mar 29th, 2010
probably not. let them eat cake. i also just listened to a podcast about asian-american enrollment in elite universities in the US (both public and private) -- this is falling as they are putting an informal cap on asian-american enrollment.
the good professor has a point. the IITs/IIMs etc allowed the koi-hai middle classes to thrive, while the boxwallahs and their progeny have been suffering. this is a pre-emptive strike against that. future nehru dynasty scions won't even have to go to cambridge, uk or cambridge, ma. they can get their brand-name degrees in india itself.
there is a certain valid criticism that instead of focusing on universal primary education so that everyone is literate and can have a basic level of functioning, the indian state put its money into tertiary education for the benefit of the middle classes. i suspect this influx of foreign universities may be more of the same: taxpayer funded education subsidies for the middle classes.
on the other hand, this will open up opportunities for faculty. i suspect there will be a huge outflux of faculty from the IIMs and IITs to NoNameYankUniv's campus in jhumri talaiya. the IIMs and IITs will wither away, which is a bad thing from the brand perspective, but a good thing from the perspective of the government getting out of mass education and merely funding (and leaving alone) research entities.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Vaidyanathan R
From: Vaidyanathan R
http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/main-article_should-we-bail-them-out_1364688
Should we bail them out?
R Vaidyanathan
Monday, March 29, 2010 2:30 IST
The government has decided to open up the education sector, particularly of the higher education variety, to foreign universities and a bill is expected to be introduced in Parliament in the current session. It is a continuation of our decision earlier to provide more than Rs50 crore to Cambridge and Harvard universities.
For Cambridge it was to honor the entry of Nehru. In Harvard it was to commemorate the 75th birthday of Amartya Sen.
| ... deleted |
5 comments:
no offense intended - but the Prof and his friends at SJM keep up the 'west in decline' pipe a bit more than warranted
yes - it appears so (specially with Obama at the helm); but the reality is that the west (most notably America) is an open society - open to ideas, innovation and new learning. the univeristy system in Americs is NOT broke (or broken); but is actually probably the thing that makes for the most optimism in a gloomy recession. sorry prof - even with all the closures and the expenditure - the Yank univ's are way better than india's. including - I am sorry to say - the IIT's and IIM's
the only reason is that question of who to teach, who will teach, how much to teach for, how to teach etc. are not left to the government.
and while we are at it - America is actually undergoing a period of social repair in this generation. divorce rates are lower (even with recession) as is teen pregnancy (except in vulnerable new immigrant - read Latino - groups). even violent crime is declining
so yes - unbridled individualism is bad. but in an open society - there is self-correction
Ghost Writer
Self correction is a feature of capitalism in general and of any living/survivable ecosystem.
With kleptocrats burdening future generations with current and past liabilities, it is obvious that US is going down the path India took on the road to bankrupty.
And the decline of West is long term, economic decline will be followed by decline in social standards, led finally by end of free speech. Europe is already testing the self-sensor mode (where blasphemy laws do not exist). It is bound to happen in US too.
Unfortunately, on all these counts, India is in no better situation.
As usual, the good Professor is spot on.
They have better facilities, better professors, well laid out curricula, personal attention, higher fees .........but how come we produce better students from IITs and IIMs? Is it possible that if you give the students everything easily, the system (and scholastic pursuit) is taken for granted?
So, we are getting ready to do everything on the terms of foreign universities--curricula, books, social sciences etc etc Will Wendy Doniger's books become required reading?
60 years of KKangress and commies has brought us to this pass.
It is better if they allow a few reputed Universities (about 2 to 4 each year) on merit basis. No point opening the floodgates to NoNameYankUniv and NoNameLimeyUniv.
We can expect similar 'universities':
'Hamburger University' opens in China
The McDonald's outpost will train restaurant managers in Shanghai
Post a Comment