Notes on Education

Credit System of Education Human knowledge has grown exponentially over the last century. The traditional system of education in which students earned a degree after completing a prescribed number of courses over a certain number of years is inadequate to cope with the growth of knowledge and activity of the modern world. As a measure to cope with this increase of knowledge and a diversity of requirements, the credit system of education was invented more than a century ago. In this system each individual course is assigned a certain number of credits based on the workload. Approximately a course consisting of one hour per week of lecture load spread over a semester is a one-credit course. A degree is earned when a students completes a certain number of credits. Certain courses are prescribed as core or compulsory courses (about half the courses for some degrees) whereas the student is free to select the other courses depending upon his interests and aptitude subject to the approval

Fixing Schedules  Author with H S Gill designing an IIT class reunion schedule If a prize has to be given to a nation for maximum variability then India might win it. It appears that in India a great many things that can do without change are changed continuously. An example is the design of our coins. It has changed so rapidly over the years that it is sometimes difficult to recognize which is which especially for older persons who wear reading glasses and are not wearing them at the time of handling coins. Compare this to the design of coins in USA or Canada. They have coins in distinct sizes, colors and designs for 1cent, 5cent, 10 cent, and 25 cents. Even a blind person can make out which coin is which on feeling their weight or size. These designs have not changed for over a century. As a result many efficient coin operated or coin-handling machines can be designed in those countries. Undoubtedly fixing the design of coins will render some die makers and coin designers out

Faculty Subsequent to permitting private players to enter the higher educational arena, over the last decade there has been a proliferation of educational institutions in India. It is a profitable business and many an enterprising shopkeeper, hotel owner, primary or high school owner, politician etc. has jumped into the business. It may be imagined the resulting quality of such private education cannot be of a very high quality. Hopefully this is only a preliminary situation and the scenario will improve in future. Innovative regulation would be required to improve quality. This is what the present series of notes is about. The arenas of education that private players have entered are the most profitable ones such as engineering and management education. With the increase of educational institutions a serious shortage of qualified faculty has emerged in areas such as engineering. This has led the regulating authorities to lower the required qualifications of faculty to an insidiously l

Size An institutional institution begins with land. An adequate amount of land is necessary not just for the initial requirements of the institution but also for its future growth. Universities in particular can be long lasting institutions that can last for hundreds of years. Therefore even if a new university does not have much infrastructure to start with it has a potential to grow in future if it comes on adequate amount of land. Presently regulations exist that prescribe that a new university may be established on as little as thirty acres of land. This is on the low side. Such a university may begin its initial work on this much land but it has no future. It may be mentioned that it is also not possible to enhance activities by procuring land elsewhere in future since the land assets must be continuous. It is also not easy or economical to discard old buildings and move on to a new campus. A more serious lacuna in the present regulations is that the land requirements are specifie

Higher education is offered primarily in two types of Institutions. The first is a University. The second type of institutions that offers higher education is a college or institute affiliated to a University. There is considerable difference between the quality of education in the two types of institutions mentioned here. A university contributes to the creation of new knowledge through research that involves research by faculty, research personnel as well as doctoral and postdoctoral students supervised by faculty. Therefore, the university has sufficient expertise and staff to formulate curriculums and develop new programs. As compared to a college the university also requires extensive infrastructure and funding to carry out its functions. Compared to a university a college affiliated to a university does not develop its own curriculums but rather prepares students along the lines of a curriculum developed by a university. At the most it can give suggestions to a university. The un

Nomenclature of Educational Institutes and Universities This note is the second one by the author in a series that contains suggestions for improving the state of higher education in India. It concerns the naming of Institutions. At the present time there appears to be no restriction on nomenclature of colleges and universities in India. As a result we have small poorly staffed colleges that bear names such as the Global Institute, World Institute etc. Or, there may be small families run set up with a name like The National Institute of higher education etc. There are other names like the Lovely Pretty University or one could be named the Institute of Hig hest Excellence in the World, or Institute of Pretty Skyline of Engineering. Some of these names are ridiculous showing the state of higher education in the country in a poor light. Others tend to create a false impression in the minds of the public. There is an immediate need to regulate and rectify the nomenclature of institu