Deemed to Doomed University!

By: Subhadeep Bhattacharjee

Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal seems to be in a mood to revolutionise higher education in India. He started with the argument for single board from the country, then scrapping of exams at the matriculation level and went to suggest 80% of marks as a criteria for seeking admission to the IITs. Now he has dropped a bomb on more than 2 lakh students by de recognising 44 deemed universities across 13 states in India.

Although nobody doubts Sibal's ability or his intent in changing the face of education in India he might be taking too many harsh steps which will pressurise the students more than change the educational system in India. There has been panic in the minds of the students studying in these deemed universities which seems to have become doomed overnight after the Central government filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court requesting de-recognition.

It's a known fact that most of the Deemed Universities de recognised by the Centre ought to have been de recognised. Many were granting degrees at will and have become money laundering in wake of the autonomy granted to them and represent teaching cafés rather than universities. Some have upped their intake level beyond their permissible limits while most don't have experienced faculty to teach students in professional courses that they have started.

But the big questions that arises is who is responsible for granting them deemed status? Sibal's predecessor Arjun Singh's tenure as the HRD ministry is one of darkest phases in India's history. The controversy surrounding his reservation policy meant that the faulty process of accreditation that went under his nose went unnoticed. And the results are here for all of us to see. The Centre is in a Catch 22 situation where it has to de-recognise the deemed status even though it doesn't want to do so.

The biggest victims here have been the students who have flocked to these institutes seeing their deemed status. Now these people are uncertain about their future. These people who have invested their time and money in these institutes are in a panic mode all due to our bureaucracy and faulty educational system. Now will anybody from Arjun Singh to his bureaucrats to people running these institutions face any legal action?

Although Sibal's action was inevitable he could have approached it in a different manner. A time frame could have been set for revoking the deemed status so that the future students to these institutes could have a better choice at the same time the present crowd would have been spared. Monetary compensation to each student could have been a good idea to punish these institutes. As for Arjun Singh and his team nothing much can be done as all politician and bureaucrats in India enjoy immunity from legal action.

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Only Eight Point Someone for the IITs?

By: Subhadeep Bhattacharjee

That might become a reality if Union Human Resource Development minister Kapil Sibbal has his way. Mr. Sibbal suggested that 80 percent cut-off will be done to ensure that students took their Class XII exams seriously. This rule will be applicable from the 2011 sessions in all the 16 premier technology institutes of the country. The bar to appear for the entrance which once stood at 50% had been raised to a minimum of 60% three years ago.

The decision has had mixed reactions in the among the teachers and the students. Whereas students are against this citing the reason that only a few will be eligible to appear for entrance exam their teachers are happy that Class XII exam will be taken more seriously by the students. One of the major factors which led to this decision was to check the growth of coaching centres, which were thriving on imparting coaching to IIT aspirants which mainly is accessible only to the elites.

The decision has both pros and cons. For one it will surely hit the lucrative coaching business in places like Kota which churn IIT cracking students like a factory. The short cut methods that these institutes use gives their candidates a high chance of cracking the exam considered one of the toughest in the world. The negative side of this is that very few students without formal coaching crack the exam and this hurts the chances of students belonging to far flung regions and those with poor socio-economic background.

But this decision will have adverse effect too. It will mean an end to the IIT dream for many students who do not secure 80% in their Class XII examination. What will be Mr. Kapil Sibbal's answer to a candidate who might have secured 78 or 79% marks in Class XII? That he is not fit for the IIT? There will be no second chance for people who might have for some reason not fared well in their school and junior college leaving examination.

With bulk of the students in India studying under State Boards which have divergence in their marking patterns how will Mr. Sibbal guarantee that only the deserving candidates make it to the IIT? What is the guarantee that different State Boards will not temper with their marking patterns to make sure more and more students make it to the IIT entrance examination? What if there is scenario where the students with 80% plus marks fail to pass the preliminary and the mains and thus fail to fill up the seats? Can percentage alone reflect the IQ of a student capable of cracking the IIT?

Mr. Sibbal and his team might have tried to cut down the ill sides of the IIT Entrance examination but this step will have more cons than pros. It will badly hit the backward regions of the country where scoring a 80% is still not common and benefit the metros where horde of students cross this mark. It will be interesting to see what impact this new rule creates, as for now it seems more bad than good to the naked eye.

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Seven new IIMs - Quality debate starts

By: Subhadeep Bhattacharjee

The Union Government's proposal for setting up of seven new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) in Tami Nadu, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan has met with mixed reactions from the people. Students and their parents are breathing a sigh of relief as there will be more IIM seats to grab a couple of years from now. But there are also those who feel the IIM brand is getting diluted with more seats up for grabs.

In a country where there is neck breaking competition for higher education this is a good move by the government as more students will not get a certificate from India's biggest B-School brand. Considering the number of CAT aspirants going up every year these new institutes will solve the demand and supply equation. More importantly they will take away some of the psychological pressure that students go through to enter these premier institutes.

The elites in the society especially who have gone to these institutions in the past would not enjoy seeing the opening of any more institutes because their exclusive IIM Tag looses some of its shine. But the same people opposed when the Government set up more IIT's a few years ago. True when the number of students go up there will certainly be some dilution in the brand but at the same time many deserving candidates who miss out by a fraction of cut-offs will also benefit from this expansion.

Can the people who are protesting against this expansion claim all deserving candidates get into the IITs and the IIMs? Behind the thousands who get in there are lakhs who are filtered. Are all of them undeserving? Can percentage and percentile difference of a fraction be the parameter to judge the intellect between students? More institutes do not solve these problems permanently but certainly bring in some relief to the students.

One of the primary objectives of the educational reforms in the country should be to reduce the level of stress that the students have to withstand. Any measure that helps in this regard should be welcome. Quality is a benchmark and can definitely be maintained when the Government plans to just double the number of institutes. All the IIMs together cater to less than 1% of the students studying management courses in India. Seven new institutions should be welcomed with both hands and not criticised.

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