamlined and made professional. private and public options should compete on their strength provide both adhere to certain codes of coducts and standards.

  6. Anonymous said...

    There needs to be a theorem that, beyond a critical mass of corruption, the system will inevitably lurch toward a sink (failed) state. Anything anyone proposes in good faith and intention will be subverted until the marginal utility of the idea goes negative. And if the corruption is not enough, there is always enough honest cluelessness and sucking at one's job to make up for the deficit!

  7. Dada said...

    Hello Sir,

    Till what time will the IISc keep awarding centenary post doctoral fellowship? What is the general procedure for that? will the individual be permitted to do his own research or will a faculty member be assigned to him?

  8. Anonymous said...

    He is an ardent supporter of caste based reservation system in higher education.He has ben a VC of Anna University.What did he do to regulate the private engineering colleges then.His integrity may be beyond doubt but
    persons like him dont do much when they have the power to do something.

  9. Bala said...

    >>.He has ben a VC of Anna University.What did he do to regulate the private engineering colleges then.

    when he was the VC (early 90s?), Anna university was not the affiliating body for engineering colleges. It controlled only four of its constituents - CEG, AC Tech, SAP and MIT. AU became the affiliating university only in 2004 i think (either kalanidhi or balagurusamy was VC then)

    And how is supporting reservations relevant here ?