Carving
out a niche in annals of the global education architecture, New York University
School of Medicine has said that it will pay the tuition of all its students
regardless of merit or financial need, becoming the first major American
medical school to do so.
NYU made the announcement at its annual White
Coat Ceremony, where new students are presented with white lab coats to mark
the start of their medical education..
“Thanks
to the extraordinary generosity of our trustees, alumni, and friends, our
hope—and expectation—is that by making medical school accessible to a broader
range of applicants, we will be a catalyst for transforming medical education
nationwide,” said Kenneth G. Langone, chair of NYU Langone Health’s board of
trustees
But
if NYU can do that why not others? The step has ignited imaginations across the
globe, and some has started flagging the
issue.
In India too, the burden of tuition fees in
professional courses is becoming unbearable. Besides causing a serious concern
for making quality professional education a commodity rather than a noble
service, which it ought to be.
The
educational loans even with government collateral guarantee is no answer as the
mounting debt of the educational loans shall cripple the economy of development
and public welfare, says eminent academician Professor PB Sharma, who is the
immediate past President of Association of Indian Universities, AIU. What we
need is a university system that fosters an environment of learning in which
the world quality education can be provided without taxing the learners of the tuition
fees.
At a
time when the demand for quality education and research in leading universities
in India and in advanced nations is on the rise, the staggering tuition fee in
Universities of repute, besides deterring the meritorious and most deserving
from pursuing their degrees from world class universities, create compulsions
to make the profession of privilege, a business proposition, rather than the
profession of privilege to serve and excel.
A
ray of hope for evolving such a university system in professional education,
such as medical education, is being provided by the New York University, NYU.
In its recent release the NYU made medical education to all its students free
from tution fee.
"In
a surprise announcement recently, the New York University School of Medicine
said that it will pay the tuition of all its students regardless of merit or
financial need, becoming the first major American medical school to do so. NYU
made the announcement at its annual White Coat Ceremony, where new students are
presented with white lab coats to mark the start of their medical
education", says NYU release.
“Thanks
to the extraordinary generosity of our trustees, alumni, and friends, our
hope—and expectation—is that by making medical school accessible to a broader
range of applicants, we will be a catalyst for transforming medical education
nationwide,” said Kenneth G. Langone, chair of NYU Langone Health’s board of
trustees.
Together
with his wife Elaine, Langone, who made his $3.5 billion fortune as a
cofounder of Home Depot, has given $100 million to fund the tuition
package. NYU has raised more than $450 million of the $600 million
it will need to fund the program.
In
its announcement, NYU pointed to the fact that “overwhelming student debt” is
reshaping the medical profession in ways that are bad for the healthcare system.
Graduates pursue high-paying specialties rather than careers in family
medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology.
The
lead taken by NYU is bound to inspire many other leading universities to
consider the investment of mind rather than investing the pocket for tuition
fee and pledge to make profession of medical science a privilege to serve and
excel.
But
then the universities need funds for education and research. Education,
including higher education is a noble service and an investment to charter a
bright future for humanity. If the inspired students pay for the education they
would earn from the degrees they earn. The profession then becomes a privilege
to earn rather than a privilege to serve and excel, as it was ought to be, opines
Prof PB Sharma, former Professor of IIT Delhi and Founder Vice Chancellor of
DTU and RGTU.
Recalling
his own days at schools at Vidisha and higher studies in engineering at
University of Birmingham, where he was on a Govt of India National Scholarship
that covered all his expenditure, Prof Sharma says that education including
university education was almost with little or no tuition in UK, Europe and US
for a long time. The Government put the bill and the philanthropy topped it up
almost till 1980s. Thereafter as the bells of globalization started
ringing, the government gradually pulled itself from investment in higher
education and allowed the market forces to take over. The result is obvious.
The education is more like a commodity rather than a noble service to the
inspired minds.
In
India the philanthropy is more or less absent in education though it was at its
best in pre-independent era when DAV like colleges were established to create
an army of conscious enlightened
citizens who shall serve the society with distinction and with integrity.
*There
is a strong case for reviving philanthropy and community support for higher
education in India. The Corporates, Generous Alumni, Wealthy conscious rich and
people at large can join in to create a strong philanthropic support for higher
education and make quality education tuition free. The Govt on its part should
be generous enough to allow such philanthropic donations to the cause of higher
education and research tax fee now that the treasury is full of funds from ever
rising list of income tax and GST payers.
Can
we then make the prophecy of the great management guru Phil Crosby come true in
higher education who during quality revolution in late 1970s advocated that
"Quality is Free!”
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