The president was either living in denial or is a hypocrite. Do our universities have the enabling environment to excel? Many of them are headed by people who are busy playing politics in name of caste or region or reservation etc. they did not and will not contribute for the betterment of the institutes they head. Infact after the current generation of teachers, we dont have people to teach even in iits. And we have people like sibal who are enabling faster decay. How many institutes have budget for research? How many have reinvented from the age old practices? They are still living in 50s with no hope of reinvention.
All that is needed is put right peopl and give them freedom. But we are asking for too much.
We should think about why Hong Kong and Singapore have top class institutions whereas other Asian countries (except Japan) don't. Then maybe we can make policies to improve our colleges.
Most students in arts and sciences ought not to be there. They should be getting trained in places like polytechnics so that they can get jobs.
We should give up the custom of opening new institutes and neglecting the existing ones. We have done this since 1947.
Re: Indian universities
by R Chakravarti on Sep 15, 2012 05:42 PM
The Department of Atomic Energy has power plants in many places. They should start colleges at all these places. Their staff could teach part-time. Family members of the staff would also be available for this purpose. Thus, many rural areas would have access to good technical education.
