As India looks to outpace other countries in terms of economic growth -
higher education, because of its criticality, is in the limelight
(better late than never). With the focus being on higher education, two
of the best known Indian Institutes, IIT & IIM find a mention in our
day-to-day discussions. As efforts are being made to increase the
number of IITs & IIMs , questions are being raised whether that's
leveraging the brand or diluting it?
We do know that India needs more quality educational institutes. With
the claim to fame of many IITs & IIMs being “one of the toughest
institutes to get into”, it’s more a commentary on the paucity of seats
rather than intellectual rigor. So doing nothing is not an option.
Before I start putting down my views, I would bring to your attention a
group that opposes expansion of IITs & IIMs even if brown-field i.e.
increasing capacity of existing institutes. They argue that it might
commoditize the brand (make no mistake quality is not their concern).
Such arguments make no sense as IITs & IIMs are not Guccis & Armanis. IITs/IIMs stand for quality not exclusivity.
Let us now look at some pressing concerns that justify the “need to expand”.
“During 1955 to 1975, the growth rate was high
(10.5%) as the IITs were being set up and establishing the UG programme.
In the next twenty years, there was a slight increase in the output
(less than 1% per year). Since 1995 the growth rate increased to 4.2%
per year mainly due to the addition of IIT Guwahati and IIT Roorkee.”
Source: ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN INDIA (2007)
The above data clearly shows that we need Greenfield
investments i.e. open new IITs & IIMs as they mainly power the
growth in intake. In fact IITs that accounted for 5-8 % of total output
of engineers in 1980s now account for less than 1%.
Many feel that expansion might lead to quality of education being
compromised with. It’s a valid concern and needs attention (I will try
to come up with remedial steps in the later part of the blog) but do you
feel that the quality of new colleges will be worse that the existing
private set up where students are forced to join if they can’t make it
to the sought after colleges. I don’t think so as the “quality gap” is
so enormous that we would certainly find the new ones, in terms of
quality, somewhere in-between.
Even though IITs & IIMs might be under funded by global standards
but they are still much better off than their Indian counterparts. So
the question is whether we would be better off opening new colleges
under new names rather than using the umbrella of IITs & IIMs? My
answer would be that the name provides them greater attention and care
which a new institute desperately needs. NITs have been greatly
benefitted by the tag.
We all have great faith in the brand name of IITs & IIMs. Are these
brands that weak that expansion would dilute them to the extent that it
threatens their existence? That’s not the way, great brands operate. In
fact, if properly carried out, expansion would only strengthen them.
Greater student & alumni base would mean greater reach,
influence and impact. Mind you, it would come in handy when we face the
onslaught of foreign universities. By the way these are the outputs of
some well known international engineering institutions: Urbana-Champaign
1950 degrees, Purdue 1840 degrees, Georgia Tech 2300 degrees, Tokyo
University 3000 degrees, Tsinghua university about 4000. (Source: ENGINEERING EDUCATION IN INDIA, 2007)
Let’s now look at some of the methods that can expedite quality enhancements at the new colleges:
- With increased
intake, we must aim at increasing the bandwidth of well known professors
i.e. number of students that s/he can address at a given time. This can
be facilitated by ICT based live or recorded lectures. Technological
intervention would also help in facilitating better educational aids or
resources. The Masters as well as Fellowship programmes need to be
strengthened as well.
- We have buddy system
in place where an old IIT/IIM mentors the new IIT/IIM but that doesn’t
include student set-up. Peer learning and mentoring by seniors can help
students at new IIT/IIM catch up faster. We should provide online
platform to facilitate such exchange of information. Student exchange
programmes can also be incorporated to facilitate co-operation.
- At least for the
first few years, mentor IIT/IIM should help out their new members with
their placements. It might seem unthinkable given the sort of
competition but modalities can be worked out as new IITs/IIMs have
relatively fewer intake.
- Private sector, both
India and abroad, have been the biggest beneficiary of the outputs of
IITs/IIMs. PPP model for faculty development where industry provides
visiting faculties or funding can be looked into. The academic exposure
would benefit the employees as it could be a welcome break or “going
back to basics” for them. It would be a win-win situation for both as
private sector stands to gain through quality output and colleges
through quality faculty.
Some reach out only for the riches
whereas some reach out to help each other out. So if alumni and students
of established IITs/IIMs reach out to their newer counterparts, they
can certainly consider themselves better IITians if not prouder. Else a
caste system in the intellectual and educational set up is in the making
as there is a very thin line between being elite and being elitist.
Please avoid it.
