Indian Institutes
I am picking on IITKanpur in this post just because of a conversation that made me think, but I suppose this can be applied to most Indian institutes.
The other day, hubby was talking about the session he attended at IIT-Kanpur's convention on how IIT should be 30 years from now. He said that the panel was so completely out of touch, and so lacked a vision or even a grasp on current. They had employed McKinsey consultants and inspite of that they came up with ridiculous solutions like "We are going to build a new high-tech village near IIT Kanpur because the institute suffers from not being in a big industrialized city" Duh?
But there is a basic issue here. Consultants. You cannot and should not outsource 'thinking'. Sure consultants bring a fresh view, but they do not know about your organization. Thinking about your organization or about your problem is an important process in which you learn more about organization, and really take time to step back from the daily grind and think about what you are and what you want. It is ridiculous to say that you are so busy that you will outsource this important task to consultants and then just pick and choose from the options they present.
Another point I wondered about was about the social impact of having an IIT in Kanpur. Now, I am a capitalist at heart. I believe in commercial enterprises, and that when a person is working for profit and for a betterment of his life, the net effect on society is usually positive. Versus when a person believes that he is doing something "for someone's upliftment". However, I do believe in the concept of social responsibility.
And it made me wonder whether having IIT Kanpur in Kanpur made any difference to lives of people in Kanpur? I know about my college. We being there made no difference. We were youths, but we took no social initiative. I know universities here who have adult education in local communities, whose students volunteer impart their education to the local populace to help them in their businesses and have atleast some impact on the betterment of their neighbors. We never did that. It makes me sad in retrospect.
And why is it important? At the very least, because it brings students out of their academic world into the real world, tells them how what they learn in classrooms can be applied to the world outside. It gives them a civic sense. It also empowers them with an attitude that the next time they can spot a problem and can work towards it rather than blaming it generally on the government and everyone else. And it builds their self confidence immensely.
So what would I suggest? I am not an educator, neither am I a visionary. So no, I do not know how IITs should be thirty years down the road. But I can suggest a few things for near future implementation.
- Have a common entrance exam and make it aptitude based rather than knowledge and practice based. Incorporate some history of student's academic and extra curricular achievements in the admission process instead of relying solely on how he performed in the test that day.
Currently, the plethora of engineering entrance exams are driving students and parents nuts. Many start studying for IIT from 8th grade onwards. And by the time 11th 12th comes along, students do not have a spare moment from their studies to do anything else. I remember hubby's father quoting me how the classes are introduced: You will be in this class every day of the year except for 5 holidays. In these two years, you will not fall ill, there will be no marriages, no deaths in your family, you will not travel. etc, etc.." I think this is utterly ridiculous. Two years in a teen's life focussed on only one thing! Isnt this the time when an individual really becomes aware of the world, and should have time to explore and do different things. Develop a multi faceted personality? And why does a knowledge based test which stresses so much on 'practice practice practice' a good measure of student capability? What about his extra curriculars? His academic history? Don't they tell us whether he is an achiever, a person who can look at things and say "This isnt the best way to do this. I will change this". I can go on, but I think you get the idea.
- Teachers must be engaged in research. Require a semester of research assistantship from students.
This brings a research atmosphere to a learning institution where discovery and quest of knowledge are the driving factors rather than learning whats handed down and grades. The teachers are abreast of the latest developments and bring it to the classroom. Also, students get exposed to research.
- Incorporate the concept of social interaction.
Some examples as I mentioned above are adult education, helping local industries etc.
- Tie up with foreign universities so that students can get a semester transfer to the university. Encourage collaborative research or initiatives.
Leaving your country, and all the things and thoughts you took for granted is a wonderful experience for a teenager. And they can bring back everything they liked about the university back to you.
- Encourage direct industry interface via projects students can work on
In short, dont take kids away from the real world but encourage them to perform in the real world.
These are just a few. I am sure people in this field can find many more.
The other day, hubby was talking about the session he attended at IIT-Kanpur's convention on how IIT should be 30 years from now. He said that the panel was so completely out of touch, and so lacked a vision or even a grasp on current. They had employed McKinsey consultants and inspite of that they came up with ridiculous solutions like "We are going to build a new high-tech village near IIT Kanpur because the institute suffers from not being in a big industrialized city" Duh?
But there is a basic issue here. Consultants. You cannot and should not outsource 'thinking'. Sure consultants bring a fresh view, but they do not know about your organization. Thinking about your organization or about your problem is an important process in which you learn more about organization, and really take time to step back from the daily grind and think about what you are and what you want. It is ridiculous to say that you are so busy that you will outsource this important task to consultants and then just pick and choose from the options they present.
Another point I wondered about was about the social impact of having an IIT in Kanpur. Now, I am a capitalist at heart. I believe in commercial enterprises, and that when a person is working for profit and for a betterment of his life, the net effect on society is usually positive. Versus when a person believes that he is doing something "for someone's upliftment". However, I do believe in the concept of social responsibility.
And it made me wonder whether having IIT Kanpur in Kanpur made any difference to lives of people in Kanpur? I know about my college. We being there made no difference. We were youths, but we took no social initiative. I know universities here who have adult education in local communities, whose students volunteer impart their education to the local populace to help them in their businesses and have atleast some impact on the betterment of their neighbors. We never did that. It makes me sad in retrospect.
And why is it important? At the very least, because it brings students out of their academic world into the real world, tells them how what they learn in classrooms can be applied to the world outside. It gives them a civic sense. It also empowers them with an attitude that the next time they can spot a problem and can work towards it rather than blaming it generally on the government and everyone else. And it builds their self confidence immensely.
So what would I suggest? I am not an educator, neither am I a visionary. So no, I do not know how IITs should be thirty years down the road. But I can suggest a few things for near future implementation.
- Have a common entrance exam and make it aptitude based rather than knowledge and practice based. Incorporate some history of student's academic and extra curricular achievements in the admission process instead of relying solely on how he performed in the test that day.
Currently, the plethora of engineering entrance exams are driving students and parents nuts. Many start studying for IIT from 8th grade onwards. And by the time 11th 12th comes along, students do not have a spare moment from their studies to do anything else. I remember hubby's father quoting me how the classes are introduced: You will be in this class every day of the year except for 5 holidays. In these two years, you will not fall ill, there will be no marriages, no deaths in your family, you will not travel. etc, etc.." I think this is utterly ridiculous. Two years in a teen's life focussed on only one thing! Isnt this the time when an individual really becomes aware of the world, and should have time to explore and do different things. Develop a multi faceted personality? And why does a knowledge based test which stresses so much on 'practice practice practice' a good measure of student capability? What about his extra curriculars? His academic history? Don't they tell us whether he is an achiever, a person who can look at things and say "This isnt the best way to do this. I will change this". I can go on, but I think you get the idea.
- Teachers must be engaged in research. Require a semester of research assistantship from students.
This brings a research atmosphere to a learning institution where discovery and quest of knowledge are the driving factors rather than learning whats handed down and grades. The teachers are abreast of the latest developments and bring it to the classroom. Also, students get exposed to research.
- Incorporate the concept of social interaction.
Some examples as I mentioned above are adult education, helping local industries etc.
- Tie up with foreign universities so that students can get a semester transfer to the university. Encourage collaborative research or initiatives.
Leaving your country, and all the things and thoughts you took for granted is a wonderful experience for a teenager. And they can bring back everything they liked about the university back to you.
- Encourage direct industry interface via projects students can work on
In short, dont take kids away from the real world but encourage them to perform in the real world.
These are just a few. I am sure people in this field can find many more.
Comments
Although, I somehow always have the suspicion that, the consultants are used as a form of insurance. If something goes wrong in the project, the consultants are first to get the blame, and the management lives on as usual.
As per the IITs giving back to society, I think that is something fundamental missing from Indian society in general. I don't see the Tatas or Ambanis donating like Gates, Buffet, or Carnegie.
I think all institutions should give back to the society -- not just the educational ones. In US, it is not just the students in universities, even parents of the kids volunteer to teach in the classes. So, the society doesn't get any benefit, other than the higher likelihood of service jobs, or better infrastructure.
Since an IIT is getting built near Bhubaneswar, may be after sometime we will know the exact answer to this question.
BTW: you should submit such thoughts to some newspapers in India. This is much better than the usual Op-eds in there.
I meant the Indian society.
Yes you are right about giving. I don't know about Tatas and Ambanis, but we really do not labor under the belief of social responsibility. Though I should say that better infrastructure, and more jobs are very good contributions to the society.
And thanks a lot for that note about OpEds (especially coming from my dushman it was quite nice). I don't know whether anyone would want to read so much of spinion. And even if I wanted to force it on people, I have no clue how to send it anywhere to get published. :)
I had discussed these point with my project leader during post graduation. She nodded and thats that. nothing changed.
I also feel that more importance must be given to the project work that we do that to the answer sheets.
But how is that possible when you have to handle over 100 students in a single class room!!
Now I see it wasn't really posted.
I think you are a bit too harsh on consultants. It is not wrong to hire someone to think for you. We all do it informally all the time. When I talk to my friends or family about my life's problems, and ask for their advice, I am "outsourcing thinking" in some way. Of course, that outsourcing is on a very small scale.
Such "outsourcing" is good most of the times: friends and family give you perspectives that you might not have thought of by yourself.
Similarly, the process of outsourcing thinking on a larger scale by hiring consultants isn't necessarily bad. What is bad is to assume that you don't have to think or discuss the thoughts with them because now it's their job.
What is worse is to not realize that you don't have to do what the consultants tell you to, even though it means that your investment of time and money is now "waste".
I think Dash is absolutely correct about our culture vs. giving. (I found it hard myself to do any charity unless I forced myself to do so!)
While I have some problems with your thinking of capitalism as only good (correct me if I am wrong), I agree with you in general.
As long as we have an overpopulation crisis, and lack of educational centers, I don't think changing the IIT entrance process will solve much. Let's say a population P passes the current IIT exam and gets into IITs. After changing the exam according to the way you suggest, let's say a population Q gets into the top-ranked institutes. Assume that the size of P is equal to the size of Q (call this n). Now, I am fairly sure that the intersection of P and Q will have something like 0.95×n elements. In other words, the same individuals who do well in the current format of the exam will do well in the new format.
The IITs select bright people and give them fairly crappy education for the most part (still better than the education that other kids get in other Indian schools). The fact that those kids well in their adulthood isn't because of the IIT education, it is despite that education. Sure, there are some isolated cases of very good professors, very good students, and very good classes, but to say that IIT education is responsible for producing world-class individuals is like saying an Intel 8086 and a 13-inch computer monitor is responsible for the greatest programmers today (for lack of a better analogy).
So, my ideas, in addition to your ideas include:
Invest in education. Create more colleges, and schools; increase the pay of the teachers; and invest in creating "centers of excellence" for teachers.
- As individuals, we are responsible to teaching our kids, friends, and family members about issues such as civic duty, poverty, population crisis, etc.
There are a lot more, but I feel like discussing face-to-face is much better than posting a long comment on the blog!
No, it was longer than maximum comment size (atleast that was the error I got while re-posting it together). So if you see, I had to break it into two comments