My advance apologies for two reasons: (1) This article is also going to be more than one page and (2) I may hurt few Graduates from India’s premier institutes.
1. Why do we need a University?
I had an interesting discussion with my Prof. Ananthan about the need for a degree.
If you take any famous contributor to Science or Business, they would be mostly a school dropout or at least did not get any degree from any University. E.g. Ramanujam, Einstein, Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple Inc.) etc.
Once it was thought that Universities produced Educated Persons. But, with the latest technological advances, a person may get education without any University. In fact, the syllabus in many Universities are so old that a student has to learn from private institutes or in a job – to cope up with the latest technology.
Today a person need not get a degree to do a job. If you take my company M/s HomePlanGuru.com for example, I never insist for any degree. All I want is people with good analytical skills & attitude.
2. Why there are so many “Deemed Universities” in our country now?
This is my belief:
a) Deemed Universities (DUs) can make lot of money since they can specify the number of seats in each course.
b) Education is looked at as a business today by both the Institutes and Students. Most of the students join a course not out of passion but out of compulsion to get a high paying job. These DUs find the gap between “Supply-Demand” and fulfill the need of these students.
c) DUs can ‘produce’ more ‘qualified’ students since they set the exam questions and their own staff correct the answer sheets. [For external Examiners, they give a 'bonous' amount for paper valuation].
3. What is the status of “Government Universities”?
This is my understanding:
a) Government Universities (GUs) are worse than DUs because they have very old syllabus and pathetic examination system [a system that tests the memorizing capacity of students rather than their knowledge in the subject].
b) Many Government and Government aided institutes lack basic infrastructure but is still famous not because of their infrastructure or staff, but because of the students who join there. [Only 'Creamy layer' of the students join these institutes since the fees is very less and the institutes already have an established name - which helps them in placement].
c) Teaching and Non-teaching staff in GUs are pathetic. If you conduct an exam for all the teaching staff in their own subjects, more than 50% of the staff will score less than 50% marks in their own subjects.
d) Mostly, those who didn’t get any good private jobs stick to teaching in Govt institutes. Or they may get excellent commission from the vendors who supply lab materials and other items to the institutes. [One of my friend in Bengaluru told me that he had to pay 20% of his billed amount as commission to the HOD of a department in a Govt Institute for supplying lab items. This amount will be more than what a CEO of a private company may get].
4. Why are students from such Government Universities not complaining about the quality of their degree/Institute?
Come on! If I say that I got a degree from such a Government Institute, would anyone give me a job or at least respect my degree? Why should I open my mouth and tell the truth?
5. Conclusion:
As long as companies look for a ‘degree’ for employment, both DUs and GUs will produce ‘low quality Graduates’ as they do now. If employment is de-linked from ‘degree’, all ‘Doomed’ Universities will die naturally. Also, institutes like ICA (Chartered Accountants) must inspire other Universities to produce graduates purely based on merit [you should ask a CA student how difficult it is to pass the exam]. I’m waiting for that day to come!
