From Pathbreakers to Pathmakers by Smita Polite

Volume 02 Issue 11

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FOREWORD A Unique Experiment

“...believes that it is her liberal arts education that broadened her horizons and changed her life. And, it is that same belief that inspired us to create the YIFP”

ssues picked by EDU are always close to my heart. However, this month, I will admit, it’s with mixed feelings that I present our cover story to you. I am excited and apprehensive in equal measure about The Young India Fellowship Programme (YIFP), perhaps because I have an emotional stake in it. Throughout my time with this magazine, I have attended dialogues, round tables and seminars revisiting an old debate–the limitations of the Indian higher education system. In essence, three significant limitations always crop up. Primarily, the system’s theoretical approach to learning, as it barely manages to touch upon topics that equip Indian youth to deal with real life. The second problem: it doesn’t fire their imagination or allow students to work towards their passions. The third crucial issue: it fails to instill a sense of social responsibility in the next generation. It’s an issue that Indira Parikh, Director of FLAME, also feels strongly about. Read her views in the Profile section. She believes that it is her liberal arts education that broadened her horizons and changed her life. And, it is that same belief that inspired us to create the YIFP. In fact, Indian academics, edupreneurs and administrators are increasingly looking at the US for its model of liberal arts-based, holistic education. And, an increasing number of partnerships are being formed. Read the interview of Robert F. Bruner, Dean, Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia, to learn about how the two countries can help each other improve their systems of education. More such international collaborations are being explored, as you will read in the Global Perspective section from The Chronicle of Higher Education. Coming back to our cover story, an important point about the programme is that it’s an innovation in philanthropy. The 58 meritorious students are being given a full scholarship and are being supported by more than 70 leaders across India and abroad. What motivates these leaders is their personal beliefs in a high-quality liberal arts education. I hope you find our cover story as inspiring as the YIFP itself.

Dr Pramath Raj Sinha pramath@edu-leaders.com

November 2011 EduTech

Contents EDU NOVEMBER 2011

update 06 launch elected 08 DEMAND rULING 10 awarded set-up

Viewpoints 12 Rahul choudaha The Right Balance 14 Rishikesha t. krishnan Bright Spots in the Higher Ed Sky

Technology 42 Take a tablet to school Affordable and useful, the tablet could be the answer to replace laptops 47 tech interview Suresh Elangovan, Founder, Mindlogicx 50 tech tutes

Profile 58 Indira parikh Former Director IIM A and Founding Director FLAME, Parikh credits her success to a liberal education By Padmaja Shastri

“ Foreign schools can help strengthen Indian schools and vice versa” — Robert F. Bruner Dean, Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia

Global perspective

53 Carnegie Mellon to Open Campus in Rwanda, a Milestone for Africa By Ian Wilhelm

Find out what’s currently happening in institutions around the world. The Chronicle of Higher Education shares its perspectives with EDU 50 Scientists on Trial for Manslaughter;

EduTech November 2011

Charged with Wrong Assessment By Francis X. Rocca

55 Fear of Repression Spurs Scholars and Activists to Build Alternate Internets By Jeffrey R. Young

Timeout 36

62 Books • Brick by Red Brick 63 tech insider

FOR LEADERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION

cover Story

Managing Director: Pramath Raj Sinha PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Anuradha Das Mathur Group Editor: R Giridhar Editorial Director: Mala Bhargava Managing EDITOR: Sangita Thakur Varma consulting EDITOR: Inga Butefisch Assistant Editor: Smita Polite CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Aniha Brar SUB EDITORS: Ruhi Ahuja, Radhika Haswani, Mitia Nath

is set to change the paradigms of Indian higher education with its first batch of 58 students

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18 The Young India Fellowship Programme By Charu Bahri & Smita Polite

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64 the value of research and projects By Debajyoti Mukhopadhayay Dean, MIT Group of Institutions

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November 2011 EduTech

from the world of higher education

06 delay 06 elected 08 demand 08 ruling 10 Award 10 set up & more

IIM-A launches its Website in Hindi The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has launched its website in Hindi, as a part of the celebration of the Hindi Fortnight (Hindi Pakhvada from September 14 to 29, 2011). Prof BH Jajoo, Dean, IIM-A, unveiled the Hindi website recently at the institute’s campus. On the occasion, Prof Anand Kumar Jaiswal, Chairperson of the Official Language Implementation Committee, said, “IIM-A has become the first management institute in India to officially launch its website in Hindi.”

New VC of Presidency University Leaders: Academic leaders of India who participated in the India-Yale Higher Education Leadership Programme

India-Yale Programme A programme on academic leadership that is expected to forge deeper and more dynamic India-US ties in the higher education sector Programme The India-Yale Higher Education Leadership Programme that took place at Yale University, USA, from September 25 to October 9, 2011, was highlighted as an example of dynamic and innovative cooperation between the United States and India, during the US-India Higher Education Summit on October 13 at Washington, DC. The summit was convened by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Union Minister for Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal to promote deeper linkages between the countries in the area of higher education. The programme is the first of its kind for leaders of Indian higher education. Twenty six VCs, institute directors, deans and other officials of higher education institutions in India attended the programme. The programme was supported by the University Grants Commission of India and the Ministry of Human Resource Development and was developed in partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode.

EduTech November 2011

Malabika Sarkar has been named the interim Vice Chancellor (VC) of Presidency University. The former Head of the varsity’s English Department will take charge on October 18 for a period of one year. West Bengal Governor MK Narayan notified her appointment after the State Government referred her name at the suggestion of the varsity’s mentor group.

Sushanta Dattagupta is VC of VBU Sushanta Dattagupta has been appointed the New Vice Chancellor of Visva Bharati University, a statement from the Human Resource Development Ministry said. The university at Shanti Niketan, in West Bengal, was established by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore in 1921. Dattagupta was a professor at SN Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata. He has been elected Fellow at the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1992); Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi (1994); the National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad (1995); and the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (1999).

update

Nalanda Varsity Revival Delayed

Reducing bureaucratic control is one of the key challenges that the multi-nation project to revive Nalanda University is facing

Delay Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, who heads the interim governing board of Nalanda University, has blamed excessive bureaucratic control and difficulty in getting the money as key reasons for the delay in the project. “One of the reasons why universities face difficulty is over bureaucratic control. We have a certain amount of problems even here (at Nalanda),” said Sen, Professor of Economics and Philosophy at Harvard University. “But we believe that we should be moving to a better stage and things will work quickly. Getting our funds sanctioned takes a lot of time,” he said. Sen, however, did not give any time frame for the university to start functioning. Nalanda University is being re-estab-

lished through the East Asia Summit initiative, involving India, China, Si n g a p o r e , Ja p a n a n d Thailand. The university, supported by India’s Ministry of External Affairs, was expected to start functioning from the 2013 academic session. Sen also addressed other issues Concerned: Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen on that cropped up in the reasons for Nalanda University project delay media. Clarifying former said that it had been fixed keeping interPresident APJ Abdul Kalam’s association national standards in mind. Since Nalanwith the university, he said that Kalam is da University would have international still associated with the university, albeit faculty in the future, they did not want not as the Visitor as he was no longer the salary to be an impediment for candiPresident of the country. Addressing the dates for the vice chancellor’s position. issue of the vice chancellor’s salary, Sen

New Chancellor of Cambridge University Elected UK’s Labour Science Minister, Lord Sainsbury, was elected Chancellor after he secured more than half the votes, defeating Indian origin grocer, Abdul Arain. Lord Sainsbury, the university’s official nomination, secured 2,893 of the 5,558 votes leaving behind actor Brian Blessed with 1389 votes, barrister Michael Mansfield with 964 and Abdul Arain with only 312 votes. After the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Phillip who had been Chancellor since 1977, stepped down in June, the University had nominated Lord Sainsbury. The three other candidates had unexpectedly joined the race after securing support to put their names forward for consideration. Lord Sainsbury said “I am pleased and honoured to have been elected as the next Chancellor of Cambridge University, and would like to thank all those who have supported me, and the other candidates who have made this such a friendly election”.

global update

2,893 6

votes Lord Sainsbury secured to win the election

EduTech November 2011

312

votes won by Indian origin grocer, Abdul Arain

update

MPs demand Centrally-run Colleges At a meeting of the Consultative Committee of Parliament of the HRD Ministry, MPs raised their concern over the declining standards of higher education demand Members of Parliament (MPs) have suggested the setting up of centrally-run colleges by the Centre in every district of the country on the lines of Kendriya Vidyalayas or Navodaya Vidyalayas. The suggestion came up at a meeting of the Consultative Committee of Parliament of the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry. HRD Minister Kapil Sibal and other officials of the ministry were also present at the meeting. At the meeting, the MPs raised concerns over the poor teacher-student ratio in colleges and the declining standards of college education. They also said that the expansion of higher education

should not result in a heightened rural/urban and rich/poor divide. Seeking solutions HRD Minister Kapil Sibal is looking for Apart from this, ways to address concerns regarding higher education they also expressed unhapMPs, said that the ministry had asked piness over the Bangalore-based the AICTE to write to the respective state National Assessment and Accreditation governments where there is a surplus of Council having no branches, which vacant seats and ask them if it should caused inconvenience among peorecognise more engineering colleges ple. The MPs also said that a number of from these states. “A common entrance seats in various engineering colleges in test for engineering institutions is being the country remain vacant every year and envisaged which seeks to give greater that some states have more engineering and more equitable access to all,” added colleges than needed. the minister. Sibal, addressing the concerns of the

Ruling

More Admissions in MBBS: Delhi HC The Delhi High Court has directed the Medical Council of India to grant an increase in the intake of students from 100 to 150 to three private medical colleges. The court justified its decision by saying that a developing country like India needed more doctors to improve the health facilities. Justice Kailash Gambhir was hearing a petition of three medical colleges: Teerthanker Mahaveer Institute of Management and Technology, Rama Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, and School of Medical Sciences and Research, Sharda University. He said that India ranked 67th in the list of 133 developing countries with the doctor-population ratio at 1:1,700 as compared to the world ratio 1.5:1,000. The private colleges had

EduTech November 2011

challenged an MCI order rejecting their plea to increase intake in the MBBS course. Justice Gambhir, in his 110-page judgment, said: “The MCI is accordingly directed to grant increase in the additional intake of students from 100 to 150 to all these petitioner institutes subject to, however, the condition that these petitioners fulfill all other requirements,” the court said. It also said that there were only 19 medical colleges in the country at the time of independence and today the number was almost 335. But whether the increased numbers meant a better health care system was still debatable, according to the court.

update

Bhatnagar Award for 11 Scientists Samir Brahmachari, Director General, CSIR, announced the awards on the foundation day of the organisation Award The Council of Scientific and ogy, Kharagpur and Dr Upadrasta RamaIndustrial Research (CSIR) has awarded murty, Indian Institute of Science, Banthe Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for galore; Mathematical Sciences: Dr Science and Technology to 11 scientists Mahan MJ, Ramakrishna Mission Vivefor this year. The awardees include: Biokananda University, Howrah and Dr logical Sciences: Dr Amit Prakash SharPalash Sarkar, Indian Statistical Instima, International Centre for Genetic tute, Kolkata; Medical Sciences: Dr KithiEngineering and Biotechnology, New ganahalli Narayanaswamy Balaji, Indian Delhi and Dr Rajan Sankaranarayanan, Institute of Science, Bangalore and CSIR Centre for Cellular & Molecular Physical Sciences: Dr Shiraz Minwalla, Biology, Hyderabad; Chemical Sciences: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Dr Balasubramanian Sundaram, JawaMumbai. The award was first given in harlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scien1958 and is the country’s highest award tific Research, Bangalore and Dr Gariin science and technology. It is named kapati Narahari Sastry, CSIR after Shanti Swarup BhatIndian Institute of Chemical nagar, the Founder DirecTechnology, Hyderabad; tor of CSIR. The award is Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean given to scientists up to 45 and Planetary Sciences: Dr years of age and carries a scientists Shanker Doraiswamy, CSIR prize amount of `5 lakh. were given National Institute of OceanThe CSIR has given the the award ography, Goa; Engineering award to 463 scientists, 14 till 2010 Sciences: Dr Sirshendu De, of which were women, Indian Institute of Technoltill 2010.

463

India to have Six National Pharma Institutes Soon At Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Hajipur, Guwahati and Rae Bareli Set Up The Union Cabinet approved the establishment of six new National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPERs) at Gandhinagar, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Hajipur, Guwahati and Rae Bareli at an estimated cost of ` 633.15 crore. This will facilitate the establishment of full-fledged NIPER campuses at these places for imparting PG level education as well as undertaking R&D projects. It will also help in meeting the manpower requirement of the pharmaceutical industry and focus on R&D. The government had set up NIPER, an Institute of National Importance at Mohali, under the NIPER Act, 1998.

EduTech November 2011

voices “India should focus on innovating new ways to learn, access to quality education, training the teachers and demand-based education”

—John Daniel, President, Mysore Canada Commonwealth of Learning

“We have to create a conducive atmosphere for students. We should make sure that there is less political interference in the universities”

— J Felix Raj, Principal, St Xavier’s College, Kolkata

“Continuing your education past high school is not only a necessity, it’s an investment” — Gary Herbert, Governor, US State of Utah

“The rich have access to the digital world, while the poor and ordinary have been excluded. Aakash will end that digital divide.” — Kapil Sibal, Union Minister HRD, India

Viewpoint

Rahul Choudaha

The Right Balance

t is time Indian B-schools did some soul searching on the relevance of management programmes in the evolving social context. Do we have the right missions, expectations and impacts? Or are we fumbling in the dark? The relevance vs rigour debate of the US can show the way. Many leading American B-schools are in a soul-searching mode to strike the right balance between relevance and rigour. On the one end is the argument for more practical and competency-based learning, which meets the needs of businesses and on the other is the scholarly approach to teaching, grounded in the rigour of research.

Condemned in the US More than 50 years back, the Ford Foundation in the US funded a report — Higher Education for Business — in response to the lack of rigour in business management programmes. The report highlighted that “academics at some [business] schools were more akin to quacks; and the curricula offered were narrow, simple and weak. The calibre of staff and students alike was condemned, with the authors calling for more research and less consulting work by faculty, improved regulation, fewer case studies, more theory and analysis, and more teaching of ethics”, according to The Economist.

EduTech November 2011

More recently, the debate has shifted towards the lack of relevance of B-schools in the face of changing nature of business. Warren Bennie and James O’Toole in their Harvard Business Review article — How Business Schools Lost Their Way — critiqued the current model of B-schools and argued: “The entire MBA curriculum must be infused with multidisciplinary, practical and ethical questions and analyses reflecting the complex challenges business leaders face.”

Lessons for India The relevance vs rigour debate is as applicable in the context of Indian B-schools. On one end of the spectrum there is a segment of B-schools like SP Jain and MDI, which have global ambitions, and on the other there are many which are struggling to fill seats. This wide spectrum of institutions has resulted in a two-tier structure, with a handful of high-quality institutions followed by a majority of mediocre ones. The need is to bring in systemic change and improve the quality of all B-schools. The lessons from the history and evolution of the relevance vs rigour debate in the US can inform the direction to be taken by the Indian manage-

Rahul Choudaha

ment education system and avoid repeating the same mistakes.

What’s Your Mission? First, B-schools need to develop a culture of defining mission, outcomes and impact. A majority of the Indian B-schools do not clearly define their purpose and direction. This results in misplaced expectations and poses difficulties in measuring impact. For example: one B-school can make a significant impact in terms of producing a pathbreaking research and another can make as significant an impact by producing a class of competent professionals. However, unless there is a clear definition of the mission and impact the institution intended to make, it will be difficult to strike a balance between rigour and relevance. As Mile Augier and James March in their article, The Pursuit of Relevance in Management Education, note: “The argument…is not merely an argument between experience and scholarship; it is also an argument over the proper criteria by which to assess both.”

Different Strokes Second, the emphasis on relevance or rigour is also not the same for all institutions. Some of the leading B-schools which are seeking excellence and global reputation cannot ignore the value of research culture in attracting the best faculty, building global collaborations and international rankings. The challenge is to ensure that research does not remain in journals only and can be integrated with classroom learning through case studies and additional readings. The next tier of institutions need not have the same research emphasis as top-tier institutions, and they may concentrate on leveraging and integrating research produced by other B-schools in curriculum. Thus, while there is a need for cutting-edge research produced by some B-schools, it should not be expected of every institution.

Mix & Match Faculty The third lesson for the Indian B-schools is to develop a mix of faculty who appreciate balance of relevance and rigour. Some argue that since MBA is a ‘practical’ field, faculty should have real-life experiences and hence, significant work-experience can replace scholarly rigour. Prof Rakesh Khurana of Harvard Business School notes in a New York Times article “…while students may find the experiences of some of these accomplished but non-academically credentialed [not holding doctorates] individuals interesting, there is little

Viewpoint

“The need is to bring in systemic change and improve the quality of all B-schools. The lessons from the history and evolution of the relevance vs rigour debate in the US can inform the direction to be taken” evidence that students are being offered a deep and challenging intellectual experience.” The reality is that India needs scholars who value and integrate the real life work experiences and likewise, we need practitioners who acculturate themselves with the rationales and value of research.

Scholars vs Managers Finally, India needs skilled managers. Given the context of the changing nature and growth of Indian economy, Indian B-schools have a huge responsibility of developing managerial talent. This means that B-schools have to broaden their own mindset by accepting that they are not in the business of offering MBA degrees, instead, they are in the business of developing talent, which innovates, improves and provides solutions to business and societal problems. Thus, one approach to make B-schools relevant is to consider some of the biggest challenges faced by the Indian society and align the research and curriculum to develop competencies, which enable managerial effectiveness. Undoubtedly, there is an imminent need to make a systemic improvement in quality of Indian management education. Given the context of evolution of Indian B-schools and needs of the economy, it is important to find the right balance between relevance of practical application and rigour of research foundations. Subscribe to the daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://bit.ly/edtechnews

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

November 2011 EduTech

Viewpoint

Rishikesha T Krishnan

Bright Spots in the Higher Ed Sky

he latest QS World University Rankings released a few weeks ago brought home once again the uphill challenge we face in building world-class universities: all our top institutions and universities slipped in their rankings by several notches compared to last year. Amidst this sobering picture, I devote this column to four emerging bright spots: institutions that are changing the landscape, and which are likely to have an enduring impact over the next few decades. I had the good fortune to listen to their leaders recently, either at EDU’s VCs’ Conclave, or at the CII Innovation Summit.

NCBS: Hiring and Providing Support to the Best One bright spot is the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. NCBS is arguably India’s leading centre for biological research. To understand the challenge before NCBS today, it helps to look at it in the context of the growth of Indian science, as NCBS Director K Vijay Raghavan did at the recent CII Innovation Summit. The British never intended the growth of science in India, and early scientific leaders like Satyen Bose, JC Bose, Ramanujam, CV Raman and Meghnad

EduTech November 2011

Saha could, therefore, be called ‘accidental geniuses’, as they were not the result of deliberate institutional efforts. A more deliberate attempt followed after independence, as India climbed on the science bandwagon, and set up new institutions. But these institutions tended to stagnate unless propelled by visionary leadership. Success was in spite of, rather than because of, the system. Today, according to Dr Vijay Raghavan, we are entering a new phase of institution building. The people attracted to institutions like NCBS in recent years have been trained at the best institutions in the world. It’s now up to the new Indian institutions to help them achieve non-linear results. To facilitate this, NCBS is doing several interesting things. A US-like tenure system is in place for faculty. The philosophy is to hire the best and to provide a supportive environment for them to flower and bloom. A new Stem Cell Research Institute supported by the Department of Biotechnology is being co-located on the NCBS campus to create a critical mass of biotech researchers at a single location, and promote collaboration across disciplines. Industry participation will be encouraged in this complex through a range of joint research, incubation and facility usage models.

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Viewpoint

Rishikesha T Krishnan

APU & APF: Transforming Primary Education The second bright spot is the Azim Premji University (APU), which along with its parent, the Azim Premji Foundation (APF), has a clear mission — to transform primary education in the country by enhancing the quality of schools. Anurag Behar of APF and APU outlined some of the barriers that hold back Indian primary education. While we have thousands of schools and teachers, we have not created effective education support infrastructure — experts in content, pedagogy, and delivery. This is the gap that the two institutions seek to close. But setting up an institution like APU is not easy. Decades of under-investment and neglect of this sector have resulted in a dearth of people specialising in education. The challenge for APU is therefore, to scale up through internal capacity development. A critical element of the APF philosophy is that concepts of education and practice have to work closely together — all ideas have to be tried out in the field, not just restricted to theorising and academic writing. So, the APF/APU philosophy is to “hire for attitude” — recruit people who are passionately interested in education, willing to work in teams and collaborate, and not insist on a disciplinary background in education.

Shrishti Labs: Creative Solving The third bright spot is Srishti Labs, a part of the Srishti School of Design. Srishti Labs brings together a design education institution and technology professionals to provide practical and aesthetic solutions. Warren Greving of Srishti Labs emphasised the importance of combining the divergent thinking of creative individuals at the Design School with the convergent thinking of industrial problem-solving. This is what Srishti Labs seeks to achieve. Warren himself brings a fascinating background in setting up R&D centres in emerging markets like India and China on behalf of multinational corporations. He is therefore acutely sensitive to context, and the importance of projects that are relevant to the country.

Shoolini: Harnessing Biodiversity A fourth bright spot is the Shoolini University started by Dr Prem Kumar Khosla, a former professor of Forestry at the University of Horticulture and Forestry in Solan, Himachal Pradesh (HP). Unlike a well-endowed university such as APU, Dr Khosla has bootstrapped Shoolini with his own funds and friends’ support. Shoolini’s dis-

EduTech November 2011

“What struck me about these four institutions is their vision and clarity of purpose, and how well this is articulated” tinctiveness comes from its founders’ deep understanding of the biodiversity of the state of HP, and building a Biological Sciences programme around this resource. Students, faculty and collaborators from all over the world are attracted by the opportunity to do cutting edge research on plants and trees, using the latest approaches and equipment. What struck me about these four institutions is their vision and clarity of purpose, and how well this is articulated by their leaders. These leaders were unanimous in underlining the importance of integrity of purpose in building strong institutions. They were unambiguous that there could be no compromise on their core missions. They emphasised the importance of carrying people with them, and infusing a sense of purpose to overcome barriers. They felt that team work was imperative to achieve excellence. What’s also distinctive about these institutions is their focus. This is not surprising because in a world of increasing specialisation, focus offers a smoother path to excellence. Just as most successful startups make their reputation by meeting the needs of a niche, these institutions have chosen to build their reputation by creating impact in specific domains. I was also impressed by their efforts to go beyond the traditional boundaries of the university to have a larger societal impact. They are shaping their organisations in such a way that their knowledge finds application by design, and not by chance. And these organisational designs are not generic, but objective and context-specific. In the case of NCBS, this involves creating opportunities for different models of commercialisation, while in the case of APU, this involves close working with a field organisation, the APF. Let’s hope we see many more bright spots in the years ahead. Let a thousand flowers bloom! Subscribe to the daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://bit.ly/edtechnews

Rishikesha T Krishnan Dr Krishnan is a Professor of Corporate Strategy at IIM Bangalore. He has an MSc in Physics from IIT Kanpur, MS in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University, and a PhD from IIM Ahmedabad. He can be reached at rishikesha.krishnan@ eduleaders.com

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t’s 10am. Sociologist Andre Béteille is in a classroom at Adhchini, Delhi, with 58 students, talking of the time he met Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru. The class of students listening in rapt attention consists of an engineer, andre Beteille: lawyer, film-maker, psychologist, entrepreneur, Liberal Arts prepares a doctor, dancer, painter, fashion designer and a person for life linguist, all in their twenties. And they have come from all over India—Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi. In the afternoon, they have a lecture with Robert Swan, an explorer who has walked to both the North and South Poles. They step out of the classroom and get into heated discussions - the class has left them with more questions than answers. Over lunch at the thatched roof canteen where they eat hastily, they are told that Anwar Murtaza, a senior scientist at Abbott Bioresearch Centre, Worcester (USA), also working on drug discovery in the area of auto-immunity, will be coming for a guest lecture in a few days. If you looked around, you would find that there were groups of students huddled in a corner talking about joining a Tango session l a t e r in the evening. You also hear about a heritage walk to Humayun’s Tomb. At the end of the day, the students head off to their hostel in buses. And all of this —food, stay and transport—is all paid for. By then you begin to wonder what’s going on. And, what kind of course this is. 20

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Welcome to the Young India Fellowship Programme (YIFP). The YIFP is a one-year residential and fully-funded postgraduate programme launched by the International Foundation for Research and Education. It is co-located at present in the Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts and Communication campus at Adhchini, New Delhi. The fellowship is a multi-disciplinary programme guided by leaders and scholars. Offered in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania through an agreement with the School of Engineering and Applied Science, it promises to differ from other scholarships by offering a more holistic learning experience that adopts a liberal arts approach.

The Seed of the Idea

hat led to this never-before-heard-of innovation in Indian higher education? Like many other innovations, the seeds of the YIFP germinated in a simple conversation between friends. Reminiscing about their college days and aspirations, they recalled how they had wanted to make a “difference”. The discussions concluded with them deciding that though there were many issues plaguing society, investing in higher education would probably have the most long-term impact. Troubled by the fact that India did not boast of a world-class university, they decided to set up one and thus change the way higher education was viewed in the country.

While on the one end Sanjeev Bhikchandani, Founder and Executive Vice Chaiman, InfoEdge and Ashish Dhawan, Co-founder and Senior Managing Director of ChrysCapital Investment Advisors, were thinking about starting a Liberal Arts school, on

walking strong: YIFP mentors believe they will hear more of their students—because they will make a difference

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the other end Vineet Gupta, Managing Director at Jamboree Education and Director at Parabolic Drugs and Rakesh Jaggi, VP at Reservoir Production Group, Schlumberger were talking about setting up a high quality technology institute. They were also talking to Pramath R. Sinha, Founding Dean of ISB, who mooted the idea of bringing the two concepts together in a multidisciplinary university. They concluded that in all this time enough technology and business institutes focused on producing professionals had cropped up, but liberal and general education had been neglected. Over time the circle of friends who believed in the idea grew to include Ashok Belani, CTO Schlumberger; Arjun Bhagat, Chairman and CEO of Calibrated Group; Pranav Gupta, Managing Director at Parabolic Drugs; Vinati Kastia, Partner AZB and Partners; Ashish Gupta, COO and Country Head at Evalueserve; Sunish Sharma, Managing Director, General Atlantic; Saurabh Srivastava, Angel Investor, Venture Capitalist and Entrepreneur and N.V. “Tiger” Tyagarajan, President and CEO, Genpact. In fact, they found that a collective conscience existed on the issue in their immediate social circle.

Putting the YIFP

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22 year old BioTechnology engin e e r, A k a n s h a Gulia, has been selected to represent India as a Speaker and Panelist in the 7th UNESCO Youth Forum to be held at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris in October, 2011. Organised every two years since 1999, the UNESCO Youth Forum is an integral part of the UNESCO General Conference and provides youth

from around the globe an opportunity to share their ideas and submit their recommendations to representatives of 193 member states. The 7th UNESCO Youth Forum marks a time when youth are raising their voices to claim their place in the future of their countries. The need to be heard, and to go beyond and actually shape decision-making, is embodied in the

objectives of the UNESCO Youth Forum. The theme for the 7th UNESCO Youth Forum i s “ Ho w y outh drive change”. Akansha has earlier represented India at the 3rd Annual International Climate Champions Camp 2011 held at Goa. She has also worked in the National Network for Entrepreneurs with Disabilities (NNED) and with Delhi Greens for 2 years.

together

Now that there was force behind the idea, together they set up a foundation — the International Foundation for Research and Education (IFRE). Each individual contributed to the shape and vision of what they wanted their world-class university to be like. They also realised that establishing a university of this kind would take time. In the meantime, they decided to start something that would showcase the core principles of the broadbased multi-disciplinary university that they wanted to build. The result of the many rounds of brainstorming and ideating sessions was a flagship programme that could be the kernel for the university and its core philosophy. They all agreed on one fact: “We may be successful today, but we have a deep

A leaf out of world-class unversities: Usually, students are told what to do—the YIF programme wanted to eliminate that and let students choose what they wanted

30th September, 2011

regret that we could not pursue what we really wanted to study when we were students here. If we can now give our youth the opportunity to follow their passions, instead of being pushed into socially desirable and defined career roles, we would have achieved our goals. If we had pursued the dreams that made us really happy, just imagine how things would have changed. Perhaps we would have been more original in our thinking, more innovative and excelling in our chosen fields. We would all be able to think differently.” It was the idea of helping the youth get in touch with their passions and rethink or even reconfirm their choices by exposing them to myriad subjects and fields, that made the basic structure of the programme multidisciplinary. The course had to be broad-based and world class, and to ensure this they required world class faculty. The tie-up with UPenn

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thus followed. It is not that world-class education has been denied to Indian students. But the talented, but less affluent, Indians missed out on it for pecuniary reasons. The founders decided to focus on this group and help them take that leap of passion. To ensure this, the programme was made a fully-funded course which would take in students who were path-breakers with a passion to excel. A programme of this nature and scale would need funds. The founders were convinced, though, that they did not want corporate donors, as they wanted to avoid any undue influence by a single company or person. Instead, they invited individuals who believed in the idea to fund the programme. In stepped 45 donors that included big industry names such as Rithankar Pal, MD, Barclays Capital (New York); Jerry Rao, Founder MphasiS; Uday Shankar, CEO of STAR India; Analjit Singh, Founder and Chairman of Max India and Ayesha Thapar, Director of India City Properties. Next on board were mentors who could share real-life enriching experiences and guide students even after they finished the course. Mentors included some of the top names across industries — Sanjeev Aga, Managing Director of Idea Cellular Limited; Narayana Murthy, Chief Mentor at Infosys Technologies; Deepak Parekh, Chairman at the Housing Development Finance Corporation; Rajendra Pawar, Chairman and CoFounder of the NIIT Group and Anoop Prakash, Managing Director at Harley-Davidson (India). To know more about the list the reader can log on to the YIFP Website and listen to Narayana Murthy talk about the programme. In fact, he “laments the fact that his kids had to study outside India in the absence of a course like YIFP”. He says, “If such a programme was around at that time they would surely have applied for the fellowship.” Video over, get back to finding out how the YIFP was put together.

Focus on Faculty With the basic structure in place, the founders went around scouting for the “right faculty”, even before Pramath R. Sinha: Finding they finalised the infrastructure. the right professors was our “When we look back on our stupriority even before we dent life, what do we recall the zeroed in on the course most? It is the professors who inspired us, not the course content,” points out one of the YIF founders, Dr Sinha. He rates infrastructure as secondary to faculty, citing the example of how the YIFP has started off from a campus that it does not own. In recognition of the primary role that faculty plays, the founders emphasised getting the right people on board first. Ashish Dhawan, one of the founders, goes so far as to say that the founding team faced the choice of putting together the most

cover story Magic box: The magic of the YIFP lies in its students and faculty who push them to follow their dreams. If that entails a bit of drama, then why not?

coherent curriculum or inducting appropriate faculty members, and ruled in favour of the latter: “In going after the right people, we had to compromise on some of the courses we would ideally have liked to be a part of the programme. We will be looking to fill the gaps in the curriculum as we go forward.” Designing the curriculum may have been a major challenge because of the toss-up between faculty and range of subjects. But the final outcome seems to have worked out well. Thanks to the illustrious faculty that the founders focussed on, they

5th September, 2011

On 5th September, it was announced that fellow Dhaneesh Jameson had been selected to receive the 20122013 Fulbright-Nehru Scholarship of $ 80,000 to study animation film-making in the US. The Fulbright Program was established by the U.S. Congress in 1946 and in 1950, an agreement established a bilateral Fulbright commission in India known as the United States Educational Foundation in India (USEFI). The commission has played a pivotal role in promoting educational exchange between the two countries. Dhaneesh has to his credit various works such as ‘One Fine Friday’, nominated for The Best Animation short film at TBS - Digi-

Con 6 Awards, Japan (2007). It was also the Official Selection at PISA, Korea (2007). His mixed media animation film, ‘Wilson Pereira’ (2010) also won various awards such as Best Student Animated Film Award by IDPA, India, and was selected Best Indian entry at the 12th TBS DigiCon 6, Japan. It was nominated for best short film, Uppsala, Sweden, best student animation at Animadrid, Spain and best student animation at Tehran International Animation festival. It was also the Official Selection at Shnit International short film festival, Europe in 2011. Dhaneesh hails from Kochi, Kerala and graduated from The National Institute of Design (NID) Ahmedabad in Animation Film Making.

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became convinced that the multidisciplinary approach with a liberal arts core would work really well.

The Liberal Arts Approach According to YIFP faculty member, Prof Béteille, who is also Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, “Studying useful sciences such as information technology and management, has an immediate influence on building a career. To the contrary, being exposed to social and political thought has a delayed impact on the student – certainly, it helps mature you but it is not like studying (say) inorganic chemistry, where you imbibe knowledge and techniques and can apply newly gained skills to a job. The employment opportunities for liberal arts students are not apparent, and yet the liberal arts give students a general grounding for life and help them become good citizens. If the whole purpose of education is to prepare you for life, then the liberal arts further this aim a great deal by

Posing questions: YIFP’s focus is on experience. From Bharatanatyam to the Tango, we do it all

helping a person adopt a broader vision of the world around.” YIFP founder Dhawan, an alumnus of the Harvard Business School and Yale University, has himself experienced the benefits of a liberal arts approach. Dhawan went to study Maths at Yale; somewhere midway he discovered his love for literature and history and ultimately graduated with a major in Economics. “Our higher education system focuses on depth, even though we all know that for most people too much specific knowledge is not valuable beyond a certain point. A liberal arts education is critical in building a strong sense of inquiry, a lifelong reading habit and strong written/oral communication skills — all of which are key skills to get through life in the 21st century,” he adds. The curriculum has been designed to specifically prepare students for life. Professor Béteille elucidates, “The subjects in my area of expertise are not completely unrelated to the lives of fellows. Politics, religion, and caste/class inequalities, for instance, are subjects we grow up hearing and knowing about, even if we tend to hold mistaken beliefs about some of their aspects. By sharing insights sociologists bring to such subjects with students, I aim to help them understand aspects they were not aware of.”

Radha S Hedge: Students must think broadly about issues that impact them

Faculty member Radha S Hegde is an associate professor in the Department of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University. Over the past decade, she has been teaching and researching subjects such as globalisation, migration and global media flows. Endorsing the liberal arts approach, Hegde notes: “If we are preparing students to work and participate in the global moment; then they must be able to think broadly about social issues and their inter-connections. The opportunity for students to engage intellectually with the big picture is what makes this an interesting project.”

The Launch It was only when the founders had got on board illustrious faculty and firmed up the curriculum that they

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decided to test if the fellowship, which sounded fabulous, would actually find takers. Young India Fellow Srishti Sardana from Presidency College, Madras, first heard about the programme in college. She says she was ”impressed that such senior people (the founders) behind the programme were making presentations in colleges and sharing information about the fellowship.” But those behind the fellowship were clear about the need for face-to-face contact while creating awareness about the fellowship: “That was essential to swing attitudes and opinions in our favour,” says Dhawan. “After all, the fellowship represents a novel concept. India has no similar programme, be it in terms of course content or scale. So we realised that we would have to educate potential fellows about the usefulness of the programme and excite them into applying. The fellows give themselves up for a year of pure learning, as the programme is not a degree course. In a world where students are so acutely focussed on their next step in life, in terms of earning or learning that directly enhances their earning prospects, there was no other way that potential applicants could be made to understand the value behind our approach and how inquiry or writing or oral communication skills make a difference.”

Striking a Chord While most ideas sound good at the ideation level, it’s the introduction and execution which ultimately test these notions and establish them. So what was it that struck a chord with the diverse group of 58 fellows who came from institutions like IIT Madras, LSR, IIT Bombay, BITS Pilani, NLSUI Bangalore, NALSAR Hyderabad, SRM University, NID, NIFT, St Xavier’s Mumbai, Symbiosis Law School and Jamia’s Mass Communication Research Centre? For Mrudula N.S. from IIT Madras, it was quite simply the stellar faculty and the huge exposure to liberal arts. “The way the faculty here leave you with more questions than you had at the beginning of the course, never giving you answers on a platter, more than justifies my being here,” says Mrudula. For Tanvi Jain from Lady Sri Ram, Delhi it was just the possibility of being inspired. She says, “I possibly went to some of the so-called best institutions in India. I did my schooling at Modern School, Delhi and then went to LSR. However, I always felt that there was something missing. I studied to score, not to learn. I always missed that feeling of being inspired in the classroom. I wanted to take this chance and academically I have got exactly what I yearned for.”

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For Tulasi Prasad from NID it was an opportunity to be among people who, like him, did not believe in stereotyping. A painter, Tulasi had to forgo his desire to pursue art and even education when his family was struck with a tragedy and had to flee from Orissa to Bengaluru, where he sold samosas and wafers on the streets along with his father and brothers. It was pure chance that he was part of a crowd at Jawahar Kala Kendra “sketching spontaneously” when his talent was recognised and he was able to go back to studies. Tulasi says, “I wanted to expand my vision and the fact that I could get a glimpse of all possible subjects that I may want to pursue in the future at no expense of my own was a big draw.” Rishabh Kaul from BITS Pilani says that it was the opportunity to follow his passion and learning for the joy of learning that drew him in.

Think Different So what does it take to make the cut to the final 58 (the fellowship had received 3,800 applications in the first batch)? What is it that stands out as the one common streak in a Young India Fellow? When put the question, fellow Sanjog Sahu, from Symbiosis Law School ventures, “We desire to make sense of the world by inquiry and approach problems with creativity and zest. While it is not as if all the fellows know what they want to do, it is clear that the intention is to do something meaningful,

Shutterbugs: Whether one gets to make a ‘career’ out of a skill is a decision that a fellow gets to make. Till that time it’s all about learning for the sake of it

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something that will make a difference.” Sahu’s sketch resonates with founder Vineet Gupta. “We chose students who have demonstrated leadership, who are willing to stretch themselves beyond the normal routine, and who genuinely want to make a difference to society,” he says. So does that mean that you must dream of setting up an NGO to be a fellow? Oh no. The fellows will tell you that “all you need is belief in yourself and a passion in any field that you enjoy.” To borrow a term from Steve Jobs it’s that ability to “Think different”. In that sense all the fellows are pathbreakers. Programme mentor Anoop Prakash, Managing Director, Harley-Davidson India, and a Stanford University and Harvard Business School graduate, says, “Though each fellow I have met has a unique set of skills and aspirations, they are united by a commitment to ethical leadership and making an impact in their chosen field.” Fellowship Founder, Vinati Kastia, Partner, AZB & Partners, describes the programme as designed to open up young minds. She is especially thrilled at the number of girls selected in the founding batch; she adds, “I have no doubt that they will be excellent change agents.”

Rooted in Reality One of the stated objectives of the YIFP is “to groom young women and men who will lead India through the 21st century”. In a way, the YIFP is looking for pathbreakers who can become pathmakers. One of the most common criticisms of a course like the YIFP is that it is good to WILL WORK FOR dream, but unfortunately, PASSION, MONEY... when you or SIMPLY FOR THE LOVE OF IT wake up you will be hit hard by reality and you will be forced to join the same old rat race. But the founders have thought it through. Professor Béteille explains: “Liberal arts give students a greater awareness of what they can do and what they cannot, which is

Reality checklist: In the students’ opinion, the YIFP’s been like a ‘reality check’ for several of them—dreams are fine, real ambitions are better!

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Lending An Ear: These change agents of the future always have an ear to the ground

important because youth tend to have unrealistic expectations about changing the world. I think this programme will help them understand that they can do their bit, but not at their will and pace – you can’t change anything overnight.” When sports enthusiast and former professional football player, Adhiraj Sarmah signed up for the fellowship, his life’s goal was to pursue an MBA and then join Laureus, the company behind the Laureus World Sports Academy, the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation and the Laureus World Sports Awards. Together, these establishments aim to harness the power of sport to promote social change and celebrate sporting excellence by awarding the achievements of sporting heroes who symbolise the very best in sports. Although this BCom (honours) degree holder, with a major in marketing management from St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, had been working with Nestle India Ltd for 18 months before being selected for the fellowship, he had also been toying with the idea of starting a similar foundation that would work across India. Barely a few months into the programme, Sarmah acknowledges that he is viewing things differently now: “I was very restricted in the way I comprehended things. The programme has given me a reality check. It has shown me how much there is to

Fellowship

learn. So, although I would still like to pursue my dream, I have become more realistic about how to go about it. I would like to work for a few years to get more experience and do an MBA to learn management skills.”

Fellowspeak The course has reached almost halfway through the academic year and just like Sarmah, many other fellows are examining or re-affirming their life goals. Sayali Phadke, a graduate in Economics and Statistics says, “A course in sociology here has given me a completely different perspective to evaluate my data. I know now that it is important to understand where my data is coming from and how we function.” She has also found a new interest in history which she had dumped in Class X, as a subject which entailed just memorising dates and events. Ankita Shirodariya, who admits to being bad at numbers has also found a newfound respect for Statistics. “Even when you are doing a subject like philosophy or psychology, the moment it comes to data, the knowledge of how to collect or organise even basic data is useful. A lot of us may not recognise its value now, but I am sure we will value it later.” Suvajit Chakraborty, from West Bengal, who graduated from Symbiosis Law School, Pune, says that his parents still can’t believe that he is being taught by people like Andre Béteille, whose work they had read in college. “Everyday I seem to be learning something new. For instance I did not know that there’s something called Economic History and it’s so exciting,” says Suvajit. Gushes fellow Ambika Ghuge, a partner in an integrated hatchery and poultry production unit in one of the poorest districts of Orissa, “We not only have experienced teachers but also experts from different fields and to top it all, the course content is flexible! For sure, this is a one-of-its-kind course in India. Where else would you get to study courses like ‘listening’, ‘leadership’ and ‘building algorithms’? These are two of the skill-building courses on offer, and we get to study two to three

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8th September, 2011

On the 8th the YIFP announced that Fellow Arpitha Upendra Kodiveri had got the first prize in a World B a n k essay competition. The World Bank hosts an annual essay competition to engage the youth in the debate about emerging development issues. The topic this year was Youth Migration and the competition saw 1950 entries from 150 countries. The

jury members then brought this down to 8 finalists. The other finalists were from Costa Rica, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ukraine, Philippines, Malaysia and Haiti. A s a fi n a l i s t , Arpitha was given the opportunity to attend the Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics, 2011 held in Paris and present her essay before an eminent jury. The jury consisted of members

of the World Bank and other youth organisations like AIESEC and LIDC. Her essay focused on the issue of internal tribal migration in India. It suggested a new theory for understanding such forms of migration in order to better formulate policies that facilitate such migration, which has now evolved into a livelihood strategy.

perception-building courses such as sociology and history in each of the eight semesters and take skill-building courses simultaneously.”

Future Perfect If it sounds ‘too good to be true’, hold on—there’s more to come. The founders, administrators and the fellows are all for criticism—as long as it’s constructive. The fellows feel as much ownership of the programme as the founders and are bubbling with ideas and suggestions for improving it: “Let’s not make it all too easy, there should be some caution money to make the students feel accountable and responsible.” “Why don’t we make it a two-year course to ensure we get more time to deep dive into subjects?” “We should have more frequent open halls.” “The programme administrators should not be like genies, providing everything on a platter, we also need to rough it out a bit.” “The collaboration with UPenn should also include cross-student interactions.” “More ELMs need to be done

High-five: It’s their show— right from the food being cooked in the canteen to the choice of subjects

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outside the corporates.” You observe that they are almost as forthcoming about critical analysis as about praise for the programme. But, it’s not just suggestions that the fellows are good at handing out. They have also pitched in to help the administration with the operations. While some students are involved in the running of the canteen and catering, there are others who are helping with arrangements for a forthcoming event to raise funds for the programme. There is total involvement of the teacher and the taught, the founders and the administrators. There is transparency in the processes and a culture of constructive criticism. The excitement is not in finding faults but in the ways to overcome them. This is rare, you tell yourself. Where’s the excitement in looking for loopholes and challenges in a programme, when people involved with it are talking about it openly?

Placements in the Real World Sitting in the hexagonal office on the first floor, with it

Attention please: Got a theory on life, atoms or simply, snowflakes? In the YIFP, mentors will hear you out, because it’s about new ideas

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painted a bright parrot green and white (the colours of its logo) overlooking the green branches of trees through the glass windows lining up the walls, you try to shake yourself out of disbelief. It seems more like a funky design office, or a young snazzy magazine office, rather than the administrative office of a fellowship programme. Talking to some of the people there, you learn that for team YIF, organising the placements cell to launch the fellows into their chosen fields is going to be a test. Some students aspire to a career that is off the beaten track or wish to study further. A well-connected placements cell would be able to assist students with diverse ambitions, and it is here that the fellowship will also get help from its mentors. On its part, the programme is designed to turn out young citizens who are ready to embrace the challenges of the real world. As Hegde points out, one of the goals of the programme is to create students who are both socially conscious and globally aware. She adds that the ability to think expansively about social issues is bound to provide a competitive edge to Indian students and shape their aspirations. So hopefully, corporations will see value of the potential hires. According to Dr Sinha, “As you get older in life, you learn the value of a broad range of skills such as the ability to multi-task, make decisions, take risks, show initiative, comprehend facts, think analytically, read and write, and so on. My personal hiring experience has shown me how these skills can add value. The YIFP will build such skills as well as broaden horizons.” So far, the team has engaged with corporations to line up real world projects for the eight-month-long Experiential Learning Module (ELM) of the fellowship – the internship during which fellows will work in teams with people from diverse backgrounds and help deliver the business outcomes expected by the client. The fellows will work on team project for companies like Harley Davidson, the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, KFC, etc.

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raise more scholarships, or to make it need-based, where students who can afford to pay fully or partially for the course are admitted. The founding team is considering all these options for the coming year.

Beyond Rhodes? Anoop Prakash: Bringing in bright minds from across the country creates a unique learning environment

Scaling up Ultimately, the response of the industry will determine if, and how swiftly, the fellowship programme scales up. Will the industry see utility in the liberal arts approach? Prof Béteille thinks the programme will be of interest to business people who look for freshers with the right attitude, no matter what their job orientation skills are. “Such recruiters are of the opinion that new recruits can be trained on-the-job as long as they have the right attitude. They are the sort of people who will come forward to recruit fellows as the fellowship will help cultivate the attitude they are looking for,” he adds. To a certain extent, then, getting the placements cell up and running is a question of the industry realising that the decline in the perceived value of a liberal arts education has coincided with a decline in the substance new recruits are made of. Scaling up will also depend on the number of scholarships that can be raised. At present, fellows pay nothing for the entire programme, including their board, lodging, housekeeping fees, tuition, library subs, reading and case materials. It costs ` 8 lakh to fund one fellow through the year-long programme. According to Gupta, “We have restricted the batch size to 58 so far as that is the number of scholarships we raised.” One way to accept more fellows would be to

There can be no doubt that the YIFP is adding a new dimension to Indian higher education. Speaking about how it stands out, Prakash says, “Bringing young leaders together from around the country and from multiple disciplines creates a unique learning environment. The fellows are not only learning from each other, but are meeting a wide group of mentors with international private and public sector experiences. This is unique to India, and replicates some of the best programmes across the world for high-potential leaders.” So, does India finally boast of a Rhodes scholarship tailormade for Indian students, albeit with a difference (Rhodes is awarded for a post-graduate degree)? Gupta says the comparisons with Rhodes is only “for lack of any other global standard or to borrow a brief explanation.” Five years down the line, he hopes the fellowship is no longer equated with the Rhodes scholarship. “We would like to stand out for the unique benchmarks we create.” Programme mentor Prakash says, “We will certainly hear from these fellows in the future.” Sure, but it’s not just the fellows you will hear from, it’s also this novel programme that would be creating a splash in the higher education sector in India. As you walk out of the now quiet campus, it is slowly sinking in. It’s just that you cannot shake off that feeling of having missed out on the greatest opportunity by being born a decade too soon. What would have happened if you had been a Young India Fellow, sitting in an Andre Béteille class and getting a shot at following your passion?

The Thinking Man: Socially conscious and globally aware— the idea is to have a citizen engineer, doctor, lawyer or even a gaming designer

November 2011 EduTech

Sanjeev Bikhchandani Founder & Executive Vice Chairman, naukri.com

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A Different Way: The aim is to make a YIFP fellow take a new route, think out of the box and ultimately make a difference

A First

for India

Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder and Executive Vice Chairman of InfoEdge, the firm behind naukri.com, is also one of the founders of the YIFP. Bikhchandani is a graduate of St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and IIM Ahmedabad. However, if you ask him, he will tell you that no Indian institution provides the expertise and academic inputs being offered by the YIFP. The Indian education system provides depth of subject, but doesn’t follow a multidisciplinary approach

he YIFP is an opportunity for bright youngsters to experience a multi-disciplinary liberal arts-based education programme. It’s a first for India — no other university or institution offers a programme of similar design, depth and quality. Indian education models are rigid and inflexible. Students study in silos. They specialise in one stream and learn little about anything else. It’s interesting then to observe that most graduates end up working in an entirely different area. I would reckon that about 70 per cent of our engineering graduates don’t work as engineers eventually. In direct contrast to the silobased, tunnel-vision Indian method, the multi-disciplinary liberal arts approach has students study a broad range of subjects before majoring in a chosen field. The liberal arts way was conceptualised in, and is best practiced in, the USA. That is why we chose to deliver the YIFP in collaboration with

an Ivy League university, University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), through an agreement with its School of Engineering and Applied Science (Penn Engineering). The people we interact with at UPenn are extremely supportive of our endeavour. I can vouch for the fact that UPenn has no “profit motive” from this programme. Their exceptional faculty also participate in delivering the YIFP courses. Essentially, they are helping us bring their outstanding quality to India by offering customised bridge courses for graduates to broaden their horizons before taking the next step—further studies or a career.

Not Flippant: Everyone gets a job, but a career’s different. It’s a calling that not only pays but makes a difference in lives. The YIFP is trying to make that difference November 2011 EduTech

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Lazy Sundays: Are not an option because students themselves organise study tours to theatres, parks and archeological sites that dot Delhi

We want to

Address Gaps

One of the founders of the YIFP, Vineet Gupta is the Managing Director of Jamboree Education, an education services provider, and is the Director of Parabolic Drugs, a pharmaceutical firm listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange. In conversation with EDU, Gupta tells us why the YIFP is ‘spot on’ in filling gaps in the education system

hen I studied mechanical engineering at IIT Delhi in the late Eighties, the only exposure I had to liberal arts was through a few short courses in political science, which I enjoyed immensely. Though I had chosen to study engineering, I was equally interested in history and civics. Sadly, my interests in these latter subjects were never satiated at the IIT. There we never discussed social “ideas” though most of its students went on to work in the social sector. In the two decades since I graduated, life has shown me that a liberal arts education is indispensable. It helps young people to get ready for the “real deal” later—especially in the professional sector. Whether it is decision-making or learning how best to interact with people—holistic learning can happen only when one studies life and physical sciences and

the social subjects. Unfortunately, our education system has remained largely straightjacketed. A student is asked to choose too early in his or her formal education to opt between science, commerce or humanities. That decision influences a large part of his or her life. For example, a commerce graduate continues to study related topics only. As a result, some of them lack the width and depth that comes from studying cross-disciplinary ideas. I firmly believe that what’s on offer in Indian educational institutes falls short of what students and industry expect. That is the gap that the Young India Fellowship Programme addresses. We have designed it as a one-of-itskind programme, keeping in mind the quality of faculty and content. We have also adopted unique yardsticks to recruit the fellows and will closely observe the processes through which the programme is conducted — though only time will tell if we have met our goals.

Meditate and mull: Body, mind and souls - the YIFP engages them all

Fellowship

cover story Vineet Gupta Director, Jamboree Education

November 2011â&#x20AC;&#x192; EduTech

cover story

Fellowship

Ashish Dhawan Senior Managing Director, ChrysCapital Investment Advisor

EduTechâ&#x20AC;&#x192; November 2011

Fellowship

cover story

A different tune: Singing, dancing, drama and public-speaking lessons apart, students also opt for a little horseplay. All work and no play? No way

Its Liberal

and Free

One of the YIFP founders, Ashish Dhawan is a Senior Managing Director of ChrysCapital Investment Advisors. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an alumnus of the Harvard Business School and Yale. Dhawan believes that the programme, based on an open architecture model, is the way of the future

he founders of the YIFP share a common philosophy: a willingness to share knowledge. The way I see it, there are two ways to share knowledge. You could build a new educational institution and set new benchmarks. Or, you could share the design and content of an outstanding educational programme by subscribing to an open architecture model. We have based the YIFP on an open architecture model as it is not our aim to make commercial gains from this programme. We (the founding group) seeded the programme as a not-for-profit venture and then raised money from individual donors. We genuinely see it as being the need of the hour. While it is a small programme in the context of the whole Indian education system, it is our desire to make the excellent courses that are being delivered easily accessible. To this end, we hope to put out more content on the web in future. Based on my interactions with educationists from the government sector, I know that there is a strong desire for quality content to be made more widely available. So far, I am only aware of the IITs as sharing some quality content.

Namaste India: It may be the next Rhodes, or not. However, the one promise that it does make, is to make learning fun

November 2011â&#x20AC;&#x192; EduTech

dialogue

by subhojit paul

There is infinite demand for business education

EduTechâ&#x20AC;&#x192; November 2011

Robert F Bruner

dialogue

Curvy Round The World is not

Robert F Bruner, Dean, Darden Graduate School of Business, University of Virginia, believes that globalisation has made management education more exciting than ever before

By smita polite

Robert F Bruner Current Engagement: Dean, Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Virginia Previous ENGAGEMENTS: Loan Officer and Investment Analyst, First Chicago Corporation (1974-77) Visiting Professor at INSEAD, IESE and Columbia Business Schools Education: MBA and PhD from Harvard Business School BA from Yale University Books: The Panic of 1907: Lessons Learned from the Market’s Perfect Storm (Co-authored by Sean D Carr) Deals from Hell Applied Mergers and Acquisitions

EDU: Darden has partnerships with various Indian schools. Any specific criteria for selection? Robert F Bruner: We have partnered with IIM, Ahmedabad, ISB, Hyderabad and XLRI, Jamshedpur. We chose schools which share our values and are in synch with the way we present ourselves to the world. Our emphasis is on excellent teaching, service and high attention to ethics. Like us, IIM-A teaches by the case method, so we share the pedagogy. ISB and XLRI also have the same case method teaching. Because we share these values, it’s easy for us to have conversations about common projects, joint programmes and things that matter to us. The students, who come to our school on exchange, fit right in. Our partner schools in India and all over the world have very high admission standards. So, when we exchange students, we are confident that they can stand the rigours of our programme. What are your thoughts on setting up an institution in India in the context of the Foreign Education Bill? I think it is in India’s best interests to lower the entry barriers. Many Indian schools may feel threatened because of the possibility of new entrants in their market. I was visiting a professor at IIM, Bangalore. They have 200 thousand applicants for 400 places. That is a very big unmet demand. There are high quality schools at one end, and there are diploma mills on the other, and you need screening to make the right choices. If India is careful about the schools it lets in, I believe it will make for a vibrant academic sector. Foreign schools can help strengthen Indian schools and vice versa. November 2011 EduTech

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Robert F Bruner

Rather than more competition, it could be more collaboration. Alternately, I think the students would be the winners from a liberalisation programme in this sector. The Darden School will have great interest in a presence in India; though our strategy at present is asset-light. We want to carry our programmes to the important countries of the world, but not necessarily make heavy asset investments, not because we are afraid, but because we want to preserve flexibility. This flexibility helps us in various ways. For instance, we offer short global experiences to our students all over the world. We take our MBA students over a dozen cities and the choice of where to send the students changes according to the conditions of the appeal and sometimes, according to very significant events. Last spring, we had programmes to send our students all over the world, including Cairo and Bahrain. This was in March when the Jasmine Revolution was in full swing. We said: “No, we will not send our students to Tahrir Square or Bahrain, the sites of civil unrest. We will send you to Dubai or Barcelona.” The students were of course unhappy.

EduTech November 2011

They wanted to be in the middle of the protest. The point is that we were able with great flexibility, to shift the learning of our students to venues that were as attractive and loaded with global insights. It is in the interests of the students and the profession we serve, to be flexible.

You have just established a global executive MBA programme. Can you tell us more about it? This programme will take every graduating class of students to five major economic zones of the world; the ones that we think will be leading in this century. They are India, China, Brazil, the European Union and the United States. We have carefully selected these to provide comparisons and contrasts in numerous ways. In India, we are thinking of bringing our students to Chennai and Delhi. But maybe 18 months from now, going to Bangalore and Mumbai would make a better comparison. We have that flexibility and wonderful partnerships in India. We will draw upon them for |rich local content. We are not outsourcing the teaching; we are sending our own faculty.

How is this programme structured? It is a 21-month programme, a combination of residential experience and online learning. We seek to admit 36 to 45-year-olds, who have 15 years of work experience or more. More importantly, they are people who have established their mastery in certain functional areas: finance, operations or marketing. We are one of the world’s leading general management schools. So we have structured this programme in ways to help them develop the general management point of view and the global mindset. There will be a two-week residential experience programme followed by about eight weeks of online learning and another residential experience in different parts of the world with eight more weeks of online learning. Every week, there will be three to five formal class sessions where a professor using Skype or WebEx or some other technology will be visible on the students’ screen and the students will interact with the professor in real time. We are also using interaction like asynchronous chats.

Robert F Bruner

Darden School will have great interest in having presence here, though our strategy at present is assetlight. We want to carry our programmes to the important countries of the world but not necessarily make heavy investments Will the entire group of students move from one location to another? Yes. They will bond and have common experiences in these different countries. But there is also a great deal of tailoring with the programme, permitting the students to learn and specialise in certain subject areas. Will the exposure to different markets help them see where their skills are relevant? Yes. Our view is in contrast to Thomas Friedman in his book The World is Flat where he said national boundaries don’t matter anymore. I think the world is lumpy or curvy. It may not be round anymore — thanks to technology and globalisation, but there are at least four kinds of distances that matter. The first is cultural, due to differences in language, ethnicity, religion, and values. The second is administrative, due to differences in laws and how industries are regulated. The third is geographical distances: some countries are remote, some have easy access, some are big, some little and some are advanced. The final is economic distances: some countries are

rich, some are poor, some have very sophisticated financial systems and some don’t. We will go to manufacturing plants. We will show people, the workspaces and the working conditions, the logistical challenges of serving markets. It’s very impactful learning. You can’t learn about this sitting in an armchair at your home or in your home country.

How does a business school make itself different and relevant? It all starts from great clarity about the mission and values of the school itself. Too many schools today are chasing fads to get attention. This is dangerous. I think the right way to consider how to have impact and stature is to ask, “What is your purpose? What is the mission of the school?” A mission always has a sense of who you are serving — is it corporations, is it the nation, the entire world, or students?, What is it that really matters to you? Once you define that, then you can identify the new paths and initiatives that can actually raise the effectiveness of a school. I know that many schools today say that they want to

dialogue

be a world-ranked school. High rankings follow from high impact. The relevant question in my view is “How can a school gain impact; trusting that the world will sit up and take notice if you are having impact, and schools will discover that they are constrained in the impact they can have.” For some schools, the greatest impact is in areas of speciality because they build upon strengths of the parent university, special strengths with respect to engineering, healthcare or information technology. That might suggest starting specialised degrees. Other schools will discover and decide they are strong because they serve a geographic area: a city, a region or a type of industry: agricultural industry or energy. It’s easy for me to say this because my school is well-recognised. But if I were advising the dean and trustees of a school that wanted to gain a national and global stature, I would say they should begin by thinking about service. Ask: “Who am I trying to help and why and how?” Once you have clarity in the answers to these questions, the next steps to building your impact will leap out.

How did Darden establish its distinct identity? The world tells us we are distinct for a few things. The way we teach the case method — how we teach is what we teach. We teach how to manage and lead people by asking questions. And the virtue of leading that way is that it encourages people to think for themselves and reach their own conclusions. If you knit together the rankings, the blogs, the guidebooks and the chatter about business schools, you’d probably conclude that Darden is the world’s best teaching school. We are very serious about producing excitement and impact in the classroom. The second thing that we are really known for is leadership development and the development of general managers. Financial Times ranked us No. 1 for general management. This stems from our legacy at our founding which was focussed on creating leaders and general managers, and we have just continued to November 2011 EduTech

dialogue

Robert F Bruner

invest in it and improve on it; adding to the stack of knowledge in that area in ways that have accumulated into a very strong reputation. We were founded in 1955, so we are still comparatively young. We were originally found to serve the state of Virginia in the United States. So we are affiliated with the University of Virginia which is a state-based institution. But starting in 1970s and 1980s, we began to develop a national stature and now we have an international stature. This comes from single-minded focus on what it is we want to do and do it well. We have a very strong business ethics department, and values and ethics are the core of everything we do. It is an illustration of the importance of focus: not trying to be all things to all people but trying to do a few things very well to have the impact.

As Chairman of the AACSB Globalisation of Management Education Task Force you brought out a globalisation study. What were the highlights of this study? I was a part of the team of a dozen deans of global business schools and we were chartered by the AACSB which accredits business schools to study how globalisation is affecting management education. This is an amorphous topic and we could have gone into many different directions. But we concentrated on four different paths. The profile we developed of the field is very interesting. We began by conducting a census of all the schools in the world: their number and where they are. It is still going on but, at the last count, there were over 13,000 institutions that offered degrees in business of some kind. The first insight thus is that it’s a vast field. Students have immense choice. Less than 10 per cent of these are accredited schools. There are some excellent schools in the remaining 90 per cent, but the notion of accreditation of an independent group checking the standards of grading, admissions and student support is still spreading slowly in the world. The second insight is very active partnering among schools across borders. Schools are setting up exchange pro-

EduTech November 2011

grammes for students, exchange of faculty, joint research initiatives and degree programmes. One school boasted of 200 partners. Our school, in contrast, has only 15 international partners. We keep it small because we focus on rich relationships. The third finding was about the curriculum of business schools: how they are teaching globalisation. We found that schools do a better job talking about globalisation than actually inserting it into the curriculum and helping shape the mindsets of the students. A lot more work needs to be done there: teaching materials, new course plans and helping the traditional professor build confidence about being able to deal with global matters. And the final of the four big insights stemmed from some in-depth case studies we did of business schools. We looked at 10 schools, studied their motives, strategies, tactics and from that emerged the insight that there is no single strategy that applies to all schools. Different schools are trying different things and this is good for the students and the field, but it also feels like an early stage industry, like Silicon Valley in its early days, or Bollywood. And it also means that eventually, there will be a shakeout. Some experiments will work, some won’t; schools will rise and fall. But I don’t think we are close to the shakeout.

People have started talking about how business education is not relevant anymore, what are your thoughts? I think that business education is more relevant than ever before. Recently I was giving a talk. A young person said that I hear from Silicon Valley that getting an MBA is irrelevant. That if you want to start a business you should just go ahead and start it. My reply was that if you have great clarity about the business you want to start, sure go ahead and start it. But the world of hard knocks is full of many hard knocks. It’s an expensive place to get an education. If you have a lot of money, time, unlimited energy, go start businesses because what will happen is you will start many and most of

them will fail because the failure rate of new business start-ups is quite high. Seventy per cent fail to live beyond the third anniversary of founding. And, what a good business school education can do is to help you understand the risk you are taking to begin with and how to mitigate them. This saves you untold time and effort and money in starting businesses. At the end of the day, it can actually help and prove your success as an entrepreneur.

A recent article in FT said that the number of students applying to business schools is going down. Why do think that has happened? I think the truth is that the number of students applying within the United States is flat to declining. But from the robust emerging economies, it’s rising. In fact, the UNESCO website has figures on student mobility across borders. It’s continuing to grow, even outbound from the US to the world, I believe is growing. The exception is Japan which is unfortunately, really turning inward. What is happening in the United States is a phenomenon that I believe is tied to the economic cycle. When the cycle turns down, more young people tend to apply to schools because they lose their jobs and their future for the next few years is not as bright. When the cycle turns up, young people are less inclined to quit their jobs. What we don’t know is, if this cycle is different and I am sceptical. John Templeton, one of the great investors in the history of capitals said the four most dangerous words in investing are: “This time it’s different”, because we tend to see the repetition of human behaviour with some regularity. My belief is that students will attend business schools in increasing volumes. There is infinite demand for business education. That said, where the demand is supplied and how is a big question mark. This is an exciting time to be in the industry and that is what our study on globalisation also suggested. Subscribe to the daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://bit.ly/edtechnews

TECHNOLOGY 48 Tech INTERVIEW: Suresh Elangovan, Founder, Mindlogicx 46 Tech TUTeS: Moving to a Mac

By raj verma

43-47 Tech Snippet: Tehnology News and Tips and Tricks

Take a Tablet to School A slew of these diminutive collaborative learning devices, at price tags to suit all pockets, have flooded the market by Tushar Kanwar 42

EduTech November 2011

t was an all-but-dead product category, one that never really got off the ground in adoption terms despite the big push from Microsoft all the way back in 2002. And then this sleek, almost diminutive device, that we’ve come to know as the iPad was launched in early 2010. With the iPad, Apple wiped the slate clean, so to speak, and quite literally opened up the floodgates for a slew of contenders that promised to completely change the way we interact with our computers and consume information. Cut to October 2011, when the Human Resources Development Ministry launched Aakash, the $45 tablet aimed squarely at increasing the literacy rate

Tablets

Tech Snippet | Tablets

Govt Launches Aakash Government of India’s ultra low-cost tablet, Aakash, was officially launched recently. The Aakash tablet, previously nicknamed as Sakshat, looks different from the prototype flaunted by the telecom minister Kapil Sibal last year. However, the specifications of the device are same as previously reported. The Aakash tablet runs on Android 2.2 Froyo OS and offers WiFi and USB connectivity, 256 MB of RAM, 2 GB inbuilt storage, and storage expandable up to 32 GB via microSD (2 GB microSD card bundled).

and developing much-needed technological skills across India. Once the subject of intense scepticism, this low-cost tablet successfully underscored the Indian government’s backing of the portable form factor, and everywhere computing that the tablet category has come to represent. The tablet is here to stay, this much is undeniable. But how can you capitalise on this new learning and collaboration medium for your institution? We take a deep dive into the many benefits a tablet deployment can bring, and take a look at the landscape as it exists today.

Why Tablets Make Sense Content Viewing Devices: If you take a look at the vast majority of tasks students have to do, you will find that they are primarily passive in nature — students have reading assignments, research assignments, and possibly some media viewing in the form of video material. It can be easily argued that these activities better suit the ‘book’ form factor of a tablet rather than a ‘desk’ form factor of a PC or a laptop. Factor in the evolution we’re seeing in e-textbooks (with rich graphic and visual content), which suggest that tablets make for excellent study devices. By allowing students to

There are two versions of the device. The Aakash tablet, which is scheduled to hit retail stores next month, will be priced at $60 and will have an inbuilt cellular modem and SIM to access internet. These two features will not be available in the $35 subsidised tablet. “As a business, we need to make profit, and our distribution channel needs to make a profit, which is all covered in the Rs 2,999,” a government official said. The tablet is considered to be a revolutionary gadget as it aims to cater to rural India and connect it with the ongoing technology boom in the country.

highlight the text, take notes on top of the PDF documents, and access reference material directly within the book itself, tablets are matching (and in some cases, surpassing) everything that a traditional book can offer. Portability is Paramount: Laptops are, all said and done, bulky and heavy, and many budget laptops are slow to start up. Tablets in comparison are about the weight of a slightly heavy textbook, and much like the pen-and-paper approach, are instant on and off by nature, allowing for quick and efficient note taking during lectures. With the exception of a computer science class, which may place demands on students in terms of performance and legacy software, students rarely need laptops for activities that can’t be performed on either medium, so why not pick the tool that’s easiest to carry? Plus, with the iPad and some newer Android powered tablets, you get all-day battery life, which means students can leave the chargers back in their rooms. Applications Galore: Whichever tablet platform you pick (see our debate between Android and Apple), one thing is certain, both platforms offer several tablet applications, including ones dedicated to note taking, viewing PDFs and watching multimedia content

Popularity of tablets is forcing most manufacturers to consider entering the sub-

15,000 segment

TECHNOLOGy

and PowerPoint presentations. Applications like Evernote, which allow students to take notes and insert images (from the web or the camera), or others which allow them to type notes while recording the teacher’s/lecturer’s voice, take note taking and classroom discussions to a whole new level. Fostered Collaboration in Classrooms: An interesting point educators bring about is that laptops, due to the vertical screens, tend to alienate the student from the educator — while they are being used to ostensibly take notes or follow presentations, they are equally being used for other distractions — social media, for example. With a tablet at hand, students can enjoy the benefits of note-taking and reference search, yet allowing them to participate more fully in the class discussions. Increased Availability and Affordability: With the increasing popularity of tablets, every manufacturer worth his salt is launching one in the market; with many tablets now available in the sub-Rs 15,000 segment. The result is that you can now get tablets across the price spectrum, allowing students and institutions to select tablets according to their feature and budget requirements.

Where Tablets Don’t Quite Stack Up Lack of Tablet Oriented Material: While tablets lend themselves better to rich visual content, the truth is that the conNovember 2011 EduTech

TECHNOLOGy

Tablets

Tech Snippet | Digitisation

Google Unveils Digital Dead Sea Scrolls In keeping with its professed aim of digitising the real world, so that it is accessible, indexed, and searchable online, Google has collaborated with the Israel Museum, and brought the Digital Dead Sea Scrolls online. The Dead Sea Scrolls are considered by historians to be the oldest known biblical manuscripts in existence, dating back to the third century BCE and first century CE. The scrolls were discovered in 11 caves on the shores of the Dead Sea, between 1947 and 1956, and have provided scarcely known details

tent is not coming fast enough, with many texts simply not available in a common tablet-usable format like EPUB or PDF, while others do not allow for annotation. Things are looking up though, with major academic publisher McGrawHill working in conjunction with a software company Inkling, which makes

“By allowing students to highlight the text, take notes on top of the PDF documents, and access reference material directly within the book itself, tablets are matching (and in some cases, surpassing) everything that a traditional book can offer ” 44

EduTech November 2011

about the Second Temple Period, alongside the birth of Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism. Five complete scrolls have been digitised so far, with The Great Isaiah Scroll, the only one featuring the translation option. More will presumably follow. Accessible by all, the Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Project allows users to examine these ancient treatises in great detail, with fast-loading, searchable high-resolution images, and soon, complete translations. Users will soon also be able to submit translations in their own languages. Also provided alongside are explanatory videos, background information on the texts and their history.

textbooks iPad-friendly, and other publishers following, albeit with more measured initiatives. Learning Curve of Tablet Interaction: Most students are well-versed with keyboards and pen-and-paper, having used these for the bulk of their student life. Transitioning to a touchscreen device for taking notes takes most people time to adapt, and finger typing on tablets is a slow process to begin with. Reliance on Physical Media: As much as we like to believe the cloud is all-pervasive, the reality is that network connectivity is not a given, more so when we step out of the institute buildings and campuses. With the iPad and many Android tablets not supporting direct access to physical media such as USB/ pen drives (i.e. without the use of an intermediary PC/laptop), the process of transferring project files or assignments often becomes a tedious affair.

Tablet Deployment Use Cases University of Phoenix: The university has developed a mobile application for iPhones and iPads, with an Android version on the cards, which allows students to perform a wide variety of tasks from their mobile devices, such as accessing and responding to messages, participating in discussion questions, and receiving real-time alerts when grades are announced.

The University of Notre Dame: For its Project Management class, Notre Dame debuted its first paperless course, using iPads as replacements for textbooks. Duke University: Duke’s Global Health Institute is offering iPads to students enrolled in a master’s course that focusses on methodological techniques in global health research. The iPads will be used for field study to collect, organise and analyse data — a boon for such students who would ordinarily have used pen-and-paper and had the tedious task of transcribing their notes at the end of each day. Era Business School: Closer to home, the Era Business School in New Delhi has introduced Apple iPad 2 tablets for all its students. The tablet works in conjunction with the EBS blackboard ERP application, which allows students to access classroom notes and learning material (videos) wherever they are, while receiving updates from the institute regarding attendance, class information, etc. Amity University: Amity has planned to roll-out tablets across all its five Universities situated in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gwalior, Jaipur and Nagaland, and is considering both Android and iPad tablets depending on the user group that is being targeted in each campus. The primary application being targeted is support for Amity’s Intranet Amizone, which allows access to sylla-

Tablets

Tech Snippet | Videos

New YouTube Tools for 3D and Long Videos You Tube has unveiled three new creator tools, including single-click 2D to 3D conversion, which the video sharing network hopes will allow uploaders to become ‘more imaginative’ with their video production. It has also allowed users in good standing to upload longform videos, allowing for more than the standard 15 minutes of fame. Apart from 2D to 3D conversion, uploaders also have new editing tools – Vlix and Magisto, available on youtube.com/ create. Vlix lets video creators add effects, intro and closing

bus and course material, recorded classes, attendance, etc.

Tablet Options and Alternatives Options are varied, but the tablet you choose has to go beyond the hardware alone, with an equal focus on applications and compatibility of your existing IT infrastructure (intranets, course material, etc). Pricing is representative, and vendors can be contacted for institutional pricing. Reliance Tab 3G: The best of the budget offerings, the Reliance Tab 3G features a capable set of hardware specifications and offers memory expandability as well. Reliance bundles in a 3G data plan that ensures you’re online at all times, and this helps it subsidise the price of this tablet to a compelling Rs 12,999. mTab: From IT peripheral manufacturer Mercury, this too features a 7-inch touchscreen and connectivity via 3G and wireless networks (WiFi). While performance is average, this is one of the few sub-Rs 10,000 tablets that are on offer. Beetel Magiq: Brought to market by Beetel, a unit of Bharti Enterprises, the Magiq offers budget hardware at a budget price (Rs 9,999), but is let down by the responsiveness of its touchscreen when compared to the Reliance Tab, for example.

TECHNOLOGy

text, etc. Magisto on the other hand automatically slices unedited videos into a montage. As for long-form videos, YouTube’s new resumable uploads feature will help get those big files on the network, removing the need for other upload utilities. Only ‘verified users in good standing’ will be allowed to upload these long-form videos, that is, users with a clean track record and who continue to follow the copyright rules set in YouTube’s Community Guidelines.

Aakash: The much-hyped, Government-backed tablet has got its basics right — most importantly the price point. Depending on the profile of your institute and its students, it may well not be the tablet you finally pick, since costs mean a number of compromises on performance. That said, it is refreshing to see a company that is addressing the country’s digital have-nots. Samsung Galaxy Tab 750: The flagship Android tablet, the 10.1 inch tablet offers exceptional hardware with the latest made-for-tablets version of the Android operating system, but even great hardware is let down by a mediocre number of tablet-oriented applications. At its asking price of Rs 36,200, it is a worthy competitor to the iPad but ensure that the lack of applications does not hinder your intended use-cases for the deployment. Apple iPad: The current market leader worldwide, the iPad has had small and large campuses alike, flock to put it into campus use since its launch in 2010. Possibly the best software and hardware combination, the iPad has the biggest selection of applications for any tablet, and is let down only on two major accounts — no access for USB thumb drives and a tedious way of sharing data between applications.

gressively nipping away at the heels of the Apple tablet. Which one should you choose for your institute? A possible answer lies in the weak spots of each — see if any of these failings is a dealbreaker for you. Apple iPad Weaknesses: While the bouquet of software is much better than the equivalent applications for tablets on the Android side, Apple software tends to be a little inflexible, especially when it comes to sharing files between different programs. Add to that fewer hardware choices — you get a single sized product, and the only options are whether you would like 3G or not, or how much memory you would like. No options on screen sizes, form factors — Apple takes a one-size-fits-all approach. Android Tablets Weaknesses: Unlike the consistent experience you can see from one iPad to another, Android tablets are wildly inconsistent, not only in performance terms but also how different tablets look and feel in terms of interface. You literally have to use each tablet for a while to gain familiarity with it and know its individual weaknesses. Also, as mentioned, there is a distinct lack of quality tablet-oriented applications for Android when compared to the Apple ecosystem.

Debate: Android vs Apple While the iPad has swept global sales for tablets, Android tablets have been pro-

Subscribe to the daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://bit.ly/edtechnews November 2011 EduTech

TECHNOLOGy

Tech Tutes

Tech TUTES Switching to a Mac

Making the Most of Mac

ith the iPhone and iPod gaining popularity in campuses, there is a fair chance t h e Ap p l e f e v e r extends on to your next computer purchase as well. Apple’s latest line of desktops and laptops offer excellent hardware and class-leading form factors, not to mention their gorgeous user interface and timeless elegance. But for most of us, the bigger challenge is switching from years, if not decades, of Windows use. If you’re looking to make the switch to a Mac, read on…

have to use your own monitor, keyboard and mouse. This is something you can possibly salvage from your older PC as well. Add a little flexibility to your budget and you can choose between the Macbook Air ultra-portable and the iMac allin-one desktop. Personally, I recommend the flexibility of the MacBook Air which packs in the power of a regular laptop in an impossibly thin form factor (more details at http://www.apple. co.in/store/).. If you travel abroad frequently, you can well pick up a Mac on the way back. The difference between buying in India and buying abroad can be significant, depending on which model you purMaking the Hardware chase. The good news is that Apple covPurchase… ers all purchases with an international There’s no denying the fact that an Apple warranty, so your investment is well proMac costs most upfront from purely a tected whether you buy in India or hardware perspective, but in my experiabroad. If any of your students are interence, the saying ‘you get what you pay ested in buying Macs, for’ rings very true in this they’re even luckier, as case. If you start factoring Indian Apple resellers in the total cost of ownerREADER ROI offer discounts on both the ship — Macs come bun Why Mac costs need software and hardware. dled with an excellent not be a forbidding factor While making the purmedia (photos, videos, chase, I would strongly music) management soft What to do before you recommend picking up ware — then the equation purchase a Mac the three-year ‘AppleCare makes a little more sense. Protection Plan’ extended At the entry level, you can If needed you can run Windows on warranty, since out of start with a Mac mini for Mac warranty repairs tend to as low as Rs 33,900. But be prohibitive. bear in mind that you will

EduTech November 2011

Apple’s Mac is value for money, once you get the hang of it

…and the Software For first-time Mac users, the bad news (or the good news, depending on how tired you are of your current PC) is that the Mac operating system software is not ‘like Windows’. It is critical to understand that while Macs are intuitive to use, switching to a Mac takes some getting used to. So give it some time and consider it an investment. If you already use an iPad, you will notice features like Launchpad which are very similar to how applications are organised on the iPad. Do ask your Apple vendor to walk you through most of the regular everyday tasks even before you make the purchase, so you start understanding the minor nuances of using a Mac. Apple has a number of very handy tutorials at http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/ and http://www.apple.com/findouthow/ mac/ to ease the transition and the benefits of spending some time with these tutorials is immense. Once you begin to find your way around your Mac, getting the same (or similar) software to do what you are used to doing in Windows is a fairly easy task, with many free and paid alternatives

Tech Tutes

Tech Snippet | Survey

Youth: Internet as Important as Air survey The modern youth believe the internet is an integral part of their lives and it is as essential as air, water and food for survival, says a survey conducted by networking giant Cisco. The 2011 Cisco Connected World Technology Report includes survey on some 1,441 college students, aged between 18-24 and 1,412 employees, aged between 21-29 in 14 countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, France, China, Russia and India. In India, nearly 95 per cent of the college students and young employees said in the survey that internet is no longer a ‘good to have’, and it’s now a ’must have’ facility. The change in perception is due to the rising trend of staying connected and sharing, thanks to social media and smart mobile devices. The Cisco report gives an interesting insight on the

existing to do the job. Sample these: the Preview application will open your PDFs and image/media formats; iCal will handle your calendaring activities; and Time Machine will automatically back up your data and applications to an external drive. The iLife suite, with iPhoto for photo management, iMovie for movie editing, iWeb for simple web publishing, iDVD for DVD creation etc., comes free with your Mac. Your next best bet is the Mac App Store, Apple’s online application store that lets you choose applications and shows you recommendations and ratings for each application under a variety of categories. Microsoft even has a version of Office for Mac, so all your work related documents are fully supported. Beyond that, get started with apps like VLC for multimedia playback, and browsers like Firefox, Chrome or Opera, and soon you will be wondering how you could have managed all these years with your Windows machine! Of course, it needs to be mentioned that if you really need to use Windows for some proprietary application that is not available on the Mac platform, you can choose to run Windows on a Mac as

TECHNOLOGy

phenomenon with a special focus on current and future employees, and aims to identify the best ways to address their needs, expectations and issues. Nearly 64 per cent of respondents said that they would prefer internet over a car, while about 40 per cent of respondents globally said that internet is more important than dating or going out with friends or even listening to music. The young generation loves social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The report states nearly 27 per cent of respondents said they preferred updating their status messages on Facebook than partying or going out with friends. On extensive usage of social networking site Facebook, Indian respondents topped the survey with some 92 per cent students logging on their accounts daily, while one-third of them checking their walls at least five times a day.

The iLife suite, with iPhoto for photo management, iMovie for movie editing, iWeb for simple web publishing, iDVD for DVD creation etc., comes free with your Mac

Microsoft even has a version of Office for Mac, so all your work related documents are fully supported

well, either using the built-in utility called Boot Camp or third party software like VMware or Parallels.

Subscribe to the daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://bit.ly/edtechnews November 2011 EduTech

TECHNOLOGy

Tech Interview

by Radhakrishna

Mindlogicx facts: Set up India’s first Knowledge Network Service platform using Business Intelligence and decision support tools by way of user defined Learning Path and Dash Boards Committed to: Innovate, enable, empower’

Tech INTERVIEW

Suresh Elangovan, Founder CEO and MD, Mindlogicx Infratec

My Focus is, and will be Education Elangovan believes that higher education will soon move towards the virtual platform to solve faculty issues What triggered your interest in the higher education space? I come from a family of educationists and have been associated with the education industry for quite some time. During 2002-07, I had a lot of interactions with President Abdul Kalam and the vice chancellors who came to Rashtrapati Bhawan. I built up my relationship with them over time. In the course of my interactions, I discovered the huge IT requirements in the

EduTech November 2011

higher education space and that no one had any idea of how to go about an automated system. This was a huge niche opportunity market and there was no serious competition in the space. From the commercial perspective, this was a market segment that had a lot of funds available including government grants. So I decided to build technology targeting the higher education space for universities within and outside the country.

You were also involved with developing the country’s first tele-education delivery system using V-Sat technology. How did that come about? The government of India is talking about providing education to all and

Tech Interview

increasing the gross enrolment ratio from 12 per cent now to about 18-20 per cent in the next five years. A lot of money has been allocated to that end in the 11th five year plan of the government of India. It is laying tremendous emphasis on research in higher education. Talking practically, going forward it would be impossible for anyone to impart higher education across the country and reach out to tier-II and III institutions. How can any government system set up IITs in every district or village or be able to have the best colleges across the country? You can impart the best education only by adopting a technology through which a subject matter expert can deliver a lecture from a central studio, which gets beamed across the country through a tele-education system and a student can log in from wherever he is: making it a virtual classroom. I personally believe that is going to be the future. Interaction will be oneto-one: between the faculty and the student; one-to-many: one faculty member with multiple students; and many-to-many: interaction among students. Everything will happen on a virtual platform. So when you talk about taking education beyond boundaries, it is nothing but a teleeducation system.

What made you focus on developing this? Technology has always been my love and so developing it is natural to me. I believe that any system can prosper, any government initiative can fructify and a social system can reach its outer limit through the adoption of technology. I also felt it had a huge demand market commercially. I would like to quote Abdul Kalam’s statement here: “Anything that does not have a commercial value will not have a lasting life.” This is an area that definitely creates value (which I was keen to do). At the same time, we have the ingredients to make a product that uses technology to make higher education reach the next level. This told me that this is the right market segment and the right space in which I wanted to operate.

TECHNOLOGy

“Everything will happen on a virtual platform. So when you talk about taking education beyond boundaries, it is nothing but tele-education” —Suresh Elangovan Founder, Mindlogicx

Your company has also designed and delivered the world’s first integrated technology platform: VEDAS. What is it and what can it do? VEDAS is an acronym for Virtual Education Delivery and Assessment System. It is a technology platform: a technology street consisting of 12 independent software models. In this platform, resources are made available on a pay-and-use basis. The platform is very rare because it has business intelligence, dashboards and other technology frameworks like SOE that are unique even today. Our technology can shake hands and speak well with any system, so students don’t have to install new stuff. We are also trying to provide technology through an application model called Managed Application Service (MAS). In this, we provide the software, hardware and accessories and also look after the project management and disaster recovery. We manage the entire IT and academic administration for the client end-to-end. From a commercial standpoint, we do not sell the platform to anybody. We make it available to the client in the form of a service model owned by the company perpetually and forever. The client uses the platform and pays only for the services used. For e.g. Examination automation is one of the components of the VEDAS platform.

the higher education sector receptive or resistant to change Change is always resisted in any form because it is human nature. If my table is changed or my books are rearranged, even I will not be comfortable. It depends on how effectively you’re able to make people understand that the change is good for them and I think I (as an organisation) am quite good at that. I have had a very good relationship with the Vice Chancellor community for a long time and they treat me as one of them. It’s a question of mindsets. It has taken some time for them to see the impact and get it into their internal systems. But today, across the country, a majority of the Vice Chancellors know about my company and the product. There was some resistance initially, but we are working effectively now.

You’ve interacted extensively with many vice chancellors - is

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What are your plans for the future? As of now I am not looking at any other segment than higher education as there is a huge market available and the market potential remains untapped. I have a business plan for the next five years and it does not include anything other than higher education. Even if we fulfilled our dream of becoming a multinational corporation, I would still not have a 180 degree change in my business plan.

November 2011 EduTech

the global perspective From

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

INSIDE 53 | Carnegie Mellon to Open Campus in Rwanda, a Milestone for Africa 55 | Fear of Repression Spurs Scholars and Activists to Build Alternate Internets

Scientists on Trial for Manslaughter; Charged with Wrong Assessment The international community of scientists has termed the action against the Italian seismologists as unreasonable By Francis X Rocca

by PHOTOS.com

Shaken: L’Aquila was hit by a strong earthquake proving the “no danger” forecasters wrong

EduTech November 2011

ome: When Italy’s National Commission for Forecasting and Predicting Great Risks held a special meeting in the central Italian city of L’Aquila on March 31, 2009, the earthquake-prone area had been shaking with low-level tremors, as frequently as three or four a day, for the previous six months. Just one day earlier, the country’s Department of Civil Protection had censured an amateur scientist in the city, who claimed that he could predict earthquakes by measuring levels of radon gas. The officials accused him of instigating a public panic. On that Tuesday evening in L’Aquila, prominent Italian geophysicists met with national and local officials for about an hour to discuss the ‘seismic swarms’ that had so alarmed the populace. Finally, the Vice Director of the civil-protection agency emerged to tell reporters that there was “no danger,” and that seismic conditions in the region were “certainly normal”. Six days later, L’Aquila was hit by a strong earthquake that left 309 people dead, injured more than 1,500, and destroyed some 20,000 buildings. Now seven members of the risk commission — six of them scientists — are on trial for manslaughter, on the grounds that their negligence contributed to the casualties by producing a false sense of security. The scientists in particular are charged with making a “generic and ineffective” assessment of the danger, and with offering “incomplete, imprecise, and contradictory information about the nature, causes, and future developments of the seismic hazards.” They could face up to 15 years in prison.

Global.Chronicle.Com “When seismologists try to talk to other seisTheir trial, which opened on September 20 mologists, they have a way of talking to each but has been adjourned until October 15 to other that can convey information very accuallow defence attorneys to examine new evirately,” says Michael K Lindell, a professor in dence, has provoked incredulity and outrage the Hazard Reduction & Recovery Centre at among their colleagues around the world. Texas A&M University. “The problem is that More than 5,000 scientists have signed an open the words that seismologists use to talk to letter supporting the defendants. The head of Sign up for a free weekly electronic newsletter from The each other don’t make sense to the rest of the American Association for the AdvanceChronicle of Higher Education at the population.” ment of Science wrote to Italy’s President, Chronicle.Com/Globalnewsletter The geophysicists in the L’Aquila case seem Giorgio Napolitano, calling the charges “unreaThe Chronicle of Higher Education is a US-based company with a weekly to have overcompensated by oversimplifying sonable” and “unfair and naïve,” given the newspaper and a website updated their assessment for public consumption. impossibility of predicting an earthquake. The daily, at Global.Chronicle.com, that Thomas H Jordan, Director of the Southletter warned that the trial could “have a chillcover all aspects of university life. ern California Earthquake Centre at the ing effect on researchers.” With over 90 writers, editors, and University of Southern California, was Issues of legal culpability aside, no one is precorrespondents stationed around the globe, The Chronicle provides Chairman of an international commission senting the episode as a model of effective crisis timely news and analysis of academcreated by the Italian government to assess communication. According to experts on earthic ideas, developments and trends. earthquake predictability in the aftermath quakes and disaster management, the L’Aquila of L’Aquila. case illustrates the challenges — also highlightThe geophysicists on the Italian risk comed by other recent disasters, such as Hurricane mission were “correct in a narrow sense” that the risk of a major Katrina and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan — that scienearthquake remained low in absolute terms, he says, but they tists increasingly face as they take part in advising the public failed to communicate that such an event had become signifiabout potential emergencies. Those challenges include collabocantly more probable than normal in light of the lowrating with non-scientists and with experts in other disciplines, magnitude tremors. and not underestimating the intelligence of lay people. Mr Jordan imagines the scientists reasoning that “our uncerBoth physical and social scientists argue that greater attention tainty in projecting probabilities is very high, and we’re talking to the social and psychological aspects of managing emergenabout at most maybe a one per cent probability, so basically cies — alongside more tangible and quantifiable questions of that’s negligible...That’s not really good enough information to organisation, equipment, and personnel — will be necessary to tell the public...They’re going to misunderstand us.” As a result, avoid fatal misunderstandings in the future. he concludes, they withheld potentially alarming data that resiAcademe must also respond, they say, with researchers and dents may have wished to take into account. instructors in disaster management paying greater attention to For Lee Clarke, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University, how scientific assessments of hazards are explained to decision the L’Aquila case offers a “perfect example of ‘elite panic,’” a makers and to the public. term he and a colleague coined to describe a tendency by experts and government authorities to downplay genuine danNot Making Sense gers out of exaggerated fear that the public will overreact A fundamental task in disaster management is translating the to them. specialised language of science into laymen’s terms.

“Both physical and social scientists argue that greater attention to the social and psychological aspects of managing emergencies, alongside more tangible and quantifiable questions of organisation, equipment, and personnel, will be necessary to avoid fatal misunderstandings” November 2011 EduTech

THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Mr Clarke saw the same tendency at work after the Japan earthquake in March of this year, when a prominent nuclear engineer continued to reassure residents near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant for a week after reactors at the plant had melted down. One of the L’Aquila prosecutors’ main complaints is that the risk commission failed to consider factors beyond the purely geophysical, such as the density of inhabitation and the stability of buildings, when assessing the hazard that the region faced. But if the seismologists had commented on issues, such as structural engineering, beyond the boundaries of their field, argues Benigno E Aguirre, a sociologist on the faculty of the University of Delaware’s Disaster Research Centre, they would have violated international norms of emergency management, which strictly separate the responsibilities of experts in different disciplines.

Taking Control Another element of the prosecution’s case against the risk commission is that it failed to tell people what to do in case of a serious earthquake, or to give any practical advice at all, beyond an official’s jocular suggestion to reporters that everyone should enjoy a glass of Montepulciano wine. Practical advice is a crucial element of crisis communication, observes Maureen Y Lichtveld, chair of environmental policy at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. “People who are in crisis and who are fearful are much helped by them taking control even over a little bit of the overall action,” through tasks such as preparing food and water supplies, she says. “The more passive you make communities, the more anxious they become.” But, as with questions of disciplinary specialisation, the responsibility for offering such counsel should be clearly allocated. “You get experts to talk about the technical aspects, and you get elected or appointed officials ... talking about what the recommendations are for people’s actions,” says Mr Lindell, of Texas A&M. “It’s idiotic for them to try to give technical briefings, just as it’s idiotic for physical scientists, or engineers or social scientists, for that matter, to say, ‘This is what people ought to do.’” The L’Aquila case also demonstrates the risk of letting nonscientists speak for their expert advisors. One of the most notorious of the March 31 statements to the press by Bernardo De Bernardinis, at the time vice director of the civil-protection agency, had to do with the supposed stressreducing effect of low-level tremors, which he suggested had actually made a large earthquake less probable. “The scientific community continues to assure me that ... it’s a favourable situation because of the continuous discharge of energy,” he said. Southern California’s Mr Jordan attributes that

statement, which he calls “clearly scientifically incorrect,” to a “miscommunication or at least misunderstanding” between the bureaucrat and the risk commission’s seismologists. “What you really need is some fairly formalised procedures” for internal communication, he says. “You’ve got to be careful about how scientific advice is transmitted and received within these decision structures.” The presence of experts with a multidisciplinary background, such as seismologists with knowledge of engineering and social psychology, can help to avoid such misunderstandings, Mr Lindell says. But ideally, in his view, each specialist will finally speak for himself or herself: “When there’s a news conference, somebody stands up and says, “OK, here’s what we’re going to do: We’re going to have physical science first, we’re going to have the seismologist give a briefing on seismology, we’re going to have an earthquake engineer, then were going to have an economist or some social scientist, an emergency manager, and each one is going to give a part of the briefing.” That approach might seem to court the danger of information overload, but, according to Mr Jordan, the age of the Internet has vastly enhanced the public’s appetite for detail. “There is a rising public expectation that scientists will deliver, in a transparent way, basically everything they know,” the geophysicist says. “It’s the information revolution that’s occurred with social media. People have their fingers, through their smartphones and computers and whatnot, on a huge wealth of information. They just expect information to be there.”

Connecting Expertise Effectively transmitting that information in crisis situations, Mr Jordan says, requires tapping the expertise of social scientists who work in risk communication, which emerged as a subfield of public health in the 1980s and has gained ever greater salience since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. While the number of degree programmes in emergency and disaster management has proliferated since then (the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Web site lists well more than 100 at all levels), so far only a handful pay extensive attention to communication, says Tulane’s Dr Lichtveld, who helped develop competency standards for such programmes for the Association of Schools of Public Health. At Tulane, she notes, a disaster management specialisation within the Master’s programme in public health does focus on social and psychological issues, including communication — an emphasis that she says reflects the New Orleans campus’ own devastating experience with Hurricane Katrina in 2005. That ordeal not only revealed the superiority of certain communications media in crisis situations — cellphone and the internet rather than landlines — but showed the value of engaging community leaders, both as sources of on-the-

5,000 scientists signed letter in support of defendants

EduTech November 2011

Global.Chronicle.Com ground expertise and as ‘trusted conduits’ of warnings during an emergency. Tulane students thus not only hear lectures from military and government officials experienced in crisis communication, but they also work with local pastors and high-school teachers to develop appropriate preparedness plans and identify especially vulnerable populations. However it is transmitted and whatever its quality, the flow of emergency communications will only grow in the coming years, predicts Mr Clarke, the Rutgers sociologist.

“We’re going to have more of these extreme events,” he says. “More and more people are concentrating themselves, and so there are more vulnerabilities to earthquakes. And problems of climate change are going to make this issue of who does the warning and how the warning happens just incredibly important.”

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Carnegie Mellon to Open Campus in Rwanda, a Milestone for Africa Will become the first American university to operate a full fledged campus offfering degrees in Africa By Ian Wilhelm

by PHOTOS.com

arnegie Mellon University plans to open a branch campus in Rwanda next year, making it one of the few American colleges offering degrees in Africa. While a number of American universities work on the continent, often establishing partnerships with local institutions on research, faculty-training programmes, and other educational ventures, Carnegie Mellon’s appears to be the largest commitment to date. The Pittsburgh-based institution will be the first American university to operate a full-fledged campus in Africa, said Kevin Kinser, Co-director of the Cross-Border Education Research Team at the State University of New York at Albany, which tracks branch campuses worldwide. “Africa is clearly an underserved region for international-branch campuses,” said Mr Kinser, who is an associate professor in the university’s Department of Educational Administration and

Africa Calling: Now African students can get degrees from the reputed Carnegie Mellon University on their home turf

November 2011 EduTech

THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE Policy Studies. The continent’s educational needs are great, but the financing of large African programmes is a challenge, he added. For its part, Carnegie Mellon is receiving $95 mn over 10 years from the Rwandan government to operate the programme, which will start next year and initially offer master’s degrees in information technology and in electrical and computer engineering. The university expects to enroll 40 students at first, eventually expanding to 150 by 2017. It will seek to attract students from East Africa, with a preference given to Rwandans. The Rwandan government will offer scholarships for its citizens to pay for the programme’s tuition and other costs. The programme will start off in rented office space, but eventually move to a 30 to 40-acre campus that is being built on the outskirts of Kigali, Rwanda’s capital. Carnegie Mellon will hire 10 to 15 faculty members to teach in Rwanda, said Pradeep K Khosla, Dean of the university’s College of Engineering. The professors will spend time in Pittsburgh to learn the institution’s curriculum and teaching style as a way to make sure the courses in Rwanda are of similar rigour. As with its other overseas programmes, Carnegie Mellon will also occasionally compare homework and examinations from Rwanda with students’ work from its home campus to make sure they are of similar quality. “Typically, when you do these campuses in other countries, you’re concerned about grade inflation,” said Mr Khosla. He added that the university may offer PhDs eventually, but has no plans to enroll undergraduates. Instead, it wants to work with Rwandan colleges to improve the pipeline of African applicants to the programme. In addition, the university will create a business incubator to help students create

“The collaboration with Carnegie Mellon is part of Rwanda’s effort to transform itself following the genocide that devastated the country in 1994. For Carnegie Mellon, the Africa campus is part of a growing global network” their own businesses and an executivetraining programme.

Recovery from Genocide African education experts applauded the effort and said they hoped the high-profile move would encourage other foreign universities to get involved in the region. “The establishment of a US branch campus in Africa is an exciting new development,” said Anne-Claire Hervy, Chief Operating Officer of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities’s Africa programme. She emphasised that Carnegie Mellon’s plans to help local universities and foster entrepreneurship are the kind of assistance that is key to improving Africa’s quality of education and its private sector. The collaboration with Carnegie Mellon is part of Rwanda’s effort to transform itself following the genocide that devastated the country in 1994. Rwanda’s President, Paul Kagame, has been accused of an authoritarian-style rule, but he has attracted foreign investors to the East African nation and sought to innovate in its economy. Mr Kagame is

$95

mn Carneige Mellon is receiving from the Rwandan government over the next 10 years to operate the programme

EduTech November 2011

visiting Pittsburgh on Friday to announce the new venture with Jared L Cohon, Carnegie Mellon’s President. For Carnegie Mellon, the Africa campus is part of a growing global network. It has established programmes in Australia, Japan, Mexico, and Portugal, and runs an undergraduate branch campus in Doha, Qatar. Mr Khosla said that the international efforts bolster Carnegie Mellon’s prestige and that American students benefit with opportunities to study abroad and understand other cultures; such exchanges will help them develop engineering ideas and products suited to the needs of other parts of the world, including Africa. “It’s extremely important we think of learning from Africans,” he said. If Carnegie Mellon is successful, Mr Khosla said he expected other American universities to consider opening academic outposts in Africa. “Most universities are extremely conservative,” he said, “so they’re probably waiting to see somebody else put their toe in the water and see if they get burned or not.”

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Global.Chronicle.Com

Fear of Repression Spurs Scholars and Activists to Build Alternate Internets

by PHOTOS.com

Growing momentum of like-minded high-tech activists to free networks from government control BY JEFFREY R YOUNG computer programmers gathers at a residence here to build a home-made internet — named Project Byzantium — that could go online if parts of the current global internet becomes blocked by a repressive government. Using an approach called a ‘mesh network’, the system would set up an informal wireless network connecting users with other nearby computers, which in turn would pass along the signals. The mesh network could tie back into the internet if one of the users found a way to plug into an unblocked route. The developers recently tested an early version of their software at George Washington University Wired: Computer networks have been used to both voice mass protest (though without the official and silence protestors involvement of campus officials). The leader of the effort, who goes by the alias TheDoctor but who would not give his name, ashington: Computer networks proved out of concern that his employer would object to the project, their organising power during the recent says he fears that some day repressive measures could be put uprisings in the Middle East, in which into place in the United States. Facebook pages amplified street protests He is not the only one with such apprehensions. Next month that toppled dictators. But those same Doctor will join hundreds of like-minded high-tech activists The networks showed their weaknesses as well, such as when the and entrepreneurs in New York at an unusual conference called Egyptian government walled off most of its citizens from the the Contact Summit. One of the participants is Eben Moglen, a internet in an attempt to silence protesters. professor at Columbia Law School who has built an encryption That has led scholars and activists increasingly to consider the device and worries about a recent attempt by Wisconsin politiinternet’s wiring as a disputed political frontier. cians to search a professor’s email. The summit’s goal is not For example, one weekend each month, a small group of

November 2011 EduTech

THE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE just to talk about the projects, but also to connect with potential financial backers, recruit programmers, and brainstorm approaches to building parallel internets and social networks. The meeting is a sign of the growing momentum of what is called the ‘free-network movement’, whose leaders are pushing to rewire online networks to make it harder for a government or corporation to exert, what some worry, is undue control or surveillance. Another key concern is that the internet has not lived up to its social potential to connect people, and instead has become overrun by marketing and promotion efforts At the heart of the movement is the idea that seemingly mundane technical specifications of internet routers and social networking software platforms have powerful political implications. In virtual realms, programmers essentially set the laws of physics, or at least the rules of interaction, for their cyberspaces. If it sometimes seems that media pundits treat Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg or Apple’s Steve Jobs as gods, that’s because in a sense they are — sitting on Mount Olympus with the power to hurl digital thunderbolts with a worldwide impact on people. Instead of just complaining, many of those heading to New York next month believe they can build alternatives that reduce the power of those virtual deities and give more control to mere mortals. I was surprised by the number of homegrown internet projects described on the Contact Summit’s Website — though most of them are not yet operational, and some may never be. Among the approaches: an alternative to Facebook that promises better privacy control; a device that automatically scrambles email and web traffic so that only people authorised by the user can read them; and various mesh-network efforts that can essentially create an ‘internet in a suitcase’ to set up wherever unfettered internet access is needed. Whether you see these techies as visionaries or paranoids, they highlight the extent to which networks now shape nations. “Anyone who cares about human rights should dedicate themselves to building these systems,” is how Yochai Benkler, Co-director of the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society at Harvard University, put it when I asked him about the trend.

Bazaar 2.0 One organiser of the Contact Summit, Douglas Rushkoff, compares the disruptive power of the internet to the impact of bazaars in the Middle Ages.

In his latest book, Program or Be Programmed (OR Books), he argues that the earliest bazaars helped transform feudal society by allowing vigorous information sharing — a low-tech peer-to-peer network. “Everyone was speaking with everybody else, and about all sorts of things and ideas,” he writes. “All this information exchange allowed people to improve on themselves and their situations,” allowing craftsmen to form guilds and share techniques. “As the former peasants rose to become a middle class of merchants and craftspeople, they were no longer dependent on feudal lords for food and protection.” The internet has created a bazaar 2.0, says Mr Rushkoff, accelerating information exchange and giving people the power to organise in new ways. At least so far Mr Rushkoff argues that companies and governments are gaining too much power, in ways that could limit communication in the future. Facebook, for instance, is a centralised system that forces users to run communications through its servers — and, he observes, its main goal is to make money by analysing data about users and sharing that information with advertisers. “The internet that we know and love is not up to the task of being both a fully commercial network and a people’s infrastructure,” Mr Rushkoff told me. “The net is not a marketing opportunity — it’s something much bigger than that.” One idea: Create two parallel internets, one run and optimised for banks and entertainment giants (like Netflix, whose streaming movies take up more and more of total bandwidth), and the other for academic research, civic discourse, and independent artists. He points to Internet2, a high-speed research network run by universities, as a step in the right direction. But that network is available only on select campuses. Perhaps other approaches will emerge that are designed to encourage the kind of peer-to-peer trading of information that Mr Rushkoff prefers. To encourage that, the Contact Summit will organise a bazaar of its own, where participants can seek supporters for their projects. The organisers plan to award startup grants to a few projects on the basis of a competition. “This is a conference of doers and people looking for counsel and collaborators,” Mr Rushkoff explains. He acknowledges that the crowd he is gathering can be hard to herd, though: “There are people who are afraid to come to

“ At the heart of the movement is the idea that seemingly mundane technical specifications of internet routers and social networking software platforms have powerful political implications” 56

EduTech November 2011

Global.Chronicle.Com

The “free-network movement” leaders are pushing to rewire online networks to make it harder for a government or corporation to exert, what some worry, is undue control or surveillance contact because they think they’re going to be hacked or tracked or injected with something. There are a lot of loonies out there.”

Protecting Privacy One developer who is eager to go the summit is Mr Moglen, the law professor. He’s leading the development of a device called the Freedom Box, and though it doesn’t look like much — a gadget the size of a paperback book — he believes that it would be able to help internet users preserve their privacy. The concept: It’s a personal server, which automatically scrambles digital data to make them harder for unauthorised people to intercept. The idea is to create a personal ‘cloud’, or online storage space, for data before the information is sent to standard email or web services. Mr Moglen and a team of programmers are developing the software under the auspices of the FreedomBox Foundation, a non-profit organisation, and plan to release it under an open licence that lets anyone use and modify it. The initial Freedom Box code is expected to hit the web in the next week or two, although it is more of a framework for developers at this point and lacks most of the planned features. For Mr Moglen the work is part of a longtime mission. The Chronicle profiled him several years ago, soon after he founded the Software Freedom Law Centre and published what he called The dotCommunist Manifesto. In the manifesto, he argues that all software should be developed by groups under free licences rather than by companies out to make profit. Critics have called his approach extreme and unworkable. “The net we have is increasingly monitored, measured, and surveilled everywhere by everybody all the time, or at least by somebody who’s doing it for somebody else and would answer a subpoena if they got one,” he argued at a conference this year. “Our net has been turned against us.” In an interview, Mr Moglen emphasises that professors in particular should send their communications through his device. The reason? “Two words: William Cronon.” Mr Cronon, a history professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, was recently the subject of an unusual public-

records request by a political group. The Republican Party of Wisconsin asked the university to turn over a batch of email messages by the professor containing certain keywords, as The Chronicle reported, after he wrote a blog post examining how conservative groups had helped craft controversial legislation, including the 2011 measure to strip Wisconsin public employees of collective-bargaining rights. Mr Cronon believes that Republican officials were hunting for evidence that he had violated state law by using his state-university account for political speech, which he denies doing. He says other professors might be discouraged from speaking publicly on controversial issues, for fear their email messages, too, might be sought by critics. Some free-internet projects have been under development for some time, and many professors and business leaders have long encrypted their email messages. But there is a new emphasis on making such systems easier to use and bringing them to a wider audience, says Sascha Meinrath, Director of the Open Technology Initiative at the New America Foundation. “We’re trying to move them out of the geekosphere and get them into mainstream use,” he told me. And there’s evidence of that happening. This summer the foundation received a $2 mn grant from the State Department to build its own mesh network, which could be set up by dissidents abroad to avoid censors. That’s the system being called an ‘internet in a suitcase’. Proponents of mesh projects like Byzantium say they can provide a different kind of internet freedom — a connection that comes at no cost. Potentially, mesh networks could be set up and shared as free community networks. For activists like TheDoctor, that kind of freedom can give low-income users a chance to access information that could help improve their lives. “If a single Byzantium node gave a single person access to MIT’s open courseware,” he says, “the whole project would be a success.”

mn to FreedomBox Foundation grant from the State Department

Subscribe to a free weekly electronic newsletter from the Chronicle of Higher Education at http://bit.ly/edtechnews November 2011 EduTech

by YUSUF KHAN

A Life Liberal Indira Parikh, Founder President, FLAME is all for liberal education as she feels that it is what shaped her entire life and career By PADMAJA SHASTRI

EduTech November 2011

n 1961, it was not unusual for a girl to be made to discontinue her studies and be married off at the age of 18 and become a mother at 20. What was unusual though was for her to doggedly pursue her education and career while looking after her home and a little son, as the family travelled across the globe. What was even more unusual was the fact that the girl went on to become the dean of India’s leading management institute, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) in 2002 — a first for any woman, at any IIM. This girl who broke all stereotypes is Dr Indira Parikh, Founder President of Foundation for Liberal and Management Education (FLAME) and an acknowledged authority on organisational management. “My entire life and whatever I am today is an example of what liberal education can do. I was able to graduate eight years after marriage mainly because of it,” says Parikh. She could fast-track her graduation in Social Studies to just a year, as the University of Rochester gave her credit for all the undergraduate courses she had done over nine

Indira Parikh do, and dreamt a lot about travel, romance and adventure,” she recalls.

Fairytale Marriage

fact file Name: Indira Parikh Current engagement: Founder President, Foundation for Liberal and Management Education (FLAME), Pune things SHe likes: Book: The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley MOVIE: Charulata (directed by Satyajit Ray) HOLIDAY DESTINATION: Venice, Iceland Pastime: Reading recent books which give a feel of the current society and culture Cuisine: Gujarati (especially Dal Dhokli) MUSIC: Vocal bhajans (by Kishori Amonkar and Sharafat Khan) HER LITTLE SECRET: She reads Tarot Cards

years across three continents — Calcutta, Chicago and Copenhagen. The university also offered her a scholarship for her high performance. Parikh was a high performer in academics, sports and even theatre right from her school days at Loreto and Modern High School in Kolkata. When her family pulled her out of school after Class VII and made her take the matriculation examination, she passed that too! She was bundled off to Ranchi to stay with her grandparents and studied intermediate at St Xavier’s College. “It was a period of absolute freedom. I had relatively little supervision and got to ride a bicycle to college. I read a lot and the women characters of Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s novels, usually outcasts and very strong, impressed me. I also reflected about my life, what I wanted to

Little did she know then that soon all her dreams would come true! Just a year into the degree course at Scottish Church College in Kolkata, her marriage was arranged, and within weeks she found herself moving to Chicago. Her marriage to Jitendra Parikh, a physicist who loved music, books and art, turned out to be like a fairytale. “We travelled across northern Europe to countries like Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. My husband let me take the wheel and I just loved driving while absorbing the colours of Scandinavia. It was such fun,” she reminisces. She also grabbed every opportunity to learn. When the dean of the institute at University of Chicago — where her husband was studying — asked her what she wanted to do, she told him: “I want to study.” He waived her husband’s tuition fee, so that he could pay for her education. She completed two undergraduate courses there. Later, when her husband went to Neils Bohr Institute in Denmark for further studies, she took almost every course that the University of Copenhagen offered in English and even held cookery classes! She did courses in Geology and Statistics at Rochester that took away her fear of science and math. “At Rochester I had some amazing teachers like Francis Horler and Irene Athey, who never tired of discussing a topic and always gave me time. I learnt meticulousness and perfectionism from them,” she says. Parikh’s broad-based education, across disciplines and knowledge areas, wasn’t limited to the classrooms. At the age of 19, she got to hobnob with the likes of Aage Bohr, Director of Neils Bohr Institute, who later won the Nobel Prize for Physics.

Empowering Childhood Parikh always stood up for what was rightfully due to her. Even as a little girl, she declined to act in a school play when she was denied the role of the princess for not being fair enough. Years later, the same courage and gumption made her

PROFILE

resolutely refuse to accept anything less than a faculty position when IIM, Ahmedabad, asked her to continue as a Research Associate after she returned from INSEAD, France. The institute finally gave in with the condition that she quickly get a PhD, which she did in three years. Her indomitable spirit springs partly from her family lineage of Kutchi community warriors and partly to the enormous freedom she enjoyed while growing up in a joint family of 22 people. Her grandfather Gangji Pitambar Varma believed in equality of sexes. Born in Kotda, a village in Gujarat, Parikh’s grandfather and father were Arya Samaji; while her uncle, who lived with them, was an atheist, ate non-vegetarian food, went to clubs, drank and smoked. Early on she learnt peaceful co-existence in conflicting context. Later, living in Copenhagen, where scholars from 45 countries worked together, enhanced her ability to deal with diversity.

Leading from the Front As a leader, Parikh believes in giving everyone space. She also likes to plan ahead. “You cannot run an institution without everyone’s help. So it is important to include the faculty, staff and students in the process through discussion, an open mind and sensitivity,” she says. Parikh believes that a leader, whether in academia or industry, has to be inspiring for effective intervention, and should not seek approval from those s/he is leading. “It is my role to validate, affirm and praise them, not vice versa. If a leader wants validation, it causes damage to the institution, as s/he will tend to cultivate people who will praise her/him. And those people will have expectations, whereby you might end up compromising yourself,” she feels. Perhaps, it is for her uncompromising attitude that her name was proposed for the dean’s position at IIM-A. Her serious plunge into administrative roles began in 1979-80, when Parikh organised the first-ever Women Managers Programme at IIM-A, on issues of role and authority. It had 45 participants, two of whom later got into the boards of their respective November 2011 EduTech

PROFILE

Indira Parikh

organisations. “Positions are all about responsibilities, something most people avoid taking up. After I successfully executed one, I was put in charge of another and then another,” says Parikh. Thus, over the next 25 years that she worked there, she either chaired or was a member of almost every committee at IIM-A.

Consulting and Training She designed and taught a number of management development programmes on leadership, role and identity, stress and self-renewal, change management and transformation of organisations for executives of various national and international organisations, both in private and public sectors. Her consulting assignments covered areas like institution building, organisation design and development, leadership and change management, coaching, counselling and mentoring. Her international assignments included organisations in Dubai, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Netherlands, Bhutan, the USA and West Africa. She is sought after by many organisations for her expertise in the area of human resources and leadership. She has conducted over 150 training programmes for over 1000 managers so far.

Teaching Leaders However, it is teaching that Parikh loves best. Even today, she teaches six courses, about four to six hours a week, at FLAME. “I like to teach something that connects one to the larger universe,” says Parikh. It was her mentor at INSEAD, Prof Claude Faucheux, who taught her that you have to have a broad perspective as every event occurs in the context of culture, history and society. Teaching was a natural calling for Parikh—it started with the children of workers at her father’s textile mill when she was just eight. After completing her MA in Education from Rochester, she returned to Ahmedabad, where her husband joined the Physical Research Laboratory, and she began teaching Psychology at Vivekananda College. A chance meeting with Professor Pulin Garg of IIM-A made her give up her job and join him as a Research Asso-

EduTech November 2011

COMMENTS “It was a privilege to be taught by Professor Parikh. I have tried to follow Professor Parikh’s qualities of doing things you believe in, no matter how difficult it may seem and having the discipline to execute that vision while inspiring others to follow” Prof Srikant Datar Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor at Harvard Business School (Parikh’s student at IIM-A)

“She has always stood for academic autonomy and a system of faculty governance. Her deep understanding of human nature has also helped me evolve enormously” Parag Shah Founder Chairman, FLAME

“My mother (Professor Parikh) has enormous inner strength and handles crises very well. When my marriage was breaking-up, she gave me a lot of her time and stood by me through the process, even though it was just days after my father’s death” Sushrut Parikh President, Eila Skincare, Houston, Texas (Parikh’s son)

ciate at the management institute in 1971. Apart from assisting him in research and teaching, she co-authored books on organisational behaviour, which students have grown up on. “I also liked the whole environment of quality and excellence in learning at IIMA. I just love the excitement of running for class, the helter-skelter of students and of course, the travel,” she exclaims. No wonder she stayed on for the next 34 years, save the two stints abroad at INSEAD, France and Texas A&M University, USA.

Lighting the FLAME Just before Parikh’s retirement, renowned architect Dr BV Doshi and Parag Shah, Founder Chairman of FLAME met her to discuss their plan to start a business school. “I suggested to them, why not be pioneers of something different like liberal education — richer and innovative — for both graduates and post-graduates, as nobody was focussing on undergraduates. They liked the idea and together we built upon the concept,” says Parikh. Soon after retirement from IIM-A in 2005, she was at the helm of affairs at FLAME. According to her, it is easy to be trapped by micro-operational decisions when building new institutions. At first, the entrepreneurial leadership style of Shah, where the leader makes instant decisions and everyone follows, clashed with her consultative approach. “But soon he realised that I was building a stable academic model. So, we decided on a middlepath — for all ‘external’ decisions, like faculty recruitments, admission test dates, etc., we will follow the ‘quick decisions from the top’ system, and for all internal decisions like grading, courses, etc., we will follow the consultative processes. That is working out fine,” says Parikh. Much of what Parikh is implementing at FLAME is derived from experiences of her own life. For instance, her family’s regular travels were the inspiration behind the Discover India Programme. “The idea is to acquaint young people with our country’s heritage and the multiplicity of our culture,” says Parikh. Her home atmosphere was culturally vibrant,

Indira Parikh

PROFILE

(Clockwise) 1. A meeting of minds: Indira Parikh with the 11th President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and NR Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys Technologies at IIM, Ahmedabad 2. Student Days: Parikh on the campus of University of Rochester, New York, after receiving her degree 3. Family Time: Parikh with her late husband Jitendra, son Sushrut and grandsons Rohan and Arjun at the family home in Ahmedabad

with well-known artists like Sharafat Khan performing. “Performing arts give expression to your creativity, while drama helps you understand people better. And sports teach you that failure is not the end of the world and help you appreciate your body and its limits,” says Parikh. Students at FLAME have to take up performing arts, sports, humanities and social sciences. Parikh was 14 when she did a course in homeopathy and went about dispensing medicines to the families of workers in her father’s factory. “It is important to be in touch with the ground reality. And that is why we made developmental activity a part of the curriculum,” she emphasises. She also conducts a personal growth lab, two to three times a year for all students, where they ponder on questions like ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What is the purpose of my life?’ and deal with their emotional baggage.

A Woman’s Dilemma Even as she taught students and corporate executives how to grapple with inner dilemmas, issues of role and authority, she herself struggled with gender dilemma and was torn by selfdoubt and the ambivalence between socially desirable and aspirational roles. “To grow professionally, I needed to take up consulting, which required travelling. My son was young and I would wonder if I was doing the right thing,” she says. This, despite organising everything at home for the period she was to be away. Parikh feels that there is no glass ceiling. “Women usually make their own choices. They say ‘no’ because of family relationship dynamics. I would not have taken on the role of the dean at IIM-A, had my husband said ‘no’,” she admits. But Parikh had a very supportive husband.

Save one instance when the first secretary she got at IIM-A, who refused to work with her, Parikh never faced gender discrimination. “In fact, it was an advantage being a woman,” she says. Women must first accept the uniqueness of their identity, learn to dream big, take small steps first to translate the dreams into reality and accept that they play multiple roles in multiple systems, she says. As you stop to admire the original paintings on her walls on your way out, she reminds you that it’s the course in interior designing she took at Copenhagen that gave her a sense of colour and shape. You are left with a sense of wonder at the impact liberal education has had on her life! Subscribe to the daily electronic newsletter from EDU at http://bit.ly/edtechnews November 2011 EduTech

VIEWS, REVIEWS & MORE

Brick by Red Brick What is the story behind the inception of IIM-A and its success? TT Ram Mohan answers everything in his book on the early years Brick by Red Brick is an effort to bring to light the hard work that Vikram Sarabhai and Ravi Matthai did to create an institute on the lines of the Harvard Business School. In his book, TT Ram Mohan, a professor of finance and computing at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A), talks of how the idea of creating the institute was conceived, its extraordinary governance structure and unique culture. He also speaks of what a remarkable leader and manager like Ravi Matthai did to make it take on IIM Calcutta within just five years, and become the best IIM in the country. The book aims at helping corporate leaders and organisational heads borrow from the model that brought glory to IIM-A. It demonstrates the way

“The government has a critical role to play in maintaining accountability of the institute” TT Ram Mohan

frameworks and processes personalities like Vikram Sarabhai, founder and director of IIM-A; Lalbhai, a renowned industrialist and institution builder; Professor Kamla Chowdhury, a close associate of Sarabhai at IIM-A; and the lead character and institute’s first director, Ravi Matthai, formulated and implemented in a way that contributed to the success of a prestigious management institution like IIM-A. Matthai’s determination to make the institute touch unprecedented heights, from the time he joined the institute, later dropped out as its director to continue as a regular faculty member is, indeed, remarkable. At places, the reader might get the feeling that Professor Mohan is writing in both his avatars — academician and a columnist — by keeping his book well- thought-out on one hand and fast-paced on the other. But he has effectively conveyed the much-needed advice on how to build and sustain a leading world-class educational institution. Clearly, the book is an imprint of Matthai’s approach to making decisions, his determination, and formulation of the many aspects on which the institute functioned, most of which are valid even today. It also shows how Matthai dedicated himself to creating a world-class institute for the nation to reap its many benefits without expecting any returns for himself. Author: TT Ram Mohan Publisher: Rupa & Co Price: Rs 495

New releases for your BOOKSHELF What is College for? The Public Purpose of Higher Education In this book, the authors ask readers to

see the civic purpose of higher education as fundamental to America’s well-being. At a time when education for profit is weakening education for public good, the book makes the case for core values. Author: Ellen Condliffe Lagemann & Harry Lewis Publisher: Teachers College Press Price: $30.95

EduTech November 2011

Lesson Study: Using Classroom Inquiry to Improve Teaching and Learning in Higher Education The book introduces lesson study

practices to college teachers and provides necessary guidance, tools and examples, so that they can put these ideas to practical use in their classes. Author: Bill Cerbin & Pat Hutchings Publisher: Stylus Publishing Price: $27.50

timeout

gADGETS Tech Insider | Mala Bhargava

Perfect for a Tab If You are looking for a perfect browser for a tablet then the Dolphin is just what you need. Its features come out really well when used on a tablet. Initially popularised as an Android app, Dolphin has just made it to iOS beginning with the iPhone a couple of weeks ago, and now the iPad, where it really belongs. The thing I love the most is the gestures. Top right is a little hand-button that takes you to a grid on which you draw an alphabet or shape that makes something happen. Draw a big G to get to Google, an F for Facebook or a T to head to Twitter. You can also set your own list of gestures, not just to go to specific URLs but to perform simple actions like going to the top or bottom of the page, bookmark, copy links or even to subscribe to RSS feeds. Swiping a finger can make you jump to any site. It’s quick, smooth and quite a magical experience. Using it, I feel it’s actually what Safari should have been all along. It is an innovative and refreshing alternative to Safari and other browsers for the iPad. Also, another interesting feature is that Dolphin doubles up as a webzine. As you open a tab, you won’t get a blank page but a menu of eight publications. You can always edit the list of sites or magazines or your favourites, which is just so convenient. The features don’t end here. Speed Dial, the visual bookmarks app, is built into Dolphin. You can change the preset bookmarks to your own preferences and go to any of your frequently visited sites with a touch. And yes, the big advantage over Safari and other browsers is the tabbed browsing. Dolphin presented by Mobotap, is the most intelligent web browser available that allows you to engage with the web in an intuitive way, making life easier!

Mala Bhargava is Editorial Director at 9.9 Media and a technology writer. She is also the author of That’s IT, a regular column on personal computers in Business World.

Quirky’s Solar-powered Charger Quirky has introduced Ray: a solar-powered charger for electronic gadgets. The device features a powerful suction cup that can attach even to windows and a tilting kickstand that supports multiple positions to capture the maximum amount of sunlight. Its compact battery can store enough energy to fully charge a cell phone. The device’s USB port enables easy charging and the cords can be tucked for storage into the kickstand when folded close. So charge your phone wherever you are: in the car or on the plane. Price: $39.99

StarBath to Soak Up the Night Sky If you adore looking at the star-studded sky when dusk falls, here’s the StarBath for you. A tiny planetarium that can project the Milky Way and thousands of stars onto the ceiling of your room, StarBath is a great way to bask in the glow of the night sky while you’re bathing, relaxing in bed or sitting in your verandah. The device is battery powered and displays up to 10,000 stars via its LED. It has an adjustable focus and has a projection distance of 150-230 cms and a projection range of 100 cm diameter. Price: £34.99

November February 2011 EduTech

Perspective DEBAJYOTI MUKHOPADHYAY Dean,MIT Group of Institutions, Pune

Value of Research and Project Work Private engineering institutions must introduce a research culture to enrich education Private Institutions in India

here has been significant growth in private engineering institutions in India and across the globe, in the last two to three decades. Though many wellknown universities like Columbia University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University and many more were established in the United States long back, it was only in the last 25 years or so that we saw an upsurge in private higher education institutions in India.

Research in India If we investigate the quality of research and publications by Indian scholars, we find that most are from universities in advanced nations like the USA, UK and Europe. Very few institutes like IITs, ISI, IIMs and IISc can match the quality and quantum of publications done by Indians located abroad. This, indeed, forces us to find out the reason for limitations on research scholarship in India. If we look into the scope of research in an average Indian university or autonomous institution, we find the lack of fund, trained faculty and exposure to world research, as major limiting factors. Only a handful of institutions like the IITs, NITs, ISI, IIMs, IISc, and the UGC-funded universities

EduTech November 2011

get grant to fund their research. Moreover, given their identity, these institutes attract faculty with PhD degrees. They also absorb the research scholars engaged in doctoral studies. In such a scenario, the question that challenges us is how will the private universities generate research papers, carry on research and get faculty members with PhD degrees to match global quality.

Importance of Projects Most of the engineering curriculum in India includes a project work in the final year of the course. There is dearth of qualified engineering faculty in many institutions in India, with a very low percentage holding doctoral degrees. Often,

If we look for quality research and publications by Indian scholars, we find that most are from universities in advanced nations like the US and UK

students do not get proper guidance from their in-house faculty for their project work and look for a guide in the industry. As such, taking up summer project in industry is common for postgraduate students in management education. In spite of these disadvantages, every faculty member should focus on research-based final year project. Students should be encouraged to write research papers for presentation in international conferences and to send technical papers to journals for publications. There are various research funding authorities in India. Quite a few industries also support funded projects. Every institute should explore opportunities for tie-ups with industries to carry out funded research. Other than the final year project, introducing a separate course will facilitate interested students in taking extra research work under the guidance of qualified faculty members. This is a common practice at masters level in North American universities. Introducing a curriculum in undergraduate level in Indian engineering institutions is also sure to produce better results in due course. Dr Mukhopadhyay is the Dean of MIT Group of Institutions and Professor & Head of Information Technology Department at Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune. Earlier he was with Bellcore, New Jersey in the USA.

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