The Awakening by Smita Polite

SPINE

VOLUME 01

ISSUE 10

`150

EDU | VOLUME 01 | ISSUE 10

A 9.9 MEDIA PUBLICATION AUGUST 2010 WWW.EDU-LEADERS.COM

“Science constitutes the knowledge that drives this world. But, we need a perspective with which to make sense of it”

FOR

LEADERS

HIGHER

EDUC ATION

FOR LEADERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

THE AWAKENING Shyam Menon,VC of Ambedkar University, is

WWW.EDU-LEADERS.COM

leading a revival of the liberal arts P12

ADMINISTRATION

COST CUTTING MINUS COMPROMISES IN INSTITUTES P24

PROFILE

D.P. KOTHARI “GUIDING STUDENTS GIVES ME THE GREAT SATISFACTION” P56

STRATEGY

FIRST STEP GUIDE FOR EDUPRENEURS SETTING UP VARSITIES P29

FOREWORD Making Time For History

“LIBERAL ARTS DENOTES A CURRICULUM THAT DEVELOPS A STUDENT’S RATIONAL THOUGHT”

onestly speaking, discussions involving historical, philosophical, sociological or psychological discourses, leave me feeling crippled. Reason? The last time I studied history, or for that matter any “arts” subject, was in Class X. Sounds familiar? Thirty years ago, when it came to my options post-Class X—there were none. Science was a clear winner, as it led to a “stable” career—an overriding concern as far as parents were concerned. So, aside from English, it was science (and mathematics) all the way. Admission into an engineering school didn’t help either. Taking the token liberal arts course in my engineering institution was more about paying lip-service, than making a “real” effort to learn subjects that arguably have more relevance in leading a meaningful life. As I grow older, increasingly, I am confronted by challenges (professional and personal) that are, at their core, human and personal. Take the issue of leadership—it’s a central concern in organisations today. There is little in my formal education that equips me to deal with it, either from a historical or socio-psychological perspective. The Indian higher education system is so focused on professional courses to meet demands for “stable” careers that providing high-quality liberal arts education has taken a backseat. That is why, in this issue of EDU, we have chosen to highlight some of the pioneering efforts to create an atmosphere of liberal arts in India. Contemporary liberal arts consists of literature, language, philosophy, history, mathematics and science. The term denotes a curriculum that develops a student’s rational thought and challenges intellectual capabilities. Rebecca Bushnell, Dean of School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, in a recent EDU interview said: “What we (UPenn) do in liberal arts education is to prepare students to communicate and to write well—with a global focus. We prepare students to lead and make them international, agile thinkers. We are not just trying to pursue one thing.” It’s great to see new institutions in India doing the same. Reading about them in our cover story made me wish I could go back to college again. I hope you feel the same!

Dr Pramath Raj Sinha pramath@edu-leaders.com

August 2010 EDU TECH

Edu Tech December 2009

CONTENTS EDU AUGUST 2010 VOLUME 01 | ISSUE 10

UPDATES

07 PETITION ESTABLISHMENT 08 SUMMIT PLEDGE 09 STRATEGY VOICES

VIEWPOINTS

38 RAHUL CHOUDAHA Can foreign campuses really sweat it out in India? Or will they suffer the same fate as MSU Dubai? 40 RISHIKESHA T. KRISHNAN Stop taking your faculty for granted. They’re what can make or break your institution in the near future

COVER STORY 59

PROFILE

56 D.P. KOTHARI Here’s a man who knows what India needs and isn’t afraid of voicing it out loud

ADMINISTRATION

24 COST CUTTING EDU shows you how to manage your costs and do it wisely By Padmaja Shastri

STRATEGY

By Smita Polite

The last I watched a film was some 13 years ago”

29 SETTING UP AN INSTITUTION Take your first steps with EDU and set up that worldclass institution you’ve always dreamed of By Chethana Dinesh, Parul Gupta 35 14 TIPS TO BUILD A REALLY GOOD INSTITUTION Shivaji Sondhi

EDU TECH August 2010

18 THE AWAKENING Humanities and social sciences seem to be a dying breed—or, is it? EDU explores the future of arts education in India

TECHNOLOGY

42 STRUCTURED CABLING India is one of the fastest growing markets for structured cables. Do your groundwork, now

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Learn more about what’s happening in institutions around the world. The Chronicle of Higher Education shares its perspectives with EDU

46 WHY SOME BRANCH CAMPUSES

FOR LEADERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

EXPERTISE

10 AARON SCHWARZ Get the expert’s opinion on how to light your campus just right, and save power, energy and money, in the process

TIMEOUT

DESIGN SR CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Jayan K Narayanan ART DIRECTOR: Binesh Sreedharan ASSOCIATE ART DIRECTOR: Anil VK MANAGER DESIGN: Chander Shekhar SR VISUALISERS: PC Anoop, Santosh Kushwaha SR GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Suresh Kumar SR DESIGNERS: Prasanth TR & Anil T DESIGNER: Sristi Maurya CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER: Subhojit Paul

58 BOOKS

DIALOGUE 12 “DEDICATED TO HUMAN AND SOCIAL PHENOMENA” EDU talks to the man leading the revolution By Smita Polite & R Banerjee

n Gandhi: CEO n Higher Education?

59 PRODUCTS n Mr Incredible n The world’s cheapest laptop

THRIVE IN THE PERSIAN GULF WHILE MICHIGAN STATE PULLS BACK By Andrew Mills 49 U. OF HONG KONG LOOKS TO THE WEST IN CURRICULAR RE-DESIGN By Mary Hennock

NEC

IFC

D-LINK

4-5

52 OUTSOURCED ED: COLLEGES HIRE COMPANIES TO BUILD THEIR ONLINE COURSES By Marc Parry

FEATHERLITE

IBC

SUKAM

This index is provided as an additional service.The publisher does not assume any liabilities for errors or omissions.

VOLUME 01

ISSUE 10

`150

A 9.9 MEDIA PUBLICATION AUGUST 2010 WWW.EDU-LEADERS.COM

“Science constitutes the knowledge that drives this world. But, we need a perspective with which to make sense of it”

FOR

LEADERS

HIGHER

THE AWAKENING Shyam Menon,VC of Ambedkar University, is

WWW.EDU-LEADERS.COM

leading a revival of the liberal arts P12

ADMINISTRATION

COST CUTTING MINUS COMPROMISES IN INSTITUTES P24

PROFILE

PRODUCTION & LOGISTICS SR. GM OPERATIONS: Shivshankar M Hiremath PRODUCTION EXECUTIVE: Vilas Mhatre LOGISTICS: MP Singh, Mohamed Ansari, Shashi Shekhar Singh

Certain content in this publication is copyright of The Chronicle of Higher Education and has been reprinted with permission Published, Printed and Owned by Nine Dot Nine Interactive Pvt Ltd. Published and printed on their behalf by Kanak Ghosh. Published at KPT House, Plot 41/13 sector-30, Vashi, Navi Mumbai-400703, India Printed at Silver point Press Pvt Ltd, d107 TTC Industrial Area, Nerul Mumbai 400706. Editor: Anuradha Das Mathur

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60 MN SRINIVAS Social Science Soldier

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LEGACY

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MANAGING DIRECTOR: Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Vikas Gupta PRINTER & PUBLISHER: Kanak Ghosh GROUP EDITOR: R Giridhar CONSULTING EDITOR: Aman Singh ASSISTANT EDITOR: Smita Polite EDITORIAL ADVISOR: Dr RK Suri INTERNATIONAL CONTRIBUTOR: Vinita Belani ASSISTANT FEATURES EDITOR: Rohini Banerjee SUB-EDITOR: Urvee Modwel

D.P. KOTHARI “GUIDING STUDENTS GIVES ME THE GREAT SATISFACTION” P56

STRATEGY

FIRST STEP GUIDE FOR EDUPRENEURS SETTING UP VARSITIES P29

Cover Art: DESIGN: ANIL T PHOTO: SUBHOJIT PAUL

Please recycle this magazine and remove inserts before recycling

August 2010 EDU TECH

at a glance 07 PETITION 07 ESTABLISHMENT 08 SUMMIT 08 PLEDGE 09 STRATEGY 09 VOICES & MORE

Bangalore University’s unique reservation move

reservations

Reserved Seats For Transgenders Bangalore varsity becomes the first institution in the country to reserve seats in postgraduate courses

he University Academic Council of Bangalore University (BU) took the decision to reserve seats for transgenders in all its 52 postgraduate courses from this academic term, slated to begin from October. “BU is the first in the country to reserve seats in the postgraduate section for transgenders,” said Vice Chancellor N. Prabhu Dev. Though the university application form for 2009-10 had a column named “others”, there were no seats reserved for transgenders. The university has announced that separate rest rooms will be provided for transgenders. It has also warned of “strict action” against those found ragging or harassing these special students—according to anti-ragging laws. He added that he would write to the state government to consider reserving seats for transgenders at the undergraduate level as well.

EDU TECH August 2010

YOUNGEST IIT PROFESSOR Tathagat Tulsi, born on September 9, 1987, has been appointed as an assistant professor of physics at IIT Bombay—becoming the youngest teacher to hold the post. Tulsi completed high school by the age of nine, had a BSc by 10, an MSc degree (physics) by 12, and a PhD in quantum computing from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, at 21 years. In 2003, Time named him one among the world’s seven most gifted youngsters. Recently, he turned down lucrative offers from University of Waterloo and Indian Institute of Science Education & Research, Bhopal, claiming that he did not wish to travel at the moment. IIT Bombay offered him the space that he needed to set up a laboratory focused on quantum computation in India.

DU TO LAUNCH CHANNEL Delhi University is set to launch its television network. The DUTN or Delhi University Television Network is geared to connect students and faculty and to encourage people to be more informed about the university. Professor A.K. Bakshi, Director, Institute of Lifelong Learning (ILL), said the channel will be launched sometime “this year”. DUTN will be broadcast out of the ILL campus. Plans are on to provide LCD screens on campuses.

D SCHOOL ALUMNUS NAMED HARVARD PROFESSOR Gita Gopinath, a Delhi School of Economics alumnus, has been named the professor of economics at Harvard University, becoming the first Indian-origin woman professor in the institution’s history. Gopinath, 38, is considered an authority on business cycles in emerging markets and on price fluctuations across international borders. She was previously the associate professor of economics at Harvard, where she has been a member of the faculty since 2005.

UPDATES petition

SC Seeks Details On Illegal Recognition Of Private Colleges The apex court asks NCTE member secretary to explain actions taken against official

upreme Court has asked the member secretary of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) to explain the action taken against an official, who granted recognition to certain private colleges in Madhya Pradesh. The NCTE is a regulator for teacher education system in the country. The court asked the member secretary to appear in person and provide details of steps taken against the Regional Director, Western Regional Committee (WRC), NCTE, for granting recognition to private colleges in breach of the NCTE Act, 1993. “Enough is enough. There is a wholesale breach of the country’s law,” the court said. The member secretary has been asked to explain how a WRC regional director was sending suo moto communication to state authorities. The communication was sent without issuance of a

Apex court’s cloud on Madhya Pradesh colleges

formal recognition letter under sections of the Act that deals with recognition of institutions offering courses or training in teacher education. The Bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice Ashok Kumar Ganguly told NCTE counsel that the member secretary

should come with all records and be prepared to address all court queries. The Bench added that the secretary should not try to “duck” queries. At one stage, the court indicated that it might call the NCTE chairman. The court’s directions came during a PIL hearing filed by private colleges that were seeking court directions asking seven state universities to declare results of students who were provisionally admitted during 2007-2008 session. The private colleges are represented by senior counsel P.S. Patwalia and Jasbir Malik. The apex court questioned the counsel regarding actions taken by the state government, and asked if “it (state) was also a part of the entire melodrama”. It wanted clarifications from the state—when it came to know of the irregularities, and “why did it not take immediate action”.

establishment

Research Centre To Probe Origin Of Intelligence A NEW £15 MILLION RESEARCH centre is to be established at Oxford University to investigate nerve cells—their function visa-vis intelligence and brain circuits. The Gatsby Charitable Foundation and Wellcome Trust are each contributing £5 million to establish the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour. The joint Strategic Award will fund staff, state-of-the-art equipment, and research positions for postdoctoral scientists. Oxford University is providing a building in the science area and a further £5 million for refurbishment. Professor Gero Miesenböck, who will be the director of the new centre, said, “Understanding how groups of nerve cells work together to generate intelligent behaviour, remains one of the most difficult problems in biology. And, if we could control neurons remotely—tell them when to fire and when to be silent—we could test how their signals underpin our actions, emotions and memories.”

PHOTOS.COM

GLOBAL UPDATE

£5

million was contributed by The Gatsby Charitable Foundation

£15

million will be the total cost of a bio research centre to be established at Oxford August 2010 EDU TECH

UPDATES summit

Sibal Stresses On Not-For-Profit Higher Education The three-day Indo-US summit in Mumbai included discussions on import of higher education and its viability

ill new legislation and the easing of bureaucratic norms encourage top-rung US universities to open branches in India? Or, will we see second-rung institutions entering the country? Is “importing” higher education a step in the right direction for a country hoping to achieve the status of an economic superpower by 2020? These were some of the key issues that were debated by Indian and US educationists at a three-day Indo-US education summit in Mumbai. “My vision is of a nation where every student, who aspires to pursue higher studies can access quality higher education irrespective of his or her paying capacity. We need to unleash the creative potential of our youth and harness their energies towards development and progress,” said Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal, addressing a gathering of over 500 delegates from both USA and India.

India. A professor of JNU warned that unless India managed to plug gaping holes in staff shortage and ensured that the top level universities had the best facilities for academic research, India would continue to see a brain drain. He pointed out how the best American universities had based their reputation on sound research faciliUnion HRD minister ties, which is why it had (India) Kapil Sibal become an “academic superpower”, while India Sibal hoped that some of the “best US had lagged behind. President of the Indoacademic institutions” will come calling American society Dr V. Rangaraj soon, even as he pointed out that the govexplained that the objective of the sumernment looked at higher education as a mit was to impact change in current edunon-profit venture. cation paradigm by increasing access to The sessions witnessed lively debate on the best higher education with help from ways to improve higher education in the US.

pledge

IIT Bombay Graduates Pledge To Help Alma Mater A total of 735 students of the graduating class of 2010 signed a pledge to donate one percent of their salary to their alma matar Seventy percent of the students who attended the convocation ceremony signed a pledge to donate one percent of their salary to IIT Bombay. This initiative is part of a new fund raising initiative for alumni by IIT Bombay Alumni Association in association with IIT Bombay Heritage Fund, branded as “GO IITB: Give One for IIT Bombay”. This is a voluntary programme for each alumnus to commit to contribute one percent of his/her income to IIT Bombay for life towards supporting overall improvement at IIT Bombay, encompassing the institute, its campus and human resources.

EDU TECH August 2010

The aim was to engage alumni early and now the institute has 735 new alumni who are already engaged with IIT Bombay with the potential to develop into a new tradition for all passing out batches. The fund raising drive with the passing out batch of 2010 was visualised as a soft launch of the programme with the motto —“pledge now and pay later”. This is a first for a graduating class not just within IIT Bombay, but for all IITs. Collectively the graduating class has created a landmark of being the first graduating batch that pledged to start its payback even before the first pay day after leaving IIT Bombay.

UPDATES suspension

New Zealand Suspends Applications Authorities have suspended processing of applications for international students seeking access to Auckland

uthorities in New Zealand have suspended the processing of applications for international students to study at Auckland’s Kingsland Institute, after two officials were nabbed for an alleged immigration fraud. Immigration authorities now are reviewing previously “approved” applications, after the arrest, which came after two prospective students of the institute complained to police. Kingsland provides business, IT, cookery and English courses. Donald Han, institute manager, is facing three charges under the Immigration Act-1987, for providing false and misleading information, and

two more under the Immigration Advisers Licencing Act-2007—relating to providing immigration advice when not licenced to do so, said Immigration New Zealand. Chheogyal Jah Om Sandyang Lepcha from Kingsland Institute and a licenced immigration advisor, is facing two charges under the Immigration Act. The offences are alleged to have been committed in October 2009 and March 2010. Head of Immigration Nigel Bickle said: “We do not know if the matter goes deeper, but we need to check for the sake of the integrity of the system.” Both defendants were remanded without plea until August 17, 2010.

strategy

PTU To Send Exam Papers Online

Punjab Technical University has devised an online mechanism to send question papers

unjab Technical University (PTU) has devised an online mechanism for sending question papers to the centres just 25 minutes before the start of an examination. From this semester onwards, papers will be sent through the internet. Colleges concerned will take printouts, or get photocopies, and distribute them among examinees. The university has ruled out any manual involvement in the dispatch of question papers at examination centres, thus eliminating any chances of the paper being leaked. The university officials will use three other standby modes to ensure timely dispatch of papers. “If the colleges are somehow not able to use the internet, they can ask for an e-mail or a fax. In addition, we will also send the college principal a single copy of an alternate paper packed and sealed, as the last option—just in case the other three fail to click,” said PTU Controller of Examinations Dr Nachhatar Singh. The decision, perhaps, comes in the wake of a recent episode of a paper leak in Punjab Technical University.

VOICES “I WANT US TO PRODUCE EIGHT MILLION MORE COLLEGE GRADUATES by 2020, because America has to have the highest share of graduates compared to every other nation” — BARRACK OBAMA President, USA

“WHEN IT COMES TO EDUCATION, AMERICANS HAVE LOST THEIR WAY” — ARNE DUNCAN Education Secretary, USA

“THE GOVERNMENT’S AIM IS TO CONNECT ALL VILLAGES OF INDIA IN THE NEXT THREE YEARS. This can lead to a leapfrog in education. We must be ready with relevant content in the meantime” — KAPIL SIBAL , Union Minister for Human Resource Development, India

“OVER 90,000 STUDENTS WILL TAKE THE UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE TEST THIS YEAR” — MUHAMMAD AZAM DADFAR, Minister of Higher Education, Afghanistan

August 2010 EDU TECH

EXPERTISE DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE

AARON B. SCHWARZ

asktheexpert@edu-leaders.com

Lighting College Campuses

rankly, it doesn’t take an expert to figure out that the capture and manipulation of light are essential tools in architectural design. Tourists who visit the Taj Mahal say that it is at its most magical at dawn or dusk. There should be the right amount of that magical light on college campuses— and how well a design addresses this issue of capturing and dispensing natural or artificial light is cardinal. Not A Light Performance There have been scientific studies that have concluded that proper light and lighting bear a direct result on students’ performances. But right light is a complex matter. It’s more than simply making sure that lighting levels are adequate for reading, or looking at the blackboard. In this case, nothing works better than natural light, which is a benchmark for quality. There are issues that determine the quality of light—colour and its glare—and which leave quite an impact on learning, teaching and health. The most common mistake that a designer can make is to block natural sunlight. This mistake is frequently compounded by then substituting poor quality artificial light in its place. In essence, the procedure throws away free energy, and then rations expensive electricity.

Sunny Orientation Successful designs control sunlight—a process referred to as “harvesting” natural light—in order to maximise its beneficial use, while mitigating glare and heat. Orienting a building in the proper way is the most effective way of primary mitigation. East and west orientations are more difficult faces to control.

EDU TECH August 2010

Aaron is the Principal and Executive Director at Perkins Eastman. He has more than 25 years of experience in architecture. His award winning portfolio includes numerous projects for colleges and universities in the United States and other countries. He is currently involved in designing some university projects in India

It’s wisest to orient most classroom buildings to face north or south. In the Indian climate, the northern exposure provides reflected natural light, which is preferred. There are several techniques for controlling excessive sunlight from the south. A common one is to use a sun shade or horizontal “brow” over the window. This detail allows reflective light during harshest hours.

Shelf Help More advanced designs evolve this methodology to create a “light shelf”. A light shelf is a horizontal brow that is affixed below a window top at a height that blocks a portion of the light, and reflects some of it onto the ceiling of the room, which is then reflected downward to the desk. A more expensive method uses motors that rotate these light shelves, so that they track sun movement during the day. If carefully detailed, sunlight

Aaron B. Schwarz

EXPERTISE

can be controlled so much so that an instruction wall is not blasted with light or with glare.

Opaque Method The “opaqueer” technique for sun control is in the careful selection of glass. There are tints that filter or reflect the rays that penetrate the interiors. There are also low E-coatings applied to surfaces of insulated glass units. The low E-coatings prohibit infrared rays that heat up a space from entering, while allowing visible rays to penetrate the interiors of buildings. Glass “fritting” is another technique. Simply put, “glass fritting” is the application of ceramic on a glass surface. The ceramic can be applied as dots, lines, or as a custom design. The technique allows for large expanses of glazing and maximising view, while at the same time blocking out a determined portion of sunlight.

Bright Results By applying these techniques, artificial light can be used to supplement natural light, as opposed to being used as primary means of illumination. Daylight sensors which regulate and dim artificial lighting depending on the amount of sunlight in a room can, and should be, employed. This significantly helps reduce energy. This type of artificial lighting needs to be carefully selected and located within rooms. Inexpensive fluorescent fixtures may save costs, but they provide poor colour rendition and non-optimal learning conditions. Indirect fixtures that bounce light off the ceiling and then down to the work surfaces are a better solution. This requires higher floor to finish ceiling heights. When this is not possible, careful attention should be paid to reflectors in the fixtures. A reflector plays an important role—it spreads the light evenly and blocks the glare. Also, fixtures with dimming capabilities, or multiple switching, allow better control of lighting. The need to completely blacken rooms has been greatly reduced with the advancements in projection, flat screen, and writing surface technologies.

Save More, Spend Less In order to save costs, institutions make light corridors and non-formal instructional spaces. It’s becoming evident that a larger proportion of learning happens outside the confines of a formal classroom. Therefore, architects, decorators and designers need to pay extra attention to lighting these spaces right. Creating attractively lit spaces where people may wish to read, do work on the computer or just interact is important. Lighting up these spaces too much is matter for concern. A strategy that reduces overall general lighting, while increasing controlled task lighting, is sustainable as well as visually desirable. Good lighting also plays an important role as far as security and safety is concerned. This includes exterior spaces—

BRIGHT LIGHTS: Artificial light can be used to supplement natural light, as opposed to being used as primary means of illumination

pathways, roads, and parking spaces should be properly lit. Statistics shows that well-lit spaces have less crime and suffer less vandalism. In addition, solar panel technology allows us free lighting without costly wiring.

Switch Off? Adaptation of sustainability standards in recent times look down upon the use of lighting for dramatic purposes. This is unfortunate, as illumination of buildings and grounds on campuses is not just aesthetically important but it is also cardinal for the student and staff safety. Lighting of buildings and grounds can help create iconic branding opportunities for important places and in the long run it helps to form an image. A well-lit clock tower, dome, colonnade, or library building, is the pride of world-class universities. Play of light and shadow on buildings or landscapes provide iconic imagery for campuses during the daytime. Contrasts between bright sunlit areas and deep shadowed spaces provide visual diversity that makes campuses interesting. Next time someone points out a landmark building, or space, analyse what makes it so interesting—it would probably be the quality of light; how it is captured, blocked or plays off a surface, that will be high on your list. Subscribe to a daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://edu-leaders.com/content/ newsletters August 2010 EDU TECH

COVER STORY

Dialogue

Shyam Menon, VC of AUD, has a vision of a more pragmatic humanities education that not only enriches the student, but also fulfills societal demands

“Dedicated to human and soc phenomena” BY SMITA POLITE & ROHINI BANERJEE IMAGING BINESH SREEDHARAN

BY SUBHOJIT PAUL

The bells have been ringing for long now. We have been warned of an art apocalypse–death of an era of humanities, social sciences and fine arts (and of all things nice?). In this so-called “dark age”, Bharat Ratna Dr BR Ambedkar University, Delhi (AUD), unabashedly dedicated to arts, and to the science of society is emerging as a pathbreaker. As India’s first dedicated university to humanities and the social sciences it is not only stepping out of the shadows surrounding humanities education, but is also symbolic of an awakening in Indian higher education. For such a bold beginning, it is not surprising that the university has at the helm of its affairs, Professor Shyam Menon, former Dean of the Faculty of education at the University of Delhi who has worked on issues related to curriculum, teacher development and higher education. Menon does not overwhelm you with philosophical and esoteric reasons for why such a dedicated university to humanities and the social sciences can be a success in India. He has a vision of a more pragmatic humanities education that not only enriches the student, but also fulfills societal demands, but he could easily be mistaken for a missionary who is dedicated to building a system that celebrates the human experience.

EDU TECH August 2010

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Dialogue COVER STORY

o ocial

August 2010â&#x20AC;&#x192; EDU TECH

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COVER STORY Dialogue In a conversation with EDU, Shyam Menon explains how AUD can make a difference.

EDU: Why did the Delhi government feel the need for a specialised institution dedicated to the social sciences?

MENON: There were several reasons. In the 1990s, due to various factors, including some court interventions, Delhi ceased to grow as a major manufacturing centre. So, the state, began with the quest for a new ‘USP’. At some point, the government decided to focus on health and education. They had already set up one university (IP University) which was an affiliating one, and which encouraged private institutions to come up and offer programmes in specifically market-oriented sectors—management, law, technology and IT—all these had been under the umbrella of this single university. With this critical decision to lay emphasis on higher education, which was made in the beginning of the latterhalf of the present decade, the state established a National Law School University, the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology and AUD. It also upgraded the Delhi College of Engineering, as a university. The basic idea was to create a range of specialised centres of higher learning and research and then to bring them all under the umbrella of a university system. Of course there is a debate going on regarding the need for so many specialised universities. Remember, this happened before the Yash Pal Committee report that questioned the appropriateness of specialised centres of higher learning— there is a merit in that argument as well. However, if you ask me there is a need for both kinds of institutions.

dimensions of ecology will be looked at), human studies (which will deal with centres dedicated to gender, disability, clinical psychology and social work), culture and creative expressions—which will encompass visual, performance and cinematic and literary arts, Business, Public Policy & Social Entrepreneurship, Law, Governance and Citizenship – all these interdisciplinary areas and all of which would be connected. Our interdisciplinary focus will be a major difference. Our focus is (as opposed to catering merely to the market) on public systems. Most of our programmes aim at developing capacities in

the interface between the state and the civil society. Our programmes attempt to build capacity among professionals, who are engaged in the dynamic and critical negotiations between the state and the civil society. Look at the legislative acts (Right to Education and Right to Information). These are results of a prolonged engagement between the responsive elements of the state and the more vigilant elements of the civil society.

EDU: What is AUD’s vision?

MENON: We are a unitary university, and one that is dedicated to the study of

EDU: What sets AUD apart?

MENON: It is the first university dedicated to the social science and humanities in the country. We have taken a very comprehensive canvas and thought of a typology of schools, which is not conventional. We have created 10 schools of studies among which are schools of development studies, human ecology (in which the social 14

EDU TECH August 2010

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Face to Face COVER STORY human and social phenomena. We are called Ambedkar University, thus, we think it is important for us to look at the question of equality and excellence–taking Dr Ambedkar’s life as an example. AUD will focus on research and teaching in the social sciences and humanities. And the process will be guided by Dr BR Ambedkar’s vision of bridging equality and social justice with excellence. We are committed to creating an institutional culture characterised by humanism, non-hierarchical and collegial functions, teamwork and creativity.

(We realise that soon enough. Senior teachers, most of them known names in their fields, eat together and wash their utensils when they are done. The concept of hierarchy and “an appointment please” has been done away. You wish to talk? Knock and come in, and if I am free, we will talk–is the policy at this school). There are the laws of the land and affirmative policies that we will follow, but we clearly understand that doing just that is not enough. So, we have formulated a system of mentorship through which every

“We are a unitary university. We have taken a very comprehensive canvas and thought of a typology of schools, which is not conventional” faculty will have a finite number of students under his or her care. This will, we hope, ensure that the youth who come to us from different backgrounds, avail whatever opportunities that are being given to them to their maximum advantage. We are here not merely to provide wider access to quality education, but also to ensure that every young person has a good chance of success in it.

EDU: Was there any reason why the Delhi government decided to make AUD into a unitary university?

MENON: One of the reasons was that

ABOUT PROFESSOR SHYAM MENON Professor Shyam Menon is the former Proctor of the University of Delhi, and the Dean of the Department of Education, Delhi University. Professor Shyam Menon’s specialisation is in curriculum development and science education. For the past two decades, he has been working on issues related to elementary education, teachers’ development and higher education. A Fulbright fellow, Menon has been a visiting faculty at University of Wisconsin, and Director, School of Education, IGNOU. He has to his credit publications and research projects. He plays an advisory role to state and central government committees related to the education sector

Delhi and IP universities are already here with an affiliation system. An affiliated university is a vicarious way of imparting education, while a unitary university has a greater advantage in the sense that it is more direct and organic. Here the location and the teachers for research and postgraduate studies are the same as those for the undergraduate studies. Unitary universities have a greater possibility of innovation flexibility in instructional design and curriculum, since those who teach also develop and design their curriculum. Moreover, since there is an assurance of substantial government subsidy, we are less affected by market vicissitudes, and have opportunities of addressing long-term social needs (as opposed merely to short-term market demands) and of creating programmes that have greater innovation.

During our discussion, it became clear that AUD was going to be difficult to “typify”. Its brochure talks of a Centre for

Mathematics and Social Implications. But, this difference is not a fancy trend that the people here wish to follow—its a conscious decision that stems out of a need (market and social) to have these courses. So we had to ask. EDU: Could you draw some light on the type of courses and faculty that a student can expect from your university that would help him or her to prepare for his or her professional and personal life.

MENON: The schools that AUD has made operational so far are the School of Development Studies, the School of Human Ecology, the School of Human Studies and the School of Undergraduate Studies. In the near future there would be a School of Law, Governance and Citizenship, a School of Business, Public Policy and Social Entrepreneurship, a School of Educational Studies, a School of Liberal Studies, a School of Culture and Creative Expressions, and a School of Design. These will offer masters and doctoral programmes. The School of Undergraduate Studies will be the academic home for the undergraduate courses in social sciences, humanities, mathematical sciences and liberal studies. Our undergraduate programmes allow for honours degrees with major in economics, history and psychology and will soon contain possibilities of majoring in development studies, law and environmental studies. We also allow for four-year dual major programmes. AUD is also in the process of establishing a few centres for studies and August 2010 EDU TECH

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COVER STORY Dialogue

“We need to have analytical tools and develop capabilities to build coherence around complex phenomena. That is precisely what the social sciences and humanities do” research. The centres will not be teaching institutions, they are meant for project research, advocacy, training and capacity building and for clearinghouse functions. AUD has established a Centre for Early Childhood Education and Development. Others on the anvil are a Centre for Indigenous Knowledge Systems, for Leadership and Change, for Equality and Social Justice, for Engaged Spiritualities and Peace Building, and a Centre for Social Applications of Mathematics.

EDU: What is your stand on the prevailing models of higher education?

MENON: This is an interesting time as far as education is concerned. There has been unprecedented rise in the allocation of finances for the higher education sector. The interest in the sector is enormous. Having said that there are causes for worry as well—something related to the question of talent. Or, to to a talented faculty. How do new universities get their talent? They get it by poaching from older universities. At the end of the day, that defeats the very purpose of higher education. We at AUD will be happier if there is an expansion of the talent pool—that would happen through stronger doctoral programmes. The quality of the doctorates, the next batch of teachers has to go up, which would then reinforce the system. I believe that if we are able to negotiate through this challenging (I wouldn’t use the term troubled) times, then we will emerge better, victorious. 16

EDU: A specialisation, especially in higher education, becomes important because the society feels its demands. Post-independent India there was a move towards pure science and innovation. Recently, business administration gained prominence. Do you think that humanities and social sciences would one day be the trend?

MENON: Social sciences and their application, are everywhere, in every aspect of the society. The focus so far has majorly been on universities that have a science and technology bearing. However, it is being acknowledged that societies cannot survive with just technologists and managers. All institutions of society—family, community, school, religion, state and institutions—are going through transformative processes. Wars, conflicts, insurgency, youth-related problems, displacement, destitution—co-exist with prosperity, economic growth, urbanisation. We need to have analytical tools and develop capabilities to build coherence around these complex phenomena. That is precisely what the social sciences and humanities do. It is not enough to have systems of higher learning which deal entirely in information, knowledge and skills. We also expect universities to be fountainheads of wisdom. Having said that, it is also a legitimate purpose of a university to assure its graduates of possibility of realising their personal aspirations. An academic programme should also be pragmatic. I say this because often the planners

and administrators forget that the greatest investment made in the higher education is in terms of the time invested by the student. She gives a few of the most crucial formative years of her life to education. Her investment needs to be respected. However, a university is different from a polytechnic. A polytechnic caters directly to market demands. So does a university. But, it also creates or mobilises such demands in areas where it perceives a social need exists. One has to understand the thin line between social needs and market demands. All market demands do not reflect deeper social needs, and conversely, all social needs may not readily manifest as market demands. It’s the business of a university to identify deeper social needs and help create market demands. Several of AUD’s programmes blend social sciences with management and sciences. Our School of Human Ecology is a multi-disciplinary community of ecologists and environmental scientists working with social scientists. Similarly, our School of Business, Public Policy and Social Entrepreneurship will offer MBA programmes not merely aiming at creating skill-sets for corporate jobs but also for socially-oriented entrepreneurship. Our board has decided that all our programmes will have at least a quarter of their credits earmarked for hands-on, practical and field-oriented experiences. We also have a strong component of internship for all our masters programmes. All these are part of our attempt to blend concerns of marketability with the ideals of addressing social needs. For now, let’s just say this: we have the right ideas. We have started well. We have so far had by and large a favourable configuration of circumstances. We have a good chance of realising our mission substantially and in good measure if not wholly because we are constantly monitoring how things unfold and how we perform and have a built-in system of mid-course corrections. Subscribe to a daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://edu-leaders.com/content/newsletters

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Edu Tech December 2009

COVER STORY

Academics

EDU TECHâ&#x20AC;&#x192; August 2010

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Academics COVER STORY

India has woken up and smelt the coffee. Move over science and technology; the Indian diaspora is realising the worth of a solid liberal arts degree

BY SMITA POLITE

BY PRASANTH TR

video on YouTube has become a must-watch for any serious defender of the cause of humanities and social sciences. In the video, wearing what looks like a shawl draped as a dupatta, Eva Von Dassow, a professor of Classical and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Minnesota, in a three-minute speech, gives voice to what several developed countries are feeling about budget cuts and vacant faculty positions in humanities and arts education. Von Dassow was speaking at a public forum of the University of Minnesota’s Board of Regents. Humanities education is facing a crisis in the developed world. There is no better word to describe this situation. Earlier this year, the School of Arts and Humanities at King’s College London was targeted, as the college board decided to “let go” of people whose work was not “financially viable”. In short, areas that were more “academic” than “marketable”, and, thus, made little economic sense, faced the axe.

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MAJORS ARE BEING CUT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE IN THE US, IN AN EFFORT TO SAVE $12 MILLION OVER A PERIOD OF THREE YEARS

However, the reality is not the same everywhere—and parts of the so-called developing world are seeing a different pattern altogether. So, while Eva Von Dassow tries to convince a group of university regents of the merits of not cutting budgets for liberal arts education, Shyam B. Menon, Vice Chancellor of Bharat Ratna Dr BR Ambedkar University, Delhi (India), gets busy with allocating funds and recruiting “the right people” to join his university “dedicated purely to humanities and the social sciences”. Ambedkar University Delhi or AUD, which was established by the Government of the NCT of Delhi through an Act of Legislature, is India’s first university dedicated to humanities and social sciences. It began functioning in August 2008 by offering a postgraduate diploma in development studies. In August 2010, it started its undergraduate courses, and introduced a postgraduate course in gender studies. While the West busies itself discussing why arts and humanities should not face the axe, AUD is currently dealing with recruitment and vacancy issues. “How do new universities get their talent? They get it by poaching from older universities, and, unfortunately, we have had to do that also,” admits Menon. Most of the present faculty hails from Delhi University. In fact, Ashok Nagpal, Dean of the School of Human Studies, moved his entire team from Delhi University to set up the postgraduate course in psychosocial clinical studies. Interestingly, Vice Chancellor Shyam Menon is a “loan” from Delhi University.

New Torchbearer for Arts True to the spirit of humanities and liberal arts, AUD has aspects that appeal to the most critical and thinking minds.

“CONSCIOUSNESS HAS INCREASED—PEOPLE ARE NOT AFRAID OF CHANGE. THEY ARE REALISING THE MERIT OF A WELL-ROUNDED PERSONALITY” 20

Flexibility: The university does not distinguish its undergraduate degrees according to the prevailing norms in India. Instead of offering a BA (pass), BA (general) and BA (honours), it offers just a BA (honours). Students don’t need to decide their majors right at the time of admissions. They can pick and choose topics to study as they wish, and earn credits. Earning more than 50 percent credits in any subject makes a student eligible for a major in it. If, the student does not wish to major in any particular subject, then she is still awarded a BA Honours in either social sciences, history, psychology, political studies, mathematics or economics. Students also have the option of getting a dual major—which is a four-year undergraduate programme. For students who wish to go overseas for postgraduate studies, this fourth year could prove to be especially useful. There are now plans to link this undergraduate programme to an integrated MA. The first-year of BA has compulsory courses such as logic and reasoning (with some quantitative methods) and an introduction to social sciences, which answers questions like how social scientists do what they do and why? There is strong reasoning behind this flexible model. “When they begin, students don’t know what to expect from a subject. A number of students who choose arts in university are from science background. It’s their first experience of humanities. It’s not fair to slot them even before they start. They should get a chance to explore and experiment,” believes Dean, School of Undergraduate Studies, professor Ahmed Raza Khan. Evaluation: Every school of studies here is free to design its own evaluation process—based on assignments, fieldwork or projects, class tests or a combination of all. There is no position of the controller of examinations. It does not even have a term-end exam. What it has, instead, is continuous evaluation. Every department here is free to design its own evaluation process—based either on assessments of assignments, field work or projects, or a combination of all. The diktat is that no component should form more than 40 percent of the complete evaluation. Medium of Study: English is the medium of study. Students are required to submit all assignments in the language. However, students, who may not have had English as a medium of study, are also admitted. “Since we teach in English and all prescribed textbooks are in the language, we felt that allowing students to do assignments in

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Academics COVER STORY Hindi was mere tokenism. Instead, we have free remedial classes for students who come from the Hindi medium,” informs Khan. Innovative Courses: “We have consciously tried to have different and innovative programmes. We have two big brothers— Jawaharlal Nehru University and Delhi University—and we don’t wish to duplicate,” says Khan. Besides the postgradu-

ate course in gender studies, the university offers MA in environment and development, MA in development studies and MA in psychosocial clinical studies. The postgraduate course in psychosocial clinical studies, for instance, moves away from the norm. It deals primarily with psycho analytic perspective. “The essential departure in this method is that we try to begin with ourselves.

We have borrowed a perspective for this course from thinkers such as professor Sudhir Kakkar and professor Ashish Nandi and psychiatrists such as prof essor R.C. Kapoor,” informs Ashok Nagpal, Dean, School of Human Studies. Hands on Training: All masters degree programmes have a compulsory component of field training. It forms at least 25 percent of the course component.

“HUMANITIES ARE INTEGRAL TO EDUCATION” Indira Parikh, President, Foundation for Liberal Arts and Management Education, talks about the crisis in humanities education. 1. Are humanities relevant in today’s technology-driven world? Human society has shifted from being an agrarian-base civilisation, to being an industrial and technology-based one. Yet, all our collaborations come from agrarian base of the society. The way we are drifting away from ecology, I see all the more reason and meaning to focus on this. More so, when the society, with its social and work relationships, is undergoing dramatic shifts, it’s necessary to understand what was and is, and why—so that relevant directions and choices can emerge.

2. Are humanities viewed as inferior to the sciences? Why do “intelligent students” opt for sciences? The choice between science and art is based on social structures, gender differentiation and parental perception of education linked to occupation and occupation linked to life style and generation of wealth. Science can be opted by all provided they also learn of humanities and social science. This is what liberal education is all about.

4. What does an education in the humanities offer to the Indian society? Education in humanities provides students and youth the concept of continuity of human existence and heritage. It facilitates multi– disciplinary education and perspective and provides a more holistic and a kaleidoscopic understanding of the evolution. It makes the student have a broad panorama of multiple dimensions as well as streams of knowledge interwoven with each other.

5. Are the humanities in crisis? Humanities education in India needs renewal and revival. The humanities is in crisis, as its methodology of teaching has followed the old ways, which does not inspire students to look at human existence. Humanities need to be an integral part of education, so that a student learns to enquire, dialogue and think and arrive at an understanding of himself or herself through a larger context.

3.Why in your opinion does India not have a humanities and social sciences institute that is equivalent to an IIT? India’s Independence speech given by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru stated that educational institutions were the modem temples of India. India at that time emulated the West. As was the trend there, in India, too, there was a marathon for industrialisation. The focus was on medical and engineering colleges that required science and mathematics education—thus IITs were set up. As our country grows and accepts its intellectual abilities and orientations, institutions of social sciences and humanities will flourish. The first such institution focusing on liberal education has been set up and is called FLAME (Pune). Tata Institute of Social Sciences has done incredible work over the past few decades.

August 2010 EDU TECH

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COVER STORY Academics Students are required to assist and/or attach themselves with organisations and offices, and complete internships that help them understand their subject matter better.

25% FUNDING CUTS BY THE GOVERNMENT WILL LEAD TO THE LOSS OF 33, 844 JOBS IN ENGLISH COLLEGES. THESE FIGURES ARE ‘CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATES.’ SOURCE: UCU, UK

Is Humanities Useful? The focus on hands-on training can be perceived as a response to the current criticism that surrounds humanities and arts education—that they are not useful. Interestingly, even with Centre’s aid and support, AUD chose to incorporate this component perhaps to justify and assure the usefulness of such topics. For instance, how does a course in classical and near eastern studies—Von Dassow’s specialisation—help make life better? When it comes to science and technology, and life, the link is easy to establish. Innovations such as cars make commuting easy and life

“SUCH A SAVAGE REDUCTION” In January 2010, King’s College, London announced their plans to reduce the size of their humanities school by 22 members of their staff. Distinguished and long – standing members of their staff, Prof Shalom Lappin and Dr Wilfried Meyer-Viol were to face compulsory redundancy as of autumn 2010. This announcement was a massive outcry from students and professors alike and led to protests of various kinds. The following is an excerpt from a letter written by various professors and academics to Professor Jan Palmowski, Head of the School of Humanities at King’s College; the man who is allegedly behind the mayhem. “Such a savage reduction of staff numbers through compulsory redundancy removes any appearance of job security for academics at King’s. The best candidates in the humanities will shun the institution; and those of strong standing now in post will all seek to leave. The reorganisation will succeed in the aim of making a once great institution manifestly mediocre.” It is not just in the United Kingdom that things are bad. Across the seas, in 2009, Columbia University too, tightened its belt and, according to a university statement, decided to “resource reallocations within the Arts”. Even more shocking? In June of last year, The Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University, cut $77 million from its budget and closed one of its libraries. The Humanities are suffering the world over. Is India the answer to the world’s problems?

easier. How does knowledge of a civillisation, that too an ancient one of the Mediterranean, or the near east, or the Neolithic period, make our life better? Well, a humanist would say that an understanding of ancient civillisations gives an insight into the human mind. Why, for instance, did an ancient empire fall? One oftenquoted reason is greed. If greed could be a reason behind the fall of a civillisation—it could still affect us. By that logic, greed could make us “overproduce” things—such as cars for instance—and, eventually, affect human lives. Instead of making life “simpler”, it could complicate matters—increase pollution, create bottlenecks, disturb the ecological balance, and, more importantly, create a divide between those who own cars and those who don’t—leading to discord and discontentment. Insights come from critical thinking—which humanities encourage. India seems to have realised this. Though AUD may be the first university focused on humanities and social sciences, it’s not the only one. Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, set up in 1936, was the first. TISS has earned a reputation for its courses in social work. After Independence, the Centre chose to stress on basic science education. Then, around the Eighties, engineering and management courses took over. Today, even technical institutions are realising the need for social science education and its role in making a student employable. The Foundation for Liberal Arts and Management Education (FLAME), Pune, set up in 2004 was established with the expressed purpose of “encouraging students to challenge status quo and create a spirit of inquiry”. FLAME is a private institution dedicated to the humanities.

The Awakening “Major initiatives in India today have come through civil societies. Right to Information, Right to Education and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, or even women’s rights are all a sign that India is still a thinking nation,” says Khan. Consciousness has increased—people are not afraid of change. And, they are realising the merit of a well-rounded personality, which is derived from a well-rounded education. Unlike in the past, when students did not opt for arts by choice, there are pupils today who are making a conscious decision to be part of humanities. Nagpal recalled meeting a father, who informed him that his daughter, who was still in school, had “decided” to study psychology. As Menon explains, “The world does not run with just technicians and accountants. A ‘civilisa-

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Academics COVER STORY

“It’s not fair to slot students even before they start. They should get a chance to explore and experiment”

“Science constitutes the knowledge that drives this world. But, we need a perspective with which to make sense of it.”

“Unlike in the past, when students did not opt for arts by choice, pupils today are choosing to be part of humanities”

—AHMED RAZA KHAN Dean, Undergradute Studies, AUD

—SHYAM B. MENON Vice Chancellor, AUD

—ASHOK NAGPAL Dean , School of Human Studies, AUD

tional’ nation such as India needs poets, theatre personalities, sports people, artists, philosophers, thinkers, historians and social activists. You simply cannot look at disciplines in a purely utilitarian perspective. This does not need much convincing. All you have to do is to look around at the flux we find ourselves in— social, political, cultural and psychological. Do you merely want to drift along this flux, or do you want to make sense of it and make sane and coherent responses to it? If you wish to make sense, then you need analytical tools and conceptual systems that social sciences and humanities can provide.” He adds, “Science and technology constitute the information and knowledge that drive this world. But, we need a perspective, a world-view, a framework with which to make sense of these. We also need the wisdom to learn from history and to be balanced in our individual and collective action not to let it repeat itself. We need the ability to govern ourselves. All these also come from the social sciences and humanities.” Point taken! “People are taking up social causes, and putting money in the social sector, because they realise that development will not lead us anywhere if we do not

have a harmonious society. Have you noticed that in developed societies social sciences get a lot of respect?” asks Khan. But, does Khan believe that humanities will ever emerge as the new favourite? “No,” he says, “I won’t say that it will dominate. But, yes, it may rise from its secondary position.” He accepts that this rise will be slow. Even at AUD it is not all smooth sailing. Students are jittery about the flexibility—as it changes the status quo. “They are not used to choices. In school, there are 10 sections dedicated to science, and one to arts. It’s believed that students with poor intellect take up arts at school. Market forces are also not favourable to humanities. And people always wish to align themselves to trends,” he adds. Menon does not believe that the grass is greener on the other side either. “Academic streams are in crisis—both humanities and social sciences and natural sciences. There are very few takers for BSc programmes in physics today. A time may come when we do not have enough graduates in physics who could become science teachers in schools. This will undercut even engineering and IT education. An unbalanced growth leading to asymmetry will be disastrous.”

FLAME’s director, Indira Parikh, believes that India has a long way to go before liberal arts gets its due. “Our education sector has become jobdriven. Among streams there is an obvious hierarchy. Science and IT are considered to be serious and tough. Arts, social sciences and humanities are marginalised as soft courses meant for a specific type,” she says. Social sciences and humanities are anchored in the evolution of human existence, and continuity and discontinuity of our socio–cultural history. “Now, we need institutions such as AUD—anchored in rigour and excellence and facilitating young minds to dwell on the past, present and the future of human existence,” she asserts. For lobbyists of liberal arts stating that liberal education is a must for a healthy democracy—the Delhi government’s investment in social science education should be a positive sign. Perhaps, Eva Von Dassow should head to India. Her views on the need to prevent the etiolation of liberal arts, and her dupattasque shawl, will be met with more sympathy here. Subscribe to a daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://edu-leaders.com/ content/newsletters August 2010 EDU TECH

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ADMINISTRATION

Cost Cutting

Indian higher education institutes are looking at newer ways to manage costs sans compromises BY PADMAJA SHASTRI

POINTS TO PONDER CLOUD COMPUTING WORKS OUT 50-60 percent cheaper than building your own in-house data centre USING SOLAR ENERGY FOR HEATING reduces electricity usage by 50 percent

EDU TECHâ&#x20AC;&#x192; August 2010

A A

round two years ago, Amity University began putting placards with simple messages like, “Switch off fans and lights when not in use” at key points in classrooms, galleries and corridors. The result: energy consumption in Amity has come down by 30 to 35 percent. During holidays, the university operates lifts only in the mornings and evenings to save power. “At the heart of cost management is the good old 80:20 Pareto Principle—80 percent of costs can be managed by controlling 20 percent of the items. And it is imperative to take stock of these items and look for opportunities to improve them,” says Brig. S K Doval (retd), Director, Administration, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh campus. Amity has identified those 20 percent of items as water, stationery (mainly paper) and electricity. Most higher education institutions (HEIs) seem to have recognised that saving power costs is pivotal to smart cost management.

Save Energy And Water

he International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad saw good cost savings when its students and staff voluntarily implemented changes like not using geysers during summer. While the institute moved from air-conditioners (ACs) to fans, Symbiosis Institute of International Business (SIIB) has a practice of not switching on ACs until its lab is full. “Improvements in energy usage in areas like lighting, air-conditioning and water pumping could save an HEI 20 to 30 percent of its power costs,” says Shishir Athale, Director, Sudnya Industrial Services Pvt Ltd, an energy services company. Realising this, IIIT, Hyderabad has set up a task force to help curtail wastage of electricity and water, while Amity University is analysing its power consumption patterns to design a model plan to reduce energy costs. And SIIB has a community development team`Kshitij’ to find ways to reduce usage of electricity. The institute, like many others across the country, uses energy efficient lighting systems and other electrical products to save on electricity. It has motion sensor-based systems to control taps. The business school uses recycled water for landscaping its campus, while some, like

“80% OF COSTS CAN BE MANAGED BY CONTROLLING 20% OF ITEMS” —BRIG S.K. DOVAL (RETD) Director, Administration, Amity

Cost Cutting

ADMINISTRATION

Amity, also reuse it in toilets. Using alternative sources of energy is also gaining ground among HEIs. “Using solar energy for heating, as against electric boilers, has been shown to cut down energy bills by half” says Hemant Mahajan, Partner, Group Phi Architects and Designers. The firm, currently working on six HEIs’ campuses across Maharashtra, believes in making maximum use of natural light and crossventilation in their designs. “That reduces electricity usage by 20 percent,” says Mahajan.

Designing For Cost-Cuts

or reducing the need of artificial light, as well as ventilation, during daytime, Pune-based architects’ company Mitimitra Consultants Pvt Limited has used the following elements in its design of Symbiosis’ Vimannagar complex and the mechanical engineering building of Cummins College of Engineering, Pune: Doubly ventilated class-rooms–arrangement of classrooms in such a manner that cross-ventilation of air is achieved without causing glares on the whiteboard/blackboard or benches. Windows on both sides–so that classrooms are lit with natural light. Skylights are used to illuminate large spaces like libraries. Ventilated cavity walls–air, trapped in the cavity acts as a heat barrier, which reduces the air-conditioning load. “At Symbiosis, we have planned the seven-storey building around an open courtyard, which brings in direct sunlight and works as a channel for hot air to pass out,” says Madhav Hundekar, Founder Director of Mitimitra. The singly loaded corridors of the building face the courtyard, allowing for maximum ventilation. They also receive natural light reflected from the basket ball court. Similarly, Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and Research (BVIEER) has incorporated a series of water channels, fountains and sprinklers in the design of its buildings to produce a cooling effect. “Each functional unit of the building has a central air shoot for natural ventilation. That is supported by an exhaust system operated by wind propellers, which suck warm air out without using electricity,” says Dr Erach Bharucha, director of BVIEER. August 2010 EDU TECH

ADMINISTRATION

Cost Cutting

That’s how the institute’s auditorium has no need of fans or AC. What’s more, its museum is entirely illuminated using natural lighting. Also, its white Gokak stone walls reduce the painting costs to the minimum as only the ceiling requires painting. “We are going in for chequered parking with grass and concrete. That will bring down the heat generated and thereby, the recurring expenditure on cooling,” says Dr Prakash Rao, Associate Professor, Energy and Environment, SIIB.

Paper Bytes

he cooling requirements also came down at the Amity data centre, when it virtualised its 30 servers through VM Ware on just one server with 30 HP blades. That brought down its operational costs

by a whopping 85 percent. The Group of HEIs is also in the process of replacing its CPUs (costing around Rs 30,000 each) with N-computing devices, which cost around Rs 4,000 each. Installation of N-computing devices is also expected to reduce energy consumption by a good 75 percent. A growing tribe of HEIs have begun conducting most of its affairs and communication online and cutting down on usage of paper. “We do not print or ask for hard copies unless and until it is mandatory for documentation,” says Viraja Bhat, IT-head of SIIB. It is also looking at Webex based services for conferences and lectures and exploring online teaching methods and pedagogy. Many HEIs, especially those with multiple campuses, are taking to audio and video-conferencing, for admissions and

meetings. During the orientation session of its campuses in London, Singapore and San Francisco, the Chancellor and the management of Amity University, sitting in India, interact with global students through video-conferencing. This saves the university considerable time, and cost, involved in their visiting various campuses. Amity, Symbiosis and Manipal are among the HEIs that have automated most of their academic and administrative processes. “Automation means lower cost of human resources, less paper use and faster operations, all resulting in substantial cost savings,” says Brig Doval. Amity, like many of its ilk, has been promoting e-communications among its people on ‘Amizone’, its intranet. The university advises its staff to print only black and white and on both sides of the

GOING GREEN FOR GREEN BUCKS Santa Clara University (SCU) has been honoured with the ‘Green Power Champion’ award for the second consecutive year by Silicon Valley Power. According to Joe Sugg, Assistant Vice President of University Operations, SCU, its ‘green’ efforts to achieve climate neutrality by end of 2015, have resulted in cost efficiencies, too. “In the first two months after implementing energy saving strategies (April 2009), SCU saved over US$34,000 in energy bills. From May 2009 to December 2009, we saved over US$150,000,” he said.

Energy Saving Initiatives Changing cleaning hours for campus buildings from late night to early mornings reduced the amount of lighting used by buildings overnight, for cleaning. This also reduced HVAC system use, as building temperature set points can now expand overnight, allowing for greater temperature fluctuations Enforcing building temperature set points helped them identify mechanical systems that needed repairing, leading to improved building efficiency Lighting and HVAC upgrades across the campus further improved building energy efficiency Peak demand management enabled the university to shed loads when it needed to control peak demand Hot/cold aisle architecture, racks optimised for air flow and future increased efficiency as power/heat load increases in the

EDU TECH August 2010

new data centre. It operates “dark” except when humans are in the space An aggressive server virtualisation programme allows consolidation of servers into small shared pools. This reduces the number of physical servers resulting in power savings, while increasing the reliability of the applications that run on those servers Default configurations when deploying new campus

Cost Cutting

“CLOUD COMPUTING IS 50 TO 60 PERCENT CHEAPER THAN IN HOUSE DATA CENTRES” —SWAPNIL DHARMADHIKARI Founder Director, Splashgain Technology Solutions Private Limited

paper. To cut spending on paper, printing and manpower, many HEIs are digitising their libraries. While SIIB uses LibSuite for it, IIM-B has adopted open source software DSpace to share its library archives. Using free and open source software to contain costs is also gaining ground. For instance, IIIT, Hyderabad uses Linux and Apache software to build most of its

administrative systems in-house, at almost no cost. The institute is also a member of the Microsoft Academic Alliance, which provides its faculty and students the latest developer tools, servers and platforms from Microsoft at a very low cost. “While growing from size zero, we were careful in our spending. So, for us, there is no looking back in terms of reducing costs as those were the least we could have

ADMINISTRATION

incurred,” says Dr Kamalakar Karlapalem, Dean (Academics), IIIT, Hyderabad. Some HEIs are turning to cloud computing to manage their admissions, attendance, eLearning, alumni management and even enterprise resource planning systems. In this model, software solutions are offered as a service on payper-usage basis. And it is not necessary to invest in any IT infrastructure. “Cloud computing works out 50 to 60 percent cheaper than building in-house data centres,” says Swapnil Dharmadhikari, Founder Director, Splashgain Technology Solutions Pvt Ltd. According to him, it is 30 percent cheaper than even manual processes. Reducing wastage of resources is also a way to save costs. SIIB, for instance, is turning the leftover/stale food in its canteen into compost with the help of vermiculture.

desktops force “sleep” mode after half an hour of inactivity. This gives large power savings (typically consumption drops by a factor of 50 or 60, say from 120W active to 2W in sleep mode) without great inconvenience for users Power efficiency and heat load are significant considerations in purchase decisions and configuration

Campus Buildings 219 Falcon Waterfree Urinals have been installed throughout campus (replacing all flushable urinals). Each of such urinals saves 40,000 gallons of water and roughly $200 in maintenance costs per year. SCU is pilot testing dual-flush toilets. A low-flow flush uses 2/3 less water than a “conventional” flush. Some toilets are dualplumbed, so they are flushed with recycled water.

Results:

Residence Halls: Low-flow shower-heads which use 2.5 gallons per minute are installed in about 95 percent of residence halls Replaced top loading washing machines with front-loading models. Over a whole year, each front-loading unit saves roughly 4,000 to 6,000 gallons of water The energy savings initiative was the result of innovative thinking and collaboration between individuals in University Operations, Utilities and Facilities. Best of all, the team was able to implement these initiatives with little to no noticeable impact on the university community The university’s ultimate goal is to foster a ‘culture of sustainability’ campus-wide, in which all members of the campus community are asked to re-examine their personal and working lives in the context of ensuring resources for future generations

Peak electricity demand reduced by 900KW Electricity use down by 6% compared to 2008 Reduction in natural gas use by 13% compared to 2008 A 6.17% decrease in total energy used on campus

Water Conservation Initiatives Landscaping Over 85 percent of the campus is irrigated with recycled water Recycled water costs US$.90 per CCF vs. potable water (US$2.50 per CCF) Use of drought-tolerant plants where appropriate

August 2010 EDU TECH

ADMINISTRATION

Cost Cutting

“We Have To Spend Almost Nothing On Maintenance” Dr B. Mahadevan, Dean (Administration), Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Bangalore talks to EDU about how the business school manages its costs How does IIM Bangalore achieve cost efficiencies without affecting priority areas? Our cost management strategy primarily consists of budgetary planning and control systems which help us manage operations in a cost effective way, without affecting priority areas like teaching and student experience. Some of the cost cutting measures that we have taken are using effluent and sewage treated water for horticultural purposes in the Institute. We have also successfully implemented replacement of fresh water in toilets with biological treatment blocks which eliminate the need of water and yet keep the toilet hygienic.

In which areas have you been able to achieve significant cost savings? How? We have made significant cost savings in power and water consumption. Over the last three years, we have replaced most regular lights with LED lamps and implemented solar lighting and heating systems and biogas plants to conserve electricity and save costs anywhere between five to 15 percent, depending upon the area of application. Our new construction activities have state of the art threepart plumbing systems which will utilise fresh water, filtered rain water and effluent treated water. These efforts have made significant improvements in our expenditure on water. We have been able to influence the usage patterns by utilising intelligent light and motion sensors which automatically switch off lights when not in use and newer technologies such as T5 lighting which promote energy efficient ways of utilising available resources. This has helped us to save costs. Also, our architecture enables us to utilise natural light during day time, minimising electricity usage. Further, the architecture is such that we have to spend very little on regular maintenance (distempering/ whitewashing, etc.) of external structures.

How do you save your IT costs? We use Moodle, a free and open source e-learning software, for our learning management systems. Our students’ club ‘Sigma’ works out deals with reputed suppliers for bulk purchases of laptops. As we purchase 600 to 700 laptops at a time, we get the costs reduced by 20 to 30 percent over the list price. We also have a policy of simultaneously upgrading all our gadgets in a way that all those come out of warranty at the same time, giving us benefits of scale. Further, we expect significant cost savings once our ERP system, which will automate our administration, finance and knowledge functions, is fully deployed.

Future Plans

oing forward, when HEIs are expanding at a rapid pace, co-optition—compete in the core area but co-operate and share in other areas—could be the new mantra. “It would be a good idea if 5 to 10 institutions got together to share their resources and consolidated their sourcing requirements for better cost efficiencies for all,” says Narayanan Ramaswamy, Executive Director, KPMG Advisory Services Private Limited. He also recommends having a single department to coordinate sourcing requirements of all departments. “To pull together the consolidated demand data, match it with information on costs and present it in the right format at the right time, it is important to have IT systems like ERP,” he says. Outsourcing non-core functions like finance and accounting, administration, facilities management and procurement and technology will be the next big step in smart cost management of HEIs. “Some multi-campus HEIs are already considering outsourcing administrative functions to specialised agencies to drive down costs. It is high time they did that and focused on education content and faculty development,” says Tarun Satiya, Associate Director, Business Advisory-Technology and Telecom Practices of Ernst & Young. He thinks that these functions are highly specialised areas and most HEIs do not have the right skills to manage these smartly, in-house. After the telecom sector started outsourcing its technology function, its spending on technology came down to 2 percent of its revenues, from 5 to 7 percent of revenues the sector spent when it was doing that in-house. Improving utilisation of infrastructure is another trend that does not compromise on quality, is. For instance, many like Manav Rachna Group of HEIs run multiple shifts of batches or classes for this. The Group also offers attractive fee options to students who choose odd shift classes, like say between 2 pm and 8 pm. Subscribe to a daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://edu-leaders.com/ content/newsletters

EDU TECH August 2010

Setting Up Universities

STRATEGY

FIRST S

T S

P E

BY CHETHANA DINESH & PARUL GUPTA

POINTS TO PONDER LOCATION IS THE KEY ELEMENT IN THE success of a higher education institute QUALITY FACULTY IS ONE OF THE MAIN pillars of a successful academic institution

hen a student shops for a higher education institute, her needs are clear—interesting course and content, an inspiring faculty, dependable facilities, vibrant campus life and infrastructure. She goes to the education market. Sifts through products, makes relevant enquiries and, when her requirements are adequately met, zeroes in on one—because there is such a variety on offer, and so strong are our expectations from the universities. India has a large education system for its billion-plus population. Its higher education system is witnessing substantial growth with 400 universities and August 2010 EDU TECH

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Setting Up Universities

20,000 colleges spread across it. While the Centre has a major role to play in the development of HEIs, the role of educational entrepreneurs or “edupreneurs” in shaping the system, both quantitatively and qualitatively, cannot be discounted. An edupreneur, an agent of change, ventures into the system with a vision to make education more meaningful. And, his or her job is no cakewalk.

KEY PITFALLS Overemphasis on infrastructure Underestimation of faculty, or students’ ability

KEY DRIVERS FOR SUCCESS Quality of students Quality of faculty Course content Pedagogy Infrastructure

ABHISHEK MOHAN GUPTA Director, Leeds Met India

Validation Process

desire to bring about change in the education system may propel an edupreneur to set up an institute of his dreams. However, what he needs to bear in mind is that no institution can have

an “absolute advantage”. Hence, it’s important to encourage the development of a “comparative advantage” by recognising the value of self—and by defining an entrepreneurial initiative. It’s binding on the part of an edupreneur to recog-

nise the fact that education is a state subject. It’s bound by regulatory authorities. As professor Sriram, Executive Director, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, puts it, “Though education is a state subject, central agencies

“MAKE A WINNER OUT OF EVERY STUDENT” Professor V. Sherin Bovas, Founder Director, Swiss Graduate School of Management, Group Director, Sri Krishna Group of Institutions, and President, Trinity School of Business, talks to EDU about the best practices and strategies to be adopted for the setting up of successful HEIs.

What is your recipe for the success of an HEI? The following are the important ingredients for the success of any HEI, especially a B-school, in India. nderstand value in the form of an equation, i.e., Value U = Benefits/ Cost. Understand in the very beginning that - ‘You cannot satisfy anyone, including oneself, in this world but would strive to minimise dissatisfaction in all that we do.’ It is imperative to have good human resources – people who are good, if not excellent. The process within the institution plays an important role in its overall development, resulting in excellent placements. The physical evidence of infrastructure, industryfocused dynamic curriculum, resource persons, environment that facilitates learning and the sum total of all the experiences makes an HEI tangible for our stakeholders.

EDU TECH August 2010

What are the different regulatory issues and concerns one needs to be aware of before setting up a HEI? All proposals for entry or expansion must come through the state government concerned, in case of autonomous institutions, or through UGC in the case of public universities. AICTE is responsible for giving the final approval. Recently, AICTE launched the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) using a benchmarking system with regard to factors such as physical infrastructure, quality of inputs and faculty training. However, failing standards of schools approved by AICTE gave rise to suspicions regarding its credibility. The result is that most B-schools have abstained from seeking accreditations under the NBA. A further factor that’s limiting the popularity of what might have potentially been a national accreditation standard is the availability of substitutes. For instance, in 1998, the All India Management Association (AIMA) used the ISO 9000 certification to develop a quality assurance system, known as QBS 1000, which was intended to evaluate quality at institutions associated with the AIMA. Many independent B-schools have also found ISO 9000 as an attractive option for branding their institutions.

What are the prerequisites to start an HEI? One can register a trust or a society; open an account with a nationalised bank; allocate resources to buy over half an acre of land; construct a minimum of 25,000 sq feet of

Setting Up Universities

(such as the All India Council for Technical Education and University Grants Commission) play a major role. One needs to be aware of the guidelines and statutory requirements before starting.” A thought echoed by Vineet Gupta, Managing Director, Jamboree Education. He says, “Regulations form the basis of any academic institution. Since each state and branch of education has its own regulatory body, it’s prudent to design one’s academic institution within the framework of guidelines issued by those regulatory bodies for optimal success.” Bodies that regulate the functions of HEIs include UGC, AICTE, Medical Council of India, Distance Education Council, Indian Council for Agriculture Research, Bar Council of India, National

STRATEGY

KEY PITFALLS ‘Me-too’ attitude Over-emphasis on gains KEY DRIVERS FOR SUCCESS Quality service Clear plan and strategy Edge over others Excellent infrastructural facilities

PROFESSOR V. SHERIN BOVAS

Council for Teacher Education, Rehabilitation Council of India, Medical Council of India, Pharmacy Council of India, Indian Nursing Council, Dentist Council of India, Central Council of Homeopathy and the Central Council of Indian Medi-

Group Director, Sri Krishna Group of Institutions

cine. The list may appear to be daunting, but should not—believes Anand Sudarshan, CEO and Managing Director, Manipal Education. “Till a year ago, regulatory framework was scary. However, changes have been

building to house classrooms, library, computer lab, Research & Publications Dept., hostels, cafeteria, dining area, and recreation centre; recruit staff; apply to the local university for affiliation; get LIC approval; obtain an NOC to run foreign degree programs; obtain Government Order Copy and AICTE approval/ affiliations; accreditations from NBA, AMBA, IACBE, AACSB, EDUQUA, CEEMAN, and pay the requisite fees for such approvals and affiliations. Today, acquiring land in the heart of the city is not a criterion to run B-schools. Land, with proper connectivity by road, rail and air, can be acquired on the outskirts of the city at throw away prices. If not, Go for a government lease for over 33 years or 99 years for a large land bank at a lesser price. Borrow money for construction from a nationalised bank. Take over a running institution for lease and retain its documents for documentation with regulatory bodies. Start small and grow as the credibility grows. One can even go for an IPO when they have established a brand known for its credibility, especially with bankers.

Are financial implications different - based on positioning, scale and scope of the institution?

Considering the gains are fairly limited, what strategy does one need to evolve to expand in India?

Start an institution with a focus on brand recall. Use the KISS principle of names such as IIM, ISB or IIPM or with names starting with the alphabet A Aim to be in the list of ‘Top 20 Business Schools’ in the country. Have zero debt, be ethical and transparent, pay the staff on time, recruit research-oriented faculty, update curriculum regularly, keep your students happy as they are your future ambassadors, and excel in placements. The bottomline should be Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. Make a winner out of every student.

Collecting fees alone is not a strategy for expansion. Other avenues such as corporate training, consultancy, hiring out campus space or even charging corporate companies for good placements add to the revenue. Though institutes, for records, show only 60 as their intake, they accommodate more in their PGP, PGDM and other autonomous programs that are free from the clutches of University control and the AICTE rule book.

Placements dictate the fees of an institution. An institution starts with a practice of 100% placement with low salaries. They scale up the salaries in the next few years and as it reaches the best, they increase the fees.

Is the choice of course an important ingredient in the setting up a successful HEI? It is not the choice of course but the choice of placements that forms the important ingredient for a successful set-up. For instance, in a class of 60, if a vast majority opts for marketing, then the other departments have to be shut down. Hence, a balance has to be maintained by way of dual specialisations or by equally apportioning the student community at the beginning of the course into finance, HR, marketing, systems or entrepreneurship.

What brand factors would one need to create a USP and positioning to emerge successful in India?

August 2010 EDU TECH

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Setting Up Universities

initiated now,” he says. “Despite the fact that we are a billion-plus population and that almost two-thirds of our population is below 35 years, it is difficult for a young entrepreneur to enter the education system,” he adds. Undeterred by challenges, edupreneurs such as Vineet Gupta have been forging ahead with their dreams of setting up academic institutions offering premium quality. According to him, governments have been supportive to his ideas, as it translates into the development of the state.

Land: A Major Challenge

cause for concern for edupreneurs trying to set up an institution is getting the land. Though most states

KEY DRIVERS FOR SUCCESS Right focus Understanding the needs of aspirants Good positioning (preferably among the first 20 in the list)

earmark a sizeable area in city outskirts for this purpose (such as Rajiv Gandhi Education City in Sonepat, Haryana), land remains a problem. “Since land may not be available within the city, new higher education institutes (HEIs), especially those offering

KEY PITFALLS Poor ROI for customers (students) Lack of Innovation Internal politics Greed Marketing myopia

PROF SRIRAM (Executive Director, Great Lakes Institute of Management)

professional courses, are more likely to come up on the outskirts. Since HEIs act as a magnet to promote economic development, cities will gradually expand to cover such institutes. If an institution has the brand and offers quality courses, students will automati-

LAND, HERE & NOW Land acquisition has always been a major challenge while setting up an HEI. Manish Kumar Baheyti, CEO, Knowledgetree Infrastructure Limited, a subsidiary of Ansal Properties & Infrastructure Limited, talks to EDU Do property developers help edupreneurs in identifying the property? No. An edupreneur should narrow his search to a city or area and then conduct research to ascertain the viability of the project. The viability study also helps him or her in raising debt through financial institutions. Property developers step in after this— regarding paperwork and titles, Manish Kumar Baheyti, CEO, litigations, conversion of land use, Knowledgetree Infrastructure requisite permissions, etc. Limited Once an entrepreneur approaches a developer, he has access to nonlitigated licenced land; since the builder will have already consolidated that land, he will then get a licence to set up the township or project. The process offers three benefits: Edupreneur gets the amount of land he wants to set up his institute; b) It is a licenced non-litigated land, with clear titles; c) He gets an assured catchment area for future in the form of residents of the township.

EDU TECH August 2010

Does the construction of HEIs require special permission? Since the developer has the licence in place, only a ‘no objection certificate’ is required from the state, apart from the approvals from regulatory bodies like AICTE, UGC, etc.

What are the parameters for designing a building— are they dependent on the course offered? We have a panel of architects, experts as far as the education sector is concerned. They design according to the courses offered and infrastructure or space required.

For the setting up of an HEI, what do you suggest – rented premises, or own set-up? If one aims to stay in the sector for long, and has deep pockets, he should own the asset—since real estate is not getting any cheaper. Even construction costs are growing by 10 percent every year. However, if real estate cost is acting as an entry barrier, one may consider taking a premise on rent, establishing his brand name, and then moving on. He should look for 18 to 24 percent return from investment.

What has been your experience with HEIs? Knowledgetree Infrastructure Limited has its presence in higher education with Ansal Institute of Technology and Sushant School of Art and Architecture and is in the process of setting up Sushant School of Design. We are also planning to set up a university enclave in Lucknow.

Setting Up Universities

cally come. However, quality infrastructure is a must,” says Anand Sudarshan. Thus, location and proximity to various places becomes the key. Edupreneurs are well aware of the importance of location. Everyone from Sriram, to Vineet Gupta, to Anand Sudarshan or Sherin Bovas (see box) agree that location plays an important role—in not just attracting students, but faculty, too. “Quality guest faculty is available in the metros. Because that’s a better location as far as access to facilities is concerned,” says Sriram. A “good” location is one that is close to schools and offices, as teachers, too, have to think about their spouse’s job or children’s education—but, Anand Sudarshan believes universities that can easily address these concerns. “Even if a college or university is on the outskirts, why can’t we keep students on the campus, while ferrying teachers daily from the city? That way, they don’t have to move from a city, or fret over transportation issues” he asks. Vineet Gupta, on the other hand, would rather have a thriving campus ecosystem in which a faculty is assured of a social life, quality education for his or her wards, and a stable and regular connectivity to the city.

Test The Waters

f quality faculty is one of the main pillars of a successful academic institution, courses and placements, tie-ups with universities (mainly foreign) and facilities for research, form the other pillars. Hence,

the need for market assessment. “A market assessment is important. While the broader process of market research finds out the apparent need, in depth market assessment unravels the latent need—which is often more pressing. Educational assessment should be based on what is going to be relevant tomorrow. Correct judgement should be made based on trend studies, five-year plans, or Vision-2020 documents, since education is a long-term business with a gestation period of about five to seven years. One should focus on building sustainable quality,” says Sudarshan. Sriram and Vineet Gupta agree. They say that every course will have its demand, as long as the institution maintains quality. Opportunities for setting-up Indian HEIs are plenty—but, it’s prudent to test waters before taking the plunge. Anand Sudarshan believes that while it is tough for budding edupreneurs to enter the core regulated education sector, especially in the current regulatory framework which is rather strict, it is manageable in the categories of allied services and corporate and vocational training. Allied services include testing and assessment, technology-based services such as e-learning, counselling and employment-related services. It’s easy to enter these unregulated segments as they are fairly large. “The last two segments are like any other businesses. Hence, in it, equity capital and long-term and short-term capital may be used. The regulated part, however, is constrained by the limit to raise commercial debt,” he adds.

SETTING UP EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTES AS A PART OF TOWNSHIPS, OR LEASING OUT BUILDINGS TO EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS, IS A WIN-WIN SITUATION FOR EVERY PARTY. THE DEVELOPER STANDS TO GAIN IN TERMS OF CASH FLOWS

STRATEGY

“Regulations form the basis of any academic institution. Since each state, and branch of education, has its own regulatory body, it’s prudent to design one’s academic institution within the framework of guidelines issued by those bodies for success” —VINEET GUPTA Managing Director, Jamboree Education, Private Limited

Money Matters

unding is also a major hurdle. By and large, public private partnerships (PPPs) are considered to be an effective mechanism for attracting that muchneeded private sector investment into the higher education system without diluting the regulatory oversight of the government and other regulators. It’s at this juncture that partnerships— between education and corporate sector or for that matter infrastructure companies—are looked into. According to a leading property developer based in Bengaluru, setting up educational institutes as a part of townships, or leasing out buildings to educational institutions, is a win-win situation for every party. The developer stands to gain in terms of stable cash flows. Then, there is the positive utilisation of unused land which also hikes up local demand for land. And, the edupreneur benefits in terms of reduction in investment and better utilisaAugust 2010 EDU TECH

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Setting Up Universities

tion of available resources for infrastructural development. Admittedly, since a higher education institute in India can be set up only as a trust, society, or as a company registered under Section 25 of the Companies Act1956, gains are fairly limited. But, this reduction (as far as profit and gain are concerned) shouldn’t prove to be a deterrent to edupreneurs. “Non-profit does not mean no surplus, though many NGOs operate with an attitude that surplus is sin. Even as a nonprofit organisation, one can work with business-like efficiency and effectiveness and make a surplus which can be ploughed back to further expand the cause,” says Sriram. Vineet Gupta feels that HEIs should operate with an entrepreneurial perspective, and not for gains alone. The truth is that unless an edupreneur is able to make enough profits, sustainability may be difficult. To further complicate matters, there is a cap on the fee—revenues can be 10 to 15 percent more than the total expenditure. Yet again, this should be no cause for concern to edupreneurs. “The cap is for retaining surpluses. Again, one can make a submission for relief—provided that he can show that an extra of over 15 percent is going to be invested in expansion (of the institute) within the next five years,” says Sriram. A thought seconded by Abhishek Mohan Gupta, Director, Leeds Met India. “It is allowed for profit earned from an educational institute to be ploughed

FIRST SPEAK ABHISHEK MOHAN GUPTA, Director, Leeds Met India, shares his experience of setting up Leeds Metropolitan University, UK’s first international campus. We got the idea of setting up this institute in India when I was pursuing my education from there. Every year, Leeds UK gets about 300 Indian students. The cost of living there is almost 50 percent of the total cost. By bringing the campus to India, we wanted to make it more affordable. Leeds agreed because it got a bigger exposure in India. Leeds Met UK took on an Indian partner to manage the administrative and bureaucratic issues. The total process of taking approvals from both the governments and affiliated bodies took three years, before we got a ‘go-ahead’. Since Leeds Met UK was one of the first foreign varsities to set up its campus in India, even the Centre did not have clear regulations, which are now being made. Of the 13 courses launched in India, 12 are new to India. And the institute could only apply for approval of AICTE for its MBA course. However, we are yet to get the requisite approval, because while the MBA (in India) is for two years, UK courses are only for a year. But, we expect to get the approval by November with the proposed passage of the Foreign Education Bill. When we were setting up the institute, the biggest problem we faced was of land. We explored Mumbai and Delhi, but found the rates to be too expensive there. Finally, we chose Bhopal. However, taking approvals from affiliated bodies and departments, including forest, irrigation and others, has been a long process, despite our group being quite well-known. Bhopal lacks a solid communication infrastructure, connectivity and big city amenities, which are hurdles in attracting students from metros. We now realise that while there would have been a cost overrun of about Rs 20 crore if we had set up the institute in one of the metros, we would have been full to capacity by now. In order to tackle this problem, we are planning to attract brands (McDonalds, Café Coffee Day). Once we have the students on campus, the brands will come.

back into the business. So, funds are not a problem. Moreover, education is a safe and long-term investment sector. If any person can survive in it for four years, which is the general gestation period, he will do well,” he says.

KEY PITFALLS Government, government and government KEY DRIVERS FOR SUCCESS Location of the institute Choice of courses Strong market study Necessary approvals Placement: Students are demanding and immediately ask for rate of return on their investment in the form of fees

EDU TECH August 2010

VINEET GUPTA Managing Director, Jamboree Education Private Limited

“As far as the initial capital is concerned, loans are easily available through banks and funding agencies. Even foreign investors are keen to invest in the Indian education sector. Alternative routes are available to tap foreign investment, like the setting up of infrastructure companies. The Centre allows 100 percent FDI in infrastructure. And allows foreign companies to build infrastructure and rent it out to Indian companies. However, the kind of returns they expect is high, especially from this sector. Other options include consultancy route, offering intellectual property such as course, curriculum, books and angel investment,” he says. The present market signifies that the emerging trends and the sector itself are gradually moving towards a selfsustained structure—good news for edupreneurs.

Setting Up Universities

Expanding Horizons

urther, the recent Cabinet nod to the Foreign Education Bill, allowing foreign education providers to set up campuses in India, increases competition and benchmark quality. “In such a scenario, quality should be the keyword,” stresses Sriram. It is evident that the sector may benefit from foreign university collaborations that offer access to world-class faculty and international students and a curriculum based on global standards.

These may take the shape of exchange programmes, joint-research projects, or sharing of infrastructure facilities. An edupreneur could do well by considering these pointers. And, of course, focus on increased university-industry partnerships to ensure consistency (between research and economic needs), while designing the curriculum to include the development of skills and competencies that meet the needs of the private sector better. However, for any institute to be a commercially viable project, marketing is

very essential. Numerous external factors including increasing competition, expanding choice and escalating costs have made marketing imperative to educational institutes. “After all, institutes today are more about marketing and quality,” says Abhishek Mohan Gupta. Experience truly speaks. Subscribe to a daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://edu-leaders.com/ content/newsletters

TIPS TO BUILD A REALLY GOOD UNIVERSITY

By Shivaji Sondhi

THE TIME APPEARS to have come for India to seriously address the challenges facing its higher education sector. The challenges are twofold, those of quantity and those of quality. In this note I wish to address the latter, and in a very restricted setting. I am going to ignore all practicalities of creating an institutional space in which quality can be created— one sufficiently free from legal and political constraints. Instead, I would like to put down some thoughts on how one might go about creating a really good university in India, if these did not exist—a university that will tower over its Indian competitors and show up on the global map. Readers should view what follows as free and unsolicited advice to those seeking to fund or build such an institution

STRATEGY

Shivaji Sondhi is a professor of physics at Princeton University. His research lies in theoretical condensed matter physics and has been recognised by Sloan and Packard Fellowships and by the McMillan Prize. In addition he was one of the founders of a Princeton programme on “Oil, Energy and the Middle East” and currently directs a programme on “India and the World” at the Center for International Security Studies at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton

Aim for the best faculty, and the best students you can attract The best universities are about the truly gifted students being taught and mentored by an exceptional faculty in a virtuous cycle. At the end of the day, a really good university is about the people on its campus

August 2010 EDU TECH

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Setting Up Universities

2. Spend accordingly Recruiting high-quality faculty requires money for internationally competitive salaries but even more so for infrastructure and for seeding research efforts before they become selffinancing. Money is a tool to recruit exceptional students certainly if absolute financial need is an issue, but also in some cases where the very best ones you might wish to attract, have attractive offers elsewhere. You can’t build a really good institution on the cheap

3. Aim small

You will have only so much money to spend. There are only so many fine academics willing to live in India today that you can recruit almost entirely Indians. Education is labour intensive. And, the best institutions have a small number of students per faculty member (my own, Princeton, has an incredible five students per faculty member). Such ratios allow efficient mentoring and student involvement in research while enhancing the transmission of knowledge that a university necessarily engages in. Small is also easier to manage in respect of quality control. [For comparison, Princeton has 7,500 students and no professional schools; Harvard has about 20,000 students and a set of professional schools]

5. Postpone professional education

Law, medical and business schools are wonderful additions to a university—but they are different in important ways from core academic areas (pure science, mathematics and humanities and social sciences). Initially, as you seek to define the character of the new institution, it would be best to not have to work out a ‘balance’ between core and professional education sectors. You can always add them on

7. Empower the leadership

Much as I hate to say this as a faculty member, an institution that lacks the power centre, charged with watching out for its global interests, is likely to become a hostage to inertia. What is needed is a balance of power—where faculty has the opportunity to be heard collectively on issues that matter. But, at the same time, individual academic units are not the last word on their own practices—especially on hiring and promotion

EDU TECH August 2010

4. Focus on faculty

3 4 5 6 7 8

The quality of faculty is key. Given the paucity of highquality institutions in India, the pool of good students available to our new university is likely to allow recruitment of an exceptional body of students. The same is not true of faculty recruitment. With faculty, quality attracts quality—you want to be where so-and-so is present already. With faculty, critical mass is also important in most modern disciplines— you need colleagues to talk to about research on a daily basis, which makes it more important to hire wisely. This implies the need for selectivity in the areas in which you hire. Finally, faculty members last a long time—a problematic set of hires at the start can mar the tone of the institution for a long time

6. Pick an impressive academic leadership

While academic administrators necessarily sacrifice their own research productivity in the interests of an institution, it helps enormously if they come with genuine intellectual accomplishments. Such people command respect from their faculty colleagues and are far better able to judge the virtues of various competing claims on the scarce resources of the institution

8. Build external review

For the foreseeable future, India is likely to have a small internationally-competitive higher education sector. This will make it hard to obtain purely market-driven readings of how an institution is faring. To compensate for this, build in a systematic review process involving faculty and administrators from outside India, who periodically examines all aspects of the institution

9. Incentivise the faculty

It is true that faculty do not get into academics to maximise cash returns, but they are not immune to the charms of incentives. A good university has many incentives at its disposal: reasonable differentials in pay, discretionary research funds for individual faculty, teaching relief, sabbaticals, a willingness to make additional hires in areas of interest to existing faculty, a willingness to provide funds for more public activities such as visitor programmes in support of specific research efforts. These can be used to encourage faculty to lead productive front-rank research careers. Related incentives can be used to advance the teaching mission of the institution with the caveat that experience around the world suggests that when push comes to shove the research criterion should prevail over others. At the junior stage there is the incentive of a tenure decision. As our university takes off and becomes the employer of choice, it should be able to use the tenure process to identify exceptional candidates for recruitment. In this sector set for massive expansion, selectivity in tenure at a few top institutions will be offset by a large number of jobs elsewhere

11. Supplement permanent faculty with less expensive manpower

Senior undergraduates could be paid to grade entering courses, graduate students can work as teaching assistants while pursuing their degrees, good teachers from the large pool of existing Indian universities could be enticed to come and teach specific courses on leave from their home institutions for short periods. Less expensive staff could be utilised to help with routine academic tasks

13. Be India specific

Our university may have some trouble competing with the established heavyweights of the international academic world in fields which are not very country specific. However there is no reason why cannot build its brand by establishing the best programmes in the world on topics that relate specifically to India. Examples that come to mind are Indian languages and literature, social science work specific to India, Indian history, India’s fine arts, Indian archeology, Indian biodiversity and genetics. Given resources, selectivity and freedom from academic political fashions it seems to me a relatively straightforward task of the new University to put itself on the map in these areas

9 10

Setting Up Universities

STRATEGY

10. Offer four-year undergraduate degrees

The American model allows for exploration. It allows some students to work out their true interests over a period of time with very productive consequences. The longer period also allows students to develop a closer relationship with the faculty. More practically, it allows the new university to interface more easily with the US, which is likely to prove attractive to students for the foreseeable future

12. Use IT

11 12 13 14

Information technology (IT) can boost the fundamental educational productivity. Entry-level instruction could benefit substantially from the introduction of expert systems that do everything—from examining students, which they already do, to actually instructing them on specific tasks of problem-solving, which seems well within the reach of existing technology. If our university can harness these advances it would enable its scarce resource— the high-quality faculty to focus on more advanced instruction thus effectively boosting the faculty student ratio. Given the strengths of Indian companies in IT, that seems to be an especially promising direction for our new university to build into its very DNA. Another use of IT would be to allow faculty and students to connect seamlessly to the broader world of learning. High-bandwidth access to international databases and electronic publications should be provided where possible. Videoconferencing and collaborative software can make learning even more exciting. There is no reason, that the high-quality but small physics department at the university could not host terrific talks delivered by distant colleagues via videoconferencing. However, it will find it hard to persuade the same number to hop on a plane and fly half around the world.

14. Build a postdoctoral scholar programme

At least initially, our university will find it easier to attract a higher calibre of undergraduate student, then a graduate student. The best graduate students will probably still find themselves attracted to the very best universities in the world outside India. As this will pose of a challenge to faculty in the pursuit of their own research, it would be wise for our new University to explore options to recruit postdoctoral scholars where possible with attractive fellowships. As such scholars will come with a fair amount of training already under their belts, they would provide a welcome addition to the research effort. August 2010 EDU TECH

VIEWPOINT

Rahul Choudaha

Foreign Campuses: Tried And Tested

n July 2010, Michigan State University (MSU) announced the closure of its undergraduate programme in Dubai after launching it in 2008. MSU lost a few million dollars and also dented its reputation. MSU is a well-recognised brand with a legacy of more than 150 years and has been consistently ranked among the top-100 national universities by the US News & World Report. The primary reason for the closure of the campus was low student enrolments. The enrolment projections of nearly 400 students were way off from the actual 85 students. The failure of MSU Dubai is yet another example of misaligned expectations and execution challenges for foreign campuses. Some other big brands have also made these mistakes. George Mason University closed its Ras Al Khaimah, UAE campus last year when it was able to enrol only 120 students over three years. Likewise, the University of New South Wales, Australia closed its Singapore campus in 2007 and accepted that “…the lower than anticipated enrolments and current demand have highlighted financial and operational issues that make the operation unsustainable.” A common thread which connects the failure of all these campuses is their inability to meet the projected enrolments. Why could these well-established brand names not achieve their enrolment targets? There are several components required for the success of a branch campus; however I argue that the

EDU TECH August 2010

most important aspect, which is often overlooked, is a deep understanding of the target student segment and their decision making process.

Student Decision Making Process Decision-making process for pursuing higher education involves complex buying behaviour and high levels of involvement that result from expense (time and money), significant brand differences, and infrequent buying (Nicholls, 1995). The brand differences are unique to perceptions and expectations of various student segments. This process is further complicated by the inherent gap between students’ aspirations and ability. For example, while a majority of students may aspire to study at Harvard, only a handful will make it. Consequently, students are involved in a match-making process where they evaluate best-fit options to minimise their risks, based on imperfect perceptions. Higher education is also an experiential service and there is a significant information gap between institutional claims and the expectations of prospective students. This creates challenges for institutions in creating consistent perceptions and confidence of quality. Gordon Winston highlights in his article—Why can’t a college be more like a firm?—“Buying a college education is more like buying a cancer cure than a car or a house. There’s a strong tendency to avoid regret and play

Rahul Choudaha

it safe and buy what everyone considers ‘the best’, if you can afford it—reputation and animal hunches loom large in the final decision.”

Recommendations To Succeed Define the target segment: Lockwood and Hadd believe that “institutions that want to actively manage their education brand must first consider how the marketplace perceives their brand promise”. An institution which is not clear about the segments of the marketplace will not be able to reach them in a persuasive manner. l Position the institution with the target segment: Once the segments are defined they need to be aligned with the institution’s positioning. Jack Trout said that “positioning is how you differentiate yourself in the mind of your prospect.” Institutions should develop realistic projections based on the expectations and perceptions of the target segment and not on its aspirations. l Promise the uniqueness: Foreign campuses tend to promise that they can replicate the home country experience in another country. A university is an ecosystem and it is impossible to replicate an ecosystem. Instead institutions should focus on bringing unique values as compared to home campuses. l

Bridge the information gap: Building confidence among prospective students requires proactive efforts. NYU has a global brand name and still invested heavily in recruiting efforts for its first class for Abu Dhabi campus starting in fall 2010. It hosted events in international locations and flew in guidance counselors and principals. It also invited the final 275 applicants from around the world to Abu Dhabi for long weekends. l Explore partnerships: While a poor partner poses risks to brand and loss of control, a good partner can catalyse and magnify your success by bringing in a better understanding of the target. It also brings credibility. Flawed assumptions and misaligned expectations about the target segment could snowball to collapse a foreign campus. Financial risk and the risk of a damaged reputation for a failed foreign-campus are very high. Gaining a deeper understanding of the target segment and its decision-making process is essential for success.

VIEWPOINT

Subscribe to a daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://edu-leaders.com/content/newsletters

Rahul Choudaha A higher education specialist based out of New York, Dr Choudaha specialises in strategic management of higher education, institution building, academic leadership, collaborations and market development. He has a PhD in higher education from the University of Denver, MBA from NITIE, Mumbai, and BE from Jabalpur University. He can be reached at rahul.choudaha@eduleaders.com

August 2010 EDU TECH

VIEWPOINT

Rishikesha T. Krishnan

Measuring Faculty Performance

xisting universities are getting ready to c o m p e t e w i t h their foreign counterparts. In the past, they took their faculty for granted; they now realise that with the basis of competition shifting to quality, they will have to upgrade their faculty and consider differential rewards to retain their best.

They have to create an environment in which faculty have an incentive to improve their knowledge and skills. In other words, continuous improvement will be the mantra of the future. An essential component of this transition is putting in place an appropriate performance measurement and incentive system. The Ministry of HRD is simultaneously underlining the importance of performance appraisal so that they implement the 6th Pay Commission recommendations, which include a higher scale of Grade Pay that can be given to outstanding professors. Several questions arise in this context: What is the right performance management system for organisations that have lacked a strong performancebased culture in the past? Should there be a single system for all faculty or do we need to have variants to suit different faculty? Do we need the equivalent of a tenure track system, and, if so, is this the right time to implement one?

The Indian Context We need to remember that even in our best institutions faculty have not been research active for many years, though they may have done their PhDs at outstanding universities. The prevailing ethos may have led faculty to an

EDU TECH August 2010

“Aspiration Deficit”— the absence of a will to push oneself towards higher goals. The situation would be worse in other universities where faculty did not have excellent credentials to start with and whatever enthusiasm they did have has been dulled by the bureaucracy and the climate of mediocrity. Faculty members will need a considerable amount of institutional support to enhance their research skills. While there is no doubt that faculty must be put on a trajectory of change and improvement, suddenly putting in place common numerical targets for faculty, particularly for research, will lead to frustration or unethical practices. A good performance management system must be clear and transparent, and performance measures should be attainable through reasonable effort. I describe below, a system inspired by the goal setting process of Key Result Areas (KRAs) in corporations, that will help achieve these objectives.

Create A Goal Setting Process Creating an individual goal-setting process will help overcome the heterogeneity of faculty and also ensure that goals are set corresponding to the background, interests, expertise and prior track record of each faculty member. Goal-setting in the academic context can’t be only for one year, though, since the cycle of research and publication is much longer and it could take three to four

Rishikesha T. Krishnan

years for a research to translate into a publication in a leading academic journal. The ideal system would therefore be for every faculty member to develop, every year, a plan for one year as well as the next three years. The one year plan would have definite targets for teaching, and targets for research that are derived from the three-year plan. The targets need to be agreed upon through a consultative process between the concerned faculty member and an institutional panel. This panel would ideally consist of a senior faculty member from the same department, the Dean and an external expert chosen from a panel. At the time of agreement on goals, the kind of support forthcoming from the university would also be discussed and recorded. One way of avoiding perceptions of bias in the goal-setting process is to make all finalised plans available on the university intranet. .

Create Distinctive Tracks

To address issues of parity and comparability you should have distinct tracks in place. For example, there could be a teaching excellence track, a

VIEWPOINT

academic programme they are running and the efficiency of their activities. Goals should also vary across levels, that is, the typical goals of an associate or full professor would be different from those of an assistant professor. A full professor could be expected to have goals related to impact on the field and mentoring of young faculty that would not be appropriate for a junior faculty member. A review of performance will be conducted at the end of every year. Each faculty member’s performance will be assessed in terms of the goals/deliverables agreed upon. Meeting goals will result in incentive payments. Those achieving stretch goals will get larger incentives. Promotion will also be based on the achievement of plans developed under this process.

The Outcome The focus will be on a development-oriented approach. Goals and performance measures for different faculty will vary depending on their interests, the fields in which they work, and the stage at which they are in the life cycle of an academic. But there will be clarity for each individual regarding

he ideal system would be for every faculty member to develop a plan every year—for one year, as well as for the next three years

research excellence track, an administrative excellence track and a “balanced” excellence track. Allowing for different tracks would help align faculty goals with what enthuses and motivates them. In the long run, we would be looking for balanced academics who combine the best of research and teaching. Thus, new hires would be required to join the “balanced” excellence track. But in the short run, it may be wise to accept that existing faculty have different interests and expertise, and the best bet is to get them to strive for excellence in what they enjoy doing. Goals could vary across tracks. For instance, in the teaching excellence track, goals could include improvement in teaching quality, more teaching and pedagogical innovations. Goals for faculty in the research excellence track would obviously include papers submitted to, accepted and published in journals. Faculty on the administrative track would have goals related to the quality of the

what is expected from her. Individual faculty will take ownership for their deliverables because they have been self-developed. Each faculty member will raise her own bar over time through a philosophy of continuous improvement instead of trying to achieve impossible delta function jumps. Of course, this system will involve an investment of time and effort. Heads and Deans have to spend time with faculty understanding their aspirations and their needs. Like any other organisational system it could be subverted due to lack of involvement or commitment. But, if implemented right, it has the potential to “change the smell of the place” and nurture a culture of excellence. We are probably not yet ready for a US style tenure process, but this could be a first step towards demanding more from faculty. Subscribe to a daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://edu-leaders.com/content/newsletters

Rishikesha T. Krishnan Dr Krishnan is a professor of corporate strategy at IIM Bangalore. He has an MSc in Physics from IIT Kanpur, MS in engineeringeconomic systems from Stanford University, and a PhD from IIM Ahmedabad. He can be reached at rishikesha.krishnan@eduleaders.com

August 2010 EDU TECH

TECHNOLOGY

Structured Cabling

YOUR I

n the past several years, the rising need to be mobile has helped wireless networks gain tremendous popularity among educational institutes. That popularity, however, cannot overshadow the importance of cabling. There is no difference when it comes to cabling an institution or an office because in both cases, you first lay the cables and then uplink to provide connectivity to the end users. Though structured cabling was considered to be a good riddance from the cabling mess businesses had to face earlier, most of the new-age educational institutions have gradually started to understand the role that robust cabling infrastructure plays in improving network efficiencies. The growth of structured cabling is mainly driven by an unprecedented growth in the volume of organisational data. There is a need to store voluminous data, as well as to have realtime access to that data, which requires the connectivity to be fast and efficient. The cabling infrastructure also needs to be robust enough to support increased bandwidth usage, which is resulting in considerable growth in the networking infrastructure market.

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Structured Cabling

India is one of the fastest growing structured cabling markets. EDU untangles the coils

TECHNOLOGY

In every network, wireless points or radios need to be connected through structured cabling. Wired networks run on 100 Mbps, whereas wireless networks run on 11Mbps/54 Mbps, which means wired networks have better speed than wireless networks. Wired networks provide protected access and keep a check on virtual intruders and freeloaders. Cabled networks are stable connections as compared to a wireless network, which uses radio signals and similar techniques for transmission, prone to interference from electronic devices.

Growth Curves UK-based research firm BSRIA reported that India emerged as one of the fastest growing structured cabling markets, with an increase of 33.6 percent by value, in 2008. The mounting pressure on the data centre environment, with companies increasingly hosting their mission-critical applications in third-party data centres, is also a key growth vector in this aspect. Besides data centres, growing demand from the expansion programmes in banking, government, IT and ITeS sector, business process outsourcing (BPO) units, and upcoming townships are also fuelling the growth of this market segment in India.

Technology Trends Cat6 cable segment is expected to clock a CAGR of around 22 per cent, growing from

3.6 billion 9.7 billion in 2008 to in 2013

On the technology front, vendors continue to deploy accepted and proven solutions, such as Cat5, Cat6, and Cat6A. According to IDCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s India Structured Cabling Solutions Market Study last year, the Cat6 cable segment is expected to clock a CAGR of around 22 percent, growing from Rs 3.65 billion in 2008 to Rs 9.77 billion in 2013. Cat6 is expected to, thus, remain the biggest market segment throughout the five-year forecast period, mainly for high bandwidth requirements and high-speed data transmissions across data centres and other enterprise India is also witnessing the deployment of latest technologies such as Cat6A and Cat7 in niche segments. Cat6A cabling is mainly used for data centre applications. Cat7 is yet

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TECHNOLOGY

Structured Cabling

How Structured Cabling Scores Cost-effectiveness: Offers excellent ROI. The cabling system accounts for only five percent of an organisation’s total networking expenditure, but outlives most of the components in the network. The upgradation costs are also cheaper

Minimal downtime: It is easy to identify, isolate and fix problems with minimal downtime

No vendor lock-in: Structured cabling is compatible with multiple vendor integrations and gives the flexibility to support various applications and hardware from different vendors

to gain momentum, since there is no widespread preparedness or demand for Shielded Twisted Pair (STP) and Foil screened Twisted Pair (FTP) cables in India. Reports also state that there has been a very slow uptake on the 10G front. While the debate on fibre versus copper continues, fibre has some advantages over standard copper co-axial cables in terms of data transmission, extended coverage, resistance to interference and robustness and better security, which make it a smart choice for enterprises. However, the cost of the supporting equipment poses a deterrent in the mass adoption of fibre, leading to growth in the adoption of copper. Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) will also continue to make people invest in copper in days to come.

To Wire Or To Be Wireless While some fear that wireless networks will eventually displace all physically structured cabling system networks, most vendors believe that wired and wireless networks will complement each other. Though a number of business and technology trends are creating a new set of requirements for wireless networks that can deliver increased value to the enterprises, unfortunately, the current WLAN architecture is not equipped to enable optimum benefits for enterprises. There is no functional, performance or economic advantage that wireless networks provide over physically cabled networks. That is why wireless today does not pose any potential threat to wired networks, believe many industry watchers. “In old and already-constructed buildings, where it is difficult to lay cables, or public places where there is no cabled connectivity, wireless networks are preferred. New, modern structures are also opting for wireless networks,” says Dr J.S. Sodhi, Assistant VP (IT), Amity University. “Therefore, it would be incorrect to say that with wireless networks one can do without cabling. They are complementary, but definitely not substitutes of each other,” he adds. Sathish Kamath, System Head at Manipal University, says, “Structured cabling is necessary to address the growing demand for bandwidth intensive applications in academic institutions for using e-learning, multimedia applications, e-journal access, digital library, intranet portal, video conference, unified communication, access control, and survelliance system. The wireless network will complement the wired network”

Low maintenance: It requires very little maintenance

Scalability: Upgrading is much easier with standardised components. System upgrades also do not require modifications in cabling infrastructure

Intelligent Cabling The advent of intelligent cabling has added a new dimension to the conventional cabling infrastructure by providing greater visibility into the network. It can reduce manpower and downtimes cost considerably, while increasing network efficiency and network security a great deal. Though real-time monitoring and troubleshooting becomes very simple with intelligent cabling, it can be expensive to deploy a full intelligent cabling solution within an organisation; in some cases, an educational institute may not be able to afford that. This is where patching technology comes in— which can take a lot of pain out of the cable management process. “Whenever we plan structured cabling in our institution, we make ample provisions for future expansion in terms of increase in the number of users and up gradation of applications,” observes Sodhi. The institute has a a dedicated core layer which gives them the flexibility to manage growth and prepare for future media types and applications and provides the capacity and scaling capability for the campus as a whole, without changing the design of the distribution blocks and the rest of the network.

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Structured Cabling

“Everyday, new applications and software come into the market, therefore cabling is done in a manner where minor changes and additions in uplinks and switches can help in upgrading the connectivity. Basic cabling structure remains the same. While designing the network, we avoid the “cascading” effect so that the network speed remains faster for end users,” Sodhi adds. Structured cabling is used extensively in building campus area networks, which is mandatory for network expansion. “Offices have a homogeneous type of user and the bandwidth intensive applications are less. Academic institutions have heterogeneous users” points out Kamath. This difference of users should be kept in mind. Cat Five cables are used for laying out the network and can be used to cover 100 meters of distance (inclusive of patch and drop leads). Cat Six Cables, which are generally used in uplinks, provide better outputs and can cover a distance of 100 to 150 meters. Optic fiber cables are used where there are different connectors.

“WHENEVER WE PLAN STRUCTURED CABLING IN OUR INSTITUTION, WE MAKE AMPLE PROVISIONS FOR FUTURE EXPANSION IN TERMS OF INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF USERS AND UP GRADATION OF APPLICATIONS” J.S. SODHI, ASSISTANT VP (IT), AMITY UNIVERSITY

The Road Ahead The future of next generation cabling and connectivity solutions is bright, as new technology and trends mark the path for future growth. Consolidation and virtualisation techniques force organisations to move into next generation cabling and connectivity. Structured cabling plays an important role in managing one aspect of high density. To give an example, if you have 40 1RU servers in a rack, each with say 4 1G Ethernet ports, you have 160 ethernet cables in a single rack. Being able to run these cables across multiple racks to the distribution can quickly become unmanageable. In many cases, data centre architects make design and planning decisions around cabling to make sure that the constraining factor does not become cabling. Different techniques exist to address these types of problems. “For example, using MRJ21 cables to connect into high fan out modules in the network aggregation/distribution layer can simplify the cabling issues as well as cut down tiers of switches in the network. Extreme Networks has been a proponent of this solution since it leads to lower cabling cost, simplifies cabling challenges and leads to a scalable network architecture with less over-subscription and less latency,” surmises Shehzad Merchant, Senior Director of DataCentre Strategy, Extreme Networks. “Organisations that would like to be at par with the current technologies would like to be early adopters of next generation cabling and connectivity solutions. However, based on the standards being published, few organisations gradually wake up to the next generation cabling and connectivity solutions,” says Prasanna Kumar, regional director, India & SAARC, Leviton. “The structured cabling market has been going through a tough time due to a steep rise in copper prices this year, which has diminished the growth rate further in this down economy,” opines KK Shetty, managing director, Tyco Electronics India.

TECHNOLOGY

Rising prices in already adverse economic conditions have also made it a daunting task for solution providers to convince customers. As Kumar points out, “Customers would also like to wait and watch a little, before implementing a solution that is GenNext and robust. They would also wait for standards ratification and affordability.” However, one of the key challenges associated with next-generation cabling and connectivity is the lack of awareness of current and new technologies. People often failto understand that the performance of a network depends, to a great extent, on the cabling infrastructure and poor cabling can adversely affect even the quality of the bandwidth the network delivers. For example in IP cameras, Cat Six cable is used to transmit videos, and WiFi devices and uplinks also run on Cat Six Cables. Also, choosing the right network architecture is critical in ensuring that the data centre can meet its SLAs and service high density deployments without becoming the bottleneck. “It is very difficult to get skilled and qualified structured cabling solution providers, who can support the entire project lifecycle. One also needs to have the right mindset to serve the mid- size to large projects, which usually take a period of at least three to six months to set up the basic infrastructure,” says Ketan Kothari, director, Sigma Byte Computers. At the end of the day, the success of a structured cabling project strongly depends upon the comprehensive understanding of the technology and core requirement, which again differs from organisation to organisation. Nevertheless, the support from the solution provider also plays an important part for improved efficiencies.

Subscribe to a daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://edu-leaders.com/ content/newsletters August 2010 EDU TECH

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THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE FROM

THE CHRONICLE

O F H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N

49 CURRICULAR REDESIGN 52 OUTSOURCED EDUCATION

Why Some Branch Campuses

Thrive in the Persian Gulf While Michigan State Pulls Back In the round of news-media interviews that followed the closure of undergraduate programmes on Michigan State University’s branch campus here, Lou Anna K. Simon, the university’s president, blamed low enrolment on factors that were ‘out of our control’. They included a lack of qualified students, a crowded higher-education market in the region, and, most significantly, the ‘economic tsunami’ that had hit Dubai particularly hard BY ANDREW MILLS, DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

BY SURESH KUMAR

ichigan State’s two-year effort had resulted in a student body of just 85 instead of the hoped-for 400 or so. Yet its former rivals— the branch campuses of other Western universities in Dubai—are thriving. For example, 2,500 students enrolled last semester at the local branch of Australia’s University of Wollongong, its biggest student body yet. London’s Middlesex University plans to award its 1,000th degree here this year. And Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University is about to begin construction on a 300,000-squarefoot branch campus that will allow it to triple the size of its student body in Dubai, to 4,500, when it is scheduled to open, in September 2011. “We’ve got a lot of confidence in our position here,” said Brian G.D. Smart, who heads Heriot-Watt’s branch campus here. “We’re convinced we can succeed.” These branch campuses are not vastly different from the kind of operation that Michigan State aspired to become. They offer similar programmes, try to attract the same type of students, and set the same academic standards in Dubai as on their home campuses. What’s more, they each follow business models that, like Michigan State, depend on tuition revenue to cover the costs of operations.

EDU TECH August 2010

GLOBAL.CHRONICLE.COM The Chronicle of Higher Education is a US-based company with a weekly newspaper and a website updated daily, at Global.Chronicle.com, that cover all aspects of university life. With over 90 writers, editors, and correspondents stationed around the globe, The Chronicle provides timely news and analysis of academic ideas, developments and trends. Sign up for a free weekly electronic newsletter from The Chronicle of Higher Education at Chronicle.Com/Globalnewsletter.

So why did Michigan State fail in the same educational market where others have built successful institutions? To be sure, the global recession hurt the campus, but perhaps not in the way officials have described. Instead, two of Michigan State’s competitors here say it made some crucial errors, including pricing their untested degrees too high and not giving the enterprise enough time to stand on its own.

‘Very Much Undercapitalised’ In an interview this month, Simon lay much of the blame for the campus’s failure on the fact that the economic crisis began in 2008, not many weeks after the branch opened in Dubai International Academic City, a complex at the edge of the desert that rents classroom and office space to foreign educational institutions. Those institutions pursue largely the same kind of student body: the children of established expatriates who have lived in Dubai for years. They don’t want to leave the United Arab Emirates, but they cannot study at government-financed universities here, which are reserved for Emirati nationals. “Those kids grew up here. And even though they are expatriates on three-year renewable visas, this is their home,” said Rob Whelan, president of the University of Wollongong in Dubai. “And they want to stay here.” Michigan State contends that, by the fall of 2009, demand from that cohort of students was drying up. Expatriate workers in Dubai were losing their jobs and being forced to leave the country, taking their university-aged children with them. “Our second class ran right into the teeth of the economic turmoil. And so we were very much undercapitalised in terms of students to meet the financial plan,” Simon said. “And this coming year’s class did not appear to be as strong as it needed to be.” Whelan argued, however, that most people who lost jobs in Dubai during 2008 and 2009 were in their 20s and 30s, working in real estate and construction, not the mid-level executives and other members of the established expatriate community. In fact, Wollongong has seen an increase in demand from students, he said, because, as in many places, young people turn to education during a recession. “Certainly, if you’ve grown up here, you know that it’s still a land of great opportunity,” Whelan said. “And they want to be ready when the economy turns around.” What may have deterred students from embarking on studies at Michigan State was its relatively high cost of tuition and the absence of a local track record. Michigan State believed that one of its key selling points was the offer of a high-quality American degree, the same as stu-

WHAT MAY HAVE DETERRED STUDENTS FROM EMBARKING ON STUDIES AT MICHIGAN STATE WAS ITS RELATIVELY HIGH COST OF TUITION AND THE ABSENCE OF A LOCAL TRACK RECORD

dents would receive on the flagship campus, in East Lansing. “This was a real American education, with all the toughness that was required of a real American education, as opposed to a pseudo-American education,” Simon said. “The word ‘Western’ or ‘American’ is used very loosely in the region,” she said.

Too Much To Expect But that “genuine American education” cost a lot. Michigan State Dubai’s price tag, US$16,000, was at least US$3,700 more than what students pay to attend Heriot-Watt and Wollongong. It is about US$2,000 less than tuition at the American University in Dubai and the American University of Sharjah, in a neighboring emirate. But those are full campuses, offering an array of academic programmes and student services. Michigan State’s price may have been too much to expect students to pay, said Heriot-Watt’s Smart, given the competition from his and other universities. Wollongong, which has operated here since 1993, has 4,500 alumni, many of them employed in government agencies and companies in the emirates. Heriot-Watt has been open here for only five years, but it is building a similar reputation. “Let’s be frank,” Smart said. “Heriot-Watt doesn’t have the international cachet of MSU or Imperial College, but as far as our graduates go, we give them quality. They can go out into the work force with the skills they need to find great jobs. And it’s output that counts.” At both Wollongong and Heriot-Watt, administrators have also underscored the importance of building campus communities, where student life is almost as important as academics.

August 2010 EDU TECH

THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Both campuses give students opportunities to join sports teams and student clubs. “It’s important to give students here something to be proud of between their classes,” Smart said. In fact, both HeriotWatt and Wollongong needed years to establish strong campuses here. When Wollongong opened, 17 years ago, it had just eight students. Without large grants or loans, it grew only as fast as its tuition-financed budgets would allow, moving from a rented office building to an abandoned shopping complex and finally to its current home at Knowledge Village, an educational complex that is similar to Dubai International Academic City. It took five years for the campus to break even. Now, with 2,500 students, it’s profitable. “It’s sustainable and strong, and we haven’t compromised on performance or entry requirements,” Whelan said. “But it took disciplined growth.” And although Heriot-Watt has grown much more rapidly— from 117 students in the first year to 500 by the third and now to 1,400 in its fifth year—it was not always easy, Smart said, “I had colleagues back in Edinburgh who worked to prevent us from opening here. Everybody wants to protect the brand. But there was a huge leap of faith there in the beginning. There had to be.” Administrators on both branch campuses said the strong support they got from their home campuses as they worked to become viable institutions in Dubai was key to their success.

Trouble Back Home And, although Michigan State Dubai opened with strong support from East Lansing, it wasn’t long before the recession began to create problems on the home campus. Dwindling state revenues in hard-hit Michigan has meant programme cuts, tuition increases and frozen salaries. The state-financed university simply couldn’t support, either politically or economically, a money-losing operation in Dubai. The branch needed to attract 100 to 200 undergraduates per incoming class to sustain the five academic programmes it offered. Even with grants and loans of more than US$5-million from a subsidiary of Dubai Holding, a company owned by the emirate’s ruling family, there was no way MSU Dubai was going to break even within its first four or five years of operation. Campus officials had initially hoped to do so in the second or third year but quickly pushed the goal back to the fourth or fifth year. But even with the delayed break-even prediction, “that’s partly wishful thinking, and that’s partly because they’ve not paid enough attention to a business plan that takes into account what the environment is like here,” Wollongong’s Whelan said. Unlike Abu Dhabi, its oil-rich neighbour, Dubai has never offered much in the way of subsidies or other support for the branch campuses of foreign universities. As a result, they have had to operate economically to survive. And in recent months, the unlikelihood of Michigan State’s hopes for its presence in Dubai became painfully obvious as the

EDU TECH August 2010

THEY OFFER SIMILAR PROGRAMMES, TRY TO ATTRACT THE SAME TYPE OF STUDENTS AND SET THE SAME ACADEMIC STANDARDS IN DUBAI AS THEY DO ON THEIR HOME CAMPUSES

EVEN WITH GRANTS AND LOANS OF MORE THAN US$5 MILLION FROM A SUBSIDIARY OF DUBAI HOLDING, THERE WAS NO WAY MSU WAS GOING TO BREAK EVEN WITHIN ITS FIRST FIVE YEARS

campus scrambled to find ways to increase revenue. The campus applied to the UAE’s National Research Foundation for funds, which were not forthcoming. And, in what Heriot-Watt’s Smart saw as an act of desperation to Michigan State’s local competitors, the university offered 50 percent off the price of tuition to students willing to transfer to MSU Dubai from other universities in the UAE. Of the 220 students who applied, only 20 qualified academically. Michigan State’s final attempt to keep its programs afloat was an appeal to Dubai Holding for an additional US$3.4-million to help the campus cover its losses. It was turned down, at which point East Lansing pulled the plug. “Why did we do this in Dubai?” Simon asked. “We felt very passionately—you could say wrongly—that we wanted a seamless transition between East Lansing and Dubai, because we wanted it to be great for students in East Lansing to go to Dubai and come back and forth. It was a noble experiment.” Subscribe to a free weekly electronic newsletter from the Chronicle of Higher Education at Chronicle.Com/Globalnewsletter

GLOBAL.CHRONICLE.COM

U. of Hong Kong Looks to the West in Curricular Redesign

Jessica King is a geologist at the University of Hong Kong. This year she taught a new course on scientific literacy to first-year students, encouraging them to take an informed and skeptical look at how data are used in media coverage of controversial topics like climate change. BY MARY HENNOCK HONG KONG

he class, she says, was a success. Students are not afraid to ask questions, she jokes, because “they’re no longer scared that if they don’t know the correct terminology I’m going to beat them up.” King believes that the open-ended nature of the new course aided that dynamic. Her class is just one example of the University of Hong Kong’s radical redesign of its curriculum. Spurred by the government’s decision to move to an American-style, four-year bachelor’s programme in 2012—away from the three-year degree inherited from the British—the territory’s eight public universities are revamping their academic programmes. The boldest reworking is taking place at the University of Hong Kong, the most prestigious of the eight, which has seized the opportunity to reimagine its entire curriculum. Gone is any trace of early specialisation. In its place is a “common core” curriculum from which all students must take courses during their first two years, no matter what their major. Academic departments are changing the requirements for some majors, but the common core has perhaps garnered the most energy and attention on the campus. The common core is designed to be provocative, modern, and multidisciplinary, its architect says. “The first thing I want to get them to do is to ask questions. It’s not really about right or wrong, it’s about perspectives,” says Amy B.M. Tsui, pro vice chancellor for teaching and learning, who is leading the redesign. The common core covers four “areas of inquiry,” as they are known: humanities; global issues; Chinese culture, state, and

society; and scientific and technological literacy. “We’re trying to get away from the idea that there’s a body of essential knowledge,” says Gwyn Edwards, coordinator for the common-core curriculum and a former member of the education faculty. “The common core is an attempt to engage students with questions about the human condition.” The humanities, which are taking on a greater role even outside that explicit area of inquiry as they are woven into other areas, will now reach students in sciences and medicine, the faculties with the largest enrollments. Undergraduates are required to take six courses from within the common core during their first two years. Along with compulsory English- and Chinese-language courses, that counts for nearly one-quarter of total credits.

Designed By Professors The experiment began this past academic year, when the university offered six pilot courses, including King’s. Daniel De Sousa, a psychology major, was a guinea pig for “Sexuality and Gender: Diversity and Society”, another of the six pilot courses. In one class, a dominatrix showed the students videos of sessions with clients. “In psychology, these people are being labeled as dysfunctional or abnormal,” says De Sousa. “The speakers taught us to see these issues from another perspective.” Discussion segments ranged across philosophical questions of good and bad; laws on homosexuality, marriage, and divorce in different societies; and distinctions between social and legal tolerance. This fall the university will greatly expand the core curricuAugust 2010 EDU TECH

THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE lum, offering 68 pilot courses. They include “Feeding the World,” which explores global food security, water shortages, and bioengineered crops. Harold Corke, an associate professor of biology, who designed the course, wants students to “be aware that most of the hunger in the world today can be attributed to political factors, not technological ones.” Another course, “Body, Beauty, and Fashion,” ranges across the terrain of psychology, media studies, and gender studies. “Science and Music” takes a multidisciplinary dip into mathematics and aesthetics. Courses are taught in large lectures, of up to 120 students, followed by small discussion sections, or tutorials, with a maximum of 12 students, introducing such sections college-wide for the first time. The goal is to make sure students see the core courses as more than lectures, says Edwards. “The tutorial gives them a chance to unpack the material that was presented in a lecture.” About 100 new teaching assistants, some of them graduate students, will run the discussions, and Edwards will coordinate the training of them. The dynamo behind this gargantuan task is Tsui, a professor of education who insisted that the pro vice chancellor job be created inside the senior management team to provide sufficient authority to push through decisions. She acknowledges that the revamp, on top of normal teaching and research, is exhausting everyone. “I think they all hate me by now,” she says with a laugh. But, she insists, the new curriculum was designed with extensive faculty participation, built on annual faculty retreats since 2006 and a campus wide faculty survey in 2007. What struck her most about the survey responses, she says, was that, “none of them were talking about what to do in that extra year. They were all talking about, what are our students like?” Asian students have a reputation for being more comfortable with rote learning than conceptual thinking, she says, but that’s not true. “They’ve got views, but they lack confidence. They think the teachers have the answers.” As part of the design process, the university invited guest speakers from the United States, Britain, and Australia to

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL LITERACY COURSES MUST GET STUDENTS TO GRAPPLE WITH MORAL ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH RESEARCH

explain their universities’ approaches to curricular reform, or topics like monitoring students’ learning experience. Tsui visited Harvard and Columbia Universities to study their general-education programmes. Other faculty members visited British and Australian universities for expertise on specific issues like student assessment. Tsui says faculty members agreed that they needed to do a better job of training students to thrive in an interdisciplinary, fast-paced world, one in which “new knowledge is generated every day,” and people jump from one career to another. Once the goal of a common core curriculum was set, Tsui says, faculty members looked to North America for models. “What I’ve liked in US universities is the broad liberal education. In Hong Kong, students have to specialise too early,” she says. “They don’t have the opportunity to go into university and say, Here is a whole world of knowledge. The US does have that.” Yet in the end, the working group was disappointed by what it found in the United States. It felt that undergraduate education was neglected in favour of research, and that many colleges offered too many introductory courses. “There’s no coherence across the courses. We were looking for some framework that was coherent, not little boxes,” says Edwards. The university invited in Harry R. Lewis, a Harvard professor whose 2006 book, Excellence Without A Soul (PublicAffairs), looked critically at Harvard’s experiments in curricular reform, particularly its attempt in 2005 to replace a core curriculum with looser distribution requirements. He warned that HKU’s common-core approach itself risked becoming shallow and incoherent. That criticism led the academics in charge of the various areas of interest to establish a set of “fundamental questions” that their courses must raise with students, says Tsui. For instance, scientific- and technological-literacy courses must get students to grapple with moral issues associated with research.

A High Rejection Rate Once the common-core-curriculum committee set the basic goals, it solicited course proposals from the faculty.

EDU TECH August 2010

GLOBAL.CHRONICLE.COM During the first round, in 2008-9, it received 225 proposals and rejected 153 of them. The message was clear: courses must meet the university’s ambitious goals, not just plug a gap. The most common reason for rejecting a suggestion was that the course proposed was too heavily anchored in a single discipline and not conceptual enough. But professors seem to have gotten the idea since then: 65 new courses have been approved for the fall of 2011, out of 96 proposals. “The rejection rate is much lower than the first round, which means that people are beginning to get the hang of it,” says Tsui. In all, 150 courses are to be approved by 2012. Course proposals are read by two reviewers: one in the same department and one from outside. Their recommendations go up the line to an area-of-inquiry working group, which commissions a full course outline for promising proposals. Once fully developed, proposals must be finally approved by a committee of 19 people, comprising Tsui, Edwards, and area-ofinquiry coordinators and leaders. Because many courses are topical in nature, Edwards expects that the life expectancy of each is about three years, so that the curriculum will evolve. “We have to ensure that it doesn’t ossify,” he says. However, he sees a risk that such courses “are dependent on individual knowledge” and hard to replicate if an instructor leaves. So how does a university support those new programmes— not to mention the 3,000 additional students set to arrive in 2012, when the university adds a fourth year? Tsui says it is hiring 45 full or associate professors in addition to the roughly 100 new teaching assistants. The common core is only part of the changes being made as the university prepares the four-year curriculum. Academic departments are also redesigning the teaching in their disciplines. Enthusiasm for a more conceptual, less discipline-based course structure is evident, too. For instance, the science faculty is drawing up two compulsory foundation courses for all freshmen (who cannot declare a major until their second year); one deals with quantitative reasoning, and the other mixes the sciences. It is themed around moving through the natural world, from nanoparticles to galaxies.

Supporters And Critics Supporters of the revamp say the common core will improve standards of teaching and research and stimulate more interdisciplinary research. The common core’s topicality means “you have to step down out of your technobabble and come down to a layman’s level,” says King. “It’s helped a lot of the academics I’ve talked to to be more effective teachers.” “We’re re-educating our colleagues,” says Lung S. Chan, a professor of geology who heads the Scientific and Technological Literacy area-of-inquiry group. “Common-core courses are issue based and our teachers, especially sciences, are not used to having questions without a set answer.” But the common core has its share of critics as well.

ASIAN STUDENTS HAVE A REPUTATION FOR BEING MORE COMFORTABLE WITH ROTE LEARNING RATHER THAN CONCEPTUAL THINKING, BUT THAT’S NOT TRUE

Some professors were adamant that only an introductory general-education year rooted in departmentally based foundation courses would work. “They felt, this is the easiest; this is my area of expertise,” says Tsui, while the new courses require more time to develop than do the more traditional, discipline-focused ones. Some science professors worry that the breadth of the core curriculum will produce students whose grasp of scientific disciplines is too shallow to allow them to pursue academic research as postgraduates, according to Nam Kiu Tsing, the science faculty’s associate dean for teaching and learning. He says he does not share that view. In the end, though, the University of Hong Kong may simply be changing with the times. There is a push within Asian universities for a broader undergraduate academic experience, particularly one that allows students in the hard sciences more exposure to the humanities. In Australia, the University of Melbourne and the University of Western Australia are carrying out similar reforms In Hong Kong, other universities are exploring versions of general-studies programmes. At Hong Kong Polytechnic University, known for its professional degrees, there is a new emphasis on writing, debating, and language skills. They are in “demand from the government and the citizens,” says Walter W. Yuen, vice president for academic development. “We want our students to be well rounded, more knowledgeable.” Peter McPhee, who retired as Melbourne’s provost last September, says the reforms are a “very impressive” version of that trend. He’s familiar with the changes—a member of Tsui’s committee visited Melbourne for advice in the early stages— and he heard a presentation on the common core at a conference in Australia in February. The common problem is “getting that balance right between discipline and expertise,” between depth and breadth, so that students “have the flexibility that they’re going to need in the 21st century,” he says. “When I look around the world and listen to all the changes that appear to be going on, so many of the conversations really boil down to this balancing act.” Subscribe to a free weekly electronic newsletter from the Chronicle of Higher Education at Chronicle.Com/Globalnewsletter August 2010 EDU TECH

THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Outsourced Ed: Colleges Hire Companies to Build Their Online Courses Michael Tricoli was a middle manager looking for a leg up in his career, so he got an online MBA from Northeastern University BY MARC PARRY

ell, not only from Northeastern. Much of his college experience was outsourced to a private company. The company, Embanet, put up millions to start the online business program. Its developers helped build the courses. Its staff talked Tricoli through the application. It even pays—and, in rare cases, refers for possible hiring—the assistants who help teach students. In exchange, Embanet gets what Northeastern’s business dean calls “a sizeable piece” of the tuition revenue. He won’t say how much. But Embanet’s chief executive says its share can swell to a whopping 85 percent. As more colleges dip their toes into the booming online-education business, they’re increasingly taking those steps handin-hand with companies like Embanet. For non-profit universities trying to compete in an online market aggressively targeted by for-profit colleges, the partnerships can rapidly bring in many students and millions of dollars in new revenue. That’s becoming irresistible to an increasingly prominent set of clients. George Washington University, Boston University, and the University of Southern California, to pick just three, all work with online-service companies. But the new breed of online collaboration can tread into delicate academic territory, blurring the lines between college and corporation. Derek C. Bok, a former president of Harvard University and author of a book on the commercialisation of academe, questions companies’ encroachment into teaching. He worries that bottom-line thinking will drive decisions about how colleges deliver courses. They might choose exam formats that are easier to grade, for example, to keep costs down. “You’re creating a whole set of temptations to make the choices that will increase profits rather than improve education,” Bok says. Embanet says its college partners retain academic control. And despite Bok’s worries, the practice of contracting out parts of online education seems likely to expand.

EDU TECH August 2010

A Small But Growing Industry At least three new online outsourcing options have emerged in recent years: 2tor Inc., headed by John S. Katzman, founder of the test-preparation company Princeton Review; Colloquy Inc., a subsidiary of Kaplan Inc.; and Total Online Program Service, from SunGard Higher Education. Other online service firms— Embanet, Bisk Education, Compass Knowledge Group—have been around longer. Altogether, roughly a dozen companies, most of them privately held, compete for clients in this small but growing industry, says Richard Garrett, managing director at Eduventures, a consulting company. Garrett frames the rise of these vendors in the context of a larger debate about the disaggregation of higher education. Companies are now playing a role in academics through course-management systems like Blackboard, tutoring services like Smarthinking, and grading assistance like Virtual-TA. Now vendors are taking part in the creation and delivery of courses as well.

THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE This outsourcing of instruction represents a “new and controversial frontier in higher education,” a phenomenon that was “virtually unheard of a decade ago,” according to a policy paper published this month by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. The arrangements can trigger faculty blowback, like the strife caused when one company, Higher Ed Holdings, attempted to develop online programs at the University of Toledo. Faculty resistance drove the company to pull out of discussions. Colleges’ budget pressures are driving these deals, but so is something else: investment capital. Online companies that work with nonprofit colleges are benefiting from a surge in investor interest at a time when the government is scrutinizing the publicly traded for-profit colleges that have gobbled up so much of the online market. Investors believe that traditional nonprofit colleges will eventually play a much larger role in online education than they have so far, says Trace A. Urdan, an educationindustry analyst with Signal Hill Capital Group. At the same time, he says, they’re more apprehensive about investing directly in proprietary colleges. The for-profit industry’s underbelly has been on display recently, with the US Education Department tightening its regulatory vice and Senate Democrats promising to crack down on “bad actors” to protect federal financial aid from being wasted through fraud and abuse. Urdan points to another online partnership, between National Labor College and Princeton Review, as a significant example of how money is moving in “this new regulatory environment”. Investors, he says, are “looking to try to extract value from the growth in online education and working-adult education without having to be directly in the sights of the regulators”.

The Marketing Spider Web A closer look at Tricoli’s experience offers a case study of what happens when selective colleges join with online outsourcing companies. Tricoli was a manager at a medical-device company several years ago when he started thinking about getting an M.B.A. The suburban Boston resident was 35 at the time, with a young child and a job, so the flexibility of online classes was attractive. Like so many prospective students, he turned to the obvious first stop: Google. The search engine steered him straight to the University of Phoenix. But, he says, its reputation left “a bad taste in the mouth.” So he kept on Googling and soon struck a more attractive option: Northeastern. Here was a familiar name from Boston, a university endorsed by the leading accreditor in business education, AACSB International: the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Tricoli filled out an online form requesting more information. He got it, quickly—from Embanet. One of its representatives called him within 24 hours. It’s the kind of snappy response you’d expect from a for-profit college. But while Embanet’s pitch was confident, it was nothing

EDU TECH August 2010

THE NEW ONLINE COLLABORATIONS CAN TREAD INTO DELICATE ACADEMIC TERRITORY BLURRING THE LINES BETWEEN COLLEGE AND CORPORATION like the predatory approach that has gotten some proprietary colleges into trouble. “He wasn’t one of those aggressive salesman that’s just like, ‘You gotta get in today because somebody else is waiting behind you and we have limited slots,’” Tricoli says. “That’s one of the customer-service things that made me say, ‘OK, this is going to be a good experience’.” It’s an illustration of how these companies can quickly convert a curious Net crawler into a tuition-paying student. Some companies veil their recruiting agendas in the guise of informational Web sites. Take Certificationmap.com, for example. The site, created by 2tor, explains the steps needed to become a teacher in each state. It’s one of the first things you find by Googling “teacher certification”. But the box seeking contact information reveals the site’s other aim: to generate leads for the online graduate-education program that University of Southern California created with help—and US$15-million—from 2tor. Once inquiries come, companies have call centers to pounce on them. Shift workers like police officers and nurses can call at 2 a.m. and get a human being on the line, says Kathleen M. Burke, dean of George Washington University’s College of Professional Studies, which has hired both Embanet and Colloquy. Private colleges have been slow to move into distance education, she says. For colleges that built their reputations serving undergraduates, she says, vendors offer the infrastructure to support the nontraditional students attracted to online courses. “There’s not the investment nor yet the will at many private institutions to plunk down millions of dollars to build a call center to support a group of students that many at the university still don’t think of as the core group,” she says. For Tricoli, the personal service continued once he was admitted to Northeastern. An Embanet student-service adviser became his primary contact for questions. Books. Technology issues. Scheduling needs. Whenever Tricoli had an issue, he contacted the Embanet adviser—and always got a reply within 24 hours.

Crossing A Line? What he didn’t know was that Embanet touched his instructors, too. Northeastern’s business program uses a “master teacher” model. Professors prepare all the content, like lectures, syllabi, and exams. They meet with Embanet’s developers, who make

GLOBAL.CHRONICLE.COM recommendations about designing the online courses and take care of most of the technical work needed to build them. Then the professors teach with help from “instructors” or “facilitators,” sort of an online version of graduate-student assistants. Each facilitator works intensely with 15 students, checking homework, managing discussions, reviewing case studies. Tricoli says he had the most contact with these facilitators and with other students. The facilitators, however, are on Embanet’s payroll, not Northeastern’s, says Thomas E. Moore, dean of the College of Business Administration. This was news to Tricoli: “To me they were just another adjunct professor at Northeastern.” In fact, instructors mostly do come from “the Northeastern family,” Moore says, meaning people familiar to the university because they are alumni or have taught the course before as lecturers. But on “one or two occasions,” he says, the university has needed someone, “and Embanet has provided an instructor for us.” In such a case, if Embanet recommends someone, Northeastern interviews that person and decides whether to make the hire, the dean says. Embanet’s financial reach extends beyond teaching assistants. The company even pays Northeastern for the salaries of tenured professors who teach online courses. “Embanet reimburses us for both the cost of course design and faculty teaching,” Moore says. Harlan D. Platt, a finance professor who has been at Northeastern for 30 years, compares Embanet’s role to the DVD service Netflix. “Embanet has nothing to do with the education I deliver—nothing to do with the education my facilitators deliver,” he says. “It’s me. I’m the studio. I’m the actor. I’m the director.” In a short period, Embanet is helping to transform Northeastern’s business college. The online programmes have grown to 1,000 students and could reach 1,700 next year, meaning more graduate enrollment online than all the college’s traditional graduate courses combined. Despite Embanet’s cut of the tuition, the programs returned more than US$2-million to the university in the past year, Moore says. In other words, that’s how much Northeastern took in after expenses were covered, cash the college is using to reinvest in faculty. But where some colleges see opportunity, Bok sees a “dangerous trend”. Even though campus officials insist that they control hiring decisions, he doubts that a college would veto a company’s recommendation in a situation in which students were waiting for a class, and time to find a teaching assistant was limited. Bok emphasies that he is speaking generally, not about any particular institution. But as a matter of principle, he says, “you have crossed the line” by using a private company to recommend teaching assistants. “You have now delegated an essential academic function, which is choosing who will assist in the teaching function, to a company,” he says. “You could say it’s not very important. But

of course, the way principles break down is because the first thing is not very important.”

Pulling Back Some colleges that have used online-education companies have pulled back from outsourcing, at least to a degree, out of concerns over both academic principles and high prices. Although Embanet’s chief executive says deals that cost colleges 85 percent are increasingly not the norm—at one conference, he characterized the company’s cut as anywhere from 50 to 85 percent—Boston University came to see the price of outsourcing as too steep in the long run.

SOME COLLEGES THAT HAVE USED ONLINE EDUCATION COMPANIES HAVE PULLED BACK FROM OUTSOURCING, TO A DEGREE, OUT OF CONCERN OVER BOTH ACADEMIC PRINCIPLES AND HIGH PRICES When Boston started a master’s-degree program in criminal justice in 2003, it hired Embanet as a one-stop-shop for course hosting and design, marketing, and student services. Outsourcing was seen as a way to jump-start distance education at a university seeking to expand nationally beyond the academically congested local market. But faculty members grew frustrated working with external instruction designers. And the cost of outsourcing instructional design was greater than that of handling it internally, says Jay A. Halfond, dean of Metropolitan College and extended education at the university. Over time, Boston decided to set up its own course-design shop, enabling the technicians to familiarize themselves with faculty and programs. It also took control over hiring and paying facilitators. The university still uses both Embanet and Compass for recruiting. “We couldn’t let an outside party be responsible for the quality of our instruction—that was just too problematic on a longterm basis,” Halfond says. He added, “We didn’t want to be dependent on a for-profit company in terms of our academic reputation.” Subscribe to a free weekly electronic newsletter from the Chronicle of Higher Education at Chronicle.Com/Globalnewsletter

This section is being republished with permission from The Chronicle Of Higher Education

August 2010 EDU TECH

Edu Tech December 2009

PROFILE

D.P. Kothari

FAVOURITE BOOK: A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist and Rabindranath Tagore’s Geetanjali FAVOURITE DESTINATION: BITS Pilani is his favourite spot on the planet. Otherwise, it’s Ooty in the south and Mussoori and Nainital in the north of India PASTIME: Spending time with his grandchildren POSITIONS HELD: Vice Chancellor VIT University Director Incharge of IIT Delhi Head, Centre for Energy Studies, IIT, Delhi ACHIEVEMENTS: UGC National Swami Pranavananda Saraswati Award for 2005 Recipient of National Khosla Lifetime Achievement Award [2005] IIT Roorkee National Award for Science and Technology (2001) Eminent Engineering Personality from the Institution of Engineers (2001)

The Perfect Guide

Call him a ‘workaholic’ and he’ll completely agree. D.P. Kothari, former Vice Chancellor, VIT, tells EDU about how to venture down the path of excellence

EDU TECH August 2010

he day D.P. Kothari met the EDU team, he was in bit of a rush. One of the vice chancellors, who he was meeting, had overstayed his welcome. However, Kothari is not a man who pins blame on others—the witty academic, instead, blamed the “charming” capital city for the delay. “Delhi’s the capital, it’s the heart of the nation, it’s the centre of all the action. It’s got a charm that makes it difficult to say goodbye. You know how it is—kaun jayen Dilli-ke galiyan chhor kar? (You never quit the streets of Delhi).”Hailing from a humble background, Kothari comes across as a gracious man. However, underneath the calm demeanour is a sharp mind who has visited nearly 30 countries for keynote addresses, lectures and seminars, guided an equal number of PhDs, written over 600 papers and 25 books. “I never went to a fancy Eng-

SUBHOJIT PAUL

NAME: D.P. Kothari CURRENT ENGAGEMENT: Advisor to the Chancellor, VIT University QUALIFICATIONS: BE (electrical), ME (power systems) and doctoral degree in electrical engineering from BITS, Pilani DATE OF BIRTH: October 7, 1944

D.P. Kothari

lish-medium school. But, I don’t believe my education was deficient. I can communicate in English—and that’s important. Our country needs a common language. Recently, a Telegu lady missed her flight because she could not read English, Hindi or Tamil announcements at the airport. China, on the other hand, has established a common language.” Speaking to Kothari, China keeps cropping up. He recently travelled to the country, and he clearly admires it. “It’s determined to succeed, it has a solid work ethic and tries to promote a corruption-free society. China completed its stadiums three months before the Olympic Games. We are still struggling with our Commonwealth Games deadline.” Point taken!

Paving The Way Born in Bikaner, Kothari completed his Matriculation from Nagpur, Madhya Pradesh. Then he went to BITS, Pilani (Rajasthan), where he completed major degrees (including PhD). He holds BITS, Pilani, in high esteem and states that the institute is “even better than some of the IITs”. “At BITS they have a concept called ‘practice school’. It basically means that every engineering student has to be a part of the industry, under the supervision of a teacher. Education’s incomplete without some sort of industry experience.” The proud alumni also served as a professor for eight years at the institute. Along the way, he was also an administrator there and at IIT Delhi where he was Professor of the Centre for Energy Studies from 1982-2006. Teaching, thus, is close to his heart. So much so that when you ask him which role gives him the maximum satisfaction, pat comes the reply—“guiding students for their PhDs.” This teacher’s also a workaholic then? He laughs at the word. However, after a pause, he admits that vacations have been few and far between. “The last I watched a film was some 13 years ago.” Clearly, the education process is more exciting than moving pictures. What he doesn’t say is that he continued to work despite suffering a stroke in 2005. “India has the greatest of scientific minds, so does China. If you remove

the Indians and the Chinese from the US, there will be a scarcity of professors, medical experts and scholars. I see a bright future for both these countries and its youth. If you look closer, you will see that our problem lies with the faculty system. We don’t pay enough attention to the quality of faculty—though the Sixth Pay Commission has done its bit. But, there is need for more. We talk of PPP practice, but all of us don’t follow it. We need to be more proactive and ensure that enough is being done so that the next time a professor receives an ‘excellent’ offer, from overseas, they say, ‘it’s better here’.

PROFILE

IITs’ atmosphere. The path to excellence is not through intra-India but global competition.” So, look at the west and their best practices? Well, why not. “MIT is the best in the world. Indian technical institutions should look at it, and strive to be a little like it. Having said that, I will also admit that there is a need for all round education. It is great that an institution such as BITS has language schools where a student can strive to become a more global citizen.” But, how does the workaholic (it’s an established fact now) relax—if ever? The answer lies at home. With his two daughters (Seema and Shikha) whenev-

“THE PATH TO EXCELLENCE IS NOT THROUGH INTRA-INDIA BUT GLOBAL COMPETITION” “My greatest inspiration was a former professor of mine, Professor Nagrath. He was my PhD guide. I couldn’t have done it without him. We need to keep our Nagraths close to our hearts.”

The Path To Excellence Talking to Kothari, one gets a sense of urgency—not because time is running out, but because the time is “right”. “Now, we need some 18,000 PhD scholars in all subjects, but we manage to produce only 6,000. My vision is that there will come a day when India will produce 15,000 PhD scholars, each experts in their field and with an all-round vision of what the society requires.” The path to such excellence lies in competition as far as Kothari is concerned. “Do not aim to create several IITs, but several institutions that have

er they come to visit. “My wife is a homemaker. She is such a good mother to our two daughters. Now, my eldest daughter, settled in the U.S, is a great mother to her children while my younger one works in Mumbai.” So, home is where the heart is? Not really. A simple meal of roti-subzi is enough to make Kothari happy anywhere in the world. What makes him really excited, is when we veer the topic to excellence in schools, colleges and universities. “Every child should receive education for free, at least till Class XII. And the emphasis should be not only on the best student, but also on the weakest pupil in class.” Amen to that! Subscribe to a daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://edu-leaders.com/ content/newsletters August 2010 EDU TECH

Gandhi CEO. The 14 Principles To Guide & Inspire Modern Leaders Alan Axelrod

Book Review

Lead like Mahatma

Alan Axelrod looks into the philosophies of Gandhi, to assist leaders in managing growing uncertainties GANDHI, A CEO? Does a saint-like figure have an ability to inspire new-age business gurus, with thoughts that date back to the pre-Independence era? The answer, surprisingly, is yes! Authored by Alan Axelrod, this inspirational book looks at Gandhi in a modern light; focusing on his leadership style that serves as a guide to aid and assist aspiring, as well as existing CEOs. It tries to relate Gandhi’s thoughts and actions to a modern day complex business environment and identifies truth, non-violence, the philosophy of do or die, sacrifice and its corelation and exemplary miracles as critical traits that a leader should focus upon. According to the author, Gandhi, born in 1869, and his myriad of struggles and circumstances make his life a true example to the multinational business environment of the twenty-first century. In order to tackle the growing uncertainties and complexities of today’s business, Axelrod takes a deep look into the Gandhi’s philosophies by breaking down his leadership strategies into 14 key facets and 100 lessons, each illustrated with quotes from Gandhi and representative situations from his life.

It analyses the importance of a stress free ‘human value oriented’ work culture rather than a nerve-wracking and unorganised target specific enterprise civilisation. It says that, like Gandhi, a leader must act with the well-being of every stake holder in his mind. Seeking to effect change, Gandhi stressed on ways to change outcomes rather than ways to change people. The author identifies this approach as an example for anybody whose job is to lead an organisation to change. One of the most interesting aspects the author discussed in the book is the essence of truth in today’s value driven economy. Going by Gandhian values, he suggests that a great leader needs to be transparent in his approach in order to guide and inspire people in an effective way. The author has justified its relevance by spouting examples related to the sudden collapse of major banks and venerable security firms, in the start of the year 2008, owing to decades of avoiding questions of truth. He however, fails to expound on the complications that a transparent business model may lead to during recessionary times. With all due credit to Gandhi, however, one must not forget that, aspiring for a full-fledged utopian model within the present day business model may lead to pernicious consequences. The book is recommended for second-generation entrepreneurs and business leaders, trying to make their presence felt in any industry. —Jatinder singh

Publisher: Penguin Books Number of Pages: 210 Price: ` 499

NEW RELEASES

Higher education? A quarter of a million dollars is the going tab for most top-tier universities. Why does it cost so much and is it worth it? The authors go behind the myths and mantras and probe the true performance of the Ivy League. AUTHOR: ANDREW Hacker and Claudia Dreifus PUBLISHER: Macmillan PRICE: US$26

EDU TECH August 2010

The Heart Of Higher Education This book is for all who are new to the field of holistic education, and wish to deepen their understanding of its challenges and practices, and promote the holistic approach to learning on their campuses. AUTHOR: PARKER J. Palmer PUBLISHER: Jossey-Bass PRICE: US$ 24.95

TIMEOUT

GIZMOS

Sibal Unveils SolarPowered Laptop

The common man’s laptop is here!

IN JULY, HRD Minister Kapal Sibil unveiled the long-awaited Rs 1,500 laptop, designed for students. Developed by a combination of experts at IIT Kanpur, Kharaghpur and Madras, and IISc Bangalore, the laptop is designed as a single-unit system that runs on Linux. It has a built-in keyboard, 2GB of RAM memory, Wi-Fi connectivity, USB ports, and can run on solar power. With this announcement, the ministry also announced that it will install broadband internet in all of its 22,000 colleges. It is the hope of the ministry that the price of the laptop will eventually drop to around Rs 500. Price: ` 1,500

GADGETS Mr Incredible COMING SOON is the HTC Droid Incredible. Equipped with the Android 2.1 operating system,it comes complete with 3.7 inches WVGA display size, 480 x800 pixels resolution, and a virtual keypad. It also features proximity and light sensors, a digital compass, and has an integrated GPS. It comes with an 8 megapixel camera, an 8GB flash drive, and a lithium ion battery, which allows for around 5.2 hours of talk time and 146 hours of standby time. Price: US$ 199

The OlivePad OLIVE TELECOM HAS

unveiled the OlivePad, based on the new Qualcomm MSM7227 chipset. It features 512MB RAM, 512MB in-built flash memory, and microSD expandability up to 32GB, aside from a CMOS 3MP camera and webcam. It also has full Flash support, as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and microUSB connectivity. Price: ` 25,000

Creative EP-3NC

Push2TV Wireless TV Adaptor NETGEAR LAUNCHED its popular Push2TV device in India. It is an easy-to-use TV adapter, which receives a wireless video stream from the laptop, via an HDMI or Composite cable, transfers it to the HDTV, allowing one to view whatever is on the laptop’s display on your television. The device, while dreamlike in its function, has one limitation: it only works with Intel-based laptop PCs. The reception for it has been great. But, Netgear is yet to reveal the product’s price or availability.

The Creative EP-3NC provides high performance audio, while at the same time cancelling ambient noise out by upto 90 percent. The cable is made up of highquality Oxygen-Free Copper (OFC), and terminates in a gold-plated 3.5mm plug, that can be used as in-flight entertainer. The earphones enable the user to keep listening to music even after the batteries are dead. It has a battery life of 100 hours, and weighs 27 grams. Price: ` 5,999

Price: Yet To Be Revealed

August 2010 EDU TECH

LEGACY “When I look at developments in India in the past 30 years, I do not feel discouraged at all”

MN Srinivas Social Science Soldier

(1916-1999) 1942 Marriage and Family in Mysore

As a so-called study of the society—its interactions, rules and processes—Indian sociology has been heavily influenced by western thought, even while it looked inwards. Western interpretation of the Subcontinent, especially after Independence, suffered from a slight colonial hangover—India was the “exotic land”, predominantly Hindu, and rigid. In such a time, when paradigms were so strong, it took a brave man called Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas (MN Srinivas) to stand up against all “norms”. He stood up against what he believed to be the “book view” of his country. He was a proponent of the “field view”—a process that advocated understanding through fieldwork (a scientific method), rather than through printed texts. He also challenged traditional methods of fieldwork adopted by western scholars. Result: his scholarships not only were opposite to paradigms being used to understand the Indian society by the rest of the world, but also changed the intellectual framework being adopted to study social sciences in our nation. A scientist’s contribution to the society is tangible—it is possible to measure innovation, its benefits, vis-a-vis other similar inventions. However, the task gets difficult when we talk of social scientists. Especially since there’s a debate on the term itself. But, sociologists such as Srinivas remained undaunted. They married both streams— adopted scientific methods to understand something as emotional and dynamic as the society. His work on caste and electoral processes in rural India is referred to even today—in fact, the term “vote bank”, used generously by the media, was coined by him. He referred to the term to designate something extra–the ability of a person in power to deliver all votes in a village. Nowadays, the term vote bank refers to an individual tendency to vote in groups. Srinivas’ courage to do something “different” was not limited to his scholastic work alone. As the youngest among four sons, he was unwilling to sit for civil service examinations—a route predestined for every intelligent young man. So, in his own words, he became “more and more determined” not to face another public examination in his life. A rational choice? Perhaps not. However, had he chosen as “rationally”, as his peers, our understanding of the Indian society would have been that much poorer. Finally, all this talk about Srinivas raises a question—where will we get our next Srinivas? Especially since humanities and social sciences are being turned —With inputs from Dr T.N. into poorer cousins of science and commerce every single day? Madan, Honorary Professor at the Institute of Economic Growth, University of Delhi. If you would like to share similar stories with readers of this publication please write to the Editor, EDU at editor@edu-leaders.com

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EDU TECH August 2010

1952 Religion and Society among the Coorgs of South India 1956 A Note on Sanskritisation and Westernisation 1959 The Dominant Caste in Rampura 1962 Caste in Modern India and Other Essays 1966 Social Change in Modern India 1967 Cohesive Role of Sanskritisation, Unity and Diversity: India and Ceylon 1973 Itineraries of an Indian Social Anthropologist 1976 The Remembered Village 1992–On Living in a Revolution and Other Essays