On Universities and Education…

On Universities and Education…

This was written around 1993…

"A right man for the job" has indeed become a cliché: often meant just as a saying and never implemented! Nowhere is it more true than in the case of our Universities. We do not seem to be having the right students nor the right staff anymore. And this reflects in the pathetic status which the universities or their staff enjoy in society. But we do need to wonder why, and reflect whether the universities alone are to blame, or is it a malady of much greater proportions.

Universities are great places: in fact, any place of learning distanced from the usual pressures would be. But they are also places where something more than the "bread" of literacy is expected, the "cake" and "icing" so to speak, marking the difference between basic and higher learning. They are meant to be places where mere classroom learning at the graduate and earlier level also makes way for research and new findings, thus contributing to society in more ways than one. In fact, we expect so much more from our universities, but one begins to question why are they not delivering their due. Are they still places of higher learning as they were supposed to be?

This problem can basically be traced to three levels. At the highest would be the government's role and responsibility, and at the lowest would be the students, the society and people. And in the middle, and a very large middle at that, is the university itself. A large part of the problem could be the institutions' own doing.

Universities, especially the science departments, are facing a steady decline in quality students joining them. Good students tend to go in for jobs or other courses after the degree itself. The research happening there leaves more to be desired, faculty evaluations often targeting quantity rather than quality. There are no defined procedures for evaluating the teaching done. The teaching – research dichotomy is often used for doing neither, some views going to the limit of saying that both cannot be done together. The courses and syllabi are outmoded, and combinations at the feeder degree level are so fixed that a student cannot have adequate choices with more maturity coming with age. In present set-up there is no exchange of faculty between universities, institutions, or departments, so that new thought and techniques are hardly brought in. The relevance of research done to society also needs a good re-evaluation.

In addition, there is much staff indiscipline and classes are not taken as stipulated. Guidance for research is indifferent, and research subjects are not optimised for or capitalise on available resources. The research could be repetitive, student after student. Motivation is low and the staff are not capable of getting the most out of students. In short, the universities too reek of the same indifference brought about by government-type permanent employment!

Society's perception of degrees as a "basic passport" puts a lot of demand on the system. For most people, a degree is a gateway to a professional career, and traditional degrees have failed to satisfy this aspiration. This has brought about the suggestion that there should be a "reversal of roles" played by professional and traditional degree courses. Those who take up traditional degree courses and do not find jobs often land up studying for their higher degrees. Student indiscipline has also played its role, often politically backed, and affects students who have to survive by their merit severely.

In many countries, universities play a mainstream role in research developments. Setting up of full fledged research institutions which have distanced themselves from universities and education is also thought to have caused part of the problem. Most universities have a financial crunch, so that basic facilities like libraries, are hit severely. The cost of journals are increasing, and access to electronic document resources at universities may not be in keeping with the needs. Research is not possible without a good literature review and this is where resources are pathetic. Internet and access to email could have mollified this problem but access to priced literature at the university itself, either printed or electronic, has no substitute.

India is supposed to have over twenty-four million graduates. From about a score of universities post Independence, there are more than a couple of hundred of them today. The disparity between institutions is high, even in basic training that they offer. Eligibility criteria like UGC/CSIR National Evaluation Test (NET) have been sidelined by negotiating for "equivalent" selection tests conducted by the institutions themselves. The quality of intake thus suffers: faculty and research student selections have defied good eligibility criteria!

The shift in student fancy away from traditional degrees has pinched research institutions of good students. And numerous views and solutions have been expressed. That change in peoples' aspiration is happening is obvious. The question remains whether universities will rise to the occasion. Guided change should be possible: what is happening now is that the system is succumbing to a overwhelming "market demand". The day might not be too far off when we would have to look for talent outside, when it comes to non-engineering and non-medical lines. Just imagine that day when you switch on the TV and see a foreign documentary covering some non-traditional but not offbeat topic. You should not have to literally rake your head to recollect if there was somebody whom you know, who is even remotely connected with that subject! With current fashions, we are drifting towards just that!

//mbk 2003-08-09

[This was published as a lead article in one of the dailies in Bangalore, in a special 'centre spread' devoted to higher education. And I've forgotten the name of the newspaper... it was one of those which defaulted on the payment :) ]


in good faith,
Dr KRISHNA MB
making free time is culture!