Alone iisc among schools of excellence

Alone iisc among schools of excellence

It is a moment of validation for the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, ranked eighth in the Times Higher Education Ranking of small universities. The 100-year-old institute has been for several years now ranked among the top 250 institutions, according to the Times ranking. For IISc, it is a moment of celebration, but not for the Indian higher education sector in general. Policymakers and regulators need to learn from IISc and develop a blueprint that can be replicated, scaled up and innovated across the country.
The core purpose of higher education institutions and universities is to create knowledge and value. This can be cutting edge research in science, technology, engineering and medicine, or research in social science, design of institutions or instruments that tackle social and economic questions.
A university must also be judged by the quality of the human resource it produces, and the impact it has on systems and policy. Indian institutions have typically concentrated on teaching, particularly at the undergraduate level. Academia has not deemed research and its dissemination, interaction with industry or policymaking, whether by advice or independent assessment, key concerns.
In part, this is a legacy of colonial policy that used higher education not to create knowledge but to produce capable cogs of their administrative set-up in the country. The increasingly globalised and now automated world requires a reorientation of the education system. India’s higher education institutions need to change from degree-doling units to knowledge creators, and this will require policy support. The IISc provides one model of making this transition with a modicum of success. There would be others. Policy must vigorously pursue excellence in higher education.