Higher Ed in India

by Andrew Gillen

Rakesh Vohra:

… This multitude of private organizations offering a tertiary education is reflection of a severe shortage of Universities in India. One estimate pegs the available supply at only 7% of India’s college age population. The private sector has stepped in… The size of the market has attracted many entrants all of whom advertise aggressively…

… The focus on technology and management reflects a view that education is only useful insofar as it leads to a lucrative job…

... The upshot is that India offers only three varieties of higher education.

First, low price and low quality for a select few. These are the IIT’s and the IIM’s...

Second, high price and low quality offered by private institutions; here one pays for infrastructure. If one must attend college, it might as well be pleasant. So, tennis courts, air-conditioned class rooms etc.

Third, low price and zero quality for the rest. These are the government run Universities bedeviled by student strikes and chronic faculty absenteeism. I know, very French.

It suggests graduating from a tertiary institution in India is nothing more than signaling device to potential employers. This seems to be particularly true of the institutions in the first category. Collectively they admit less than 2 % of those who apply (and even the group that apply is screened before hand) through a joint entrance exam…

…Amongst the private institutions one finds a range of ambitions. One, with a billion dollar endowment, seeks to rival Stanford and Harvard. At the other extreme are diploma mills with classrooms, classes and warm bodies to staff them...

HT: Al Roth