Subsidizing Higher Education

An article in The Hindu , dated , March 16 2011, title: Is IT enough, what about basic sciences?, triggered a desire in me to write this piece.

Subsidy- the mantra used by our government to show their concern towards any section of the society. Much of this is heard in the context of agriculture. As, it is true with every policy that is made by our "well-learned" representatives (lets not call them leaders), granting subsidy alone is one inefficient way of providing a platform for development.

Let me explain this in the context of higher education in India. Most of the higher education in Government-run institutes is subsidized. The intention behind is good, however, it will not suffice to meet the social obligation that these institutes have. Yes, these institutes do have social obligation as the education is being subsidized using tax payers money.

I remember, once, the then director of IIM A , said that , "no one is denied admission due to lack of money". Thats definitely true. Banks have become more open to give loans seeing that their loans will be paid by the graduates more easily. However, the point everyone is missing is, the socio-economic environment that does not allow every student a fair chance to enter these institutions (where subsidies are given).

In most scenarios, the institutions where subsidies are offered have (near) world-class facilities and faculty. These will be most sought-after for the same reason. Most of the students who aspire for these institutions (not even getting in) are urban born and have well-placed parents. I am not sure that how many from a two tier town in India know about NLSIU (Bangalore), Indian Statistical Institutes , CCMB, CDFD, AIIMS etc for that matter any "elite" government institute.

I think when these institutes were established (post-independence), they must have seen students only from elite backgrounds (like sons/daughters of bureaucrats and elite urban populace). This is clearly evident from the fact that once a farmer's son makes it to one of the IITs , it hits the headlines. I feel, in one way , it strikingly shows how inefficient are these institutes in terms of social responsibility. This clearly shows that, just by subsidizing the fees, the Government is not meeting its objectives. This is failure of a socialist nation, which, instead of creating class less society through education, it actually created a larger divide.

As someone said, these institutes were helpful in creating the industry of coaching classes which is flourishing ever since.

I am not saying that no effort has been taken in this direction. For example, I know IITs have a concept of coaching SC/ST students who missed the JEE cut-offs by a reasonable margin. However, my argument touches even more basic point. I bet, that these candidates will definitely be from a well-to-d0 urban background. (Readers please enlighten me in case you know of any measures that were taken in this direction).

My suggestion:

1. These institutes should use their autonomy in creating awareness in larger section of society about their presence. Around 72.2% of population lives in villages. So, ideally, the students' profile in these institutes should reflect the same. But, is it even close to that? Awareness can be created through campaigns by faculty and students in surrounding villages of these institutes. Or even better urge students to do that when they are on vacation.
2. One novel approach is to take these institutes to the villages. By this, I mean that they can run virtual classes by opening VSAT centers in these villages. These classes may be the basics of sciences (or humanities) and encourage them to join these institutes.
3. These institutes can adopt some surrounding villages and get the children from these villages to these world-class campuses, so that the children are aware that such institute exists and at least one out of them is inspired to get in there.

Please add more ideas as you read on.

( I was half way through my article and this Sunday's (13/3/2010), titled, out before they are in, inspired me further to publish this).