Convocation at the PSG Institute of Management
Chief Academic Officer of ICFAI, V. Panduranga Rao (second left), presenting the proficiency award for the best student to M. Ponnidevi (right) at the convocation at the PSG Institute of Management in Coimbatore on Saturday.The number of universities in India is not proportionate to its population. There are at present 369 as against the actual requirement of 9,000. Countries that have lesser population than our country have more number of universities, V. Panduranga Rao, Chief Academic Officer, ICFAI, said here on Saturday. At the convocation of the masters programme in international business and PG diploma in advertising and Communication of PSG Institute of Management, PSG College of Technology, Mr. Rao said though the Government did not have the wherewithal to invest in education, it did not let private players enter into the fray. This denied the access to education to quite a few. The enrolment rate of higher education was a very pathetic seven per cent.“Liberalisation has taken place in the industry but not in education. The growth imbalance has led to poor supply of qualified talent by the institutions to the industry. There is no concerted effort to improve the quality of education. The 1,800 business schools in India that churn out 85,000 graduates are not of high quality. A single MBA graduate getting a Rs. 1 crore job abroad is not the criteria by which we should judge the standard of education. It is important to scale up the quality of all the MBAs,” Mr. Rao said.
He wanted the quality institutions (that were very few) to improve their productivity. The Government should not restrict their growth because they were very few.“Over 300 million middle class population are constantly aspiring for better jobs and better salaries. But the higher education scenario is not geared up to meet the challenges. Inadequate infrastructure and faculty are major problems that contribute to poor quality in education and lack of access to it,” he said.He also said the poor number of doctorates in the country. “Doing a Ph. D is not materially very attractive. Because of poor pay scales it is not much-sought-after. India has four Ph. Ds in a million in the science and technology sector; while it is 89 per million in the U.S., 75 in Japan and 52 in Korea. The subsidy that is being pumped into Indian Institutes of Management for the MBAs should also be extended for Ph. Ds. The huge anomaly is not right. Proper facilities should be created for the Ph. Ds”.
