Careers360 : World class universities- what can india learn?

From the Editor’s Desk
6 January 2014360Careers
W
hile researching for this special issue on world class universities I came across
a speech by Prof. Drew Gilpin Faust, the President of Harvard University. It is
named “To seize an impatient future”. In a way it summarises what this issue is
all about. World class universities are rich, they have abundant resources, great
faculty, good and diverse student body, they publish a lot, patent their intellec-
tual output well and have top alumni and scholars to fall back on. Each of these issues has
been dealt with in detail in this issue. But what we cannot capture and communicate is the
spirit of a great university. Prof Faust does that.
That speech was delivered at beginning of the campaign set by Harvard to raise a $6.5 billion
fund. Prof. Faust begins by speaking about 300 former alumni who came and rowed in the
Charles River in memory of the late and legendary Harry Parker, Harvard crew coach for more
than half a century. She then links that to the learnings that the university provides and what
makes such an experience special. An appeal is then woven to make the campaign a reality. An
ambitious target is set, with new schools, new bursaries, and news spaces as expected outcomes.
Prof. Faust again links it back to what the university stands for - its students. She cites a host of
luminaries from George Washington to Helen Keller to Ban ki Moon, and seeks the alumni’s help
to take the legacy forward. The speech shouted out what is lacking in India. Inspiring academic
leadership. I can’t think of a university leader speaking like that in India. I can’t think of
an IIT Director asking his alumni to donate 4000 crores, either.
The issue in your hand tells you how far Indian universities lag behind when it comes to world
standards. Building great institutions cost money. But that is not a constraint here. A billion dol-
lars is not an impossible sum for a country of the size of India. There are enough corporate and
HNIs who can bring that kind of money on the table. Azim Premji has already done it. But it has a
different, equally worthy goal. What is lacking is a dynamic leader who will take up the challenge,
who will give a call for a world class university in India, and work to bring it to fruition. India
needs some ten visionaries who will set such lofty targets, and work towards achieving them.
To paraphrase Prof Faust we need ...
A University that is as wise as it is smart,
As restless as it is proud,
As bold as it is thoughtful,
As new as it is old,
As good as it is great...
And a leader who would make it happen!
Wish you a very happy New Year!
Academic leaders
Where are the great ones?
(*Read it at www.harvard.edu/president/the-harvard-campaign)

“India needs at least
four or five world
class universities”
The quest to have an Indian name in the top honours list of any world
ranking is innate to any citizen.We examine what it takes to have a university
to figure in the global league…
World class
university
INTRODUCTION
Do we need a WCU?
In this issue, we attempt to examine
what constitutes a world class universi-
tyandwhatcanIndianuniversitieslearn
from them. The objective is to identify
the material basis for a university to be
called as world class. There is no dearth
ofplayerswhowouldliketobeknownas
world class. IITs have always been iden-
tified in popular press as world class.
Prof Venkat Rangan, Vice Chancellor,
Amrita University categorically states,
“India needs about 20 world class uni-
versities to be set up across the country
and they can be set up at a cost of say
20,000 crore rupees.” He puts the per
university cost at about 2,000 crores.
On the other hand Prof Ved Prakash,
Chairman, University Grants Commis-
sion (UGC) weighs in with a different
perspective. According to him, world
class institutions which have compara-
ble international counterparts, whether
Harvard, Cambridge or Oxford, cannot
be created ab initio. There is plenty of
literature on what constitutes a WCU.
Prof. Philip G Altbach, Director, CIHE,
Boston college has written extensively
on this. The World Bank has come up
with a report on the same (See http://
tinyurl.com/3jabhvj). Here is what we
found out...
Hong Kong University of Science
and Technology is the world’s
youngest top ranked institution
by B Mahesh Sarma & Nimesh Chandra
“
W
e need four or
five such uni-
versities. I have
been saying for
some time that
if somebody can
manage to get about 4 billion dollars
(roughly Rs. 20,000 crores), one can
plantosetupsuchauniversityandmake
sure that it succeeds in a big way.” This
was Prof. CNR Rao’s (National Profes-
sor, JNCASR, Bangalore)response to
a question on whether India needs a
world class university (WCU) and what
it might take to build one.
Where does india stand ?
Eachyear,whenthethreeglobalranking
of universities namely, QS, THE and
ARWU are released, there is a usual
breast beating regarding the absence
of Indian universities anywhere near
the top. But this year the THE rank
was slightly different because Panjab
University, a new entrant, pipped usual
names like IITs, JNU and DU. The
discussions then shifted to what made
Panjab a better player than even the
IITs. Careers360 too weighed into the
debate (Read more at http://tinyurl.
com/mvjy5u8).

One needs to develop on a
mission mode a system of preparing
high quality faculty in large numbers
with specializations in diverse areas
Dr. Shyam B Menon
VC, Ambedkar University, Delhi
India needs about 20 world class
universities to be set up across the
country and they can be set up at a
cost of say 20,000 crore rupees
Dr. Venkat Rangan
VC of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
World class institutions, which
have comparable international
counterparts,whetherHarvard,Cam-
bridge or Oxford, cannot be created
ab initio. They have become world
classbecauseofthequalityofthought
they generated over a period of time.
By sheer dint of the depth and qual-
ity of their work, a larger number of
Indianinstitutions too couldbecome
world class institutions.
So, the lesson here is that each uni-
versity has to strive towards contrib-
uting to the frontier areas of knowl-
edge to be among the top universities
andresearchinstitutionsoftheworld.
It is the performance level of the uni-
versity in research which would earn
for itself the status of recognition for
being a world class institution. How-
ever, it may not be out of place to
make an attempt to create a few cen-
tres with world class infrastructure
facilities where cutting edge research
indifferentknowledgedomainscould
be their forte for international recog-
nition. Creation of facilities in such
centres could also act as a resource
support to other universities to ben-
efit from the facilities created. In this
sense, it could be a good idea to set
up some top level institutions ab ini-
tio to act as catalyst to the best of
minds. This can prevent brain drain
of people in top ranking institutions
very well and nurture such institu-
tions with creative talents on the soil
of the nation itself.
Prof. Ved Prakash, Chairman of UGC
It is research output
that matters
INTERVIEW | Prof Ved Prakash

What makes a WCU?
1. Investment: Top universities cost
money. The minimum annual
expenditure would be about Rs.
3000-4000 crores. .
2. Meritorious students: Top univer-
sities invariably have an extraordi-
narily large student body.

3. Great faculty: Nobel Prize, Fields
medals, academy fellowships.
WCUs have the leading scholars in
each discipline working for them.
4. Great Infrastructure: Most of them
are in metropolitan towns, have cut-
ting edge infrastructure and provide
plug and play environment. Can we
do that?
5. Governance Structures: About 70%
ofthetop100universitiesareauton-
omous in nature and 95% have very
little political influence in academic
and governance matters.
6. Diversified student body: All top
universities invariably have a large
international body of students.
7. Academic productivity: Top univer-
sities publish heavily, and their per
faculty productivity is about 3.1.
8. Industry-linked research: WCUs
value knowledge production. Their
labs are cutting edge and they work
closely with the industry.
9. Active alumni: Most WCUs have
very active alumni and they invest in
maintaining the relationship.
10. All round development - sports, lit-
erary pursuits, fine arts, WCUs pro-
vide tremendous opportunities.
In each domain we attempted to iden-
tify global best practices and establish
benchmarks that Indian Universities
can emulate. We also spoke to a srange
of thought leaders to comment on these
issues. That India has a long way to
go before any of its institution can be
called WCU is relatively clear. We hope
the issue kindles a vigorous debate This
great country deserves at least one truly
world class university.
(With inputs from Dr. Swapan Kumar
Patra, Aeshwarya Tiwari, Alok Mishra,
Prerna Singh & Shiphony Pavithran Suri)
Brain Korea 21 Group (BK 21)
The objective of the project is to nurture world class graduate
schools with enough capability to produce creative knowl-
edge in strategically important sectors for Korea - 1.2 billion
dollars in seven years.
China’s 1000 Talents Plan
The aim is to recruit, in 5 to 10 years, and provide financial
support for outstanding scientists and leading experts who
will work in China and play a leading role in the development
of high-tech industries or new fields of study.
Hong Kong: Areas of Excellence Scheme
AoE (Areas of Excellence) scheme in Hong Kong is directed
towards boosting research capacity, specifically in areas
whichhaveachanceofgaininginternationalinfluence.Atotal
of HK$427m was allocated to 10 AoEs.
Japan:World Premier International
Research Center (WPI) Initiative
World Premier International Research Center Initiative
(WPI) was launched in 2007 in a drive to build within Japan
“globally visible” research centers that suggest a very high
research standard and are sufficiently attractive to prompt
frontline researchers from around the world to work in them.
Financial support of about ¥1.3-1.4 billion annually per cen-
ter is available for 10- 15 years horizon, with definite achieve-
ment milestones.
Singapore: Research Centres
of Excellence (RCEs)
The Research Centres of Excellence (RCE) scheme was set
up in 2007 to spur research excellence in the local universi-
ties. The RCE programme aims to attract, retain and support
world-classacademicinvestigators,enhancegraduateeduca-
tion in universities and train quality research manpower and
also create new knowledge
Taiwan’s World-Class University Initiative
Beginning in 2006, the MOE sponsored the Development
Plan for World-class Universities and Research Centers
of Excellence, providing 11 top universities and affiliated
researchcenterswithfundingofNT$50billion(US$1.70bil-
lion) over a five-year period. This is given to strengthen basic
university education, recruit first-rate foreign professors and
promote international academic collaboration.
On a Mission to be recognized
among the best in the world
Strategy | funding initiatives
India needs at least 10 world class
universities in the coming decades
and they can be created at 1/3rd
of the global cost
Prof. VV Krishna
Senior Academic at JNU
World class
university
INTRODUCTION

It is all about
money, very
big money
at that
Being world class does not come cheap.While
universities with 2 lakh crore rupees endowments are
few, we found that most global universities have oper-
ating budgets over 20,000 crores per annum…
World class
university
Finances
Yale university with an annual
budget of $2.82 billion justifies big
spending for quality education
university’s annual expenditure. That
is the kind of financial muscle global
universities enjoy.
What are endowments?
University education, especially in non-
statefundedcolleges,isquiteexpensive.
Income from endowment is the most
common route that these institutions
use to provide financial assistance and
attract high quality students Endow-
ments are funds that academic institu-
tions frequently control, which finance
a portion of the operating or capital
needs of the institution. These are nor-
mally financial but also can be in the
form of land or buildings. World class
universities constantly compete for
funds to enable themselves to expand
and grow. For example Harvard Univer-
sity which boasts of the world’s largest
endowment has now come up with a
by Team Careers360
E
ndowments worth rupees
203,373 crores (USD 32.7 bil-
lion ) is what Harvard has under
itscommand.DrewFaust,Presi-
dent, Harvard university puts it in per-
spective by commending that just about
5% of the whole endowment could be
used on an annual basis, since they
come with a whole lot of stipulations
and covenants. Even then 5% of that is
about 10,000 crores, nearly 38 % of the
Annual Expenditure
Global
University of
Pennsylvania
41,052
University
of Michigan -
Ann Arbor
University of
Washington
38,070 36,691

“Harvard Campaign” (http://campaign.
harvard.edu/) with a goal to set up a
huge 6.5 billion US dollar fund for pri-
ority areas.
Where do
universities spend?
Mostoftheincomefromendowmentsis
spendonbursaries,namedscholarships,
particular issues or areas of enquiry,
chair professorships, initial seed fund-
ing for new lines of research etc. For
example, the MacArthur Fellowships (a
private foundation awards the fellow-
ship) target talented individuals who
have shown extraordinary original-
ity and dedication in their creative pur-
suits. The fellowship demands nothing
in return other than a commitment to
pursue interesting lines of enquiry from
a select group of US professors who are
awarded. There are almost no similar
lines of funding available to an Indian
professor. Ananya Vajpaye, an academic
with Centre for Studies in Developing
Societies, New Delhi laments that most
of her work on Indian political thought
was made possible by being located in
the United States or European universi-
ties, a fact many other good academics
readily concur.
Indian
Expenditure
Universities with over Rs 300
crores annual spending
Rs.Crores
All India Institute of Medical
Sciences, New Delhi
1160.6
Aligarh Muslim University
(AMU), Aligarh
521.7
Banaras Hindu University
(BHU), Varanasi
499.68
Postgraduate Inst. of Medical
Edu & Res, Chandigarh
449.35
Panjab University, Chandigarh 438.34
IIT Madras 434.31
University of Delhi 371.85
Indian Agricultural Research
Institute, Pusa, New Delhi
316.82
University of Mumbai 300
All Figures in Rs.Crore
Stanford
University
Johns Hopkins
University
Harvard
University
Columbia
University
Cornell
University
University of
Chicago
University of
Wisconsin -
Madison
29,749 27,616 26,818 21,517 19,910 18,973 17,598
So many things determine the qual-
ity of an institution. If you compare
institutions in India and the US and
look at the management institutions,
this year IIM-Ahmedabad and
IIM-Calcutta have been ranked 18th
& 19th in the Financial Times rank-
ing, these institutions do not have
the resources of even one-tenth of
what universities in US have. So,
it is possible for Indian institutions
to come up to a level. They might
not have all the resources but the
resources should be adequate.
Prof Shekhar Choudhuri
Director, SME, Shiv Nadar University
How much does the student
fee contribute?
It is endowments that help universi-
ties defray the cost of education. And it
is here that Indian universities drasti-
cally differ from global best practices. In
India most institutions are totally fund-
edeitherbygovernmentgrants(asinthe
caseofpublicuniversities)orbystudent
fees(asinthecaseofprivateuniversities
in general). World over student fees do
not contribute to more than 30- 35 % of
a university’s total expenditure, in India
it is almost 90% or above, sans govern-
ment funding.
Does Government help?
Our spending on higher education is
woefully inadequate. The best Indian
universitieshavebudgetsintheregionof
Rs. 300 – 600 crores per annum, which
is 1/10th or 1/20th of the global average.
Prof C NR Rao was not way off when he
contended that we spend peanuts on
research. And whatever little govern-
ment spends is spread evenly. Barring
the University with Potential for Excel-
lence Scheme, there are very few com-
petitive funding mechanism with well
defined output expectations in India.
Even that programme offers between

World class
university
Finances
5-20croresrupeestoauniversitywhich
is not large.
Where is the way forward?
Global universities offer a very clear
roadmap regarding their finances. Most
Indian universities are exceptionally
opaque when it comes to declaring their
income and expenditure status. Lack
of information on expenditure heads
makes it impossible to identify the lacu-
nae and gaps in funding. Research and
teaching are the two dominant aspect of
any academic institution. And research
invariably is funded either by govern-
ment grants or private corporations’
contributions. Industry- led research is
almost an exotic phenomenon in India.
Even the fact that venerable Indian
Institutes of Technology make not more
than 10 percent on an average of their
revenue from industry-research speaks
a lot about the kind of academia-indus-
try interface that India has. It is impera-
tive that universities act pro-actively to
improve their finances and earn their
keep, so as to speak.
Investment
Global
Yale University
Stanford University
University of Cambridge
Northwestern University
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology
The University of
Texas at Austin
119,600
115,872
49,571
49,523
University of
Michigan - Ann Arbor
52,060
68,165
45,751
Harvard University
203,373
Princeton University
110,924
Columbia University
50,820
Q. Do you agree that India does
not even have a single world class
university?
A. This is a difficult question to
answer as a university has to be a
gooduniversity.Agooduniversityhas
to have an atmosphere where every-
one is involved, engaged in doing new
things, trying to find out new things.
But very few universities in India are
fortunate to have passionate pursuit
of knowledge and continuous effort
to find out new things. India has some
good universities that have qualities
of a world class university.
Q. Do you think investing money
allows a university to do things to
become world class?
A. Investment of money is an impor-
tant criterion to make a university
world class, but what matters more
is the thrust. Lot of money has been
invested in several private universi-
ties in India but that doesn’t mean
that they are world class.
Q. Do Nobel laureates make a uni-
versity world classe?
A. If you have a good system, the fac-
ulty itself grows and if you just have
lots of people with lots of degrees, fel-
lowships,medalsorevenNobellaure-
ates,itdoesnotmeanthatauniversity
is a great university. If a university
has Nobel Prize winners that does
not mean that it is trying to find out
new things. What matters is that the
university trying to do things or find
out things which have not been done
till now. There is lot of talk going on
everywhere that information is grow-
ing, increasing but every university
needs to find that along with informa-
tion, is the knowledge also growing?
Q. What is the role of infrastruc-
ture in making of a university?
A. Having good infrastructure and
labs etc help the students and faculty
at any university. So it is an important
factorincreatingaworldclassuniver-
sity as there will be lots of equipment,
INTERVIEW | Prof Yashpal
It is true that top universities cost
money as establishing a university
or a college in India is an expensive
affair, particularly if the university
expects research and innovation to
be part of its mandate. A CAPEX
of Rs. 20 lakhs and beyond per
student for a research-led university
with a residential campus in India is
a good estimate to start with.
Prof B N Jain,
Vice-Chancellor, BITS Pilani
Figures in Rs.Crore

University should be place where
people should enjoy working; there
should be an atmosphere where
they should work on their own, not
under some pressure or control.
All academic work has to be
autonomous, people should be
free to ask any questions, should
be able to think on anything deeply,
though there are areas where
universities need to collaborate
materials etc., which are not available
elsewhere.
Q. Do you agree that universities
should be autonomous, ?
A. They should be, I feel all aca-
demic work has to be autonomous,
people should be free to ask any
question, should be able to think on
anything deeply, even though there
are areas where universities need to
collaborate.
There have been several experiments
when steps were taken to bring people
from different areas at one place and at
the same time ensuring that academic
and other autonomy is maintained. It is
not possible to do at one particular uni-
versity in India, either because of lack
of physical resource or due to lack of
intellectual resource or due to funding.
The other problem with universities
is that they are controlled by different
types of people with different agendas.
The problem with laboratories in India
is that a battery of bureaucracy gets
formed; you have a director, a deputy
director and so on.
SoImeantosaythatifpeoplearegiven
autonomy it does not mean that they do
not work or will not work, they work,
they do things on their own. Nobody
shouldthinkthatifauniversityhasbeen
formed it will do all sorts of work, it will
dothingsitself,letitgrowonitsownand
do new things.
University should be place where peo-
ple should enjoy working; there should
be an atmosphere where they should
workontheirown,notundersomepres-
sure or control.
Q. Top Universities produce heavily,
their per faculty output is around
Competence is an enemy of creativity,
universities in India are producing
competent, not creative people
3.1 per faculty. Very few in India can
match that, even if they do, they are
miniscule in numbers, you opinion
on it?
A. I do not think we should worry about
it. It also has to be seen that the best of
the places do not publish too much, they
have competition among themselves,
theyhavetogetmoneytopublish.Many
a times they publish enormous amount
of work, competent work but not great
work, so one needs to keep an eye that.
Unless a great work is not done no need
to worry. I feel competence is an enemy
of creativity. There are many universi-
ties, colleges and schools in our coun-
try which are producing competent
people. These schools are focused
on getting high percentage to stu-
dents, not creativity. These are the
schools which are draining away
India’s creativity.
Good things are happening in India
alsoandareinanascentstagewhichwill
taketimetogrow.Thereareinstitutions
in India where young people are work-
ing and they are achieving more and
more. I have seen that where people are
given autonomy and freedom they have
succeeded and where it has not been
done, result has not been good.
People need to do things on their own,
if they are not left to learn on their own,
they will never be able to believe in
themselves. Let them commit mistakes,
they will learn from those mistakes but
willbeabletofindoutsolutionsontheir
own. If they are given support while
working on new things they will always
think that I will not be able to do it, I
need help. So universities need to give
full freedom to people working there, to
students and need to engage with them
not support them. Let them take risks
andlearnnewthings.Thiswillonlyhelp
in the growth of the university.
We see young people coming up from
ruralandbackwardareasofthecountry.
They have brilliant minds, very good
at math and science, have innovative
thinking,weneedtonurturethem,allow
them to grow by giving them the proper
atmosphere. We do not need too many
of them, even if we get a few it will help
in growth of the education system and
ultimately the growth of the country.

by Team Careers360
L
ooking at global universities
at the top rung of academic
achievements does suggest
a paradigm shift in majority
of Indian institutions with respect to
improving the quality of education. In
order to maximize learning, it is beyond
any doubt that faculty members play an
integral role in knowledge creation, dis-
seminationandinpro-activelyengaging
with the students. Bigger is the institute,
larger is the community and therefore
greater is the diversity.
Faculty’s key role
The best universities in the world are
meticulousinselectingfacultymembers
whocancreatealearning-centeredcam-
pus. The challenges, however, vary from
university to university in creating such
acampusthatnecessitatesknowinghow
students learn, understanding the bar-
riers to learning, developing classroom
techniques that promote learning and
simultaneously be updated in their sub-
ject domain and general awareness, to
continuously contribute to the global
learning curve.
How do students make a
difference?
It may sound simple. But from being
mere listeners to what is being taught,
the universities that lead the way have
studentswhoengageinthelearningpro-
cess to grasp the concepts. The students
report higher levels of engagement and
World class
university
Human
Resources
Student & Faculty. The w
and weft of a great univ
Be it internationalization of the academic community or enhancing the
learning experience, it is the quality of students and faculty that makes
it happen. Here are the traits of the winners…
Science Libraries like Radicliff
Camera at Oxford University are
hallmarks of a world class university

Global
Indian
University
of British
Columbia
University
of
Toronto
10,186 80,899
No. of
Faculty
No. of
Students
(UG+PG)
University University
University of British
Columbia
The University of
Texas at Austin
University of
Washington
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
University of Michigan -
Ann Arbor
University of
California, Los Angeles
New York
University
University of Wisconsin -
Madison
The University of
Manchester
University of
Michigan - Ann Arbor
The University
of Edinburgh
The University of
Manchester
University
College London
New York
University
University of
Washington
Yale University
University of
California-los angeles
The university
of tokyo
57,706
52,076
49,577
44,294
43,426
41,812
38,391
38,301
36,342
7,500
6,454
5,695
5,277
4,373
4,300
4,140
4,000
3,919
warp
versity
Mark Twain said, “Travel is fatal to
prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mind-
edness.” So is studying abroad.
This wide-angle vision can translate
into comparative advantage when
pursuing a job, building a career,
and extending a social network. The
savoir faire that you acquire will give
you confidence and competence in
dealing with global diversity
Prof Robert Brunner,
Dean, Darden B-School
learning at institutions where they get
ample opportunity to challenge their
own academic capability, interact more
with faculty, emphasize on high-order
cognitive activities in the classroom
and value enriching educational experi-
ences. They use active and collaborative
learning techniques. A larger student
body means broader vision for the uni-
versityandalargerpossibilitytobringin
substantive change in the system.
Student-Faculty Ratio
The number of teaching and research
personnel in the leading universities are
high, but they are in concurrence with
Number of faculty
University (India) No. of Faculty
Manipal University, Manipal 2,400
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, Coimbatore 2,000
Annamalai University, Annamalainagar 1,867
Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi 1,744
Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 1,418
Bharati Vidyapeeth, Pune 1,349
Amity University Noida 1,132
Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Aligarh 1,106
Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana 816
University of Delhi 775

Global
Yale
University
University
of
Melbourne
2.87
10,634
Student-Faculty Ratio
International students
Johns Hopkins
University
The Imperial
College of S&T
and Medicine
3.28 4.15
University of
Southern
California
9,840
University of
Toronto
9,832
an equally large number of students so
that quality is not compromised. The
student-faculty ratio is fairly close to 3
to 5:1 for a very good university depend-
ing on the variables attached (such as
quantum of intellectual growth, course
offerings, cost effectiveness etc) and we
foundthatthetoprankeduniversitiesfit
in the bracket.
What do universities offer?
Faculty members are keen to work in an
intense academic and research environ-
ment that is open to inquiry. Further
it has to be a place where academic
freedom is valued and the university
community can indulge in free expres-
sion of ideas. A place where resources
are available for furthering knowledge.
The faculty and students can bank upon
astrongsystemofgovernanceandchan-
nels that turn their input into decisions
that shape the academic entity. Global
universities have them all though in dif-
ferent proportions and in varied modes.
International Students
International students provide a prima-
ry source of talent for employers who
are branching out globally and are cen-
tral to enhancing the ability of global
universities to conduct quality research
and offer highly valued academic pro-
grammes. Foreign students also provide
cultural and foreign policy benefits to
the host nation and are an important
and inexpensive way to promote their
ideas across the world. Leading univer-
sities also emphasize on international
students as they are a major source for
revenue earning, which is usually used
for its own academic growth. Just three
big universities – Melbourne, South-
ern California and Toronto collectively
wouldadmitmorethanthetotalnumber
of foreign students studying in India.
International
Students: India
There are close to 28,000 international
students studying in India with 63%
male and 37% female pursuing different
programmes.Themaximumnumbersof
students (approximately 5,000) come
from Nepal followed by Islamic Repub-
lic of Iran and Afghanistan that account
for nearly 2,500 students. There are
around 1,000 students from countries
like Bhutan, Sudan, US and China. Iran
has the largest number of PhD students
followed by Ethiopia and Yemen. USA,
China, Canada, Malaysia, Korea and
UK have the largest representation in
UG programmes which is as high as
75 to 85%. Universities in Karnataka,
particularly in Bangalore, Mysore and
Manipalattractalotofforeignstudents.
Hyderabad and Pune (dominated by
UniversityofPuneandSymbiosisInter-
national University) have a sizeable
international student population. Uni-
versity of Delhi and Jawaharlal Nehru
University in Delhi also have a fairly
large number of international students
and the largest share of foreign students
who are pursuing their PhD in India.
INDIA HAS BARELY BEGUN
In terms of faculty and students, India
is still very parochial. Let alone interna-
tional faculty, Indian Universities, bar-
ring the central ones are dominated by
regional identities. India does very little
to attract and retain global faculty and
students. While some private players
like Amirta and VIT do attract foreign
students, these are one-off institutional
interventions. The ICCR scholarship
are very few in number and does not
make any dent in changing the compo-
sition of an average Indian classroom.
And that needs to change substantially
if India wants to be world class.
Diversity in terms of international
faculty and students is an important
factor which determines whether a
university is world class or not, but
not the most important as it can
have very good quality student and
faculty without much diversity to
make it world class
Prof R Natarajan
Former Chairman, AICTE

Northwestern
University
Duke University The University
of Tokyo
The University
of Edinburgh
University
college of
London
University of
British Columbia
University of
michigan-ann
arbor
4.36 4.48 5.554.37 4.71 5.67 5.79
University of
Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign
The University of
Manchester
The University
of Edinburgh
University
of Oxford
Columbia
University
New York
University
Swiss Federal
Institute of
Technology Zurich
9,407 9,128 8,639 8400 8150 6971 6579
Q. What according to you is a world
class university?
A. You measure the quality of any
university by measuring the research
work that the university produces. You
measure its quality by the teaching and
learning processes it has adopted and
the type of good quality students it is
producing.
Q. What role does autonomy play in
making a university world class?
A. Autonomy is very important in mak-
ingauniversityworldclass,thereshould
beleastpoliticalinterferenceandauton-
omy should be given to education insti-
tutions. What’s important is that along
withautonomyyouneedaccountability.
Autonomy is very important in
making a university world class
Interview | Prof Sukhadeo Thorat
Q. What ails the higher education
sector presently?
A.Firstofallistheissueof grossenroll-
ment ratio in higher education, which
is very low. It is just around 18 percent
while in other countries it is not less
than 30.
The second major problem is the dis-
parity on caste line, inter-religious dis-
parity, rural and urban disparity, gender
disparity as girls are lagging behind, the
poor are lacking behind. Privatization
of education has played a very impor-
tant role in creating this disparity in the
society.
The third issue is the quality of univer-
sitiesinIndia,whichgivesauniversityits
position in any ranking. The university’s
quality depends on its infrastructure,
availability of academic programmes;
examination system, which should pro-
vide more opportunity to the students
for creativity, and not memorizing.
The universities which are good uni-
versities are the ones that have done
experiments with the examination
system. In India one such university
is JNU, which has done so, as written
test constitutes only 50% of the marks,
rest of it is term paper, essay, review,
etc. It gives a student opportunity to be
creative and also enriches the academic
programme.
The critical problem with the higher
educationsystemisthescarcityofteach-
ers and having bad quality of teachers.
The entire blame goes to policy as we
are not providing money to universi-
ties to hire faculty. The accountability
of the faculty at private universities is
also important. Let there be a common
method for recruitment of teachers in
colleges and to have good quality teach-
ersrecruitmentshouldbetransparent.
(Prof .Thorat is the Chairman of
ICSSR, New Delhi. )

by Team Careers360
“
I
t is what separates the men from
the boys,” says Prof. V.V. Krish-
na, of Jawaharlal Nehru Univer-
sity, New Delhi. Peer-reviewed
publications play the most crucial role
along with their citations in any world
ranking worth its salt. And the top class
universities are always in the race to
produce not only the maximum knowl-
edgeacrossdisciplinesbutalsogetthem
published in the ‘best in class’ journals.
Star faculties who publish seminal
works are fought over and fawned at,
sometimes with astronomical salaries
and benefits. The Research Assessment
Exercise in the UK, which is one of the
moststructuredoutputmeasuringexer-
cisesinacademiaplacesmajorthruston
both citations and output.
Does number count?
Yes and No. Globally, since faculty
productivity is the core criterion for
professional advancement, numbers
count until one gets tenure, which is
whatbreedsthe“PublishorPerish”syn-
drome in most universities. What was
Research is a core mission of any
good university. Faculty publications
in refereed journals represent
the best traditions of knowledge
production and dissemination.
Some of these research papers
are seminal and result in paradigm
shifts in disciplines, at times even
seed new disciplines. But each and
every publication adds up to the
knowledge pool in its own small
and big ways
Prof Shyam Sundar
Professor, Yale University
Annual
Publications
Harvard
University
University
of Toronto
University
College
London
24075 13622 10881
Global
initially an American phenomenon, this
is catching up very fast now in every
major national university with global
aspirations. India is very slow in this
regard. As one can see from the Tables
alongside, the gap between global best
and India’s best is wide beyond com-
parison. Globally the average annual
number of publications is exceptionally
World class
university
PUBLICATION
& CITATION
Knowledge
creation is
the core
mission of a
university
Research publications in journals is the
core mechanism through which good universities
popularize their faculty’s intellectual output. Here
we present the top 10 worldwide…
Harvard university is a
global leader with over 24,000
peer-reviewed publications per year

Indian
Annual
Publications
Publications/
Faculty
Johns
Hopkins
University
University
of Oxford
University
of Oxford
University of
California, San Diego
Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
University of
Cambridge
University of
California, Berkeley
Stanford
University
University of Toronto
Harvard
University
California Institute
of Technology
Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology Zurich
University
of Michigan -
Ann Arbor
University
of
Pennsylvania
University
of
Cambridge
University of
California, Los
Angeles
10629 10404 9302
11.5
6.2
10.6
6.0
4.4
9.5
5.8
3.5
6.5
4.9
10521 9731 9298 9268
University
of
Washington
high. Harvard, the best university, pub-
lished over 24,000+ papers every year
and the per faculty productivity too is
at a scorching pace of 11.5 in a year. The
Average per faculty productivity glob-
ally is 3 per year.
One can understand the aggregate
numbers for India being for below the
global average, since we have a smaller
faculty size, at times one tenth of the
global best (see more on that in the
faculty and student section). But what
isalarmingisthefactthatIndianprofes-
sors also produce much less than their
global peers. The faculty in one of the
best universities, JNCASR, produces
6.7 papers per year. What is interesting
is the fact that this centre was founded
by Prof. CNR Rao, a prolific researcher
withover1,500publicationstohiscred-
it. Most other players produce less than
3 papers a year and 5 out of the top 10
produce less than 2 papers a year. Our
preliminary research informs us that
even this average numbers hide more
Publications/
Faculty
University WoS-Annual
Publication
Count
Indian Institute of Science
(IISc), Bangalore
1493
Sciences, New Delhi
1115
IIT Kharagpur 1053
University of Hyderabad,
Hyderabad
948
IIT Bombay 839
IIT Madras 837
(BHU), Varanasi
832
IIT Delhi 793
Jadavpur University, Kolkata 698
IIT Kanpur 690
University WoS -
Publications/
Faculty
Jawahar Lal Nehru Centre for
Advanced Scientific Research,
Bangalore
6.68
(IISc), Bangalore
3.07
Hyderabad
2.38
Sciences, New Delhi
2.24
National Institute of
Pharmaceutical Education &
Research (NIPER) Mohali
2.22
University of Madras, Chennai 1.96
IIT Kanpur 1.84
Postgraduate Institute of
Medical Education and
Research, Chandigarh
1.81
IIT Madras 1.55
IIT Bombay 1.49
Source: Web of Science Index (2010-12)

journals. According the current UGC
guidelines both papers will get the same
points. Unless there is a creative mecha-
nism to differentiate between good and
great research, India would continue to
lag behind global standards.
Where is it published?
Globally, to be counted as a publication,
a research output must be published
in any one of the thousands of journals
indexed by two famous global indexing
& abstracting databases namely Else-
vier’s SCOPUS and Thomson Reuters’
Web of Science (WoS). These are pop-
ular indexing services maintained by
the two leading academic publishers of
the world. In terms of limitations, both
databases have English language bias
and they cover very few Indian journals
comparatively and may therefore not
capture the true research potential of
the country. But most of the modern
academia is set to western standards.
WoScomprisesover12,000highimpact
journals worldwide, including ‘open
access’ journals while Scopus has more
than 50 million records from more than
21,000 peer-reviewed journals.
Global
Citation SSCI
(2010-2012)
Citation SSCI
(2010-2012)
California
Institute of
Technology
7.80
Imperial College London
6.06
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT)
5.82
Stanford University
5.54
Carnegie Mellon University
5.15
University
of California, San Diego
5.11
Yale University
5.01
Duke University
4.90
University of California,
Los Angeles
4.89
University College London
4.87
than what they reveal. For example, in
IIT Madras, two departments account
for the bulk of their research produc-
tion. Research output, especially pub-
lications, is just not taken seriously in
this country.
Why Do we lag behind?
“We still have not evolved a culture
of publications,” says Prof. Kale, Vice
Chancellor, Gujarat Central University.
Prof. Rajan Saxena, Vice Chancellor,
NMIMS University, concurs. Accord-
ing to him, it is a warped concept of
workload which is the main culprit.
Workload in India is mainly equated
with teaching. According to him good
research consumes time and energy and
thatneedstoberespectedandrewarded.
Yet another issue is the blind points sys-
tem devised by the mandarins at UGC.
A respected journal like Technology &
Culture makes a paper go through near-
ly 5 iterations of revisions and changes
anditnormallytakesanywherebetween
16- 24 months before a paper appears
in such a journal. On the other hand,
one could easily get a paper published
within 2 months in many peer reviewed
World class
university
PUBLICATION
& CITATION
Indian
University (India) Citation
(IISc), Bangalore
2.74
IIT Kharagpur 2.43
IIT Bombay 1.7
Visva Bharati, Shantiniketan 1.53
JNU, New Delhi 1.02
Royce Hall at UCLA’s Westwood
campus is one of the four original
buildings that has withstood time
Source: Social Science Citation Index (WoS)

Global
Stanford
University
2.69
Citation in A&HCI
(2010-2012)
Citation A&HCI
(2010-2012)
The University of Texas
at Austin
1.51
Imperial College London
1.20
University of Washington
1.17
New York University
1.17
University of Pennsylvania
1.16
University of Tokyo
1.08
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
1.01
California Institute of
Technology
1.00
Columbia University
0.94
Open access journals
India is home to nearly 2/3rds of all the
open access journals published in the
world. Many of them are abstracted and
indexed by the big two. But one needs
to be very careful in publishing in these
global journals. They not only charge
a hefty sum (upwards of Rs. 5,000
per paper) but could also be of dubi-
ous nature, there by jeopardizing one’s
academic standing. For more informa-
tion see this article published in a lead-
ing science journal. (https://www.sci-
encemag.org/content/342/6154/60/
suppl/DC1).
Does a citation matter?
Yes. It does. In the recent Times Higher
Education Ranking of Global Univer-
sities, Panjab University, Chandigarh
trumped even the venerated IITs pri-
marily because it had better citation
count. We discovered that Punjab Uni-
versity’s dynamic physics department
researchers were part of the CERN
research projects and hence are part of
a global network who cite one another’s
publications. This proves that networks
are the way for other universities.
Indian
University (India) Citation
(IISc), Bangalore
1.57
IIT Kharagpur 1
IIT Bombay 0.2
JNU, New Delhi 0.13
TERI School of Advanced
Studies, New Delhi
0.5
While no Indian institution makes
the top 200, one player new to the
rankings, Panjab University, is close
in the 226-250 group. Moreover,
India now has five representatives
in the top 400 - a sign of growing
commitment to the global rankings.
It is citations that makes the
university stands above the rest
Phil Baty
Editor at large, THE
There is a need to build a critical
mass of people in basic sciences,
who research and publish actively.
The quantum of knowledge
creation from India across the
disciplines must increase manifold.
Institutions like IISER must turn their
attention to actively promote
high quality research
Prof. Srinivasa SR Varadhan
Professor, New York University
The way forward
Publications and citations share a sym-
biotic relationship. As in Punjab Uni-
versity’scasenetworksisanotherfactor.
So Indian universities must focus on
both.Theymusttargetanincreaseinthe
numberoffaculties.Mostgooduniversi-
ties have over 40% of their sanctioned
positions vacant. One mechanism is to
fillthesepositionswithresearcherswith
proved publication record. They could
be designated as research professor-
ships with a mandate to publish a cer-
tain number of papers in a block of 2 or
3 years. They must also be filled within
a stipulated period.
The second factor is improving cita-
tions.Barringafewseminalworks,most
works are cited within a closed aca-
demic group. So higher the number of
other colleagues a faculty collaborates
with, better is the achievable citations.
AsthePanjabuniversityexampleshows,
increased international collaboration is
the order of the day. Unless universities
act fast, India’s hopes of ever reaching
a position within the Top 100 would
remain just a pipe dream. Source: Arts and Humanities Citation Index (WoS)

Intellectual property:
The pros and cons
From the late eighties onwards global universities have been on a patenting spree.
We discuss the pros and cons of the initiative
by Team Careers360
U
niversities as contributor to
innovation, performance and
economicgrowthhaslongbeen
recognized if one were to look
at the literature from academics like
Richard Nelson, Nathan Rosenberg,
David Mowery and Edwin Mansfield.
Academic research output in the form
of novel products and services from uni-
versities are increasingly seen to show
significant spill-over effects, which
stimulate industrial growth. The key to
successful innovations (transforming
ideas to commercial usage) are linked
to intellectual property rights (IPR) of
which patents, copyrights, designs et al
are the most talked about. A broad pat-
ent right is argued to maximize the abil-
ity of the patent owner to coordinate
further development.
Patents and other forms of IPR associ-
ated to universities is definitely a strong
indicator of its research potential and
academic prowess. New knowledge cre-
ation is one aspect which traditionally is
known through publications in journals
of repute. But transferring this knowl-
edge from the academia is another criti-
cal area which many world class univer-
sities are keen on strengthening. Build-
inganecosystemwithintheuniversityis
crucial and this comprises an IPR cell, a
technology transfer or licensing office
and an incubation unit alongside the
necessary support system.
According to Association of Univer-
sity Technology Managers data (2011),
over 7,000 new start-ups have emerged
from US universities with licenses to
university patents – especially after the
passage of the Bayh-Dole Act in 1980,
whichconfirmedthatuniversitiesretain
title to patents arising from federally-
funded research. University of Califor-
nia system with ten campuses has the
largest pool of granted patents at the US
Patent and Trademark Office. Isis Inno-
vation Ltd, the University of Oxford’s
wholly owned technology transfer
company, files on average, one patent
applicationeachweekandmanagesover
400 patent application families.
India
Out of the 700+ Indian universities,
very few, including the IITs are engaged
in knowledge creation and transfer.
Some others who are known for their
World class
university
Patents
Columbia university has been
granted over 1,250 patents, showing
its focus on research output

Global
Indian
University of
California System
Indian Institute
of Science, (iisc)
Bangalore
8436
58
1185
23
Patents Granted
Stock at USPTO
till 20/12/2013
Patents Granted
Stock at USPTO
till 20/12/2013
Patents Granted
2010-2012
Patents Granted
2010-2012
University
University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
IIT Bombay
The University of Texas at Austin
IIT Madras
California Institute of Technology
University of Delhi
Johns Hopkins University
IIT Kanpur
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
IIT Delhi
Columbia University
TIFR, Mumbai
University of Pennsylvania
AIIMS, New Delhi
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Anna University
University of Washington
IIT Kharagpur
4211
21
600
7
2688
11
450
7
2492
10
396
4
1620
7
224
—
1546
6
292
1
1255
5
245
1
1191
4
226
1
1117
4
281
3
1030
3
213
1
I am totally against patents. I have
never patented any of my ideas.
If you patent something, you are
prohibiting people from using it in
a free manner. One has to either
pay a large amount or follow certain
conditions and then only they can
use the ideas. I doubt that any of
my ideas would have been used
that much, had they been patented.
In fact, my supervisor told me, you
would have been a millionaire, if
you had patented NSGA. But then
it would not have been so much
popular. Most of the universities
are asking students to do more
research, handle more projects and
gain patents. It gives more fame
and popularity to the institute
Prof Kalyanmoy Deb,
Formerly with IIT Kanpur
research output in the form of publica-
tions are making an attempt to build
an innovation ecosystem that includes
protecting their intellectual assets.
However, compared to the global stan-
dards, the divide is too big. According to
Dr R A Mashelkar, President of Global
Research Alliance and former DG of
CSIR,“Oneofthetragediesofourcoun-
try is that the great connection between
Saraswati (the goddess of knowledge)
and Lakshmi (the goddess of wealth)
is not understood.” NIPER, Mohali is
one among the emerging players active
in patenting activities while IISc Ban-
galore and IIT Bombay are the best in
India at both USPTO and at the Indian
Patent Office.

by Team Careers360
U
niversities have tradition-
ally been home to maximum
number of academic Nobel
awardees and the number of
awardees that a university holds, com-
municates its intellectual richness and
vibrancy. Indian universities, has been
woefully ill represented in the Nobel
pantheon, with just one prize awarded
A prize that remains
the gold standard of
excellence
Awarded each year for excellence in five disciplines and one activity (peace), this prize
is a coveted honour.We explore its near total absence from Indian shores
World class
university
Nobel prizes
Cambridge university
has 29 Nobel laureates on its rolls,
indicating its academic richness
to Sir C V Raman from Calcutta Uni-
versity for his work on physics. Though
intellectualsarguethatitisanirrelevant
standard of excellence, as Prof. CNR
Rao does in the facing page, its allure
remains undiminished. Shanghai Jiao
Tong University’s Academic Ranking of
World Universities (ARWU) uses it as a
measure of academic excellence along
with Fields medals and publications.
Though quite a few people of Indian
origin or Indian citizens did get the
Nobel prize like Prof. Amartya Sen, Dr
SChandrasekhar,Prof.HargobindKho-
rana and recently Prof. V Ramakrishan,
they were all products of western uni-
versitiesandtheirassociationcontinues
to be there. The Indian academic milieu
still is not sufficiently ripe enough to
throwupahome-grownNobelwinner.

Nobel Prizes
Global
35
University of
Cambridge
Stanford
University
Universit
of Chicago
Columbia
University
Massachusetts
Institute of
Technology (MIT)
University of
California,
Berkeley
California
Institute of
Technology
Princeton
University
University
of Oxford
29
21
18
18 18
18
17
16
10Harvard
University
World class universities produce
persons of high recognition with
honours such as Nobel Laureates,
Fields medalists, national and
international awardees and fellow-
ships of prestigious academies.
Such universities become sought
after destinations both to students
and faculty who are willing to
innovate, experiment and evolve
in an atmosphere of unlimited
autonomy and academic freedom
Prof. JAK Sareen
Former Vice Chancellor,
Pondicherry University
Quality higher education plays a sig-
nificant role in shaping the future
of a nation, and the world. Ranking of
universities has become a yardstick for
assessing the quality of higher educa-
tion. It is distressing to note that Indi-
an universities do not figure in the top
200 universities of the world despite
the large number of universities in our
country. Government should signifi-
cantly increase budgetary allocation for
higher education. If our universities are
to feature in the top universities of the
What should the Government Do
to get world class institutions
Column | G Vishwanathan
world, the government needs to accord
highest priority to the following aspects.
Research & Publications: Research
is the most important criterion for uni-
versities to become world class. Gov-
ernment should increase funding for
research by a significant proportion.
When required funds are available to
fuel research activities, our universities
will emerge as strongholds for research
and development. Subsequently, the
quantity and quality of publications will
increase. This will ultimately lead us in
our march towards attaining top ranks
for our universities.
Patents: Universities should evolve as
powerhouses of patents. High quality
research results in developing patents.
This can happen when there are abun-
dant funding opportunities. Hence,
government needs to financially help
universities in the patent filing process.
Internationalization: This is inevi-
table in the wake of liberalization and
globalization. Present-day universities
prepare students to face a world with-
out borders and barriers. If this has to
happen, student and faculty mobility
should be the driving factors. For this,
government policies on visa should be
conducive to free mobility. Funds for
internationaltravelandresearchoppor-
tunities should be generously available
for faculty and student exchange.
(The author is the Chancellor of
VIT University, Vellore)
Source: www.nobelprize.org (affiliation at the time of grant)

Alongside faculty they
the bedrock of a great
Good and diverse alumni are the core strength of world class universities.They provide
funds, resources and most importantly connections for future students to tap into…
by Team Careers360
W
hen Yale conceptualized
building two new full resi-
dential undergraduate
colleges, it tapped into its
wide alumni base. In came a 250 mil-
lion dollar contribution from Charles
Johnson, former chairman of Frank-
lin Resources Inc. The large donation
almost single-handedly covered 75% of
the total cost. That is the kind of push
alumni could provide to a university.
US universities, especially in the private
sector, have traditionally been heavily
dependent on contributions by rich and
privileged individuals and corporations.
Theyconsequentlyhaveverystructured
programmes and departments to con-
tinually engage and enrich their alumni
sources. The symbiotic and mutually
beneficial relationships maintained by
these universities go a long way in mak-
ing them world class.
Indian universities are very much
in a nascent stage when it comes to
Global
University
of Toronto
583,458
Alumni Data
University of
Michigan -
Ann Arbor
The University
of Texas at
Austin
University of
California,
Berkeley
University
of Illinois at
Urbana-
Champaign
New York
University
University of
Wisconsin -
Madison
540,000 460,000 458,000 425,000 400,000400,372
University of Toronto’s alumni
association arranges awards and
scholarships valued at $100,000
World class
university
Alumni
Base
alumni relationships. Barring the IITs
and select IIMs, no other university has
any worthwhile initiative to engage and
relate with its alumni. With the kind of
resources, financial or otherwise, that is
essential to the making of a world class
university, it is imperative that universi-
ties wake up to this new realty.

form
institution
Investment
As far as world class universities are
concerned, one must realize that
institutions get recognized as World
ClassUniversities.Onedoesnot create
them. One can have an extraordinarily
good place which is small and with a
smaller budget. We can always have a
flexible approach in creating top uni-
versities with the budgets depending
on the programmes and size of the
student body.
Faculty
Weneedtohavefacultyofquality.This
determines the nature of the institu-
tion. Outstanding students come to
such institutions mainly because of
the high quality of instruction and
research, which is directly related to
the quality of the faculty.
It is good to have Nobel Prize win-
ners and Fields medalists, but these
need not be used as the only measure
of quality. I have been associated with
the faculty of University of Cambridge
and University of California. There
are some outstanding people in these
universities, who have not won Nobel
prizes. By and large, the environment
as well as the traditions of the institu-
tions makes them great.
Infrastructure
Good infrastructure is essential. This
has nothing to do with the location.
The funds provided will generally
determine the infrastructure. Modern
research, particularly in science and
engineering,isexpensive.Itisusefulto
choose a few areas for specialization in
each good institution so that they can
be funded fully instead of providing
sub-critical funding for many areas.
Autonomy
It is important that all institutions are
autonomous and that there is little
bureaucracy or government interfer-
ence. As it stands, educational insti-
tutions are strongly controlled by
government which interferes in every
aspect of running the institution.
It will be good to have private uni-
versities (managed just like Harvard
or Stanford) which can be run inde-
pendent of government. For this, we
need a bit of money. I have been saying
for some time that if somebody can
manage to get about 4 billion dollars
(roughly Rs. 20,000 crores), one can
plan to set up such a university and
make sure that it succeeds in a big way.
We need four or five such universities.
Productivity of faculty
As far as the productivity of faculty are
concerned, most good institutions in
the world seem to have good produc-
tivity in research. For e.g., I find that
theaveragenumberofpublicationsper
faculty member in such institutions is
around 3 or 4 per year. I do not want to
be particular about the numbers. The
more important thing is that some of
the papers are of high quality. This is
where India has to improve and pro-
duce higher quality research papers
even with the present numbers.
(The author is a National Research
Professor at JNCASR, Bangalore)
One does not create World
class Universities
Column | Prof. CNR Rao
Harvard
University
University
of British
Columbia
University of
Washington
323,000 285,00317,522
“Alumni play a crucial role in keeping
the flame of a university’s culture.
They are the custodians and carriers
of what a university stands for.
A strong alumni network provides
an immediate and effective resource
base that any student can proudly
tap into and contribute to”
Kurt Ahlm
Associate Dean of Student Recruitment &
Admissions, University of Chicago, Booth
School of Business

by Team Careers360
T
he size of the university, its cam-
pus and student population can
greatly influence your learning
experience.Movingfromasmall
high school or a college to a big univer-
sity can be unsettling or it could just be
the change you need. The size of the
university affects the number of courses
beingoffered,researchlaboratories,size
Stanford university with an 8,180
acres campus is the world’s largest,
and is home to 21 Nobel laureates
of classes, faculty interaction, extra-
curricular activities, sports facilities,
social milieu and so on. Large campuses
invariably will have more number of
courses and faculty members, and as
such more space would be available for
your academic, personal and social life.
Asprawlingcampuscanindeedleadtoa
stimulating experience.
World class
university
Area
A University needs
space for reflection
and solitude
Large land parcels have been the hallmark of great universities though
compact but great campuses are also there.We discuss the global norm…
Does size impede
interaction?
The disadvantage quoted in terms of
less interaction with faculty and peers
does not really hold water since great
universitiesdonotcompromiseonqual-
ity standards. For instance, as long as
student to faculty ratio is maintained
ideally, the students would not suffer.
Large universities have become highly
vertically integrated implying that they
can offer courses at the undergraduate,
graduate, and professional level. They
can also support medical education and
hospitals, centres of excellence; indus-
try programmes, continuous education,
athletics, libraries, museums, entertain-
ment and so on. There has been a rise
in interdisciplinary fields, for example,
nanotechnology, bioethics or human-
kinetics, which mean that within the
campus, if the university is big enough
one can opt for electives in the desired
domain and also be sure of learning
resources and expertise.
Where does world stand?
Yale University, with 835 acres, though
not as large as Stanford University
and others (See Graph) states that its
ability to fulfil its academic mission is
enhanced by insistence upon excellence
in its physical facilities and surround-
ings. The university has 440 buildings,

Indian
Land Area Land Area
Global
4,140facultymembers,12,000students
from all the 50 American states and
108 countries and takes pride in host-
ing 35 athletic teams. Cornell Univer-
sity’s main Ithaca campus includes 702
buildings on 2,300 acres and is home to
four National Research Centers under
National Science Foundation and a
number of other national-user facili-
ties. The ‘Human Ecology Building’ and
‘Milstein Hall’ are prime examples of
Cornell’s commitment to sustainability.
Thelatterisa47,000sq.ft.buildingwith
flexiblestudiospace,whichfromapeda-
gogical point of view, is transformative.
Since the need for advanced education
is getting more intense, some institu-
tions are moving far beyond their tradi-
tional geographical areas and opening
new campuses. This in a way is helping
them branch out to new destinations
and look for new students.
However, today’s ‘digital’ generation
spend lot of their time surrounded by
robust, visual, electronic media. They
approach learning as a ‘plug-and-play’
experience. While this type of learn-
ing is far different from the sequential,
approach of the traditional curriculum,
Harvard University
University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign
Duke University
8180
5076
1783
954
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Size in acres
Map not to Scale
University of
Wisconsin -
Madison
University
of California,
San Diego
TSinghua
University, beijing
1920
936
1200
1463
Stanford
University
Cornell University
University of
California,
Berkeley
2300
1232
in a university set-up, some academics
argue that virtual learning, that makes
use of small enclosed spaces may be
far more effective for this generation
accustomedtomedia-richenvironment.
How does India Fare?
The universities in India too have huge
campuses, however, the stark difference
from the global leaders lie in (i) lack of
all-disciplines for most of these univer-
sities, particularly the absence of medi-
cal schools on the campus, (ii) lesser
emphasisonactivitiessuchassportsand
(iii) absence of innovation ecosystem in
almost all the universities.
BHU with a medical school, engi-
neering institute, liberal arts, science,
humanities and management depart-
ments has one of the largest campuses
in India. The main campus is spread
over 1,300 acres, while the south cam-
pus (RGSC) is 2,600 acres. The above
Table, however, does not include Agri-
culture & Allied Science universities
that have huge campuses such as GB
Pant University of Agriculture & Tech-
nology, Pantnagar; Punjab Agricultural
University, Ludhiana and IARI, Pusa,
New Delhi among others.
Universities with large
campus area
Area in acres
(BHU), Varanasi
3,900
Hyderabad
2,324
IIT Kharagpur 2,200
Osmania University, Hyderabad 1,300
Aligarh Muslim University
(AMU), Aligarh
1,155
Bangalore University,
Bangalore
1,100
IIT Kanpur 1,038
Jawaharlal Nehru University
(JNU), New Delhi
1,019
Sri Venkateswara University,
Tirupati
1,000
Annamalai University,
Annamalainagar
975
This Bill proposes to establish at
least one college in every State
upon a sure and perpetual founda-
tion, accessible to all, but espe-
cially to the sons of toil, where all
of needful science for the practical
avocations of life shall be taught,
where neither the higher graces
of classical studies nor that military
drill our country now so greatly
appreciates will be entirely ignored
Senator Justin Smith Morrill
on passing of the Land grant Act,
which enabled setting up of universities
all over USA

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