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International Universities in India: A reassessment

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The opening of international university campuses in India has a distinct gold rush feel to it. There are 17 universities whose applications are already through and the projects are at several stages of implementation. Several are in the pipeline. The British universities were quick to move in, given their historical affinity. The Australians followed suit, taking advantage of the geopolitical bonhomie between the two nations. The Canadian universities, despite Canada being a top destination of Indian students in the last decade, were hampered by the rift between the two nations around an alleged state-sponsored assassination of a Canadian citizen. But they feel left behind, and will soon turn up in force at the India AI Summit in February, looking for deals. And, finally, the US universities, ever so inward-looking (international students at US universities make up only 6% of the population, compared to about a quarter in UK or Australia), are slower, but some, like the Illinois Instit...
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Rethinking Microcredentials

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It feels like another life but I used to be all-in for microcredentials not so long ago. That was the effect of Australia for me. The Australian national framework and the buzz around Microcredentials converted me. I loved its flexibility and the focus on practical stuff. In the UK, where a Masters could be achieved through negotiated learning, it is possible to build a course as close to practical life and work as possible. And, yet, not many people can afford multi-year commitment that such postgrad degrees offer. Microcredentials were that sweet everything - short, flexible, close to real-life and daily work, and in theory, stackable, to make a full qualification! But the standard formula was not exciting enough. Work needed to be team-based and collaborative, otherwise it was to become academic and make-believe. And, therefore, the assessment was meant to be complex. I saw the MCs which are meant to be practical but ended up in reflective essays marked by academic mentors - that wa...
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Finding the steel rider

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As I set down to write a sequence of paragraphs - I promised to myself not to call it a book - on what makes a person today successfully negotiate life and work over the next 20 or 30 years, I should start with an admission: I have nothing new or insightful to say about how such future lives would pan out to be. I simply don't know.  Therefore, unlike the other 'books' of this kind, I can't start this project with a confident posture, peppered with quotations from McKinsey, PwC or the World Economic Forum. Not that I don't find what they publish useful, but they are useful to me for a different reason. I don't look so much into the Executive Summary and the bold claims these make, but more to the footnotes and the methodology they followed. The methodology often tells a story very different: That these reports, presented as guides for the future of humanity, reflect the views of a very small number of people, drawn from mostly similar backgrounds. They reflect a...
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International Universities in India: 'Macaulay Mindset'

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If I thought India was the El Dorado of International Higher Ed - everyone wanted to go there, but no one knew how - it may no longer be true: Reportedly, 17 foreign universities have got permission to open their campuses in India, with more waiting in the queue. At the same time, Indian higher education policymaking continues to send mixed signals. The Prime Minister recently talked about the 'Macaulay Mindset' and the invitation to free India of the influence of the long-dead Lord M. (See here ' Modi wages war against the ghost of British Empire ') In effect, therefore, India is telling the foreign universities that 'we want your brands but none of your methods', when China is doing the opposite - taking their methods and building its own brands!  This is what triggered me to write this post, and I do want to make more posts about the prospects of foreign universities in India. But, as a starting point, it may be worthwhile to understand...
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Anchoring: 1

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I believe my life of start-ups is over now. There are personal reasons behind it - this has forced me to rethink my priorities - but this is as much triggered by professional considerations. I have come to realise the essentially speculative nature of start-ups, and also that in the industry I have chosen to be in, its unsuitability. Speculation may be permissible and even productive in other industries, particularly where the customers are also venturesome, as in consumer technology; but in education, there is an added layer of responsibility, which speculators disregard. I would call it an 'alignment problem', just as in machine learning, where the ways of doing business and the desireable objectives may be in conflict with the expectations of its intended customers and socially desireable outcomes. This objection is only to the private higher education, however. The idea of higher education is enmeshed in the modern, middle-class-dominated social structure. The degree is the...
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Life: 1

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There is no way I could stop rolling the stone up the slope Even if it would roll back down again - I am cursed! Born to be futile is how I would be remembered, And yet remembered, not restfully anonymous My work won't end, but does anything ever complete? The meaning is in doing, rather than like a take-away meal, Each moment is spent with my senses alert My life of labour has no time to regret - I don't envy anyone's leisure, or success, I haven't expected fairness of the gods My stone's heavy, and worthy of its name, I am blessed, as I am always looking upward.
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Against Entrepreneurship

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I have the wrong idea about what entrepreneurship is. I must blame my grandfather. An austere man, he built a business by working hard, paying his taxes and keeping his word. He created something. He made money, invested in blue chip stocks and lived within his means. He would turn down opportunities, much to my uncle's disappointment, if he thought he couldn't service the contract. The first English sentence I learnt - from him - is 'Cut your coat according to your cloth'. Growing up, I had plenty of disagreements with him. Most of it was political. He never voted, which enraged me. His reason was simple: In India, once one votes, a mark of indelible ink used to be put on one's index finger. He hated that and objected to the implicit lack of trust this implied. He also told me that Gandhi destroyed the country by teaching people to disobey the laws, which did not go down well with the revolutionary sympathies of a twenty-year old. However, I watched him ru...
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