Beyond Degrees, edited by Ira Pande -- the status of higher education in India

Measure of success

JOHN M. ALEXANDER
Some uncomfortable questionson what ails the system of higher education in the country.


Beyond Degrees, edited by Ira Pande, is a rich collection of essays on. With contributions from leading intellectuals, educationists, scientists, and economists, the anthology not only offers a perceptive analysis of the problems plaguing the country's educational system, but also puts forward valuable strategies and suggestions for revamping it in order to make it beneficial for every stakeholder.

What makes the collection engaging is that many authors have interwoven their thoughts and reflections with their personal memoirs and experiences. The contributions of Shashi Tharoor, Kumkum Bhattacharya, Zoya Hasan, Mrinal Pande and Lalit Joshi look back at their respective alma maters with nostalgia and a sense of pride.

The photo essays "Campus Styles" and "Breaching the Male Bastions" are a refreshing tribute to the earliest educational institutions and scholars of the country and highlight the gender dimension of the problem. Overall, the volume raises the alarm on the ailing conditions of the education system and sends out the message that confronting uncomfortable questions on the quality and future of higher education is already overdue.

Glaring Disparities

At the very outset, the huge disparity in the quality of colleges and universities in the country is striking. On the one hand, the Indian education system is globally acclaimed because of a few pockets of excellence such as the Indian Institutes of Technology, the Indian Institutes of Management and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. On the other hand, the vast majority of educational institutions are characterised by mediocrity and non-performance. When it comes to the quality of teaching, original and cutting-edge research, publication of peer-reviewed research articles in top journals, and winning of patents, Indian colleges and universities lag behind not just the ones in developed countries but also those in Brazil and China. This unevenness must be addressed swiftly as the future of the country depends on the quality of education and research.

Lack of applied knowledge

Former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam points out in his essay "Knowledge into Power" that a major problem before the country today is unemployability. In spite of receiving a formal education, the vast majority of the youth in India suffer from a lack of adequate applied knowledge to carry out jobs effectively. One of the main reasons for this is the widening gap between academic knowledge and its applicability.

The university curricula should be restructured to meet the growing domestic and international demand for human resources with world-class skills. This aim can be reached only when there is a strong interface between what is taught in the classroom and the actual requirements of the economy. Otherwise, our education system will continue to produce unfinished products, leading to an even greater crisis of unemployability.

Purpose of education

Focussing on employment, however, should not lead to a sort of careerism where the whole point of education is reduced to converting students into an efficient workforce. Unfortunately, for many business schools, management institutes and universities today, the sole measure of success is campus placements and the average salary package rather than enkindling in students a spirit of scientific inquiry and a MACROBUTTON ViewFootnotes ( desire to pursue original thought. It is a miracle, Albert Einstein famously noted, that curiosity survives despite the formal education in our schools and universities. more