The Hindu : Opinion / Letters to the Editor : Higher education

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 14, 2005

Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Higher education

This refers to the article "Higher education in India" (April 12). The mindless mushrooming of universities and corporate colleges in the last three decades has led to the deterioration of standards in higher education. Though India boasts of a huge reservoir of educated manpower, it is common knowledge that it is nowhere near international standards. IITs and IIMs are only small blips on our educational radar.

M. Anand Ram Seshu,
Secunderabad

Education has been misused by those who have established colleges, particularly in the spheres of engineering and management, to reap huge returns by practically selling management quota seats to students as also appointing the highest bidders, not necessarily highly qualified, to faculty positions.

R. Thirunarayanan,
Chennai

The reason why so many students go abroad for higher education is because it is well nigh impossible to get admission to post-graduation courses in premier institutions such as the IITs and IIMs. In a country with a population of one billion, should there not be more institutes of higher education?

V.P. Muralikrishnan,
Kozhikode, Kerala

The much ado about retaining talent and curbing brain drain has continued to be a dream since Independence. When other Asian countries such as China and Taiwan are upgrading their universities and achieving excellence in higher education, India is clearly lagging behind. Why then grudge our youngsters who go abroad to enrich their knowledge? It is time for introspection and an audit of our education system.

K. Shanker,
Bangalore

Globalisation has effected astonishing changes in the nature and functions of education in India. Higher education faces three challenges — accessibility, quality and cost. It is for the Centre and the State Governments to strengthen the educational system to make it globally competitive.

P. Thilakar,
Bareilly, U.P.

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