Yogesh Singh1:06
Central University challenges and opportunities. I would like to quote Nelson Mandela, as written on the entrance gate of the University of South Africa: 'Destroying any nation doesn't require atomic bombs or long-range missiles; it only requires lowering the quality of education and allowing cheating in the examination system.' The resultant effects include patients dying at the hands of such doctors, buildings collapsing from such engineers, money lost by such economists, humanity dying at the hands of such scholars, justice lost by such judges. The collapse of the education system is the collapse of a nation. This is extremely important.
The thoughts of Nelson Mandela highlight that anarchy prevails when the population is not educated in real terms. Education should not just be a piece of paper; it should be seen in behavior, as Bhimrao Ambedkar rightly said. Education means ingraining understanding in an understandable manner for overall human development.
Central universities play a vital role in our country's growth, but the biggest challenge is leadership. If we identify the right leaders, most situations can be addressed. As Maurice has said, 'I am more afraid of an army of 100 sheep led by a lion than an army of 100 lions led by a sheep.' Leadership is crucial; we need to develop leaders who are decisive, ready to accept challenges, innovative, unbiased, and can connect meaningfully with the university community.
Next is the recruitment of teachers. We should recruit 'teacher-type' teachers, not just based on marks or publications. It's a big challenge to identify and appoint such teachers. If we can't, we need programs to inculcate the right value system in teachers, which can then be transferred to students. Teachers should have research potential, be original thinkers with a positive mindset.
India is a country of 1.4 billion people, so our challenges differ from the Western or Eastern world. When designing recruitment processes, we need objective and transparent criteria to handle thousands of applications.
Regarding students, central universities used to admit based on plus two marks, but with leniency variations. The government has introduced a common university entrance test, which is a good step.
Quality is inversely proportional to quantity – I say this is a myth. For a large country like India, we need quality teaching without compromising quantity. Expectations are high for central universities; for example, Delhi University has 6 lakh students, but some have only 20,000-30,000. The optimum size should not be less than 15,000 students for a unitary university, at least 20,000 on campus. Many institutions have only 2,000-4,000, which we must revisit from a policy perspective.
Funding is another aspect. Most central universities are government-funded, but globally, new ways of financing should be designed without charging higher fees from students. Student fee contribution should not exceed 20% of annual expenditure. Other means include research and consultancy.
Infrastructure and expansion are important. When I became Vice Chancellor of this university, I sought advice from senior Vice Chancellors. They suggested not to do recruitment, construction, or expansion activities to have a good life. Instead, talk about research, innovation, and originality. But this is not the formula we should follow.
