Ground Reality

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 unbea...

As Unemployment is   assuming alarming proportions in India, Eminent Academician Prof. PB Sharma,President of Association of Indian Universities (AIU) has asserted that new education policy, being framed now, should be targeted to boost employability of professional education, from currently 15-20 % to 120% on one hand and ensuring relevance of research and innovations to the needs of the society and industry at home on the other. He says it should also meet the regional and global aspirations, adding “We need to align India's Education Policy to National Development to pay attention to creating “Advantage India” from the efforts we invest in education and research and make education a powerful vehicle of societal transformation”.     Unfortunately, the goal of successive education policies in the past revolved around increasing access in the name of increased Gross Enrolment Ratio, GER, in higher education and inclusive education being grossly misundersto...

 Airing concerns over annual drainage of Rs.100,000 crores out of country by students flying abroad for advanced studies, Association of Indian Universities (AIU) President Prof P.B Sharma implored Vice chancellors of various universities to create atmosphere of quality education at par or even better than currently offered by advanced nations across the world.     Speaking at the Roundtable of VCs of Health Science Universities at  Tirupati, Prof Sharma in his presidential address said a large number of bright students are going abroad for studies at a heavy cost while the government expenditure on education, including higher education, is barely Rs79,685.95 crore for the education sector for financial year 2017-18.  Further, of the total outlay, Rs46, 356.25 is for the school sector and the rest for higher education.  He said such a scenario has put an added responsibility on Vice Chancellors to create an environment of quality education a...

Fizzing with enthusiasm on Teacher’s Day today, President of Association of Indian Universities and Vice Chancellor of a NCR based International University Prof.PB Sharma paid glowing tributes to revered teachers but ripped open crevices of the country’s education policy for urgent radical reforms to stave off lurking perils of irreperable damage.   Asking for a fresh narrative for education,  the eminent educationist said it is absolutelyS essential that Indian Government pays the highest attention to creating an illustrious clan of its teaching faculty for its 800 plus Universities and 45000 Colleges in India, currently facing a severe shortage of quality teachers. Prof Sharma paid glowing tributes  to Dr Sarvapallai  Radha Krishanan on his birth day  which is marked as Teacher's Day on this day ( September 5 ) every year.  According to him, the noble profession of teaching requires self-motivated, talented and inspired minds for whom te...

     FIRED by valuating hopes to bring palpable change in quality of education in country’s institutions of higher education, Noted Academician and Newly appointed President of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) Prof PB Sharma has expressed grave concerns over falling standards of education in some institutions and said regulatory system must be made robust to bridle growth of engineering colleges as “Chemist Shops “. His concerns spiked after a report in a national daily recently that more than fifty per cent of seats in the private engineering colleges remained vacant this year in the wake of demand and supply gap. “Unplanned and uncontrolled growth undermines both the quality and standards and makes regulatory bodies redundant,  Dr Sharma said after the said media report. Engineering education in the country seems to have reached the saturation point with around 54 per cent of undergraduate and postgraduate seats in the private e...

Carrying forward his agenda of turning country’s universities into temples of excellence, Eminent Academician and newly appointed  President of the Association of Universities (AIU) Prof PB Sharma has embarked on a massive exercise of interacting with Vice chancellors of various educational bodies to  redraw contours of action plans to accomplish the cherished goal. A simpleton by nature, Dr Sharma who himself is the VC of an International level Private University in Gurugram, says he will work in close tandem with VCs to transform India’s Higher education to serve the cause of high employ-ability, continued contribution to the new knowledge creation, advancing frontiers of Knowledge, engaging into technology incubation, innovations and new product its development creating startups and new age enterprises in plenty. Focused on his vision, Dr.Sharma told this blogger that they would strive hard to achieve these goals with sincere committing to solving pressing pro...