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...

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...

Ruins of Nalanda International University, first university in the world. Higher education here is defined as that education which leads to a university degree such as the bachelor’s degree, master’s degree or doctoral degrees. It is undertaken usually after twelve years of school education that begins at age six. This article is written with reference to the quality of higher education in India. However what is stated here is equally applicable elsewhere as well. Over the last decade, with the opening of the higher education sector in India to private sector a plethora of educational institutions, both affiliated colleges and universities have emerged in India. They offer courses leading to degrees in various disciplines varying from the humanities to professional areas. However, whereas the quantity of available education has increased drastically, the same cannot be said for the quality. The quality of higher education varies from extremely dismal to good with more of...