Edu-leaders

I am sure Anna University is not on this list !

Rest assured we will do no better in the years to come. IITs or some university departments will keep themselves in the reckoning for some more years mainly because of the excellent faculty these might have at present, and they too will retire after few years. Even if they are kept as Prof. Emeritus or Visiting Faculty they will not have any role to play in the improvement of the institutes. We need to realize that the main pillar on which an institute stands and rises to greater heights is the faculty and its quality in teaching and research. We have been undermining the faculty for the last few decades in our higher education system. And may be it’s never too late but if we want to make our universities world class it will not happen by formulating new rules and recruiting more teachers in response to the advertisements. Every head of the institute should be measured mainly on the basis of what kind of faculty she is able to attract for her institute and how she is able to retain the faculty. What are the "start up" facilities in the university to help faculty start their research. How the faculty performance is measured and rewarded, is it conducive to excellence in teaching and research? For that every university has to evolve a vision and mission and review the same at regular interval. All the activities including the course work, teaching and learning out comes, should have a fitment with the vision and mission of the institute. Now it’s not a few years task. Our political leaders should understand that it may take 30 years of persistent and consistent efforts and the structure for the system should be evolved away from centralized structure.