Supervision of Higher Education in India

Dear Friends,

I have just about completed the rather difficult task of sending my son to a management institute at Delhi. I cannot really explain, how difficult a task, it has been, to first select a reasonably good quality institute and then to get my son admitted in a two year PGDM course.

I think many parents can be saved a lot of troubles and uncertainties if the statutory bodies like AICTE, perform the tasks, they have been entrusted with. But, just go through daily english or vernacular newspapers and you will be surprised by the sheer number Institutes offering so called "Quality Management Education".

Invariably, they inform you about "Free Laptop" and "100% Placement Assistance" (only God knows, whether this 100% will make any difference to your ward's employability or not). Next, they tell you about their faculty- " Faculties from IIMs and IITs ". It makes you wonder, if all the combined faculties of the 8 IIMs leave their Institutes to teach at the more than 500 odd private "Quality Management Education Institutes", then why the mad rush to appear in the CAT, worry about the percentile and the cut-offs and the desire to get into an IIM. After all the IIMs will not have any teachers left to teach. Besides, you always end up thinking if the Institute, you or your ward has selected, can have the "Faculties from IIMs and IITs" in time to finish the course, as academic sessions commence at the same time and more or less the syllabus is also similar.

As if the failure of AICTE and similar supervisory bodies were not enough, the UGC has decided to grant "Deemed University" status to any organisation run and managed by a scamster or by people of dubious backgrounds, ready to grease the palms of UGC administrators. Now, we are blessed with universities with funny names-"Lovely Professional University" is one good example. Next, if we are more lucky, we can have "Sweet Heart University" or "Darling Dilruba University". How I wish we could study at such "Centres of Excellence in Romantic Academics" during our college days.

It is about time, the new cabinet minister for HRD Mr. Kapil Sibbal takes the bull by its horns and manages to have a serious look at the status and direction of higher education in India. The present situation is just not acceptable.