Improving Higher Education in India - II

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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 institutions of higher learning in our country. Some tentative suggestions are offered here which can be a starting point for a debate that leads to regulation in this direction. Indeed there is an urgent need to develop such a regulation. Once the regulations are formulated existing institutions can be given a year to make the appropriate change in order to conform. These are some of the suggestions for the nomenclature of a university, college or institution of higher learning offering degree programs:


1. Names containing the words – world, global, international – must be prescribed only after justifying the said global content and after approval by a regulatory body of the Ministry of Higher education.

2. Names containing words such as India, Indian, and National shall be reserved for universities and colleges etc. that are primarily funded by the national government.

3. Names of Provinces such as Rajasthan, Uttaranchal etc. shall be reserved primarily for universities and colleges etc. that are primarily funded by the state governments.

4. Names of a public figure who are alive may not be used in the nomenclature

5. Names of place such as local area, village, city or public or private figures who are no longer alive may however be used in the nomenclature and is recommended. Some of the best universities in the world for example Nalanda, Oxford and Cambridge are named thus.

6. Use of adjectives such as lovely, pretty, excellent, innovative, apex etc. is highly discouraged although not prohibited. It may also be said that just naming an institute Excellent or Lovely does not make an Institute excellent just as naming a child Ram Dev or Rupvati make these sweet children into a god or beauty.

7. Care should be taken that the name is not unduly long. The last name can be used for a public figure rather than the full name. Redundant words need to be avoided. For example, there are Institutes of Engineering and Technology where the word such as just Technology suffices (being inclusive of Engineering as in the IIT s) and there are Institutes that are Institute of something and Research Center. An institute may well have a center for research and that does not need to be specified in the name, The IIT Delhi contains more than ten specialized research centers besides its main departments and rightly does not specify that in its name whereas some of these others are private colleges that do not have a research center.


For example a university that is named The Manniya Rashtriya Pita Mohandas karamchand Gandhi University of Higher Learning and Research in Sciences and the Arts is more elegantly and simply named as Gandhi University. It is completely sufficient. Imagine the extra printing in letters, documents and degrees of the university involved in the former T. M. R. P. M. K. G. U. H. L. R. A. University. This is a hypothetical extreme example but there are other actual ones not named here that approach it.

Comments

keiko amano said…
Ashok,

This makes sense, but some of the items made me giggle. But I thought more about it. Not the name of Japanese Universities, but Japanese given names often include beauty or smart and so on in them. My father's name is Kenichi. Ken means smart, and ichi is number one. He was smart, and he was number one (eldest) boy. I guess parents wish that for their children. I think basically it's the same idea. It's very interesting. I can tell we share a similar tradition.

I think your suggestions are sensible, and I can imagine how you came up with these ideas. I can sense Indian culture a little bit.
April 4, 2011 at 5:23 AM
ProfAshok said…
Keiko

Thanks Keiko. It is nice to include words like beautiful, smart etc. in names of persons but not of Universities. We actually have a university that is called Lovely University. :-)
April 5, 2011 at 10:59 PM
ProfAshok said…
Keiko, by the way may I nominate you as a Trustee of the Froebel Education Trust seeing that you have contributed so much in this blog. So far I was the only trustee having thought of it.

The trust has not done anything yet (except this blog) but who knows it might someday if there is interest by others and it will be nice to have a Japanese Trustee or Trustees especially someone like you who is bilingual and so much of an advocate of japanese culture. I hope you accept. One can always leave and there is no obligation to do anything if one does not want to.
April 5, 2011 at 11:04 PM
keiko amano said…
Ashok,

I'm honored! Of course, I accept the position. Thank you for asking me whatever it is. I have no idea what a trustee does, but I will. I hope we will have students.

About Lovely University, that's funny rather than lovely. But the Froebel Education Trust sounds very conservative. Are you sure you want that name?

About names of preschools in Japan, for more than a few decades, I see names like "Tomato" or "Water Melon." And it affected the names of banks here, too. We have "Cherry" Bank. It's getting a bit hilarious. But I like the sense of humor. Come to think of it, we used to have Sun Bank long ago.
April 9, 2011 at 2:43 AM
ProfAshok said…
Thanks for accepting the position Keiko. You are now 50 per cent of the trustees so you can suggest/nominate other members. They say that a trust takes off when there are at least five members. At that stage we will post brief bio data and postal / website contact details.
April 9, 2011 at 7:55 PM
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