Read a statement in Times of India by some Indian-entrepreneur, very excited about US universities opening campuses in India.
"They will probably end up doing some of their research in India also for the same reasons that major corporations are doing R&D in India - it is much cheaper and brings them closer to growth markets."
Statement appears absolutely laughable. This Indian-entrepreneur obviously has no idea about academic research.
First of all, I cant see why universities will be interested in being close to growth markets. Universities aren't building products. They are working on science & technology which "may" be used as the nuts & bolts which products sometime in future. Most of the research is driven by government funding agencies everywhere in the work. To best of my knowledge it is not driven by Industry.
"Cheap research" he says is the reason why universities will flock to India. Obviously, this guy doesn't know anything about the challenges and ways of academic research.
Academic research is collaborative. All researchers collaborate by publishing their research work. Each researcher has access to the entire work of all other researchers. A researcher's work simply wont get published if they choose toyb hide some of their results or techniques. One, it is considered unethical. Second, the research work should be reproducible which it can't be unless all details about it are reported in the research paper. Academic research is not about a researcher wanting to get his research done for "cheap" at some other research lab.
Additionally, that research lab with "cheap human resources" quite likely wont even have the "expensive equipment" required to carry out the research work.
There is ofcourse an additional point best stated by the new VC of cambridge. On being asked whether cambridge will be interested in setting up a campus in India, he remarked - "Universities are much more complex than hamburgers". Can one simply transplant a Harvard or a cambridge in India like one can transplant a factory or a call center? I dont think so. But, I can not put forward any convincing reasons for it. Have not thought much about it as yet.
In short, I really think all this talk of the top universities setting up full-fledged campuses in India is pure pipe dream. A handful of them may at best set up some strategic research centers & academic programmes.
In days to come I will continue to write more on this with an intention to understand what makes for a "vibrant university"?
5 comments:
sorry Gaurav,
i think you are plainly mistaken on this. let us take another look at this:
1) Indian industry has little ties with research in universities, and vice versa. "Most of research is driven by Indian govt funding": bang on! this applies purely for Indian scenario.
everywhere else, this is different. ask Akash, Harvard has close ties with industries, who fund labs and provide first-rate problems which need to be solved by basic sciences. Indian scientists are not used to creating products, that is not our "culture". but i will argue, this was a mistake propagated by Nehru and his academic 'chamcha's'. this needs to be changed.
2) indeed research is collaborative and we do not have greatest of facilities. but, over time there will be more available. in fact, some of the smartest of IIT profs may make contacts with these centers and will improve IITs and their outlook towards academics. Instead of depending upon purely text-book based approach, there will be more industry ties.
more foreign collaborations are of course possible, as they are now. what will change, is that not every student needs to be in Georgia (US), to be enrolled in Georgia Tech. It is much cheaper to employ many more students within India rather than even to take 25% of them to US (visa, travel costs, etc).
3) Cambridge is being snobbish as usual, i think they will loose over the long run. Americans have consistently outsmarted British for more than 100 years now.
"Can one simply transplant a Harvard or a cambridge in India like one can transplant a factory or a call center?" It is not easy, like you said, but certainly possible. Imagine these academic centers which will teach all subjects with no impartiality. Universities which will shelter and pay to profs who need not listen to 'Shiv-senas' or "Muslim League" around and will propagate controversial dialogs. This will change India.
If these univs can make profit, they will change the whole Indian outlook at research and education. I think you are under-estimating demand for their campus in India. they may not want to transform India, but transform it they will.
finally, BITS/ Manipal should be afraid, really afraid. imagine, Georgia Tech, Stanford, MIT (why, even a lowly Iowa State) will claim the best of the students. even IITs will require all their effort to hold on to their own, with all the government aid and backing.
Ambassador and Premier Padmini were firmly relegated to the past by mere introduction of Maruti 800, that story needs to be retold and remembered.
I hope you are proven correct. However, I would not readily extrapolate from the past.
1) My question is only the following - What will the foreign universities gain by setting up shop in India? Is it profit, intellectual strength, access to students (connected to profits,I suppose)?
2) BITS set up campuses to gain access to more students and also because, I guess, there must have been enough money in the kitty and this money had to be spent on something worthwhile (without losing it). I don't think foreign universities will necessarily look at "new campuses" as a way to utilize money. They have several other avenues to do so.
2) Is it that the universities will get access to a larger "student" market and they would like to tap into it? I cannot answer that with definiteness but I have reasons to doubt it. Why would "Research universities" (the best known ones) get excited about offering their curriculum on "payment" (in order to earn profits) to a market in India? Industry is driven purely by profit of the share-holders. Is that a driving force for these universities - even for the private universities? If that is the case then certainly the universities will come in and earn their buck in India.
3) My contention is that "knowledge creation" is the driving force for universities and that in turn rests on the demand made by social forces (industry, and society at large). These universities were not set up to earn profit. They were set up as "self sustaining" institutions that were meant to generate knowledge (and impart it). If I am correct (which I believe, I am) then will this goal be furthered by setting up more campuses?
4)They could open campuses in foreign countries for strategic, political reasons. I wonder, if this worked as a force for NYU and other campuses in Doha.
I have no doubt that foreign universities in India (full-fledged campuses, that is) will have a wonderful effect on Indian education quality and wake it from its slumber. For one, it will stop the mindless rush towards IIT's on the basis of a single index. They will hopefully bring in a more wholesome way of admitting students (I hope, the school sector does not prove to be incapable of providing the necessary input to them). Belonging to a private university in India, I simply look forward to such competition. It will lead to a vibrant university on the move.
It will be wonderful if foreign universities open campuses here. However, I cant figure out why they should do so?
Maybe I'll just wait and watch, with crossed fingers.
Gaurav
why would they put up campuses in India? look at it from admin of those univs.
if they need 20 students to work in a lab, they have to select those, pay them to come to US, go through tedious visa process and then spend on their research, stipend and travel. all this is costly.
more importantly, with some Muslim students turning to terrorism (Mutallab, that underwear bomber, was a student), it has become a problem for univs to hire students without doing significant lobbying with security apparatus.
also, once the students are inside the US, they will also compete for American jobs (and leave acads).
plus, how does one make substantial contact with Indian industries, academicians and public? all said and done, 1 billion is too large a number to ignore.
all these can be alleviated to a great extent by setting up remote campuses. they have similar reasons to go to China: indeed Georgia Tech, Harvard have campuses (full scale) in China running for a few years now.
now, these campuses will bring in fresh (American) approach to doing research, debates and freedom. eventually, slowly and steadily they will chip away stranglehold of a few rich men (Modis, Birlas, Pai's) on higher education.
Read Atanu Dey's blog on economic analysis of higher education: good stuff...
http://www.deeshaa.org/2010/03/25/the-commodification-of-education/
cheers!
I came here to comment on the fact that research is not purely driven by the government if we look beyond the Indian Scenario. Everything in the EE lab I worked in was funded by the industry or the university itself. Every PhD student was working on solving let's say IBM/Intel's problems, and almost all the resources for this were provided by the respective companies.
Rest, I agree to, almost! :) Will comment in detail sometime.
Great blog!
Regards
Akash,
I welcome your comments. You have first hand knowledge. I am working on some assumptions.
I shall await more detailed comments, as promised by you.
Gaurav
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