Overcoming the crunch

Volume 03 Issue 08

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eDU | volume 03 | Issue 08

A 9.9 Media Publication august 2012 www.edu-leaders.com

CAMPUS

Why campus maintenance is getting outsourced to professionals P30 TECHNOLOGY

Amrita University is planning to revolutionise distance education with A-VIEW P40

crunch Overcoming the

FOR LEADERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Learn how prudent asset management is leading UoM to financial self-sufficiency Pg 12

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Dr Rajan Welukar VC, Mumbai University

FOREWORD Fun of funding is in judicious spending

T

“No amount of funding can help any institution, if it does not have a good plan on how to spend it”

here’s a tenet that says if you don’t ask, you won’t get. Most universities and institutions in India seem to have never paid heed to it when it comes to attracting alumni funds.

It must have been no surprise for Rajan Welukar when he joined as the Vice Chancellor of University of Mumbai in 2010 and discovered that the 150-year-old university had just received Rs 70,000 in funds from alumni since its inception. It was a no-brainer, but it took someone like Welukar, to make that first move—to ask alumni for funds. One of the first things that he did on joining office was to put its alumni cell in order and ask them to donate to their alma mater. An almost immediate response came from Asit Koticha, Chairman and Founder of the ASK Group (financial services company), an alumnus of Podar College, who pledged Rs 32 crore.

Sometimes solving resource crunch for universities could be that simple. But then, of course, the second tenet that most Indian universities seem to ignore imperils this source— if you don’t appreciate what you get, you won’t get it any more. It’s here that most of us fumble and struggle. Asking is easy, taking good care of what you receive and making good use of it, is not so easy. Over the past few years, Welukar has scored even on this account. The university seems to have gone about optimising its resources, not letting their assets lie idle and getting its funds professionally managed. No wonder then that last year the university was able to make more research grants for its colleges than ever—from its own purse.

Our cover story explores the whole issue of alternate sources of funding for universities. An issue brought into the limelight recently by Planning Commision Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s remark on tightening of government purses with regard to university funding. However, no amount of funding can help any institution, if it does not have a good plan on how to spend it. The devil does lie in the details.

A look at what the academia has to say about overcoming the cash crunch…

Dr Pramath Raj Sinha pramath@edu-leaders.com

August 2012 EduTech

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Contents EDU august 2012

update 04 MoU 05 TIE-UP online 06 event

set-up 07 instituted awarded

Viewpoint 10 rs grewal Internationalisation is here to stay

40

campus 30 more than just a coat of paint Why institutions are viewing campus upkeep as a specialised function and increasingly outsourcing it to professional groups

By Teja Lele Desai

strategy 24 interview Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Professor in Electrical Engineering at IIT Madras on the nitty-gritty of running a successful incubation centre on campuses

By Charu Bahri

59

Talent brings the need to fruition...

We bet on people

EDU TECH 2012

—Ashok Jhunjhunwala Professor, IIT Madras

36 advancing higher education through technology A report on the Pune Chapter of the annual event

Technology 40 broad vista Amrita University’s e-learning software is set to revolutionise distance education in India

By Kavitha Srinivasa 44 tech tute Trouble shooting your PC

By Tushar Kanwar 46 interview Stephen Downes,

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EduTech August 2012

Researcher at National Research Council, Canada on learning through connections

By Radhika Haswani

Global perspective

26

Find out what’s currently happening in institutions around the world. The Chronicle of Higher Education shares its perspectives with EDU 50 for women, japan’s academic ladder needs major repair

By David McNeill 52 anti-immigration rules ruin bid to draw foreign students

By Aisha Labi

FOR LEADERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Managing Director: Pramath Raj Sinha PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Anuradha Das Mathur managing editor: Smita Polite

cover Story

12 Overcoming the Cash Crunch

Copydesk Managing EDITOR: Sangita Thakur Varma SUB EDITOR: Radhika Haswani

By Charu Bahri

salEs & MarkEting Brand Manager: Deepak Garg National Manager-Events & Special Projects: Mahantesh Godi NORTH: Vipin Yadav ( 09911888276) SOUTH: Daphisha Khapiah ( 09986084742) Assistant Brand Manager: Maulshree Tewari Ad co-ordination/Scheduling: Kishan Singh

Cash-strapped governments worldwide are rethinking the role of public funding in higher education, as they struggle to come up with viable solutions to sustain it. India is no different.

It’s time to look at alternate sources of funding, eliminate wastage and professionalise management. A look at what Indian academia believes can work

20 Calls for Change in Mindset

Rajan Welukar, Vice Chancellor, University of Mumbai shares insights on the University’s measures for financial self-sufficiency

DEsign Sr Creative Director: Jayan K Narayanan Art Director: Anil VK Associate Art Director: Atul Deshmukh SR Visualiser: Manav Sachdev Visualisers: Prasanth TR, Anil T & Shokeen Saifi Sr Designers: Sristi Maurya & NV Baiju Designers: Suneesh K, Shigil N, Charu Dwivedi Raj Verma, Peterson ,Prameesh Purushothaman C & Midhun Mohan Chief Photographer: Subhojit Paul SR Photographer: Jiten Gandhi

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54 coursera contract: how an upstart might profit from free courses

By Jeffrey R Young

ADVERTISER INDEX NEC

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58 books 59 gizmos & gadgets

perspective

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VOLUME 03 ISSUE 08 EDU | VOLUME 03 | ISSUE 08

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A 9.9 MEDIA PUBLICATION AUGUST 2012 WWW.EDU-LEADERS.COM

CAMPUS

Why campus maintenance is getting outsourced to professionals P30 TECHNOLOGY

Amrita University is planning to revolutionise distance education with A-VIEW P40

Cover ART:

crunch design:anil vk Overcoming the

FOR LEADERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION WWW.EDU-LEADERS.COM

60 subhashis gangopadhyay Why shifting from a threeyear undergrad programme to a four-year system makes sense

Certain content in this publication is copyright of The Chronicle of Higher Education and has been reprinted with permission For any customer queries and assistance please contact help@9dot9.in

Learn how prudent asset management is leading UoM to financial self-sufficiency Pg 12

Dr Rajan Welukar VC, Mumbai University

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August 2012 EduTech

3

from the world of higher education

05 tie-up 05 online 06 event 06 set-up 07 instituted 07 awarded & more

Panjab University gets a new VC Prof Arun Kumar Grover, a senior professor of Mumbai-based School of Natural Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research has been appointed as the Vice Chancellor of Panjab University. According to a release, Vice President Hamid Ansari appointed him on the recommendation of a panel constituted for the purpose. The new VC would hold the post for a term of three years, taking over from the current Vice Chancellor Professor RC Sobti.

Saxena appointed as VC of Galgotias University Upgrading: Floor workers at Maruti Suzuki can now study through college to fulfil their dreams of a degree

Haryana, Maruti Sign Pact on HE The Government of Haryana and Maruti Suzuki Limited have come up with a unique higher education initiative for shop floor workers MoU Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) has designed a singular scheme to provide higher education to its shop floor technicians. It has signed a MoU with Haryana State Board of Technical Education (HSBTE) and HaryanaIGNOU Society to enable its workers to continue their education under the Community Education and Training (HISCET) programme. Its shop floor technicians can now study under a three-year diploma course and graduate as engineers under this initiative.

The MoU was signed in the presence of Additional Secretary, HSBTE, KK Kataria, Member Secretary, HISCET, Mukesh Chadha and Executive Director, IT, MSIL, Rajesh Uppal, and a host of government officials. From Maruti, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Administration, SY Siddiqui and COO, Production, MM Singh were present. The initiative called ‘Gyanuday’ is a first of its kind offer whereby a company is offering skill upgradation opportunity to shop floor workers and not executives, which is the norm.

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EduTech August 2012

Noted academician Dr Ashok Saxena has been appointed as the Vice Chancellor of Galgotias University. Dr Ashok Saxena has a BTech degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and MS and PhD degrees in Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering from University of Cincinnati. He has been active in the field of teaching for three decades.

Loyola Institute appoints Dr S Peter SJ as Director Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA) has appointment Dr S Peter SJ as the fifth Director of the institute. In his new role, Peter will look after LIBA’s educational activities to lead the B-School in the next phase of growth and enhance its research capabilities.

Dr S Peter has a vast experience in teaching.

He was a professor in Commerce at Andhra Loyola College, Vijayawada, St Xavier’s College, Palayamkottai and Loyola College, Chennai. He has held various administrative posts as vice principal and deputy director of LIBA, rector, secretary and correspondent of Loyola College, Chennai, among others.

update

India-Australia Research Fund Top Indian scientists will work with their Australian counterparts in major research projects tie-up Australian and Indian governments have decided to support 13 new collaborative projects and seven joint workshops through the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund. According to plan, scientists would receive funds for cutting-edge research in fields of environment science, materials science, stem cells and vaccines as part of a joint multi-million programme.

Australian High Commissioner in India, Peter Varghese said, “The programme brings together leading scientists in both countries for truly worldclass research. This is Australia’s largest science fund with any country and one of India’s largest sources of support for international science. This commitment is a measure of our strong belief in the quality and future of the science relation-

ship, which we see as an important element underpinning the overall strategic partnership.”

The Australian government has committed $4.37 million (Rs 23 crore) to these new projects and workshops and the Indian government will fund the Indian teams’ participation.

Participating institutions Strategic: The partnership brings together leading in India include Banaras scientists from both the countries on one platform Hi n d u U n i v e r s i t y, t h e The partner institutions in Australia National Chemical Laboratories, Indian include University of New South Wales, Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai, Melbourne University, Southern Cross IIT Roorkee, Immunology Laboratory University, Australian National UniverInstitute of Microbial Technology at sity, Queensland University of TechnolChandigarh, and the Institute for Stem ogy, CSIRO and Deakin University.

Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.

MOOC Gets Ivy League Quality Online Coursera, a start-up, has announced a tie-up with some of the world’s best research universities to offer their classes online and for free. The company would be offering MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). The company has forged collaboration with some of the best research universities including Stanford, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Michigan to offer 43 courses, and in the recent tie-up has added Duke, Caltech, University of Virginia, Georgia Tech, University of Washington, Rice, Johns Hopkins, University of California San Francisco, University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign, University of Toronto, University of Edinburgh, and Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. The online course has been designed by professors from Princeton, CalTech, and Duke and is capable of delivering lessons to more than 100,000 students at a time. Coursera, founded by Stanford computer scientists Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, is using the web to bring Ivy League-quality education to the masses.

global update

680,000

students registered in 43 courses with Michigan, Princeton, Stanford & UPenn

160,000

students from 190 countries enrolled in 2011

August 2012 EduTech

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update

ISRO hosts Seminar on Space Studies COSPAR is a platform dedicated to promotion of space research Event Indian Space Research Organiin Bangalore sation (ISRO) hosted the 39th Scientific and was hostAssembly of the Committee on Space ed by ISRO. Research (COSPAR) at the NR Narayana Prof UR Rao, Murthy Centre of Excellence, Infosys Chairman, Campus, Mysore between July 14-22.

Physical Focussed: Space research offers many insights that have far-reaching impact on human life The theme of the event was ‘Space— Research for the benefit of mankind’. This conferLaboratory considered as one of the foremost space ence was co-hosted by (PRL) Council and former science research associations. It has both Infosys Limited.

Chairman, ISRO is the National Scientific Institutions and The event saw 2,500 sciChair of the COSPAR ScienInternational Scientific Unions as mementists from 75 countries tific Programme Commitbers. The objectives of COSPAR are to gathered to deliberate on tee. Dr Giovanni F Bignami, scientists promote scientific research in space and contemporary topics in the Chairman of European from 75 on an international level, with emphasis realm of space. There were Space Agency’s Advisory countries on the exchange of results, information over 3600 scietific papers, Council, is the current Presiparticipated and opinions, and to provide a forum, posters and reports predent of COSPAR. in the 39th open to all scientists, for the discussion sented at the conference.

Founded in 1958 by the COSPAR of problems that may affect scientific The last COSPAR conInternational Council for space research. ference was held in 1979 Science (ICSU), COSPAR is

2,500

Update

UP’s first University for Women Set-up Uttar Pradesh will soon have its first women university in Rai Bareilly, the constituency of Sonia Gandhi. A letter has been written to the state government by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to provide land for the first ever women university in the state. The university will focus on research and higher studies.

According to HRD sources, the Centre will provide funds for setting up and running the university, and the state government will provide the required 500 acres of land for free.

The Uttar Pradesh government has assured authorities that a meeting will soon be held to find an appropriate location for the university.

The decision to open the university in Rai Bareilly was

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EduTech August 2012

taken because India’s first woman Prime Minister Indira Gandhi used to represent the area in the Parliament.

Women’s universities exist in states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi and Rajasthan. But there are none in UP so far, even though the state has the highest female population. According to the 2011 census, there were 9.50 crore women in the state.

While the proposal to set-up an all woman university could not materialise under the previous government in the state, the current government has assured the Centre that land would soon be made available for the purpose.

update

India, UNESCO Establish Body on Gandhian Ideals The institute will encourage knowledge exchange and catalyse innovation instituted India and UNESCO inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of (United Nations Educational, Scientific peace and sustainability. and Cultural Organisation) will establish On this occasion, Sibal said, “The Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development for Peace and Sustainable Development as a UNESCO Category-I Institute in comes at the right time—a time when New Delhi, the first of its kind in the the world is debating the contours of the Asia-Pacific region. An agreement has century ahead.” He also informed that been signed between Human Resource the signing of the agreement is the culDevelopment Minister Kapil mination of a process of Sibal and Director General three years commencing of UNESCO Irina Bokova. with the decision by The Institute’s core activiUNESCO’s 35th General The process ty will be research and Conference (GC) in 2009. capacity building. It will Bokova said that an for institute encourage knowledge Expert Advisory Group began by a exchange, regional networkwould soon be set up by decision of ing and catalyse innovation UNESCO to develop an UNESCO’s by helping design and test agenda for the institute.

35th GC new approaches to educaSibal has invited Bokova to tion. The institute is India later this year.

2009

Prof Srikanta Pal Honoured by BU Pal’s contribution makes the capturing of lunar signals more efficient Awarded The University of Birmingham (BU), UK has honoured Prof Srikanta Pal with the Honorary Research Fellow for the period 2012-2014.

He has been felicitated for his outstanding research in radio astronomy scientific community. A professor with the Birla Institute of Technology, Pal had designed, fabricated and tested his research project in the University of Birmingham under the supervision of Prof Michael J Lancaster. His research products are based on novel elliptical designs of two Bandstop filters using thin film-based high temperature superconductors. In 2009, he developed a device that enabled the Green Band Telescope (GBT) to enhance its observation range. Pal has contributed to the world’s third largest telescope. He has a masters in Microwave Engineering, Jadavpur University and PhD from Oxford University.

voices “Having one common exam for all management institutes will be a mammoth task to accomplish.

Moreover, if a student cannot take the exam on that particular day, then s/he stands the chance of losing an entire year”

—Professor Janat Shah, Director IIM, Udaipur

“ The advantages of the online admission process is that students can apply from anywhere in the world.

However, we are keeping offline processes operational alongside the online ones”

— Hemalata Reddy, Principal, Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University

“The research methodology is taught in a very shallow and shoddy way in most of the universities.

A research student has to be trained in the science of data generation and interpretation”

— Rajan Gurukul, VC, Mahatma Gandhi University

August 2012 EduTech

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A D O B E ad v e r t o r i a l

Transforming Digital Literacy Adobe's Senior Director Education, Peter McAlpine on how his company is helping institutions in India leverage technology What role does technology play in Indian Higher education today?

The present education system focuses on building skills in lit­ eracy and numeracy. In this digi­ tal era it’s imperative that these skills are supported and supple­ mented by skills in information technology and digital creativity.

These concepts have collectively been expressed as ‘digital lit­ eracy’. The integration of digital literacy into education not only enhances student-skills, but also provides students with addi­ tional capabilities and polishes fundamental skills for research­ ing, generating reports, present­ ing, marketing and promotion.

These skills improve prospects for students across industries that are not heavily reliant on digital technology. The National Knowledge Commis­sion has made recommenda­tions for ICT based pedagogy and learning aids and to provide broadband connectivity to all the Govern­ ment aided secondary schools.

Currently, Indian education faces biggest challenges in terms of basic needs such as high-speed internet connectivity, power, lack of adequate number of computer systems. However, we are also seeing a steady adoption of ICT.

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EduTech August 2012

For instance, the Rajasthan Gov­ ernment is working with Adobe Digital Education tools to help teachers and students acquire new skills and enrich their learn­ ing experience. The program was implemented in seven dis­ tricts across Rajasthan, reaching 400 teachers in 200 government schools. Adobe Digital School tools such as Photoshop Ele­ ments, Premiere Elements were used to build the technology skills of teachers and to make the teaching learning transac­ tions more engaging. Another good example is Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited, which is involved in e-Gover­ nance and e-Learning initiatives and provides world-class educa­ tion across diverse geographies at affordable cost. They have delivered courses to 3.6 million students, out of which 1 million have attended the courses online over Adobe Connect.

What are Adobe's plans for higher-ed in India? How dif­ ferent is the higher education space in India?

Adobe has a long history of bringing cutting-edge tools that transform teaching and learning and we stay committed to bring­ ing about solutions that help this

sector take full advantage of the changing digital landscape. Our vision is to align students and careers by providing them with tools and skills that evolve their capabilities through the educa­ tion system and beyond. Adobe is working closely with institutions at all levels to empower educa­ tors to not only unleash their full potential, but also to realise the full potential of their stu­ dents as well.

Using Adobe digital creative tools in higher-ed provides greater freedom to students to express themselves, with increased level of engagement.

The focus of education is mov­ ing away from rote learning and memorisation to critical thinking and real learning. We are now in the era of the ‘3Cs’ – creativity, communication and collabora­ tion – driven by digital media.

Adobe helps provide compe­ tency for digital tools which are critical to develop thinking skills.

We recently announced the

Adobe Creative Suite 6 Student and Teacher Edition for institu­ tions, educators and students in India. It helps K-12 and higher education institutions enhance teaching and learning, and bet­ ter prepare students for careers in a digital, global workplace.

Adobe Student and Teacher Edi­ tions offer extremely afford­able prices for students and teachers.

These products are available to students, teachers and staff from eligible educa­tion institutions, through Adobe Authorized Resellers.

Adobe globally has a range of tools that help students express through greater use of multi­ media. Adobe’s Digital School Collection- the foundation, provides students with tools that help communicate effectively in the digital world. The foundation introduces students to image and video editing and presenta­ tion through incorporation of Adobe’s Photoshop Elements, Premiere Elements and Acrobat

A D O B E ad v e r t o r i a l

Pro tools. These tools provide simple-to-use yet powerful solutions that enable students to express themselves through multimedia creations, engaging a wide range of cognitive skills.

India today is seeing the emer­ gence of many institutions in design, animation and creativity segment. We have noticed a growth spurt in the number of Adobe technical certifications which points to the fact that a growing number of students are getting trained in creative tools. For example, institutions like DSK Supinfocom which specialise in digital media and industrial design use Adobe Cre­ ative Suite 5 Master Collec­tion and Production Premium exten­ sively in every course they offer

Can you recommend any technology for simplifying administration at higher-ed institutions?

The tools and services at Adobe also support the adminis­ tration of learning environments and help in improving the col­ laboration of various members of the education community. For instance, schools and higher education institutions across the world have implemented Adobe’s Connect software, which enables educators to collaborate with each other remotely by sharing and editing documents.

These functionalities can be extended to students, creating new learning scenarios outside of the classroom. At Adobe, we help provide learning across distances, create new opportuni­ ties and lessen the gap between students and educators beyond traditional school hours.

Could you suggest any tools for making teaching and learning more interactive?

Adobe tools come in handy for

teachers to create curriculums and prepare learning exercises within the classroom, empower­ ing them to explore more effec­ tive teaching mechanisms.

Acrobat Pro is used by teach­ ers across the globe to improve document creation and work­ flow. School newsletters have been revolutionised thanks to Acrobat.Schools are now able to create more visually compelling communications. Adobe Con­nect is being effectively used for web conferencing between locations, enabling staff to more effectively communicate and col­laborate.

Adobe’s web publishing tools such as Dreamweaver and Cold­ Fusion are used internationally by schools and higher education institutions to power their inter­ nal and external websites.

Also, leading foreign schools are making use of Adobe’s Digi­ tal Marketing Suite, using web measurement and management tools to ensure their websites and marketing campaigns effec­ tively reach intended targets and maximise returns in a competi­ tive market.

Can technology help India improve the employability of its students?

With new capabilities designed to help students across disci­ plines create stunning digital content that stands out, Adobe tools give students the abil­ity to learn the skills needed in today’s competitive workforce. Students can gain digital content creation skills across video, animations, 3D and photos with major tools like Adobe Photo­shop CS6, Adobe Premiere® Pro CS6, Adobe After Effects® CS6, and Adobe Audition® CS6. With the new Adobe Photoshop CS6, stu­ dents can express them­selves by leveraging the powerful new 3D and video editing tools for media

they have captured across mul­ tiple devices. Fur­ther, students can get noticed with multimediarich portfo­lios, websites and applications and with products like Adobe Dreamweaver® CS6 enable students to create high-impact school or personal websites.

Are there any specific tools for professional schools to help students develop better skills?

Adobe offers a wide range of tools in the field of image and video editing and presentation through incorporation of Adobe’s Photoshop Elements, Premiere Elements and Acrobat Pro tools.

These tools offer simple-touse yet powerful solutions that help students express their cre­ ativity via multimedia creations, engaging a wide range of cogni­ tive skills.

Photoshop Elements provides the essential tools needed for image manipulation and enhancement whereas, Pre­ miere Elements helps create digital films thus, providing an intuitive video project environ­ ment for students from high school and beyond.

The Digital School Collection further incorporates Adobe’s Acrobat Pro software that helps in creation and presentation of image-rich electronic docu­ ments. With this students can combine different types of elec­ tronic documents generated in any file format into a single PDF file that serves either as a unified document and/or an electronic portfolio, thus providing a com­mon language for sharing work.

Adobe’s Flash animation soft­ware and ActionScript program­ming language can help develop video games as an addi­ tional aid to learning in maths,

science, engineering and computer science.

What do you think will be the next big trend in the use of technology in higher-ed?

Research conducted by Adobe in March this year showed that over 81% of educators across Asia Pacific believe it is very important to incorporate creativ­ ity tools in the curriculum to help students prepare for a 21st cen­ tury workplace. This indicates a fundamental shift in thinking, away from the rote learning style of former years to embrace the realities of a new digital era and the needs of a global, collab­ oration-oriented, knowledgecentric workforce. 55% of APAC educators believe there would be a significant increase in the role of digital technology such as e-textbooks, content, and tablets in classroom work over the next five years. (Adobe surveyed 500 respondents representing all major APAC countries including: Australia, New Zealand, Korea, India, China, Hong Kong, Singa­ pore, Thailand and Malaysia in March 2012) In India, students and teach­ ers can now download NCERT text­books for all subjects from class I to XII in printable PDF format. Recent industry studies indicate that globally, educa­ tional apps contribute to 9.4% of total apps in the Apple store and the educational sector in India contributes to 64.6% of the total tablet usage in our country.

Tablets in India could potentially reach sales of over 5.5 million in 2012. Use of tablets in educa­ tion include digitized textbooks, annotate notes and textbooks, interactive apps for education and note taking. E-education has immense relevance in a country like India, where education is not within everyone’s reach.

August 2012 EduTech

9

Viewpoint

RS Grewal

Internationalisation is here to Stay

i

ndia can’t afford its isolationist stand with the world moving towards a borderless higher education. The latest policy directive of the UGC restricting collaborations between India and foreign universities to the top rated alone is thus counter productive in the new global environment.

Internationalisation of higher education is indispensable in this era of shrinking globe dominated by knowledge economy and fast-paced advancements in technology. Jane Knight of Ontario University, who has written extensively on borderless higher education, describes the term internationalisation as a process of integration of international dimension into teaching, research and service functions of higher education. She says that its use has been more closely linked to the academic value of international activities than to economic motive. In the last two decades, internationalisation has meant that the concept of civic education has gradually broadened from a national focus to a global one. Increasing transborder mobility of students has accentuated the emphasis on global citizenship. The impact of the rising crossborder student flows is pivotal in education policy formulation of a nation.

The Indian Scenario According to a study of 50 nations carried out by Oxford Economics for the British Council, by 2020, the largest higher education systems (by number of students) are likely to be China (37 million), India (28 million), USA (20 mil-

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EduTech  August 2012

lion) and Brazil (9 million). These four countries are also likely to account for 50 per cent of the total enrolment in higher education in the world.

The report also states that the competition for increasing the number of globally mobile students is likely to remain strong.   As far as India is concerned, the balance of student flows has been drastically in favour of the developed countries with more Indian students opting to go abroad and the number of foreign students coming into India declining. Considering the relatively lower cost of higher education in India, student inflows, especially from developing or underdeveloped countries, seeking better value for money, should have been increasing. In addition, given the fact that the Indian economy is poised to become one of the largest in the world, there should have been a greater inflow of students from developed countries as well. However, that has not happened due to the poor quality of teaching and research here.

Internationalisation, has meant increasing number of students going abroad to acquire foreign degrees.

Another reason for this state of affairs is the lack of access to higher education due to inadequate capacity in India. Thus, we have seen a spurt in MoUs being signed between Indian and

RS Grewal

foreign universities, mainly seeking student exchange and twinning programmes. UGC, the Indian higher education regulator, displaying its typical propensity to create a restrictive environment, has moved in with measures that would virtually squeeze India out of the international higher education milieu.

What the Policy Says In its latest announcement, the UGC has said that only those universities/institutions would be allowed to enter into collaborative arrangements with foreign universities/institutions that have been accredited with an A+ or equivalent rating by the accreditation agencies. Moreover, the twinning programmes would be allowed only with those foreign universities that have been rated amongst the top 500 in the world. The announcement shows that the UGC is not in touch with the ground realities. Not many universities from amongst the top 500 in the world would like to have a twinning programme with many Indian institutions because despite having an A+ rating from Indian accreditation agencies, the standard of teaching and research in these institutions may not be up to the world standards.

Moreover, the directions from the UGC deprive a large number of average students from exercising the option of joining a twinning programme that would help them get a foreign degree and employment abroad.

Twinning programmes have been in existence in India for more than two decades now and there have not been many instances of students getting cheated. The stated objective of the UGC that triggered the policy announcement is to protect the interests of the students. But, the proposed policy would force the students to go abroad for the full duration of the programmes subjecting them to financial hardships. Moreover, the Indian banks have taken a cue from the UGC and have restricted the grant of educational loans for studies abroad to only those students who can join the top 500 universities in the world. Considering the academic standards in India, not many students would be eligible to join the top 500 universities in the world, and thus would not be eligible for loans from banks. That would force them to resort to other measures to carry on with their studies.

Moreover, Indian universities would still be able to send their students abroad through articulation arrangements wherein the foreign universities would accept credit transfer based on mutual agreements. In a way, the policy of the UGC interferes with the autonomy of the universities and

Viewpoint

“India is likely to lose out on internationalisation of higher education because of its incoherent policies and lack of focus” the fundamental rights of students to select an institution of their choice.

It’s Brain Exchange Now A speaker at the recently concluded conference of the Asia Pacific Association for International Education, while acknowledging the size of Indian higher education sector said that India is likely to lose out on internationalisation of higher education because of its incoherent policies and lack of focus. Rajika Bhandari and Peggy Blumenthal in their book International Students and Global Mobility in Higher Education: National Trends and New Directions state, “the new multi-directionality of student flows has forced a new interpretation of what used to be feared—‘brain drain’; now, the terms more applicable are ‘brain circulation’ or ‘brain exchange’.”

Our regulators must realise the benefits that would accrue from internationalisation of higher education. This phenomenon has come to stay. It is borne out of the fact that presently there are at least two international conferences held every month on higher education somewhere in the world. A viewpoint that emerged prominently in a conference (more than 80 countries and 9,000 delegates participated) in June held at Houston by NAFSA: Association of International Educators was that internationalisation of higher education could promote world peace. In the present era of globalisation it would help produce better global citizens. There were a number of developed and developing countries that had put up their pavilions. Interestingly, only one private university and one education consultant were there to represent India’s higher education sector. It would be more prudent for the UGC to discard its isolationist mode and adopt an enabling approach.

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Author’s BIO Brig (Dr) RS Grewal, is the VC of Chitkara University. After retiring from the Army in 2002, he joined the Manipal Group, where he was the director of Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology. Later he was the pro-vice chancellor of Sikkim Manipal University and also the first director of ICICI Manipal Academy.

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COVER STORY

Funding

Overcoming the Cash

Crunch

Cash-strapped governments worldwide are rethinking the role of the public in higher education, as they struggle to come up with viable solutions to sustain it. The India experience is no different, especially given its grossly inadequate infrastructure.

It’s time to answer some tough questions

by Charu bahri illustration & design by raj verma

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Funding

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P

lanning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia stirred up a hornet’s nest earlier this year when he spoke in favour of raising university fees on the one hand, and increasing student loans on the other, as a step to withdrawing university funding. His thinking resonates with the government policy of fostering financial independence in universities and degree colleges. It was first introduced in 1997, as an outcome of two committee reports and an enhanced focus on literacy and primary education, in keeping with the growing international thrust on elementary education. In 1994, a committee on central universities set up under the chairmanship of Justice K Punnayya and another on technical education institutions led by Dr D Swaminadhan submitted its recommendations to mobilise resources for higher education. Both of the committee reports stressed that state financing of higher education should go hand in hand with measures to mobilise non-governmental resources, such as hiking fees, raising resources through consultancy and sale of other services, introducing self-financing courses, etc.

While it took a few years for these suggestions to percolate to policy circles, through the nineties, the nation witnessed the drying up of government resources available for universities.

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Funding

Backtrack or Fast Forward?

On its part, the government has been instrumental in giving higher education a good start post Independence. When the curtains came down on the Raj, the university count across the nation was barely 21. In 1950, when the First Five Year Plan was rolled out, 28 universities and 578 colleges catered to the entire country. By 1990, the number of universities had grown to 184 and the number of colleges to 5,748. Higher education infrastructure swelled during the 90s, the decade marking a major policy shift. The college count doubled to 11,146 and the university tally grew to 266. As practical measures to loosen the umbilical cord tying public universities to the government began to be implemented, new UGC regulations were ushered in as well. These provided for private funding in education in the guise of colleges with a permanent non-development-grant status, selffunded private universities, and sponsored

of each y t i l i b i s n o sp “It is the re teaching s t i e s i m i t to op university g time n i c i t c a r p y resources b

human , t n e m e g a man set s a , t n e m e anag resource m nt, etc� e m e g a n a m lukar Rajan Weersity of Mumbai llor, Univ

deemed universities. Consequently, the creation of higher education institutions in the country has not stalled. Private players are the new torchbearers of higher education. The first decade of the 21st century has seen a veritable explosion in facilities to a respectable 527 odd universities and over 25,000 colleges, catapulting the Indian higher education system to the third rank globally in terms of the number of student enrolments (16 million) and to the top position in terms of the number of institutions.

While domestic compulsions may have led the government to start taking a tough stance on university finance close to two decades ago, its present renewed emphasis on financial sustainability for varsities is aligned with the ongoing world-

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EduTech  August 2012

by jiten gandhi

ce Vice Chan

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Funding

wide financial crises in the higher education sector. Across the world, dwindling public coffers for higher education have left public universities in the grip of a financial crisis, and they are now avidly seeking alternate ways to balance university budgets.

Professionalise Management Private funding in education, in whatever form, is here to stay. And policies that could see government allocations to universities dwindle still further seem to be in the pipeline. Yet, in spite of the clamour against such measures, these may not be the most serious issues at hand. Dr Suma Chitnis, former vice chancellor of SNDT University and former executive director of the JN Tata Endowment for the Higher Education of Indians Abroad says, “That isn’t the worst thing that could happen because how much can the government spend after all, particularly now that private funding is coming in. What’s more important, is how the money is spent? Is the spending focussed and the priorities right? You can’t spread your resources too thin.” Dr Chitnis’s words highlight the importance of professionalism in the management of universities, especially finance, and about the need for focussed spending in line with policies that spell out clear goals and actions and that provide for constant follow up.

Dr Chitnis suggests that universities make a start by introspecting about how carefully (or not) they are using available resources (rather than lament about the scarcity of funds). Citing a few practical examples, she says, “University system practices that have no place in education—wasteful spending on celebrations, free meals provided during conferences and hospitality in the offices of the top brass—can all be cut out. We desperately need an attitudinal shift—to question existing practices and focus on the task at hand.”

Eliminate Wastage According to Sebastian Ouseph, Finance Officer at Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), systemic wastages and inefficiencies plaguing many a university must be eliminated.

“It may appear that the scope for expenditure control is minimal given that over three-fourths of the non-plan expenses, which are more or less of a ‘fixed’ nature, like salaries and pension, water and electricity charges, audit charges, insurance and taxes, etc. Still, drastic measures like overhauling and simplifying existing systems and procedures, computerising processes and rationalising manpower levels to the actual work content, will cer-

alues v , s l l i k s , e ledg “The know aff, and t s , y t l u c a f es of and energi pital, a c l a u t c e l l nte students; i ital, and p a c p i h s n relatio ital for v e r a l a t i p al ca reputation ortfolio” p g n i d n u f g the diversifyin ar n Nigavek Aru

hairman,

Former C

UGC

tainly have a salutary effect on salary expenditure commitments in the long run. Although this is easier said than done, universities must make a start to control their non-plan expenditure commitments.”

Narayanan Ramaswamy, Partner, Management Consulting, KPMG Advisory Services Private Limited says that one of reasons why public universities are in the sorry state of dependency is that they are not perceived as ‘enterprises’, and hence not run as efficiently as desirable. Eliminating systemic wastage would allow the available funds to give better returns. “Any lecture missed due to professor absenteeism, sub-standard lecturers taking classes, time wasted due to non-availability of equipment or material, constitute instances of waste. It is public funds down the drain. Better administration and in particular, good financial practices implemented by specialists is the first step to tightening university budgets,” he says.

Income Diversification Sharp administrative and governance mechanisms, that is, professionalism is vital to diversify the funding portfolio of a university. Only then can universities use their brilliant array of unique intangible organisational assets, most of which do not appear on any balance sheets. Dr Arun Nigavekar, Raja Ramanna Fellow; Former Chairman, UGC; Former Vice Chancellor, UniverAugust 2012 EduTech

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Funding

sity of Pune; and Founder Director, NAAC lists these: “The knowledge, skills, values and energies of faculty, staff, and students; intellectual capital, relationship capital, and reputational capital.”

The IIMs, in particular, IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore, are taking the lead in self-sufficiency through this route, getting the maximum output from their intangible capital. State universities could do well to follow suit and take up more research and consultancy work for industries and public institutions. It could grow the Plan sector funding component of a university, which encompasses infrastructural development activities and research projects. According to Ouseph, “Plan funding is fairly satisfactory. Such funds come in from the state government, UGC, AICTE, MHRD and various other government bodies like the Department of Science & Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Department of Atomic Energy, Defence Research and Development Organisation, Department of Ocean Development, etc.”

While state universities are attracting research grants, the bigger picture shows that a greater number of research grants are awarded to central universities vis-à-vis state universities. As to what needs to be done, Ouseph says nothing short of a sea change in the style of working could

ion and in t a r t s i n i m “Better ad nancial fi d o o g , r a particul ented by m e l p m i s practice e first h t s i s t s i l a speci tening step to tigh gets” d u b y t i s r e univ y am n Ramasw G Narayanament Consulting, KPM nage

a Partner, M

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attract funding from alumni and the industry.

“Many public university methods are too primitive and lack professionalism. Industry-academia tie-ups for research will only happen when institutions can instil confidence in the industry.

Presently, I would say that the industry might even doubt the capability of the public institutions to uphold a simple confidentiality clause.

Universities need to revamp their systems starting with making appointments to leadership posi-

Funding

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What’s Happening in

Europe?

European universities are battling the fund crunch with innovative ideas. They are floating companies and establishing science parks to generate income

T

homas Estermann, Head of the Governance, Funding and Autonomy unit at the European University Association (EUA), has called on public authorities to support leadership development and the professionalisation of university management. It’s not surprising why—European universities are facing a financial crisis as are universities worldwide.

Direct public funding represents about three-quarters of the overall budgets of European universities, and governments are increasingly hard-pressed. To add to that, some of these universities charge no student fees; others generate a quarter of their income from fees. But many expect this percentage to decrease and are looking to other sources of income.

So what are European universities doing to augment funds?

Seven out of 10 universities are creating spin-off companies and science parks to support income diversification and almost the same number are introducing lifelong learning activities. These new avenues are supporting income from private sector contracts

tions being merit-based rather than on political considerations. De-politicising university campuses in letter and spirit and upholding the true spirit of ‘autonomy’ of universities, coupled with strict accountability for their actions, would go a long way to address the present maladies.”

A concerted effort would attract more investments in research grants or endowments, which will otherwise fall short because quality is low, and not vice-versa.

(averaging 5 to 7% of income), philanthropic funding (3 to 4%) and income-generating services (4%).

National governments in Europe are also being urged to recognise the importance of granting autonomy to universities and to assist in the implementation of full costing, which the EUA report Financially Sustainable Universities, Towards Full Costing In European Universities defines as the ability to identify and calculate all direct and indirect costs for all of an institution’s activities including projects. It says: “Only universities that know the full costs of all their activities can judge if they are operating on a financially sustainable basis.”

An analysis of the ability of universities to diversify their income sources must follow full costing, to move towards financial sustainability and autonomy.

Full costing ensures better budget allocation and accountability as well as improves trust between government, funding agencies and universities.

Autonomous universities are better able to attract funds from different sources including international funding.

Cost Recovery When professionalism steps into university management, business concepts cannot be far behind. For instance, professionalism has thrust the concept of cost recovery in education in the limelight, especially in higher education institutions relying on government assistance.

The task forces on higher education instituted at the turn of the millennium recommended full cost recovery, asserting that beneficiaries can bear the costs of higher education and that the central and state governments should only fund disciplines that have no market orientation. This change in strategy aimed at lowering government share, as a late 90s study by Dr Chitnis shows, August 2012 EduTech

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Funding

had zoomed from 49 per cent in 1950 to over 90 per cent in 1999.

Professor Jandhyala BG Tilak, Head, Department of Educational Finance, National University of Educational Planning and Administration sees this shift as a move away from the ideal (of full financing) to a second (or third) best option (cost recovery). Why? “The concept of cost-recovery, not to speak of profits, was not accepted in education for a long period, as it is widely held that costs incurred in education are automatically recovered in terms of higher productivity of graduates, and a large bunch of externalities. This concept is a non-starter as long as the state fulfils its responsibility of funding univer-

sities adequately. Then, financing becomes an important strategy that governments use to promote the objectives of the state, and equity and excellence remain the twin objectives of educational policies,” explains Tilak.

Dr Lalji Singh, Vice Chancellor, Banaras Hindu University adds that the concept of full cost recovery or financial independence of universities is contrary to its welfare objectives, particularly in

Policy & Finance:

Entwined?

University Grants Commission needs to don the role of a friend, philosopher and guide, rather than be a policy scaffold to hang autonomy of institutions

A

mid the global trend of falling university allocations, the time is ripe for a rethink about higher education policy and its implementation mode. Nowadays, the regulatory and funding agency the UGC is under the scanner. University Vice Chancellors’ meets have voiced the opinion that the University Grants Commision’s (UGC) regulatory practices should be made more guiding and nurturing rather than suffocating the autonomy of universities. Mechanical licensing and funding has proven a non-starter.

Dr Arun Nigavekar, Raja Ramanna Fellow; Former Chairman, UGC; Former Vice Chancellor, University of Pune; and Founder Director, NAAC says, “The UGC and the AICTE have become non-functioning agencies run by in-charge chairmans, incapable of addressing 21st century issues. No new initiatives are taken and funds are not being used. Word has it that the UGC has just used 30 per cent of Plan allocations.”

With the aim of regaining focus, Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal has spoken about creating a new inter-university funding agency sans regulatory powers.

Uncoupling financing and regulation would mean

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divesting the UGC of its financing role. Professor Jandhyala BG Tilak, Head, Department of Educational Finance, National University of Educational Planning and Administration endorses this step since it could get around the excessive political intervention that comes in the way of the efficient functioning of the UGC. “That’s partially why the National Knowledge Commission and also the Yashpal Committee recommended setting up the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER), one autonomous body for proper allocation of resources to universities based on sound principles of financing, guided solely by considerations of promoting excellence and equity in higher education.”

Consequently, the bill for the NCHER providing for setting up the Higher Education Financial Services Corporation (HEFSC) has been tabled. While Dr Nigavekar sees the NCHER bill as a bold attempt by the Central government to bring order in higher education institutions both at state and central level, he laments that the recommendations of the Knowledge Commission and the Yashpal Committee are not reflected in letter and spirit in the new Act. Since it has no

Funding

the context of institutions like Banaras Hindu University, located in a comparatively underdeveloped region of the nation. “BHU and other similar universities cater to the talented poor. So it is important that the fee is kept low. Even when other internal sources of funds are taken into consideration—such as self-financing courses, paid seats, donations, particularly by eminent alumni, and consultancy assignments—the available

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resources will fall short of what is needed. And their contribution to societal welfare cannot be solely measured by the conventional parameters used for ranking universities.”

Not to mention that the concept of cost recovery seems at odds with the nations 2020 goal of 30 per cent GER. “While the idea of making universities self-reliant is welcome, from quality and capital infusion points of view, it may not help the inclusion objective. Private higher education usually does not cater to mass education and hence cannot replace public institutions—given the disparity in India. Also, it will be prudent for the govern-

preamble that spells the larger canvass of challenges that subscribes openness, freedom and flexibility in education system, it could fail to make learning more accessible, meaningful and effective to learners from across different strata of society. Nor is Dr Suma Chitnis, former vice chancellor of SNDT University and former Executive Director of the JN Tata Endowment for the Higher Education of Indians Abroad impressed because she has seen one seemingly good policy after another fail “It’s time to ask if the policies are too broad or too idealistic and if the objectives aren’t sufficiently focussed, and therefore those responsible for administering them cannot spell out how they will be operationalised? Or do the administrators lack commitment to the cause?”

India badly needs an enabling body that encourages creativity and out-of-the-box approaches tailored for the ground realities. Dr Chitnis believes this will only happen when the administering body—be it at the Centre or state—touches upon the context and the pressing issues. “A connect is sorely missing, not necessarily a new department. A new body may not resolve the challenges,” she says. Follow-up is equally vital else any well-intended measure or policy could become a mechanical affair. “Administering justice is a challenging task. The crux is to keep checking on the outcomes—are the steps delivering as was desired?

Is the situation on the ground changing? The efficacy of the measuring process lies in establishing clear objectives.”

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Funding

Calls for

Change in

Mindset “External support to universities must be coupled with internal drive to grow income,” says Dr Rajan Welukar, VC of University of Mumbai, sharing the institution’s measures for financial self-sufficiency

T

he scarcity of funds for higher education is not particular to India. Developed and developing countries across the world are considering innovative measures of raising money to realise their ever-expanding vision for higher education. Ever since school education has become the government of India’s priority, funding allocations to higher education are not keeping up with its delivery expectations.

Higher education has the power to transform the state of a nation. In order to deliver these expectations and ensure that no student remains outside the university system, it needs money and government support, as well as the drive to come up with innovative ways to create a fund bank.

Fees represent only one revenue stream for a university. I interpret Montek Singh Ahluwalia’s proposal as a dual fee structure wherein students who can afford the full fee structure pay their way through higher education whereas students from economically underprivileged families receive substantial fee cuts in the name of scholarships.

Implementing such a scheme would require a change in people’s mindset. To reiterate, the aim is that no child should remain outside the ambit of higher education because of any difficulty that he or she faces.

Mumbai University has resorted to marginal fee hikes to generate more funds. The key to fee hikes is ‘marginal’. The increase must be so low that students do not feel the pinch.

Fee hikes are most effective when the enrolments are many.

And launching innovative programmes can grow student numbers. In this context, the University of Mumbai’s new self-financing programmes have been very well received.

We are also setting up effective alumni associations and tapping this network as a source of funds.

It is the responsibility of each university to optimise its teaching resources—by practicing time management, human resource management, asset management, etc.

Assets such as laboratories and sports complexes should be monetised. They shouldn’t lie idle when they are not being used for university events. We are becoming very careful about this. Also, available funds are being professionally managed. Wise investments can generate more money for the university. All of the University of Mumbai’s in-house financial experts have been roped in for this purpose. The offshoot of these endeavours is that the university was able to make more research grants than ever last year, from its own purse. Affiliated colleges received Rs 90 lakh from us.

ment to look at creating more higher education institutions in the public domain as well in order to reach its goals,” adds Ramaswamy.

Fee Focus One of the earliest responses of the Ministry of Human Resource Development to the task forces that came up with the idea of full cost recovery was a recommendation for a seven per cent fee hike in the ensuing academic session and a subsequent one per cent annual increase. True, a new wideranging non-bank specific education loan programme, the educational loan

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scheme, was also launched in April 2001 to offset this increase. “Financial independence is only possible when monthly fees of students are increased,” notes Mushtaque Ansari, Financial Advisor, Ranchi University.

Still, fee hikes are most effective when the increase is marginal and the number of student enrolments is huge (see box for University of Mumbai example). Large sums of money can

Funding

then be raised without the unpleasant consequences associated with significant increases: “you immediately face students’ agitation,” states Ansari. Financially hard-pressed states are also more likely to sanction marginal raises: “Also, the consent of the concerned state government has to be sought for reimbursement of the enhanced monthly fees in respect of the students of the weaker class of the society/girl students, etc.”

And after the hike, the fees should still conform to the suggestions of the Justice Punnayya and Dr Swaminadhan Committees, and more recently the CABE Committee on the financing of higher education. All these peg the income from student fees (of all kinds) at about one-fifth of university income. The actual proportion is lower in many central universities; it hovers around this level in some state universities; and grossly exceeds recommended limits in some private Indian universities.

According to Enayet Kabir, Associate Director Education at Technopak Advisors, a management consulting firm, “Tuition fees form 80 per cent of the total revenue of Indian private universities.” This is inexcusable in a country where access to higher education still eludes thousands.

“Tuition fees even in the best universities in the West contribute five per cent to 20 per cent of income with research grants, revenues from publishing, royalties, gifts for current use, rentals, health services, other university activities, and endowments together making up 80 per cent to 95 per cent of their total revenue,” he adds.

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standingly big ticket IIT alumni contributions to their respective alma mater include technology entrepreneur Romesh Wadhwani pledging $5 million for a new bioscience and bioengineering research facility at IIT Bombay, and Patu Keswani, Chairman and Managing Director of Lemon Tree Hotels, committing to construct a biosciences lab for IIT Delhi at a cost of about Rs 20 crore.

Private Capital With the aim of mobilising non-government resources, a large number of universities are offering self-financing courses as well. Some of these courses are the outcome of the activities of cells established to promote close ties with the industry. Such public-private partnerships, a growing buzzword today, elicit mixed feelings. Some academicians consider such links no less than business deals to make education and research in higher education institutions market relevant. They feel these agreements override the public good, that is, the social aims of education. Professor Tilak points out, “PPPs and private universities are steps towards privatisation and commercialisation, which are two sides of the same coin. Both are based on principles of profit maximisation and cost-efficiency.” And while he feels that universities need to be academically autonomous to a great extent, and administratively autonomous to some extent; he sees no need for full financial autonomy and hence reliance on the private sector.

Alumni Contributions In the context of Ahluwalia’s proposal, Ramaswamy is of the opinion that fee hikes are not the only means of increasing university revenues. “Other streams also should be considered and actively encouraged. Just increasing the fees (and correspondingly increasing student loans), while it is a good step, would not be a holistic solution. It could make higher education elitist, even if a greater number of students receive scholarships and loans.” Better contact with alumni is another key strategy to tap a healthy source of funds.

Alumni can help universities realistically evaluate their teaching methodologies and understand new industry demands. Well-placed alumni can create valuable linkages with industry sources of funds. And engaged alumni are more responsive to institution needs.

Tapping into alumni networks is an art that the IIMs and IITs are close to mastering. Two out-

ot to n , y r e v o c e r t of costp e c n o c e ted in h p e “T c c a t o n fits, was o r p f o k a s it is e a , sp d o i r e p for a long n o i t a c u d e curred in n i s t s o c t a th widely held ecovered r y l l a c i t a re autom a n o i t a c u ed ductivity o r p r e h g i h in terms of s” of graduate BG Tilak Jandhyala onal Finance,NUEPA ducati

tment of E

ar Head, Dep

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But advocates of private capital in education question the belief that its entry into the sector would diminish education standards. Ramaswamy says, “Instead of toying with the idea of doing away with university finance, it would be better to table a revision to the policy of disallowing private capital inflows into higher education. Why should private investment always have a negative connotation? It is the nature of business to demand decent (as opposed to high) returns on capital investments. It is regressive to shun this prerequisite as ‘dirty’ and impose a blanket ban on private money in education. Especially when decades go by and nothing happens about capitation fees, the best kept open secret of the higher education sector. Yet, we are still miles away from allowing private investment in higher education.”

Future Focus The fact is that private capital in higher education is a growing reality. “New UGC regulations providing for colleges with a permanent non-developmentgrant status, self-funded private universities, and sponsored deemed universities are but privatisation in disguise, says Dr Nigavekar.

Instead of hiding under the cover of backdoor privatisation, it is time to openly accept that education is no longer sustainable as a not-for-profit activity.

Dr Nigavekar suggests adopting a realistic approach that sees in education a balance of private and public good to move out of this unhealthy situation.

“Not-for-profit as a guiding principle worked in the last century. Today, we are seeing greater market acceptance for the private education sector as it serves immediate industry needs. There is merit in their training strategy and it needs to be accepted as a parallel mode for adding skills. We’d also like ICT companies to help make teacher training colleges more meaningful and productive, which will not happen purely on charity basis. This paves the way for public education institutions with non-profit goals to co-exist side by side with private institutions driven by fair profit motive and governed by an appropriate ‘Educational Companies Act’.”

Making education attractive for private investors, albeit with appropriate riders, would at least put an end to the paucity of funds. “Universities would face no dearth of funds if they turn to the industry as corporations would see education as a prestigious addition to their portfolio. They would evaluate the willingness of the university to engage in meaningful research and offer education that adds direct value to industry. The quality of the university’s graduates and postgraduates would be under the scanner,” opines Ramaswamy.

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ecovery r t s o c l l u f ept of “ The conc ce of n e d n e p e d l in or financia rary to its t n o c s i s e i universit larly in u c i t r a p , s e ectiv welfare obj titutions s n i f o t x e t the con like BHU” h Lalji SingHindu University ras

llor, Bana

ce Vice Chan

Holistic Plans Moving from financial deficiency to financial sustainability is a slow process encompassing a range of university-driven initiatives and making higher education policy more sensitive, practical and measurable (see box). “Managing the non-plan expenditure pertaining to the recurring operational costs, mainly staff salaries and pension is more challenging (than plan expenditure). The sharp deterioration in the position of non-plan funds is a recent phenomenon, consequent to implementation of the pay revisions, both UGC/AICTE and state pay scales and pension revision,” observes Ouseph.

Where the state is unable to cough up the incremental amount on salaries and pension, universities have no choice but to resort to undesirable methods. Ouseph says that CUSAT has been drawing on other resources of the university to get along. These sources include income from the university’s self-financing courses. “But this is only a stop gap arrangement because borrowing from the self-financing sector brings attendant problems like impacting the quality of engineering education. Such borrowing also creates a liability on the university, which would be hard to replenish if additional non-plan funding support from the state government does not come by,” shares Ouseph.

It isn’t fair to put universities up against the wall to such an extent. Montek Singh Ahluwalia and others involved must think beyond fees to turnaround the present situation and set India on track to achieve the lofty higher education goal set for 2020.

strategY

Incubation Centre

Dr Ashok Jhunjhunwala, is a professor in the Electrical Engineering Department of IIT Madras since 1981. He pioneered incubation in India and heads the Telecommunications and Computer Networks group (TeNeT) at IIT-M, which has incubated about 45 companies.

In conversation with EDU, he discusses incubation and the nitty-gritty of running a centre for incubating technology companies.

by Charu bahri

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By raj verma

Incubating Technology

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Why should a technology institute establish an incubation centre?

Working with the industry is an important component of education. It brings in an additional dimension to engineering education namely, developing and commercialising technology. You can either go about doing this with an existing company or you can incubate a new company. Sometimes, working with existing companies is just not feasible; they may not be willing to take a risk with new technology or may have no experience in commercialising new technology. The latter calls for people with a futuristic vision; individuals who think beyond existing technology, are interested in technology development and who are prepared to go all the way to bring it to market.

Another reason in favour of institutional incubation is that the academiaindustry interface in India is weak. This makes it difficult to reach out to established companies for joint technology development and commercialisation. This makes incubation an essential activity of technology institutes.

Incubation as an option expands students’ horizons and provides freshers with an alternate career path. Creating young entrepreneurs, therefore, goes hand in hand with technology development and commercialisation. Sometimes engineers may turn entrepreneurs after working and gaining some

exposure in the industry. We focus on incubating companies that have freshers at the helm—young talent that is keen on starting early.

What does it take to start an incubation centre?

The most important aspect to keep in mind is that incubation is not about creating a centre or its infrastructure. It should not be considered as a new department in a technology institute. Certainly, you need funds for this initiative and an incubation centre needs to be built. But the approach that equates incubation with infrastructure and facilities has some inherent fallacies. It could detract from the purpose of setting up such a centre in the first place—that is the development of technology, the process of technologycommercialisation and building strong companies. Strong companies must win with their

Ashok Jhunjhunwala Professor, IIT Madras

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Incubation Centre

products and services in the market. For them, any other focus is pointless. So to answer your question—what does it take to start incubation? It is first of all vital to understand the nuances of the market to identify what technology will work and secondly, you need to have a grasp of commercialisation as well, so that the technology developed does not remain in the cupboard.

The first few incubation centres in India, mostly in the IITs, made an appearance about two decades ago. In those days, one would hear of the odd success stories from these centres. Things began to change a decade back, when incubation began gaining recognition as an extension of engineering education. The number of initiatives has gradually increased since then and incubation is now an accepted activity on the campus.

Where do the ideas for the businesses incubated come from?

It is a huge misconception that technology development in incubation centres starts from an idea. It doesn’t work that way. Consider rural technology, since about half of the companies that we have floated at IIT-M have a social focus. Each of these ventures started with the clear identification of a rural need for technology. Sometimes, we identified the need ourselves through our work in rural India. At others, we were approached by NGOs to help fulfil a need they saw as pressing.

These needs could be about filling the gaps in available technology or they could be about righting a wrong through the application of technology. For instance, DesiCrew Solutions, founded by Saloni Malhotra, is a rural BPO company. It sets up IT-enabled service centres in rural areas, and employs and trains local people to perform the back office functions of clients in the banking and other sectors. DesiCrew fulfils the need to train village youth and generate meaningful employment for them to stem the flow of rural migration. Uniphore uses speech technologies to provide companies with mobility solutions, financial service solutions and value added solutions, thus empowering them to connect with customers and through any mobile phone, 24x7, online or offline and in any language. It recognises the fact that many potential customers do not read or write, but can communicate by voice.

The key is that technology is not incubated for the sake of developing technology.

It must be brought to market to be effective. And hence, the lifecycle of technology starts with a need identified in the very market it will be launched in.

strategy

Who are the young entrepreneurs the incubation centre at IIT-M nurtures? Are they only IIT-M graduates?

After the need for technology is established, talent is the next vital step in the process of incubation. Talent brings the need to fruition. A passionate, talented individual drives the lifecycle of the technology—with the centre’s help—from development to the market. Sometimes, we are approached by youngsters, not necessarily IIT-M students, who say that they possess the will and the drive to become entrepreneurs. Some of them may have even identified a need and would like us to assist them in designing the technology to cater to the need and launch it in the market. We bet on people. We look for youngsters who have the passion and hunger to make it good. Recognising these signs is an art. One could ask—does the individual have staying power?

Is he or she ready to work very hard because becoming an entrepreneur is a different ballgame when compared to being employed? Is the person ready to fail repeatedly, learn from each failure and just stick on to finally succeed?

A combination of many factors makes for a potentially successful entrepreneur. That is not to say that the youngster will always have all of the skills needed to succeed. Training budding entrepreneurs is an integral part of incubation. The more skills the person already possesses, the less the mentor has to do and vice-versa. Rarely does a youngster bring most of the essential components with him/her.

“Talent is the next vital step in incubation. Talent

brings the need to fruition. A passionate,

talented individual drives the lifecycle of the technology” Ashok Jhunjhunwala

Professor, IIT Madras

What special skills do you need to manage/run an incubation centre? Who is best suited to take charge of the centre?

Incubation plays a pivotal role in developing technology and bringing it to market. Since the head of the centre oversees this process from start to finish, he/she must be adept at taking care of every aspect—be it understanding the market, selecting the entrepreneur, training the youngster, mentoring him/ her, monitoring the progress, establishing appropriate governance in the new venture, taking on business development and so on. At times, a third party with the requisite skills may be brought in to assist, but even then, the onus is on the head to make sure that things work. The leader must be able to create a team that delivers all that is required.

A faculty in a technology institution usually is not a good lead for such a centre, unless the person understands technology commercialisation and August 2012 EduTech

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strategy

Incubation Centre

also has business-acumen. This is rare; a technology-faculty may be a competent technologist, but may have poor business acumen. A management faculty may be equally poor—neither understanding technology nor technologycommercialisation nor having business-acumen. How to create a market for a new product is an important element that the leader must bring in.

Where does seed money for the new companies come from?

The entrepreneur usually works gratis (or at best gets some survival money) in the early life of the new venture but other costs must be met.

The incubation centre raises the seed money needed to develop the technology and get the company off the ground. Usually a technology institute would not set aside a budget for seed money. However, providing office support to the fledgling venture through the incubation centre/area is a huge cost as well which is met by the institution. The Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology and Department of Scientific and Industrial Research are some of the sources for seed money. Finding an angel investor is like the final exam for a venture.

Angel investors expect to see clear potential in it. A lot of hard work precedes this stage.

For how long should the business be nurtured? What happens to the business after it grows?

There is no fixed formula dictating how long a technology business is incubated. TeNeT group and IIT-M’s Rural Technology & Business Incubator (RTBI), have incubated 45 companies since 1984. Our focus used to be the

telecom, banking and the rural sectors. Nowadays, energy technology is big. Experience gathered in the last few decades and the readiness of young entrepreneurs to learn the ropes fast and get going has reduced the incubation time tremendously over the years. As a result, we achieve more now. In the beginning, we used to incubate one company for over three to four years. Today, we are incubating five companies annually.

There is also no fixed formula to determine the financial benefit of the incubation centre from each venture. Since each company is considered on its own merit, the centre’s stake in every venture differs. Negotiation with the entrepreneur determines the kind of financial benefits that the centre would derive, which could be in the form of royalties, licence fees for the technology or shares in the company. We help the company stand on its own feet and only then get the venture to move out. Even after that, we often continue to be associated with companies as board members or as technology partners.

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CAMPUS

Maintenance

More than Just a

Coat of Pai n

Spick and Span: College upkeep is now a professional service outsourced to experts or entrusted to an in-house department constituted for the purpose

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i nt!

As campuses evolve into stateof-the-art academic spaces, its maintenance has become an onerous, expensive and time consuming task requiring expertise.

Institutions are viewing campus upkeep as a specialised function and increasingly outsourcing it to professional groups

BY TEJA LELE DESAI

T

he word campus derives from a Latin word for ‘field’ and was initially used in the 18th century to describe the grounds of a college at what is now Princeton University. By the 20th century, the meaning had expanded to include the whole institutional property.

A college campus is an ‘academic crossroads’ where people from many disciplines interact and share ideas. Be it indoor spaces, outdoor areas or pedestrian walkways, campuses are designed to promote creativity, alertness, social cohesion and intellectual excellence. But who is responsible for ensuring that this built environment–-one that has a strong bearing on students’ psychology, behaviour and creativity—stays in prime condition?

The upkeep of campuses is complex as it involves the interface of a variety of functions—apart from the routine care of the campus’ buildings and grounds, operations must take into consideration building services, housekeeping, food and beverages, preventive maintenance, HVAC, fire safety, security, energy management, recycling, and other non-routine maintenance August 2012 EDUTECH

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Maintenance

requests. Most campuses these days are working to improve their facility management programmes to more effectively use resources, reduce operating costs and ensure savings.

How does the maintenance aspect function? Most academic campuses across the world have similar basic components: classrooms, lecture rooms, studios, exhibition spaces, laboratories, workshops, libraries, resource centres, auditorium, computer centres, canteens and cafes, faculty rooms, and administration areas. Apart from this, they are likely to include residential blocks, athletic fields, landscaped grounds and open spaces intended to foster learning.

maintenance and daily upkeep of buildings, grounds, repairs and renovation.

Apart from this, at some colleges, the divisions also take care of planning and construction and energy management. Most campuses choose to have a head of the maintenance division along with supervisors, who are together responsible for overseeing the day-to-day performance of the maintenance function on campus. Other colleges, keen to focus only on education, decide to outsource the cleaning, maintenance and other such operations to an agency. They may or may not choose to keep some aspects of the maintenance with themselves, depending on what they are comfortable with.

“Specialists provide the very best in designing,

maintaining and delivering services.

As many as 580 support staff help keep the campus up and running” —Nalin Srivastava

Director, Operations, ISB, Hyderabad

Campuses may be built to last long, however, like every constructed environment they need regular maintenance and updating. Be it the classrooms, roofs, sidewalks, landscaped areas, lighting, heating or cooling systems, every facet of the physical structure needs regular attention. Routine maintenance work at a given time on a campus can include small-time repairs to furniture, paint touch-ups, watering of plants and ensuring that the electrical system does not breakdown.

In-house vs Outsourced Many colleges choose to create a separate division(s) to operate, maintain and improve their physical assets. The divisions may look after aspects such as

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The concept of outsourcing maintenance services at university and college campuses isn’t a new one. In a May 2007 article, Contract vs In-house Staff: Finding the right source for custodial and maintenance operations, Alan S Bigger & Linda B Bigger wrote that between 2005 and 2006 “27 per cent of two-year colleges and 26 per cent of four-year colleges (in the United States)” opted for outsourcing, an increase from 20 and 22 per cent respectively.

Whatever path they may choose to take, colleges try to bring together the best people they can to take responsibility for all buildings and grounds, including new construction and renovation on campus, maintenance and repair of facilities, and maintenance

of the college’s landscaped and play areas.

The University of California, Los Angeles, spread over 12 million sq ft, is a campus that never sleeps. Providing services here is a tough task. The Facilities Management Campus Maintenance Organisation, staffed by grounds and custodial specialists, services the UCLA campus seven days a week, on an average of 20 hours per day.

Apart from the grounds and custodial maintenance, the Facilities Management division at UCLA has a diverse roster of tasks—daily opening and closing of buildings and general assignment classrooms, recycling, integrated pest management and minor maintenance. The team maintains the state-of-the-art teaching facilities, overseeing everything from routine repairs to full-scale renovations.

The division also funds and provides routine, preventive and deferred maintenance in state-funded space. Minor renovations that don’t need architectural designs are done by in-house personnel and managed by project managers.

The Facilities Management personnel at UCLA are also trained to respond to all kinds of building and utility related emergencies—first response, fire suppression, light search and rescue, and restoring building functionality in the event of a major disaster.

But in India, many campuses have chosen to outsource the maintenance task. The campus, including the many buildings, grounds, furniture and equipment, are considered a college’s most important physical asset as they support the ‘core business operations’. Focussing on maintenance and repairs on a day-today basis can get tough, which is why specialists are brought in.

At NIIT University, Neemrana, maintenance is categorised into four components: Housekeeping, electromechanical (facility management), landscaping and maintenance of the building structure per se.

Air Cmdr (Retd) Kamal Singh, Advisor, Infrastructure Services at NIIT University, believes that outsourcing has its benefits. “We have handed over most of the maintenance to Jones Lang LaSalle

Maintenance

and Meghraj. The landscaping has been handed over to local groups, and we initially worked in tandem with them to ensure that things fell into place.”

The university has gone in for a mix— handing out some aspects and taking care of a few in-house. “Upkeep of the entire estate is handled in-house, be it the grounds, doors, furniture, glass— basically the interiors,” Singh says.

In comparison, quite a few colleges choose to keep operations in their own hands, believing that they are in the best position to figure out what kind of maintenance they need and how often.

Pomona College in Claremont, California, has set up the Office of Facilities and Campus Services to take care of all maintenance-related aspects. It includes departments such as grounds, housekeeping, maintenance, planning and projects, sustainability and emergency management.

Robert Robinson, Assistant Vice President, Facilities and Campus Services, says: “These departments are responsible for all facilities and the campus environment, and oversee new construction and renovation on campus, maintenance and repair of facilities, daily cleaning of all campus buildings, and maintenance of landscaped areas and athletic fields.”

When it comes to daily maintenance operations and facility repairs, Pomona’s Maintenance Department takes charge.

“Apart from all routine maintenance such as plumbing or electrical problems, heating or cooling issues, unsafe conditions, pest problems, repairs, the maintenance department also looks after building components such as furniture and lighting,” Robinson says.

But outsourcing maintenance operations seems to be more prevalent.

At the vibrant Indian School of Business (ISB) campus, spread across 260 acres in Hyderabad, a decision was taken to focus on the core competency, education, and hand out maintenance to skilled service providers.

Nalin Srivastava, Director of Operations, says the main aim at ISB is to provide an environment that is conducive to teach, learn, work and research. To that end, the college has categorised the

“One needs to evolve and create specific standard operating procedures.

Performance monitoring is mandatory” —Kamal Singh

Air Cmdr (Rtd), Advisor Infrastructure, NIIT

maintenance aspect into infrastructure, services and sustainability. The services arm comprises 25 components, including food and beverages, housekeeping, engineering, medical, transportation, pest control, travel, building and ground maintenance, etc.

“We have turned to specialists who can provide us the very best when it comes to designing, maintaining and delivering services. As many as 580 support staff help keep the campus up and running,” Srivastava says.

The B-school has opted for different service providers for different services.

For example, Green Park Hotels handles the hospitality bit, including F&B, engineering, front desk and housekeeping.

“They take care of all our food areas,

CAMPUS

executive housing block and the student accommodation. We have around 678 rooms for students (single rooms for bachelors; one-bedroom apartments for married students) as we want them all to stay on campus and focus only on the course curriculum. So while someone takes care of the maintenance, we focus on our core competency—delivering world-class education,” Srivastava says.

Need of the Hour?

Clearly, outsourcing maintenance aspect to an integrated facilities service provider has gained popularity in India. Outsourcing allows the organisation to keep the focus on core competencies while the service provider takes charge. It also reduces the need to hire and train specialised staff since the college gets expertise from the outside, and reduces capital expense, leading to better control of operating costs.

Prafulla Agarwal, Head, Business Development, IFM, Jones Lang LaSalle India, believes that large campuses need continuous support that aligns with an objective of managing costs while protecting and continuously improving the services and amenities provided to end-users.

“Outsourcing day-to-day responsibilities of non-core business to an integrated facilities management service provider has become the order of the day.

This allows a renewed focus on the core business,” he says.

On a campus, specialised service providers generally focus on services and amenities related to student welfare such as housekeeping, accommodation and residences upkeep, catering, laundry, sports arena upkeep, etc. “Other services could include engineering and maintenance, management of critical environments such as data centres, and server rooms, health and safety, janitorial services and security, etc,” Agarwal says.

Most integrated facilities management models deliver end-to-end services that can include operational management, transport management, housekeeping, waste management, landscaping and green space management, UPS systems, August 2012 EDUTECH

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Maintenance

electrical services, fire safety, energy management, regulatory control and compliance management health and safety, disaster management, pest control, sporting facilities management, catering, building management systems and security services.

Need for Periodic Evaluation Experts may have taken over the upkeep, but do colleges forget all about maintenance once they hand the process over?

Singh believes that outsourcing is “not an option that allows you to put maintenance out of your mind”. Despite all the modern systems and technological breakthroughs, Singh says, human intervention is a must to set the standard and ensure that comfort is being delivered.

“We have a building management system known as TRANE. But all such systems need knowing the agency well, coordination and robust processes contextualised to local needs. One needs to evolve and create specific standard operating procedures. Performance monitoring is mandatory.”

NIIT University has put in regular reviews for the maintenance process. There is a daily, monthly and seasonal recording of parameters. “To ensure that the maintenance process is always being bettered, we take stock of measurements (water and electricity consumption) and question usage patterns. That is the parametric aspect. Human engagement is also important so we have a web-based system for complaints from students. A NIIT group— 25 faculty and administration staff—lives on campus and provides inputs. I myself live on the same floor as the student community and am always tracking things,” he says, adding that outsourcing has to be a “collaborative journey”.

A periodic evaluation of the effectiveness of maintenance processes and procedures is a must. Pomona College has also put preventative maintenance on top of its regular maintenance list. “We ensure regular inspections and other tasks to prolong the life of building components,” Robinson says.

At ISB, an in-house team of 14 people is responsible for the entire service and

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EDUTECH August 2012

ensures that the service providers are meeting the demands. “We review the delivery of services. In fact, for the inhouse team, the KRAs and KPIs take care of the deliverables of vendors and service providers,” Srivastava says. The school also conducts a survey of students, faculty and staff every year, taking note of what the community thinks and feels.

Jones LaSalle believes that the model works best on a Develop-ImplementAudit-Review cycle. Checklists are an integral part of control and quality management aspects within the facility man-

inflexible staffing, personnel issues, training, quality and specialty services.

Putting worries about the safety, maintenance and functionality of the facility to rest allows colleges to focus on educational activities.

A 2010 study, titled 25 Ways to Reduce the Cost of College, by Centre for College Affordability and Productivity, seems to support this theory. “Colleges and universities are ostensibly in the business of producing and distributing knowledge.

“Departments like grounds,

housekeeping, maintenance, planning & projects, sustainability & emergency management are responsible”

—Robert Robinson

Asst VP, Facilities and Campus Services

agement environment. “Checklists are designed based on the work requirement, type of equipment, information to be captured. Critical processes that are important for business continuity and end-user experience have daily checklists. High-level processes have weekly, monthly or quarterly checks,” Agarwal says. “A proactive preventive maintenance calendar that spans 52 weeks is implemented to monitor operations within the engineering and maintenance division, housekeeping, cafeteria, transport management, etc,” he adds.

The Future is Clear It’s clear why most colleges are opting to outsource maintenance works to facility management service providers—it helps tap specific skills and ensures that the campus is in top form. Other factors that contribute include costs, efficiency,

Yet huge portions of universities are given over to doing other things: running food and lodging operations, hospitals, recreational centres, building repair and maintenance, information technology services, etc. Many of these operations could be more efficiently provided by specialists in those activities,” the study says.

The best part about outsourcing these days is its adaptability. Several outsourcing models can be tweaked to suit a particular campus’ needs. Randy Ledbetter, Vice President of Business Development at UGL Unicco, sums it up in his paper The Bottom Line of Outsourced Facilities Services. “Outsourcing facility management is both cost-effective and efficient for colleges and universities.”

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pune june 2012

The Pune edition of EDUTech 2012 held on June 22, 2012, got the higher education community and technology experts on the same platform. They discussed challenges, success stories and solutions to help leaders in the field to make informed decisions about using technology. While education leaders shared their experiences on implementing solutions in their institutions, technology experts gave tips on how to choose the right tools.

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EduTech  August 2012

EDUTECH 2012 Increasing Accessibility through Technology

Keynote address was delivered by Prof Ram Takwale, former VC, University of Pune, former VC, IGNOU and former chairman, NAAC, on how institutions can create avenues for greater accessibility through ideas like Open Educational Resources and meta-universities

Cooperating for Collective Growth

Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe, Director, College of Engineering, Pune, the co-host of EDU Tech 2012, spoke on the need for greater cooperation among institutions

Choosing the Right Technology

Rakesh Shetty, Lenovo

Joichi Saito, Wacom

August 2012 EduTech

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edutech 2012

Learning with the iPad

New Technologies that Campuses Should be Using

Khalid Dalvi, RSG Infotech

Prof Rajat Moona Director General, C-DAC

Make Cloud Work for Your Campus

Prof Lalit Kathpalia, Director, Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research (SICSR)

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EduTech August 2012

Panel Discussion: Learning to Teach: Can Technology Solve the Faculty Issue?

Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe, Director, College of Engineering Pune (left), Dr Bhushan Patwardhan, VC, Symbiosis International University (centre), Dr Bharat Chaudhuri, Principal, ISquareIT (right)

edutech 2012

EDU thanks all participants and sponsors for making the Pune chapter of EDUTech 2012 successful

August 2012  EduTech

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TECHNOLOGY 44 Tech TUTeS: Troubleshoot your PC/Laptop

41-47 Tech Snippet: Technology News and Tips and Tricks

By raj verma

46 Tech INTERVIEW: Stephen Downes, Researcher, National Research Council

Broad Vista An e-learning software developed in a remote corner of South India is revolutionising higher education with global aims by kavitha srinivasa 40

EduTech August 2012

Amrita’s A-VIEW Ettimadai, a village at the foothills of Bouluvanpatty Ranges of the Western Ghats in Coimbatore, has made it to India’s educational map. It may be a remote corner, but Ettimadai is home to Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, an educational institution recognised as the first of its kind fully interactive, virtual campus in the country.

Its flagship product, A-VIEW (Amrita Virtual Interactive e-Learning World), is a multimodal multimedia e-learning system deployed across educational institutions in India. On June 25, Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal inaugurated the first ever national workshop to train close to

A-VIEW

Tech Snippet | Aakash II

Aakash 2 unveiled; to hit colleges by December Union Minister Kapil Sibal officially unveiled the ambitious ultra low-cost Aakash 2 tablet PC at IIT Bombay recently. As expected, the next generation of Aakash tablet PC comes with a host of improvements including a faster processor, capacitive touchscreen and a longer battery life. The tablets will be initially available for engineering students across the country.

The Aakash 2 tablet has an 800 MHz processor, as compared to 366 MHz processor of the original Aakash.

The resistive touchscreen has been replaced by a capacitive one. The 2,000 mAh battery has been replaced

10,000 professors all over the country with live interaction using A-VIEW. “We trained 1,000 teachers two years ago using A-VIEW. The project met with success and was recognised by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD),” said Dr Deepak B Phatak, a professor from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) and a specialist in online national-level workshops for teachers.

From then on, MHRD stepped in to provide support and scale the model to bring together nearly 10,000 people under its wing. “A-VIEW had already proved to be an effective e-learning software that simplifies education. This time it was improved to function like a largescale commercial industry product similar to what we find in the West. It is intended to train one lakh teachers by conducting 10 workshops over the next one year,” he said and added, “It’s a twoweek workshop and its sheer scale has probably not been attempted before anywhere else in the world.”

That’s a Virtual Reality A-VIEW was developed by Amrita e-Learning Research Lab, part of Amrita University aka Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. Though the university didn’t have any background in e-learning tools, it began by creating a product for its students. Then the tool was fine-tuned to go

TECHNOLOGy

by a 3,200 mAh one, which is rated to deliver three hours of backup. The improved version has been priced at Rs 2,263, down from Rs. 2,276 of the original Aakash tablet.

The announcement of Aakash 2 launch comes three months after IIT Bombay took over the project from IIT Jodhpur. According to reports, IIT-B has already developed apps for the ultra low-cost tablet and is likely to incorporate a few more. IIT-B has also been given responsibility for procuring and distributing the tablets. If everything goes as per the schedule, the first units of the tablet will be dispatched to as many as 250 engineering colleges across the country by December-end.

beyond the Engineering faculty and extended to the higher education category, which includes all streams.

Early Days Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (Amma), a renowned humanitarian started Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham aka Amrita University. What began as a School of Engineering in 1994 in Ettimadai evolved into a multidisciplinary, multi-campus centre.

The seeds of e-learning were sown almost a decade ago. Thanks to a group of anxious students who felt that their campus did not have an experienced faculty to teach certain subjects. “Such teachers were available at our campuses in places like Cochin. So Amma looked at the possibility of teaching different campuses using the network,” said Prof Kamal Bijlani, Director, Amrita E-Learning, and added, striking a personal note, “My friends who came from rural areas couldn’t pursue primary education or higher studies due to financial problems.” At that time, Prof Bijlani couldn’t even imagine that it was possible to learn a subject via the internet and interact with eminent faculties of other institutions from one’s comfort zone.

It became possible after Amma put on her thinking cap to create an e-learning tool to break the barriers of distance.

That’s how a team at Amrita e-Learning

Research Lab developed A-VIEW. Evolved through years of Research and Development, the idea of the e-learning programme was internally imbibed in 2003, before it was officially launched in May 2004.

Research continued, the team ran pilot projects in different phases, after which the bandwidth was equipped with an adaptive bandwidth technology to face the challenges of live video conferencing.

A well-equipped deployment, testing and marketing team took the concept ahead. Finally in 2008, A-VIEW went big and became available to masses as it was adapted into regional languages. It was deployed at all universities and colleges on a large scale.

Click on First Impressions A-VIEW is an e-learning platform that makes for an immersive e-learning experience. “In the early days, A-VIEW set out associating with ISRO and The Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), a registered society under Department of Science & Technology (DST) to deliver classes over Satellite Network (EDUSAT). Later, we realised that to reach out to a large community of students, the internet is more acceptable than satellite networks. We began to develop and customise A-VIEW to work on internet,” recalled Prof Bijlani.

August 2012 EduTech

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TECHNOLOGy

A-VIEW

Tech Snippet | Report

Tablets to outsell notebooks by 2016: ReportStyle Research firm NPD estimates that tablets will out-ship notebooks by 2016 due to one factor alone—the consumer’s desire for more portability. The report says that overall mobile PC shipments will grow from 347 million units in 2012 to over 809 million units by 2017. The report goes on to add that notebook PC shipments are expected to increase from 208 million units in 2012 to 393 million units by 2017 and tablet PC shipments are expected to grow from 121 million units to 416 million units in the same period. It is not only the mature markets, but the emerging markets as well

In 2009, Amrita joined hands with Ministry of Human Resources Development under the NME-ICT (National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology) Initiative along with IIT Bombay for guidance.

Prof Kannan Mani Moudgalya is the Principal Investigator of the institute.

A-VIEW was scaled up to a state-of-theart e-learning tool to address all needs of the teacher and student communities under ‘Talk to a Teacher’ project.

A-VIEW is currently deployed at more than 325 universities and hundreds of colleges. By December, it is planned to get A-VIEW deployed at another 100 universities and 150 colleges.

Features of A-VIEW With an aim to address the shortage of well-qualified teachers, A-VIEW works over the network to bring classroom teaching, live from teachers at reputed institutions to students at numerous locations all over India. This is achieved by using four high resolution displays to provide simultaneous high-quality delivery of video, presentation slides, interactive whiteboard and access to latest references at the click of a mouse.

The user-friendly video conferencing software comes live with the classroom like interactions and question-answer sessions emerging in a natural way between the teacher and students. The communication network bandwidth requirements are engineered to be moderate to permit remote sites to effectively participate. Sharing the experience, ML Bhatt, Vice Chancellor, IASE University, Rajasthan added, “A-VIEW is userfriendly and easy to handle. The participants felt that the ‘e-whiteboard’ facility is an effective tool for facilitating learning among students.”

All through, the focus has been to create a tool which delivers a near face-to-face classroom experience. The tool has been packed with all the necessary elements like teacher videos, documents, information shared by the teacher and classroom equipment like whiteboard. All elements are projected as separate displays or screens.

Technically, the teacher video is seen as a separate display along with documents and whiteboard in separate displays. A-VIEW supports almost all types (formats) of documents like PPT, PDF, Excel, Word and JPEG.

325

The number of universities in India that are benefitting from A-VIEW software currently

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EduTech August 2012

that are seeing the same trend.

With features such as instant-on, long battery life and ultra portability, tablet PCs are expected to evolve in form factor and performance, making them a compelling alternative to notebook PCs. Along with advancements in technology, these devices are expected to gain increasingly stable OSes, growing app libraries and better displays.

Tablets are still relatively new devices. The original iPad was launched merely two years ago in 2010 and ever since then, the market has seen a slew of tablets hitting store shelves. We have devices in a very wide price range from Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000.

Zoom In A-VIEW focusses on various disciplines like engineering, computer science, information and communication technologies, materials science, biotechnology, bioinformatics, nanotechnology, medical sciences and management sciences. One needn’t burn a hole in one’s pocket to source this hi-tech education programme. “A-VIEW is being supplied free of cost to educational institutions.

This is because it is supported by NMEICT (National Mission on Education through ICT) headed by NK Sinha, Additional Secretary, Ministry of HRD,” added the academic. All the financial requirements are taken care through the funding by Ministry of HRD.

Learn with a Difference A-VIEW runs on leading operating systems such as Windows, Linux and Macintosh. Adobe Flex and Flash are used on the front end. As for the server, technologies like Red5, Flash Media Server, MySQL and WAMP have been used.

It is different from commercial e-learning software in the market. Since A-VIEW is meant to reach out to remote parts of the country, the core team decided to tackle practical aspects like student attendance by creating a biometric login. The programme also has a Whiteboard Server Caching facility for students who are late for a class.

A-VIEW

Tech Snippet | Artificial Brain

Google’s artificial brain learns to recognise cats What do you get when you give a million people access to YouTube? They watch cat videos. And what do you get when you give a cybernetic brain made up of 16K processors access to YouTube? It learns to recognise cats! Notice any similarity? Cats have not only taken over the interwebs but now even artificial intelligence has fallen prey to their feline charms.

This ‘deep learning’ experiment being conducted

by Google and Stanford University researchers at their top secret lab in Mountain View, California is a result of Google’s

TECHNOLOGy

Blue Sky research. The cybernetic brain was shown 10 million random images from YouTube and the 16,000-processor-rich computer learned to recognise cats all by itself. The researchers made it very clear that at no point during the training was the computer instructed that ‘this is a cat’. Scientists say that this is a major breakthrough as the computer basically invented the concept of a cat. The groundbreaking research also has been believed to have resulted into activities similar to those happening in the cerebral cortex of the human brain. The artificial brain also can now recognise human faces, body parts, etc.

“Connect the whole nation via A-VIEW” 1. What are your plans for A-VIEW, both long term and immediate?

Our long-term plan is to connect the whole nation via A-VIEW and make it the platform of choice for all students and teachers across India for their distance education purposes.

Currently, A-VIEW is made available mostly to the higher education institutions. In collaboration with IIT Bombay, we were able to train thousands of teachers from various institutions using A-VIEW. Now Dr Deepak B Phatak from IIT Bombay is ready to train 10,000 teachers at a time with our software.

In the long term, we aspire to create one of the most effective virtual interactive classroom which is as good as a real face-to-face one and also ensure that the best faculty is available to the entire student community in India.

Our immediate plan is to connect all

All the recorded sessions can be edited by students. There’s no restriction on students to go back and forth from whiteboard and document sharing.

It is a known fact that there’s an emotional bond between students and

that we have a strong research and development (R&D) background since 2003. This has helped us scale to greater heights. With continued emphasis on R&D, we would be striving hard to achieve our goals as soon as possible.

3. What is your ultimate dream?

It is to deliver best quality education to every student in the world by providing our software at a low cost or even for free to all students and teachers.

Dr P Venkat Rangan Vice Chancellor of Amrita University

the universities and colleges in India with A-VIEW and we are already on the path to achieving our goal.

2. How are you accomplishing the above tasks?

We are already on the way to accomplishing our goals. It is a known fact

teachers. A-VIEW has tried to keep this bonding alive in the online mode, as a face detection feature is on the anvil.

“The software will take into account aspects like analysis and emotion tracking to help teachers gauge the stu-

4. Are you venturing into newer regions or the overseas market?

No, we are currently not entering newer regions or overseas markets. However, we are providing A-VIEW to foreign universities if they are associated with Indian universities or institutes. We would soon be implementing A-VIEW in other educational sectors too. This facility would be extended to schools and vocational training institutes.

dents’ performance. Attention Analysis and Emotion Tracking are being worked upon and will soon be implemented,” explained Prof Bijlani.

A-VIEW is being upgraded to integrate HTML5 in future.

August 2012 EduTech

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TECHNOLOGy

Trouble Fixing

Tech Snippet | Study

Social networking sites making us insecure A study conducted by University of Salford, UK on the impact of social networking on our lives suggests that websites like Facebook and Twitter are making users anxious and insecure. The survey says more than half of the surveyed users admitted that these sites caused a change in their behaviour, and half of them claimed their lives had turned worse. Users bearing the ‘negative impact’ of social networking claimed their confidence level had fallen while comparing their accomplishments to those of their friends on the network. Two-thirds of respondents claimed having problems with relaxing or sleeping after spending time on

the networking sites. One quarter of the respondents said they were having a tough time in their relationships or workplace becoming ‘confrontational online’.

The study highlighted how people have become addicted to social networking websites. About 55 per cent of users said they felt ‘uncomfortable’ when they couldn’t access their Facebook or email accounts. Also, more than 60 per cent users said they needed to switch off the electronic gadgets to have a break. Nicky Lidbetter of charity Anxiety UK, which commissioned the poll was quoted as saying, “If you are predisposed to anxiety... pressures from technology act as a tipping point, making people feel more insecure and overwhelmed.”

Tech TUTES

Troubleshoot Your PC/Laptop

Fixing Frustrating Glitches Pronto!

W

ith computers undone by the sheer variety of individual becoming an intesituations that can crop up!) gral part of our daily Beeping Sounds during System Startlives, the prospect of up: Most PC circuitry provides some things going wrong audio feedback to help identify an issue, with the computer and affecting our dayassuming of course you have speakers to-day schedule grows by the day. And plugged in to the system. Most PCs sinthings can and will go wrong, so it’s best gle-beep when starting up, and that is a to be forearmed and not sound you’d be well familpanic and reach for the iar with. More than that, computer service engiand it could mean anything READER ROI neer’s number at the slightfrom your memory chips Rule of Thumb No 1 is ‘Dont Panic’. est worry. Today, we attack not sitting properly in their While you can’t fix some of the most common slots to one of many assortall the problems, PC problems and what to ed errors. If you have you can most! do about them. (Bear in access to another computer mind that it’s virtually or smartphone, you could Listen carefully: Computers have a impossible to solve all posjust feed in the motherhabit of making sible problems via the writboard brand (you should most distinct ten word, since one-sizehave a manual that came distress sounds fits-all advice will usually be with the PC) and the num-

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EduTech August 2012

It’s easy!: Attending to small troubles not only saves time but also the cost and trouble of calling in an expert

ber/type of beeps to identify the issue specific to your PC. At the very least, you’ll get a jumpstart on what the issue is and be able to explain to the service folks.

Clicking or Grinding Noises: Noises such as these, which emanate from within the system, are usually pointers to hard drive issues. It could be due to one of many reasons, but even if you know nothing else about hard drives, you need to know this. Unpleasant clicking or grinding noises are an early sign of imminent hard disk failure, which means you could have five minutes or five days or five weeks. At such a point, I’d back up all my files, at least all the

Trouble Fixing

Tech Snippet | e-book Release

Penguin India releases its first e-Books Penguin Books India has launched its first set of e-Books.

According to the publisher, this will be the first extensive list of Indian e-Books to be published internationally by an Indian company, and will be available from all the major international e-Book retailers—Amazon, Apple, Kobo and Google, Gardners, Sony, OLF, Apabi, Go Spoken/Mobcast, OverDrive, Txtr, Ebooks.com, IGroup and Baker & Taylor.

The first list of over 240 titles from Penguin Books India consists of all the publisher’s new books published in 2012, and selected bestsellers from the backlist. Over the course of the following months the company says it will continue to

critical ones to an external hard drive or flash drive, before the files become unreachable. Next, run a disk scan (available in Windows accessories) to see if it highlights any issues. If the program finds any issues (or bad sectors, in techspeak), check if the warranty is still valid on the hard disk—you may be eligible for a free replacement.

Monitor Colour Issues: If your monitor is showing incorrect colours, it usually comes down to one of two reasons— the connector cable is loose, or one of the pins in the connector is bent. Using a different cable (or borrowing one from a friend) can resolve the issue easily and inexpensively.

Glacial Response Times: One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard from most folks is that their computer has mysteriously slowed down over time, down to a level where even starting a program is an opportunity to get up and make oneself a good cup of tea! That said, this symptom is one of the toughest to nail down. For example, your PC may be suffering from limited resources, particularly a shortage of memory or too many applications running simultaneously. The signs that point to this usually are too many icons in your system tray. A quick fix would be to launch Microsoft’s msconfig utility (type msconfig into your Run window) and examine the list of apps that launch as Windows starts up. You can then disable unnecessary apps and services, but

TECHNOLOGy

publish the remaining backlist while publishing our front list simultaneously in both print and e-Book editions. By the end of this year, Penguin India aims to have the largest digital catalogue of Indian e-Books on sale.

Penguin India e-Books will be priced to respective geographies and the full list of e-Books will go on sale in India at local prices when the e-Book industry develops further here.

Right now, readers in India will be able to purchase e-Books from any of the retailers listed above at international prices.

Penguin India says it focusses on pioneering in the digital publishing space, and claims to be the only publisher with a cross-platform mobile app.

Scan it: Disk scan certainly has a purpose. It finds if there are any issues in your computer hard disk, you may even be eligible for a free replacement!

Speed up: When your computer starts giving you the mule treatment, there can be any number of reasons for it

I’d recommend a Google search of any unfamiliar names to see whether you can safely remove them. Finally, you can try rebooting your computer into Safe mode—hold down the F8 key on your keyboard when the PC is starting up and select the Safe Mode option—and subjecting the PC to a scan for viruses and other malware.

Blue Screens of Death: If your PC suddenly starts showing the dreaded bluescreens, think back to what you were doing immediately before you started experiencing the problem. Did you connect some new hardware, install a new software driver for some internal component, or a new application, perhaps? If

there’s something you can pinpoint which may have caused this, start your computer in safe mode and try to remove the offender. If you have no idea what you might have done to upset your system, you have to decide whether to try to fix Windows with various random tricks (reinstalling drivers, uninstalling dubious applications, running scandisk, and so on) or whether to spend your time in safe mode copying your critical files to a separate drive, and have Windows reinstalled.

Subscribe to the daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://edu-leaders.com/content/newsletters August 2012 EduTech

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TECHNOLOGy

Interview

Stephen Downes Researcher at National Research Council, Canada Introduced the concept of e-learning 2.0 and with George Siemens developed and defined the concept of Connectivism Has explored and promoted the educational use of computer and online technologies since 1995

Tech INTERVIEW Stephen Downes

Learning through Connections Educational technology will always have something more exciting coming up, says Stephen Downes

by Radhika Haswani What is connectivism and collective knowledge?

Connectivism is the idea that what we know and learn are formed by connections.

Hence, knowledge is a set of connections and learning is the creation of connections.

We form connections with each other in our concepts, ideas and minds with the links

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between your answers and mine. All of these are different ways of looking at the same thing which is knowledge as a connection.

What role does interactivity play in the process of online learning?

Interactivity is the way we communicate with each other through these connections. It’s the way we send messages back and forth and learn from each other. A big part of connectivism is that every person has his/her own perspective and we need to be able to communicate so as to share these perspectives.

Through interactivity, a group of people come to know more than an individual because they can see it from more perspectives and views.

Interview

Tech Snippet | Parting Ways

LinkedIn drops Twitter integration The three-year partnership between LinkedIn and Twitter ended today, when LinkedIn announced that it will no longer integrate tweets. Under a partnership that kicked off in 2009, LinkedIn users could link their accounts to Twitter, with messages posted to Twitter automatically showing up on the LinkedIn newsfeed. That will no longer be the case.

LinkedIn’s Ryan Roslansky pointed to a Friday blog post from Twitter product team director Michael Sippey, in which Sippey said Twitter is focussed on “providing the core Twitter consumption experience through a consistent set of products and tools.”

“Consistent with Twitter’s evolving platform efforts,

How have online technologies evolved since the time you start in 1995? And what do you predict for the future?

There have been a lot of changes but not as many as I would like. The big change since the mid 90s is the mobile aspect. We are seeing a lot more innovations in smartphones. It’s more interesting for me because I had made a prediction back then about where the world of educational technology would be 10 years on. And it is pretty much what I had thought. We see things like the iPad, which was something predicted back then. It’s the kind of technology that you expected would come along. It’s just the question of when it is going to come along.

One of the things that really gets me interested is the idea that in the future we will be able to manipulate computers with our minds. There would be no need for keyboards or mice. Computers are already mind driven. They are simple little games and we use our minds to affect the way they react. It is hard for us to imagine becoming an interface in future but it is something that will need practice, but people will learn. If we can operate computers through our minds, everything will be a lot easier. But the first real applications would be games.

TECHNOLOGy

Tweets will no longer be displayed on LinkedIn starting later today,” LinkedIn’s Roslansky wrote in his own blog post. The connection to Twitter isn’t completely lost, though. LinkedIn users can still push updates through the networking site to Twitter via the ‘Share’ button, which will update LinkedIn connections and Twitter followers.

Twitter’s Sippey did not specifically mention LinkedIn in his blog post, except to say that Twitter has “already begun to more thoroughly enforce our Developer Rules of the Road with partners.” Sippey talked up the company’s new ‘expanded tweets’ feature, or Twitter cards, which allows for a ‘richer’ tweeting experience.

Another exciting thing would be little screens in our contact lenses or glasses.

We could be talking and I could also be looking at a weather report or following the cricket scores. These things are hard to imagine but we are beginning to see them.

There is a place in New Brunswick where all of the downtown is covered with WiFi and we are seeing more of such broader coverage. Also, there is a technology called Wimax which is basically WiFi for wide areas. It is high-speed and its connectivity is up to 20 kms.

The future will be an interesting world because we will be able to learn anything, anytime. For example, I would look at marigolds and I’ll get a little pop-up with all the information on marigolds—where they came from, who grew them, how long have they been there, etc. I might not want all the information but it will be available.

What’s the role of social media platforms in learning?

I think social media platforms are a temporary thing. I remember before the internet came into widespread use, there were online platforms like Geni, Prodigy, America online, very much like today’s social media platforms. But once

we got worldwide connectivity, one by one, they all fell. Now we have Facebook, Twitter, Google+ all trying their best to be the place where everybody goes to.

Similarly, the social platforms will dissolve and what we will have is our own personal access to the entire internet and not just our Facebook or Twitter page.

Tell us about the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).

MOOC is one great way of personal learning. On being questioned by people on the future of education online, I tell them that MOOC is about learning for yourself. These open online courses are an attempt by us to create ways in which this can be done and encouraged. Again, it is a transitional thing. We are going forward from what was before, through these courses and there will be something else to look at in the future. The idea is to take control of your own learning by creating a network of interactivity and immersing yourself in an environment where you learn with practice or by being in a place or situation and not by memorising content.

Subscribe to the daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://edu-leaders.com/content/newsletters August 2012 EduTech

47

the global perspective From

o f h i g h e r ed u c a t i o n

INSIDE 52 | Anti-Immigration Rules Ruin Bid to Draw Foreign Students 54 | Coursera Contract: How an Upstart Might Profit From Free Courses

For Women, Japan’s Academic Ladder Needs Major Repair A dearth of female leaders at top universities alarms government By David McNeill

by photos.com

T

Lonesome: University of Tokyo finally got a female head of department after 130 years!

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he alumni of Japan’s most prestigious university include no fewer than 15 prime ministers, seven Nobel Prize winners, and thousands of elite bureaucrats who have run this country for over a century. The University of Tokyo, known in Japan as Todai, is regularly voted Asia’s top institution of higher education. Yet in its entire 130-year history, it can point to just a single female department head—in the 1970s.

The dearth of female academics at the top is hardly surprising. Even today, when women account for roughly half of all Japanese undergraduates, they make up only five per cent of about 1,280 professors at Todai. In an effort to include more women at all levels of the institution, the university has been doing more to recruit young women coming out of high school.

The university also hired its first female vice president recently and has built a total of seven day-care centres on campus. But the benefits of such steps are unclear so far.

“The number of women academics has risen but plateaued about 10 years ago, and we haven’t been able to raise it,” says Masako Egawa, the university’s first female Executive Vice President.

Although Todai has one of the worst records of promoting women, the gender balance among the leadership of Japan’s other 86 public universities is not much better. Few have managed to push the percentage of female faculty members past 10 per cent, and just three have promoted women to president.

Even top private universities have poor records compared with their counterparts in other developed countries. For example,

Global.Chronicle.Com Keio, Japan’s oldest university, can cite only a single female dean in its history.

“It’s a problem,” acknowledges Yasuko Muramatsu, President of Tokyo Gakugei University, a national teacher-training college.

“Universities are a stepping stone to society, so if the people who are managing them are mostly men, what signal does that give?”

Diversity Goals

Sign up for a free weekly electronic newsletter from The Chronicle of Higher Education at Chronicle.Com/Globalnewsletter

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.

Japan’s skewed academic gender balance has long been recognised as a national problem.

The education ministry has poured money over the last decade into remedial programmes at top universities. The funds have paid for the establishment of ‘equality offices’ given the task of improving the barren academic terrain for women. The government has set a national target of having women make up 30 per cent of professors by 2020, up from about 17 per cent today. By comparison, almost 43 per cent of faculty members in the United States are female.

Many colleges in Japan have worked hard to achieve diversity, with some success, particularly in the private sector. Unpaid maternity leave has been extended up to three years and daycare facilities have sprouted up at richer institutions like Todai.

Some, such as the private Meiji University, have given preference to women in hiring decisions, notes Etsuko Katsu, a vice president at Meiji. “If two candidates have almost the same ability, administrators should hire the female.”

She and other women say that compared with Japan’s testosterone-charged corporations, the academic world is actually ahead on gender issues. Muramatsu points to her own appointment as president, and a rise in the number of female professors, from 13 to 20 per cent, since she was hired by Gakugei two decades ago—a better record than at many large companies.

Just a handful of Japanese firms employ female chief executives. Seventy per cent of Japanese women still quit work for good after they have their first child, mainly because the country’s corporations are so unaccommodating to working mothers. Not surprisingly, only two-thirds of college-educated Japanese women are employed.

“Women are handicapped by having to raise children...so schools push women aside”

Japan as a whole lags far behind other nations in gender equality. The latest ‘Global Gender Gap’ report, produced every year by the World Economic Forum, ranked Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, at 98, below Azerbaijan, Albania, and Kazakhstan. The problem seems to start at the top: Fewer than 12 per cent of Japan’s lawmakers are women.

‘Reflection of Society’

“The problem at universities is largely a reflection of Japanese society at large,” says Junko Hibiya, the first female president of the private International Christian University in Tokyo.

She rejects the solution suggested by some: quotas for women. “Once you set a certain number you may have to promote or hire women who may not be there on their own merits,” she says. But she insists that the country’s best universities should lead the way, pointing to her own institution’s success in raising the number of women to 53 out of 147 professors. “I don’t think that universities like Todai, no matter what they say, are taking the concept of diversity seriously. The number of female professors is appalling, and all national universities are the same.

Their mindset is different.”

Exactly how that mindset works in practice is disputed. Katsu of Meiji says women simply shun top positions because of their ‘DNA’. She says, “Men like power and authority. Women care less about those things.”

Others note, however, that male department heads in many universities still exercise almost ‘feudal’ power, as one professor, who requested anonymity, describes the situation.

“In my faculty the tradition was that the person leaving found their replacement—not exactly a guarantee of new ideas being highly valued.”

Few professors can cite explicit cases of discrimination based on sex, but the system of internal promotion is subtly biased against women, says Muramatsu, of Tokyo Gakugei University.

“Women are handicapped by having to raise children. So when schools or universities choose a leader, they push women aside and push men into the leadership.”

Another major issue impeding the rise of women through the academic ranks is the sheer amount of work demanded, says Linda Grove, a former vice president of the private Sophia University. “In Japan almost all administrative positions are elected by peers, and some—for example, department chair—are basically rotated among senior faculty.” Men and women, particularly those with families, try to avoid administrative work, which offers few academic rewards.

The career rewards are clearer further up the chain of command, for positions of dean, vice president, and president, but at those levels the resistance to change is also higher, Grove adds. “It is often difficult to tell if that is because of gender discrimination,” she says. “As more women fill such positions, it August 2012 EduTech

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THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE will be easier to tell if the trouble is gender discrimination or just resistance to change.”

Importing Talent Rather than wait for women to rise to such positions, some universities have brought them in from outside. Junichi Hamada, Todai’s reform-minded president, recruited Egawa from Harvard University three years ago because there were so few in-house female professors. “My guess is that he felt he couldn’t wait for someone to rise up the ladder,” she recalls. Katsu was appointed to her vice-president post by Meiji’s president as a way to help correct the gender imbalance. Hibiya spent 15 years at Keio University before becoming head of academic reform at the International Christian University, her route to the president’s post.

The question, then, for the more ambitious female professors is, will they rise through the ranks naturally, or will they need

help? Muramatsu predicts that with many more female graduates and professors than 20 years ago, more will inevitably reach the top. But she explains that it’s not just a question of numbers. “In public elementary schools, half of the teachers are women, but in most cases the heads are still men.” Women, she says, are still not psychologically prepared to step forward, but the bias against women is “reinforced by society, so in the end it’s a social problem.”

That means change could be some time in coming. In the interim, says Hibiya, universities must keep providing good role models to the female academics waiting in the wings.

“That’s why we have to keep on hiring and advancing women.

It’s very important.”.

Subscribe to a free weekly electronic newsletter from the Chronicle of Higher Education at http://chronicle.com/globalnewsletter

Anti-Immigration Rules Ruin Bid to Draw Foreign Students Immigration policy in parts of Europe is proving detrimental to efforts at internationalising higher education By Aisha Labi

I

mmigration is among the more contentious issues in contemporary politics and often becomes a flash point during times of economic duress. As universities strive to increase their share of the growing number of internationally mobile students, immigration policy in parts of Europe has come into conflict with the ambitions of the highereducation sector.

Britain, which attracts more foreign students than any other country in the world after the United States, offers the starkest example of this disconnect.

The Conservative Party campaigned in 2010 on a pledge to curb immigration

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if elected, and the goal has remained a key policy plank for the coalition government.

Shortly after taking office, Home Secretary Theresa May announced plans to significantly reduce the number of immigrants allowed into Britain each year. To the dismay of universities, students from outside the European Economic Area are included in this group, a classification that university leaders say puts Britain “out of

sync” with the way international students are viewed in competing countries, such a s Au s t r a l i a , Ca n a d a , a n d t h e United States.

In some ways, the government simply wants to clamp down on abuses of the studentvisa system, a move that universities support.

Institutions enrolling international students must now be certified by the government, an effort to weed out bogus establishments, many of them small private

$12.7

bn Britain’s earnings in 2009 from 9.9 per cent of the global market in international students

colleges that take in students whose intention is to work illegally in Britain.

But other changes affect mainstream universities and their ability to attract international talent. For instance, students can no longer bring dependents with them unless they are enrolled in a graduate programme lasting more than a year. As of April, the government has also closed off a route that allowed students to look for work after graduation. Now international students must now have a job offer in order to remain in the country once their student visas expire. There are also minimum income requirements.

Government officials argue that these changes should not deter legitimate students from studying in Britain, but university leaders counter that perception is often more important than reality. And the perception in countries like India, they say, is that Britain no longer welcomes foreign students.

In a letter last week to Prime Minister David Cameron, 68 university leaders made clear what is at stake. In 2009, Britain claimed 9.9 per cent of the global market in international students, with export earnings of £7.9-billion, or about $12.7-billion. That amount could more than double by 2025, the leaders said, if Britain forges the right path. Among the first things the government could do to s u p p o r t u n i v e r s i t i e s’ e f f o r t s t o internationalise would be to remove international students from the government’s definition of immigrants.

A Controversial Decision Reversed In France, too, universities have recently had to cope with the fallout from more restrictive immigration policies championed by a conservative interior minister.

A controversial directive issued last year by then-minister Claude Guéant called on local authorities, which authorise student and employment visas for foreigners, to crack down on requests by students to transition to work visas. The policy resulted in delays in the processing of work visas for hundreds of graduates and prompted widespread opposition among students and academics,

by photos.com

Global.Chronicle.Com

Barred: Restrictive immigration policies are affecting inflow of foreign students into Europe

thousands of whom signed a petition denouncing the measure. Early this year the government backed down and revised the policy to allow the granting of temporary work visas on a case-bycase basis to foreigners with graduate degrees.

During the recent French election campaign, the Socialist candidate François Hollande pledged that he would make annulling the directive a priority if elected, and last week the new interior minister repealed the controversial measure. Geneviève Fioraso, the new minister for higher education and research, has yet to unveil her plans for the job, but during the election campaign Hollande, now president, made clear that he would seek to pass measures to make France more hospitable to foreign students and graduates.

In Sweden, in contrast, Parliament defeated a motion that would have made it easier for doctoral students from outside the European Union and the European Economic Area to remain in the country to work after completing their degrees.

Under existing rules, the time that foreign doctoral students spend living in Sweden while they work toward their

degrees, usually earning money and paying taxes, does not count toward the four years of residency that are a prerequisite to seeking permanent residency status. Other foreign workers living in Sweden are allowed to count the years during which they are working toward their residency requirement, but doctoral candidates are considered students, not workers. An online petition aimed at sending what it called ‘a clear message’ to the government that it was in the country’s best interests to change the rules for doctoral students secured some 3,000 signatures before the measure was debated late last month.

A Different View Germany, meanwhile, continues to stand apart in the degree to which it welcomes foreign students. Europe’s largest economy is also among the most popular destinations in the world for international students, tying with Australia for third place behind the United States and Britain. But unlike Britain and Australia, for which foreign students are an important source of income, Germany does not charge non-European students higher tuition. The prevailing German view of the role of foreign students emphaAugust 2012 EduTech

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THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE sises fostering international ties and, increasingly, educating skilled workers to fill a looming void caused by an aging population.

Another crucial difference, says Ulf Rinne, a senior research associate at the Institute for the Study of Labour, an independent research centre in Bonn, is that Germany has largely escaped the worst of the economic crisis, which has pummeled Britain and bruised France.

Germany’s shift to an immigrant nation is a recent one, and “immigration is a hot topic in general, but the popular debate is dominated by other topics,” such as Germany’s role in the future of the euro zone, says Rinne.

Ulrich Grothus, Deputy Secretary General of the German Academic Exchange Service, describes a ‘sea change’ in German attitudes toward foreign students and immigration in recent years. Even 10 years ago, he says, there was still a need to justify to more conservative lawmakers in some parts of the country why foreign students didn’t immediately return to their home countries upon finishing their studies.

“Now we need to justify why they go back,” he says.

Meanwhile, the European Union has encouraged member countries to adopt legislation known as the Students’ Directive. It covers issues such as conditions for the duration of stay and the procedures for refusing to renew visas for students who fail to progress in their studies. There is no common EU framework to cover the transition of international students to workers, although there are laws that govern the treatment of highly skilled foreigners.

The so-called EU blue card allows such workers who meet certain conditions, such as providing proof of a well-paid job offer, to work and live in Europe. Again, Britain, which has a long history of standing apart from the rest of Europe on immigration policy, decided against adopting the directive, meaning the European rule is not enforceable domestically.

As Germany recently moved to enact blue-card legislation into national law, it also passed a package of measures tweaking existing rules to further

improve conditions for foreign students and academics. The grace period international graduates are given to look for a job was increased from 12 months to 18 months, and no restrictions are placed on whether they can work during this period. International students were given permission to work longer than under previous regulations. Foreign academics will also benefit from more liberal residency restrictions.

Grothus and Rinne agree that most Germans recognise that their country will soon face a skilled-labour shortage and that foreign students could play an essential role in maintaining Germany’s economic prowess.

As Europe continues to face turbulence over the future of its common currency and as immigration levels rise, Germany’s international educators are hoping that such attitudes remain the norm.

Subscribe to a free weekly electronic newsletter from the Chronicle of Higher Education at http://chronicle.com/globalnewsletter

Coursera Contract: How an Upstart Might Profit From Free Courses There is no hard and fast profit model behind the upstart, but a lot of brainstorming is on to make Coursera profitable By Jeffrey R Young

C

oursera has been operating for only a few months, but the company has already persuaded some of the world’s best-known universities to offer free courses through its online platform. Colleges that usually move at a glacial pace are rushing into deals with the upstart company. But what exactly have they

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signed up for? And if the courses are free, how will the company—and the universities involved—make money to sustain them?

Some clues can be found in the contract the institutions signed. The Chronicle obtained the agreement between Coursera and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the first pub-

Global.Chronicle.Com

Dreaming Up a Business Model Apparently that was enough to convince major universities that the company is viable.

“In the early days, Google never made a penny off search,” says Richard A DeMillo, Director of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Centre for 21st Century Universities, who participated in that university’s negotiations with Coursera. “Ad-supported search was a business innovation that became feasible because of the scale of traffic going to Google. If we add value, it will draw so many people to the enterprise that things we can’t do now will become doable.” He figures that the eventual business model might be something that isn’t even in the contract but is dreamed up later.

Officials at the University of Michigan were not immediately available for comment about their contract.

Coursera’s leaders say they are actively pursuing only two of the moneymaking ideas on the list: charging students who pass the courses a small fee for a certificate, and serving as a matchmaker between students looking for jobs and companies seeking qualified employees.

Even those two ideas are works in progress, though. Ng says none of the partner colleges have decided how much they will

By raj verma

lic university to make such a deal, under a Freedom of Information Act request, and Coursera officials say that the arrangement is similar to those with the other partners.

The contract reveals that even Coursera isn’t yet sure how it will bring in revenue. A section at the end of the agreement, titled “Possible Company Monetisation Strategies,” lists eight potential business models, including having companies sponsor courses. That means students taking a free course from Stanford University may eventually be barraged by banner ads or promotional messages. But the universities have the opportunity to veto any revenue-generating idea on a course-bycourse basis, so very little is set in stone.

Andrew Ng, a co-founder of the company and a professor of computer science at Stanford, describes the list as an act of ‘brainstorming’ rather than a set plan. “We have a lot of whiteboards up around the office where these ideas are being written down and erased and written down and erased,” he says. Still, that brainstorm list has some surprises, including the idea of selling course content from universities to companies to use for internal training.

Coursera is following an approach popular among Silicon Valley start-ups: Build fast and worry about money later. Venture capitalists—and even two universities—have invested more than $22-million in the effort already. “Our VC’s keep telling us that if you build a website that is changing the lives of millions of people, then the money will follow,” says Daphne Koller, the company’s other co-founder, who is also a professor at Stanford.

Profitable?: The company will earn a vast share of money if it becomes a profitable venture

charge for certificates, though he expects the amount to be small—what he called “tens of dollars”. And the company is still studying how best to work with employers, and how much to charge. “I wish I had more to tell you,” he says when pressed.

When and if money does come in, the universities will get six to 15 per cent of the revenue, depending on how long they offer the course (and thus how long Coursera has to profit from it). The institutions will also get 20 per cent of the gross profits, after accounting for costs and previous revenue paid. That means the company gets the vast majority of the cash flow.

“I suspect the margins that they’re asking for is a result of throwing darts over at Coursera,” jokes DeMillo of Georgia Tech.

Another detail that seems unresolved in the rush to offer free online courses is whether professors should share in the spoils.

Peter Rodriguez, an associate professor and senior associate dean for degree programmes at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, was involved in the university’s contract negotiations with Coursera.

He says that, as it stands, professors do not get

15%

When & if the model becomes profitable, universities will get 6-15% of revenue & 20% of gross profits

August 2012 EduTech

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THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

“These are two of the most arrogant types of institutions—Silicon Valley companies intersecting with these elite academic programmes. They say we are here now, so now it’s sort of legitimate and for real” a royalty from the courses, but that, “in the long run, that’s possible.”

Coursera claims no intellectual-property rights to the courses.

The founders say that the move is a reflection of their belief that the universities should control the content completely. “One provost told us that this contract was clearly written by an academic and not by a lawyer,” Koller says. “I took that as a compliment.”

Arrogant Institutions?

Colleges are also not bound to work exclusively with Coursera.

That means universities could suddenly take the material Coursera helped develop elsewhere. But Koller thinks the company will bring more students than the colleges can attract on their own. “You can develop your own platform, and you can put it up on your own website, and you will not have 740,000 students,” she quips, referring to the company’s current enrolment.

When I showed the Coursera contract to Trace A Urdan, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities who focusses on educationrelated companies, he found it ‘ironic’ that major universities are embracing online education when they have been dismissive of earlier efforts by for-profit companies like the University of Phoenix.

“These are two of the most arrogant types of institutions— Silicon Valley companies intersecting with these elite academic programs,” he says. “Neither of them considers that anyone else has come to this place before they’ve arrived. They say, We’re here now, so now it’s sort of legitimate and for real.”

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And he argues that the plan relies heavily on all of the money colleges are already spending on professors and facilities. “It’s a way to carve out some extra money on the top of the existing programme, but it’s not an alternative system that is going to solve the cost crisis of higher education,” he says. “It’s being subsidised by incredibly high-priced education.”

Koller insists that the courses the company is offering differ fundamentally from those at the University of Phoenix. “Their online effort is really traditional teaching mediated by the computer as opposed to using the tech in a fundamental way,” she argues. “There’s no economies of scale there. What we’re doing is one instructor, 50,000 students. This is the way to bend the cost curves.”

Among the other potential business models mentioned in the contract are: Selling Courses to Community Colleges. The contract mentions the idea of offering the course content to community colleges that could create a customised version of the free course for their enrolled students for credit. That idea was among those discussed, in theory, during Duke University’s negotiations with Coursera. Peter Lange, Duke University’s provost, says he believes it would be up to Coursera to drum up such business, if it ever happens. “It’s my expectation that that would be somewhat mediated by Coursera,” he says. “It’s not likely that we’d be going out to promote our educational outcomes to community colleges.”

Charging Tuition. The contract also allows universities to offer the Coursera courses on their own campuses for credit. In that case, the university pays the company for the use of the platform, in an amount determined on a case-by-case basis. So far, the only university actively pursuing that model is the University of Washington. “We don’t want to make money, we just want to be able to fund the development of the courses,” says David P Szatmary, the university’s vice provost. He says Washington officials expect increased staff costs to design the courses and edit video of lectures. The university will pay the company $25 per student for those who pay tuition to take the courses.

Offering Secure Assessments. The contract also mentions the possibility of setting up testing centres or some other service that would let students prove that they had done the work themselves. But Ng says that their initial research has shown less interest in that option than originally thought. “That’s not the direction we’re really moving right now,” he says. “It would be naïve to think that cheating never takes place, but I don’t think it is a major problem so far.”

College officials, for their part, seem more motivated by fear than by the promise of riches. “Most of us are thinking this could be a loss of revenue source if we don’t learn how to do it well,” says Rodriguez, of the University of Virginia. “These are high-quality potential substitutes for some of what universities do.”

Subscribe to a free weekly electronic newsletter from the Chronicle of Higher Education at http://chronicle.com/globalnewsletter

AM I READY TO BE A CIO? FIND OUT NOW! APPLY FOR INDIA’s FUTURE CIOs

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“Scarcity is sometimes the father of invention” VIEWS, REVIEWS & MORE

Lessons in Innovation A book that takes the West on a self-discovery trip at the end of which lies economic enlightenment and salvation.

Sangita Thakur Varma Jugaad Innovation (JI) is a timely reminder to a generation bred on a consumerist culture, of the value of thrift. While the book is primarily meant for the western audience and draws lessons largely from India, it also has some fundamental learning for Indians. It has many inspirational stories of young innovators, who the authors call the jugaad innovators of the new world. JI is a must read for enterprises, governments, economists, academia, and the general public to learn the value of frugal thinking and flexible living. People in the West are hungry for new approaches to grow and innovate. Suddenly, there is more receptivity for something like JI. The book advocates jugaad as the panacea for the ills besetting the western world, which is still struggling with its problem of plenty, even as critical resources are drying up. With examples drawn from emerging economies around the world, the book demonstrates the art of “Think Frugal, Be Flexi-

Navi Radjou

ble, Generate Breakthrough Growth”. And the media, academia, enterprise and governments globally, shaken by economic turbulences, are lapping up the radical concepts being propounded by the authors.

In common parlance, jugaad, a colloquial Hindi word, originally meant a low-cost contraption for transportation. It has evolved over the years to become a management technique with frugality or ‘make do with what you have’ as its premise—a concept said to be pioneered in India and being used widely in the emerging nations around the world. According to the authors, in developing nations where the government is constrained to provide essential services to its people “jugaadists for economic salvation” step in to plug the gap. And this phenomenon is also happening in the West.

The book holds up India’s native ingenuity or improvising ability, as an example worth emulating by western businesses. Jugaad innovators are aplenty in emerging economies like the BRICS, the authors say. From homemakers to rural entrepreneurs, we are all jugaad innovators in some way. Indian housewives are so frugal by nature and such ‘jugaadists’ that they find various usages for empty cans and jars as well. The authors refer to this as “The Gutsy Art of Improvising an Ingenious Solution”.

Author: Navi Radjou; Jaideep Prabhu & Simone Ahuja Publisher: Jossey-Bass Price: $ 16.36 (Hardback)

New releases for your BOOKSHELF A Handbook for College Faculty

Strategies and Best Practices

The book gives good advice on how to

Joosten’s book describes how social media can add richness to the course content and have a positive impact on student outcomes. Faculty will learn to choose appropriate social media tool for innovative learning while administrators too will find useful information.

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keep students involved and motivated. It includes over 100 tips, that have helped teachers from across disciplines. It shows how to apply each technique in the classroom and includes purpose, observations, advice and resources.

Author: Elizabeth F Barkley Publisher: Jossey-Bass Price: $28.92

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timeout

gADGETS Tech Insider | Tushar

On the Surface!

Unless you’ve been hiding under the proverbial rock, you’d know that Microsoft was in the news most of June, not only for their revamped Windows Phone 8 mobile platform but for a curious little PC-tablet—the Surface. Finely engineered and packing in PC-like hardware into a tablet form factor, the Surface represents not only a big leap for Windows-based portable computing, but possibly the future of notebooks themselves. Maybe even killing off notebooks altogether…

A new and yetto-be-launched tablet killing off notebooks…an outrageous thought, you say? Not really!

Think about what a notebook does for a large majority of consumers—typing documents, browsing the web, watching the occasional movie— and you soon realise that it is overkill for most of these activities.

A lot of research points towards the fact that most consumers buy notebooks due to their convenience around portability more than anything else. With that in mind, the tablet-cum-desktop proposition of Surface becomes even more interesting. With Intel trying hard to inject enthusiasm into the ultrabook segment, Surface may just come along and spoil the party even before it starts. With the capability of running Windows (and associated applications) and a fold-away keyboard that is one of the key highlights of Surface, you essentially get the functionality of a notebook in a far more portable form factor—one that packs in a much-loved keyboard plus touchscreen capabilities as well!

Add to this the novelty of the Surface form factor, and I believe, if Microsoft delivers on the promises it has made during the Surface launch, that this tablet will be serious consideration for anyone who is in the market for Windows notebook.

A self-confessed gizmo-holic, Tushar Kanwar is a technology columnist with the Telegraph and Business World, and contributes to a variety of technology and lifestyle publications. Tushar’s interests lie at the intersection of consumer technology, internet trends and products that change the world.

Sony ‘Xperia Go’ Now in India at Rs 18,799 Sony’s recently announced Xperia Go smartphone is now available in India via online shopping stores such as Flipkart and Infibeam.

The Xperia Go runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system and is powered by a 1 GHz dual-core processor. It has 3.5-inch touch display with HVGA 480x320 pixels resolution. For camera buffs, the device has a 5 MP camera with LED flash and 720p HD video recording.

Price: Rs 18,999

Fujifilm launches SL300 SLR-bridge 30x super-zoom Fujifilm launched its newest SLR-bridge superzoom camera with a 30x optical zoom. The camera features a standard 1/2.3 inch CCD sensor with a resolution of 14 MP. The camera is also ideal for macro photography as it has a minimum focussing distance of just 7 cm, which can be reduced to 2 cm using the close-focus feature. Good for an outdoor trip in autumn!

Price: Rs 19, 499

August 2012 EduTech

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Perspective Shubhashis Gangopadhyay Director,School of Humanities & Social Sciences,Shiv Nadar University

The Power of Four

A shift from the three-year undergraduate education programme to four-year system would transform the way Indian higher education evolves in the future

I

magine a 16-year-old who has finished her Class X exams and is looking forward to moving to a new class and, probably, a new school.

All these years she has gone to a school chosen by her parents. She has moved from one class to the next being introduced to newer and deeper aspects of the courses she has been asked to study. She had never wondered what to study and what not to for her syllabus was well-defined. Now suddenly, she is called upon to decide which stream she wants to enter into—science, arts or commerce. And, for the first time in her life, she is conscious of the fact that she may not be able to study what she likes but can only pursue what others think she is good at. This, they decide by her performance in her last set of exams.

Sixteen-year-olds are not allowed to vote, marry, drink or drive cars. Yet, they are made to decide on the stream they are going to specialise in; essentially, they are given a set of professions from which they are allowed to choose and this set is based on their performance in an exam they took after only 10 years of schooling and before the acnes have stopped breaking out. So, even though she would have liked to go into engineering, she is forced to study commerce because she did not make it to the science stream based on her Class X results. Of course, she could choose between arts and commerce but her parents, worried about their daughter’s

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career realised that her second choice, history, was too unpromising as a career option.

This is probably the story of most of our youth —studying disciplines they do not like and wishing all the time that they spent more time cramming the subjects they wanted to study. But this is a natural outcome of our three-year bachelor’s programme where students enter college to specialise in a particular discipline with no time to learn anything else.

The intense pressure to specialise in disciplines with good career opportunities, forces children to start training in them even before they have left school. Otherwise, they choose disciplines out of peer pressure. Seldom do they try to find out what excites them before deciding on their specialisation. After all, how many people do you know who ever looked at economics, or sociology, or political science, before choosing physics as their area of specialisation? Or worse, how

“Seldom do they try to find out what excites them...Or worse, how many know what economics is before taking it up in college?”

many know what economics is before taking it up in college?

If we want our youth to take mature decisions, they must be allowed to choose their careers after finding out which profession they would be most at home with. This can happen only if they could sample a selection of different courses before they decide. The four-year undergraduate programme is essential to allow students to make informed choices. It allows a student to enrol in a college without having to get locked into a discipline. They can choose their specialisation as they go along and for that they have to take a minimum number of courses in that particular discipline.

In a four-year degree programme this is not the only advantage. Consider a physicist who loves history. In India’s colleges, he will not have the time to attend classes in history; in a four-year programme, he can. This will make him happier and more wholesomely educated, without diminishing his expertise in physics. But one thing needs to be clarified. The programme should not become merely an additional year to the current three-year module.

A structured shift from a three-year to four-year model would not just align our higher education system with global education but would truly revolutionise the way the youth benefit from it.

To read an extended version of this article, please log on to www.edu-leaders.com

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