There is a story about how Cassius Clay changed his name to Mohammed Ali. There is an equally interesting anecdote about how Jagran Integrated Business School changed its name to Leeds Metropolitan University. Abhishek Mohan Gupta, director (marketing and strategic development) of Jagran Social Welfare Society, which runs Jagran Integrated, wanted to get his alma mater Leeds Met into the country. For five years, he waded through the maze of government approvals. No luck. Leeds remained out. And Gupta remained stuck.
He then used his last trick. He told the government that he wanted to change Jagran Integrated’s affiliation from Barkatullah University to Leeds Met. Nobody had made a request like that before. The absence of precedent befuddled the mandarins who govern higher education and they ended up giving it a go ahead. Overnight, the soul of Leeds Met entered the body of Jagran Integrated. Last year, 70 students were studying there in four programmes. This year, Gupta is ramping this up to 13 programmes. In a few years, Gupta wants to enroll 1,000 students.Think Parthenon’s numbers are out of whack? Listen to Anand Sudarshan, CEO, Manipal Universal Learning. According to him, the minister has spoken about how he wants to send 30 percent of India’s college-going-age kids to college. Sudarshan’s estimate is that we need 30 million people going into college and higher education. The National Knowledge Commission set up by the government talks about the need for 1,500 universities — India has 350 now — to meet the human resources challenge.
Since profit is not allowed, people who can grease the system are setting up educational institutes. There are sweet-meat sellers who are purveyors of higher education now. India’s higher education regulations are so stifling that, for the most part, it has only discouraged serious players from getting in. The result: The bulk of the private players in higher education are those who want to make a fast buck. Already, everyone connected to an educational institute makes money using the management company model. Just let it be above board.
Dragon Gets into the Act
(This story appears in the 16 April, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
The electricity act, 2003 expedited the setting-up of power generation capacity and it is expected that generation shortfall would be plugged in the next decade.<br /> An act on similar lines in the higher education space might help create capacity in a systematic and predictable manner.
on Apr 22, 2010There is more to the so called FDI in Education than meets the eye. This is the idea of the US Globalists. In the USA, there is no manufacturing to speak of, the US Corporates having shifted to places offering CHEAP labour. The only ones that Uncle Sam,is concentrating are:-<br /><br /> 1.The Military Industrial Complex and War.<br /><br /> 2.Wall Street's Financial sector.<br /><br /> 3.Bio-Tech and GMO<br /><br /> 4.Pharma<br /><br /> This is the reason the US Globalists are interested in FDI in Education.The aims are:-<br /><br /> 1.Privatization and running the same using FOUNDATIONS,as is proposed in Detroit.<br /><br /> 2.Land Grab<br /><br /> 3.Espionage. (Most US Universities,Cos etc,are fronts of the CIA) But the main aim is for brainwashing the youth,for ushering in ONE WORLD TOTALITARIAN GOVERNMENT. <br /><br /> There are also many complex and seemingly unconnected reasons, like Gold scams, Depopulation etc.
on Apr 20, 2010Higher education is undergoing a huge change even in the US where the traditional University system is in the process of being disaggregated -- surprisingly this article doesnt mention this aspect at all. Although the likes of Harvard will still continue as they are, a lot of good Universities in the state system have been hit and there is a transformation ongoing -- this is catalyzed by the recession but is independently overdue. In India the authors fail to even mention the severe dearth of quality faculty members to scale -- This is a soft issue aside from regulations and physical infrastructure but very crucial. Interestingly, some of the solutions emerging in the aforementioned transformation of higher education are related to getting rid of dependency on 'stellar' faculty to deliver high quality courses -- and that may be the solution to the quality faculty problem for higher education in India.
on Apr 14, 2010Can you give us solution, how can we have world class higher education....
on Apr 13, 2010I think twinning programmes (exchange programmes) is a better way to integrate global education with our traditional university education without diluting the educational standards.
on Apr 12, 2010Whatever may be the argument, I am damn sure that all UK/USA based univeristies who aspires to grow WILL COME TO INDIA. If not now, within next five, you will see hoardings billboards, TV ads, Newspaper/magzines full of names of foreign universities in India. Mark my words today whereever you see Vodafone, Reliance, Tata DoCoMo, Airtel. . . in 2015, you will see, Oxford, Cambridge, harvard,Middlesex, Leeds, Boston,... Name it and it will be here in India.
on Apr 9, 2010