“Indian dreams of private universities”: This is the headline of a dispatch by Tim Sullivan for the Associated Press today. The headline is both positive and flattering at once, but the story is more otherwise. The report is all about the mind-boggling extent of private participation in education in India, particularly at the higher levels.
“India’s higher education system is so hobbled by underfunding, corruption, outdated teaching materials and bureaucratic infighting that — except at a handful of hyper-elite, brutally competitive institutions — it often seems on the brink of collapse,” Sullivan writes. Only eight per cent of Indians of university age are in higher education, he says, quoting a recent government report. (The figure is half the average of the rest of Asia, with hundreds of thousands unable to find spots at schools).
This gloomy picture provides Sullivan the perfect background to introduce Ashok Chauhan, the founder chief of Amity University, Noida, “… far from the typical educator”, Chauhan is “an industrialist, a businessman — and a man wanted in Germany on fraud charges. He’s a self-proclaimed philanthropist who is often surrounded by a phalanx of bodyguards, grim-looking men in polyester safari suits”.
The story, even when brings out a realistic portrayal of Indian higher education in the age of globalization – was the picture any different before 1991? – succinctly highlights its state of affairs. Private participation can only be driven by profit motives, despite the legal requirement that private universities make no profit.
Read on: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iMCEpae_ezVxjXj49BgwppCloEBAD8TMKJ680
