How foreign universities can offer quality education

Students learn and grow by studying abroad, as most international universities ensure that they are built on the twin pillars of teaching and research, writes Amit Dasgupta
This is that time of year when students start deciding on their next course of study and opting for a perfect destination. It is an important decision and one that should not be taken lightly.
There are some great institutions of higher education in India.Unfortunately, the significant demand-supply mismatch is making admissions difficult. According to government of India estimates, if India were to meet its Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 30% by 2020, around 14 million new students would not get admission into any higher education institution (HEI) unless India were to create 1000 new universities, 40,000 new polytechnics and one million new faculty members to absorb these additional students. This is a monumental challenge.
What is likely to happen is that the quality of education would be adversely impacted. This will augur ill for our developmental and economic growth aspirations. The government recognises this and is focussing on urgent education reforms. However, this is not likely to happen overnight.
Till it happens, students are likely to increasingly opt for higher education abroad, especially if they can afford the cost of such education.

There are several inadequacies that characterise the Indian higher education sector. None, for instance, are within the Top 100 in the QS rankings and this in itself would pressure students to look outside India.
Further, it is critically stymied through a pedagogy and curriculum that is obsolete. The extreme pressure on teaching rarely allows faculty to be trained in new methodology. Costs prevent the acquisition of new equipment in laboratories. Research, similarly, is not an integral part of a university's DNA. On the other hand, most international universities ensure that they are built on the twin pillars of teaching and research.
The world-class international universities also take great pride in the fact that they are truly international. The multicultural environ immediately impacts the learning experience and makes students global in their outlook and behaviour. There is no substitute for this.
Career counselling and employability are yet another area in which Indian institutions lag far behind their foreign counterparts. Our curriculum, for instance, is not based on interactions with those who would finally end up hiring our students. On the other hand, the internationally-ranked foreign education providers constantly engage with business and industry and government to understand what the future requirements would be.
After all, when a student joins university, no one knows precisely what job the student would end up doing four years later, since the job itself is yet to be created. Words like app, artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data analytics, quantum computing, etc are recent additions not only to our vocabulary but also to the requirements of the new work force. The job market and the demands on employees are rapidly changing and it is incumbent on education providers to not only anticipate this change but to prepare the students accordingly. This is a significant distinguishing characteristic of a great university.
India has a long way to go in thoroughly rewiring its education system. Till then, those who can afford a higher education abroad are likely to choose that option. Many would be the better for it.
(The author is a former Indian diplomat and India country director, University of New South Wales, Sydney)