Pranav Gupta - Ashoka University’s Founder Highlights - Indian Education System Needs Redevelopment to Retain Indian Students

A recent review by the US Department of State revealed that Chinese students were in majority to enter the United States, but in recent times Indians have reached nearly twice as many student visas as Chinese. It indicates that a huge number of Indian students migrated to US for higher studies. According to the consultancy company Redseer's study on ‘Higher Education Abroad’, it was highlighted that about two million Indian students would be moving abroad for higher education by 2024. The data shows that there are approximately 770000 Indian students studying overseas that has gone up by 20% from 2016 when the number was around 440000. It is not unusual as many families have been compelled to move their children overseas for years due to the dearth of high-quality educational institutions in India and the supply-demand imbalance.

 Pranav Gupta, Ashoka University’s Founder voiced his opinion, “For many years, most Indian students were sent to study abroad in Western developed countries like the US, UK and Canada. Sending children to study in foreign institutions was considered a prestige symbol for many rich families. Children from middle-class households also tried to obtain a scholarship to study abroad. However, previously resources were scarce and the number of students who could actually realize their desire of studying abroad was limited. However, the current state of affairs has substantially changed from the predicament. Education loans have made foreign education more accessible to wider populace and more nations in Europe and the Middle East have come up to draw students to their shores.”

 The quality of technical education in India has improved significantly over time. But in reality, the majority of Indian colleges provide basic programmes like B.A, B.Com and B.Sc. Indian institutions provide courses in subjects like Math, Education, Sociology, Sanskrit etc that cover the fundamentals of a topic, but there is no practical skills that are included in their curriculum. The condition of medical education has not kept up with the growing demand. There is a lack of infrastructure to accommodate the rising number of students with high competition and lofty fee structure in private institutions.

“There aren't many diverse courses offered in Indian institutions, like ones in sports management or bioinformatics and similar. Many students had to travel outside of India for better possibilities because no Indian university provides degrees in such fields. There is a good deal of variation in the courses offered by foreign colleges. There is a lack of specialized skills offered in the courses here; hence the employability of the students suffers. The majority of educational institutions in the nation adhere to a set curriculum, which might not be in accordance with the demands of the market,” shared Pranav Gupta, Ashoka University’s Founder.

 Ashoka University, which is one of the best liberal arts universities in Asia and ranked among India’s top 5 private universities, became one of the few institutions in the nation that follows a multidisciplinary approach and established an all-encompassing atmosphere for students to succeed.

 Pranav Gupta, Ashoka University’s Founder believes that more universities are needed to meet the demands of the 21st century workforce and existing ones should be well-equipped. “At Ashoka, we emphasize on industry-focused education. We are always improving our curriculum to keep up with the rapidly evolving business environment. Additionally, we continually offer new courses to ensure that our potential students may choose from a variety of innovative career pathways. The focus here is to apply multidisciplinary approach, retain leading faculty, develop skill-based education and invest our best possible resources and tools for positive research environment.”

 The criticism may be aimed at parents and students for avoiding Indian institutions, but as long as the Indian educational system is not adjusted to meet the demands of individuals, this ordeal will continue. Indian educational institutions need to start giving students varied choices for technical, medical and other professional degrees. Today, there is a need to transform India into a knowledge-based economy and that can be achieved by letting go off outdated educational practices and adopt newer, modern ones.

 “With CUET and the new NEP that emphasizes skill-based education, a start has been made. The education model in India needs a proper makeover to bring it to the level to compete with the favourable education models of the other developed countries. Building a good research-oriented culture in the institutions is the need of the hour. Ashoka University has established a Science Advisory Council to aid in forming alliances and collaborations with research institutions and to assist in generation of funds to further improve research capabilities. The Council will play a critical role in advancing science programmes, pursuing significant areas of scientific inquiry, and directing Ashoka University's research and development agenda. With the new education policy and rules, India will hopefully get back in the game and the rate of students shifting abroad should decrease in the upcoming years. India is making an effort to solve this issue and should be successful in retaining Indian students in higher education space with constructive efforts,” highlighted Pranav Gupta.

Disclaimer : The above is a sponsored article and the views expressed are those of the sponsor/ author and do not represent the stand and views of The Tribune editorial in any manner.

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