India's best colleges: Commerce

For lakhs of students, June is perhaps the most exciting and challenging month. That's when colleges open their gates to admission in undergraduate courses and there is virtually a deluge of students rushing in to pick up application forms. For Rev J. Felix Raj SJ, the principal of St. Xavier's College, Kolkata, it's a sense of dejavu.

Every year he has hundreds of students swamping his office with all sorts of queries for admission, particularly commerce. And why not? With its huge campus, meritorious students and interactive staff, St. Xavier's is a preferential option for admission for undergraduates.

This year, in fact, it has been ranked No. 1 for commerce, displacing hot favourite Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Delhi, which had been leading for 12 years. "It's the students and staff members, popularly known as the Xaverians, who have moved the spirit of St. Xavier's College that makes it to the top at the undergraduate (UG) level," says Raj SJ.

"As an autonomous college, our curriculum is very different. We also stress extra-curricular activities as well as co-curricular work." Every paper at Xavier's is evaluated 20 per cent internally and 80 per cent externally. This 20 per cent has various components like internal exams, seminar, assignments and internship and every student has to fulfil these components.

Moreover, it has companies like Vodafone, IBM, TCS, HSBC, Wipro and PricewaterhouseCoopers recruiting students from campus. Even the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) recognised the college as an 'A' grade institution in 2003. In May 2006, it was declared a Centre with Potential for Excellence by the University Grants Commission (UGC).

It now aims to provide more professional experience to the students at the ug level, what Raj SJ calls "a more exposure-oriented cours".

In 2005, they initiated an academia-industry interface where industrialists are brought in to the college and students are exposed to what new techniques in the industrial world. Students also go for a three-week internship at one of the companies and have to submit a detailed report as project work.

SRCC, which has been displaced to second place this year, has not lost its edge. The calibre of the faculty is excellent, and srccians hardly have to worry about getting a job as they have an impressive cadre of recruiters like Ernst & Young, Barclays and Deutsche Bank. Moreover, the college is sprucing its infrastructure to match global standards.

Last year, it spent about Rs 10 crore to upgrade its library, which is now air-conditioned and enabled with radio frequency identification technology, a new audio-visual room with teleconferencing facilities (contributed by the alumni), renovate its hostels with new furniture, flooring and electrical wiring, better toilets, kitchen and dining area.

Also, thanks to the upcoming Commonwealth Games, the college is getting a new hostel block for girls (with 50 rooms) and a 2,500-seater sports stadium for indoor events like women's wrestling, basketball and table tennis with a spa and cafeteria. Few, if any, public colleges have such facilities.

P.C. Jain, principal, SRCC, now wants to focus on making the college a "centre for teaching and research of global standards". It has been conducting training workshops for faculty members, some of who are now going to present papers in economics and business at conferences abroad. "We want to be ranked in a global context," he says.

He also wants to encourage "equality and diversity" in the college, part of which includes grooming students (who come in through the various quotas), both academically and as towards better communication skills so they can prepare for the various competitive exams (like MBA, civil services etc).

For this, Jain has got a special fund from the UGC and he also plans to get more women students. If commerce is only trading, buying, selling and making profits then Francis Jose, head of the Department of Commerce at Loyola College, Chennai, which has ranked No. 3 this year, wants to diverge from this concept and focus on the hardcore management and leadership side of business. "Our main aim is that we just don't want our students to learn buying, selling and making profits. We want them to take up new opportunities and new initiatives in business and merge with the global economy," he says.

And it is this different, knowledge-based learning approach which differentiates Loyola from many of the other colleges. A sharp focus on academics and infrastructural development and a fair exposure to the ethical side of not just business but also to life has made it reach the top three in the india today survey.

For instance, the curriculum at its commerce department is updated every three years. The M.Com syllabus was revised last year and the B.Com syllabus is due for a review this year. The department has also established an Entrepreneurship Development cell, which offers a two-credit course for the students to obtain entrepreneurial skills.

The college also organised a major fair with over 40 stalls for the students from all colleges in Chennai last year to present their entrepreneurial ventures. It is no wonder then that over 6,000 students apply for commerce at Loyola every year and only 145 manage to get in.with Sarbani Sen and Lakshmi Subramanian

Reproduced From India Today. © 2010. LMIL. All rights reserved.

India's best science colleges

The serpentine queues of students awaiting admission to science courses at St. Stephen's is nothing unusual. The students who do make it this year to the venerated 129-year-old institution in the capital as well as the pure science scholars now a year from graduation, have something more to add a spring to their step.

After five years of Loyola College, Chennai, holding the No. 1 spot in the INDIA TODAY Best Colleges Survey, the St. Stephen's science stream this year finds itself at the top. Loyola is now No. 2 followed by Presidency College, Kolkata. Among the prominent gainers this year are Christ College, Bangalore, up from 13th to 7th rank, and Hansraj College, Delhi, which has moved into the top 10 from its 14th position in 2009.

St. Stephen's offers a three-year integrated degree course in chemistry and physics, where the theory courses are reinforced by rigorous laboratory assignments. Along with it, the two options offered are either entrepreneurship and small business or computers in chemistry.

St. Stephen's boasts of a Physics Society which organises annual lecture series by distinguished scientists. It also runs a forum, the Feynman Club, where students, alumni and visitors present ideas and discoveries in the field of physics.

Well-recognised as the oldest and amongst the most sought after colleges in Delhi, the St. Stephen's philosophy of nurturing achievers has led to the institution producing students who excel in fields across the spectrum. The college attracts the best in the country, the reason for which Principal Dr Valson Thampu puts as "its shared and treasured heritage," where the students are referred to as "splendid ambassadors," and the college as a "fit instrument to serve the nation with distinction".

Meanwhile, Loyola College, at the second place, feels that excellence does not come easy. Principal Rev. Dr. B. Jeyaraj is unflinching when he speaks of the value additions and the research activities that take place within the ramparts of the 96-acre citadel of excellence. "At Loyola, we look at education differently and it does not lie in the quantification of knowledge, but in the quality of knowledge that helps form the character of students," he says.

Since the inception of the Life Sciences Department, studies and research on developmental activities has been the only aim of the students and the professors. Its Entomology Research Institute has been selected to be a partner in the Open Source Drug Discovery, where the first target disease for drug discovery is tuberculosis.

The drug will be available in the market in the next two years and will be the cheapest in the market. "Its latest is the invention of a new biopesticide called Ponneim to help farmers save their plants from pesticides," says Dr S. Ignacimuthu, director, entomology department. Loyola's placement cell ensures that more than 30 per cent of the students are assured of jobs while in college itself.

When it comes to the future, the college's science departments have already set their targets for their next academic year's research activities. "We are looking for new initiatives and we definitely plan to take up more research projects in the coming years," says Jeyaraj.

Ranked third in this year's survey, Presidency College, Kolkata, is known for its department of science at the undergraduate level. Established in 1817, the college is one of the oldest educational institutes in India and has a score of well-known faces who have graduated from it-Satyajit Ray, Amartya Sen and Somnath Chatterjee.

"Our teacher-student ratio is 1:6 where the emphasis is on better quality of teaching and skillful development at the laboratory," says Principal Sanjib Ghosh. The college is currently affiliated to the University of Calcutta but is set to become a unitary university under the state Government in the next few months.

With Priyanka Sood, Lakshmi Subramanian and Sarbani Sen

Reproduced From India Today. © 2010. LMIL. All rights reserved.

India's best colleges in Arts

The role of education is not just to equip students with a skill or a degree, but also to enable the youth to engage with new ideas and interrogate stereotypes. The best arts colleges in the country have succeeded in providing just the right environment for innovation to its students.

Lady Shri Ram College (LSR), which has emerged as the best institution in the country for arts and humanities, has been a centre of excellence and achievement for more than five decades now. LSR's ideology, since its inception, has been to help women break cultural and economic barriers.

Achievement for LSR graduates is not just about climbing the corporate ladder, but also about attaining sophistication of mind, and its distinguished alumni are a glowing testimony to the college's commitment to this goal.

The college boasts of the highest number of first divisions in Delhi University. Every year it receives nearly 22,000 applications from which only 700 are selected. It also actively encourages exchange programmes with foreign universities and receives a large number of requests from prospective students overseas.

One of the most distinguishing features about LSR is its emphasis on research. "I think research potential is grossly undervalued at the undergraduate level in the Indian higher education setup. But LSR believes that it is a highly energetic space and we do everything possible to encourage our students to innovate and think out of the box," says Meenakshi Gopinath, principal, LSR.

From this year onward, the college will make grants available to foster collaborative research projects between the faculty and the students. The college also plans to develop a full-fledged research and training centre on conflict transformation and peace building. At present, it offers a diploma in the subject.

Some of LSR's other future projects include scaling up its journalism programme and converting it into a media communication course. In 2012, the college plans to launch a management programme, which promises to be different from run of the mill MBA courses. "We aim to develop a new vocabulary for management. Many of our women are in top management positions and we plan to draw in that expertise," explains Gopinath.

This year, Fergusson College, Pune, ascended from the tenth position to the seventh, whereas Christ College slipped from fifth to the eighth slot. Loyola College, Chennai, which had stuck to the number one spot for several years, slipped to number two this time.

St. Stephen's College and Miranda House are the other two colleges, apart from LSR, from Delhi University that have made it to the Top 10. Despite coming in second, Loyola remains one the finest colleges in the country because of its emphasis on professional and skill oriented knowledge.

Loyola's arts stream includes unique courses such as human resource management, medical and psychiatric social work. "We offer a large number of optional and skill-based courses when it comes to the arts stream. Our curriculum is not bookish or exam-oriented and we want to prepare our students to meet emerging economic challenges," says Reverend B. Jeyaraj, principal, Loyola College.

Its department of foreign languages trains more than 1,000 students every year. Courses such as socio-linguistics, communication and leadership, European literature in translation, folklore, English for copywriting, creative writing and English through mass media are unique to the college.

The college has signed 37 MOUs with foreign universities and institutions in the last year and the faculty endeavours to produce global citizens. "Students from the rural and economically poor background are given opportunities to develop leadership skills. We ensure that students, irrespective of their backgrounds, are given equal placement opportunities," says Jeyaraj.

The prestigious St. Stephen's College, the oldest college in Delhi, retained its third position this year. Its English and economics departments are renowned all over the country. "We are the best because we attract the best," says N. Raghunathan, head of the economics department.

Former students have excelled in fields ranging from media and politics to academics and entertainment. Students are encouraged to read extensively and carve niche for themselves. This year the college will revert to the admission format followed in 2008.

The merit differential between the Christian and the general pool cannot exceed 15 per cent and in case the reserved category seats are not filled, they will be opened for the general pool.

Apart from its impressive academics, the college also boasts of two dozen clubs and societies that are an important constituent of the campus life and offer a variety of avenues for self-expression.

They are known for inviting prominent leaders from all walks of life to hold debates and interact with the students. Its Shakespeare Society is famous all over India for the quality of its English plays, and has even been a launching pad for several successful careers in drama.

It is this emphasis on all-round development which makes studying at St. Stephen's an enriching and life changing experience.

With Lakshmi Subramanian and Mihir Srivastava

Reproduced From India Today. © 2010. LMIL. All rights reserved.

India's best colleges in engineering

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) have excelled as the centres of technical learning for decades and this year too, they occupy seven slots in the list of Top 10 engineering colleges in the country. This year, IIT-Kanpur gained two positions to be on the top, nudging last year's leader IIT-Delhi into the second slot.

True to its motto of "lead me from darkness to light", IIT-Kanpur has become synonymous with the word excellence in technical education. It started in a room in the Canteen Building of the Harcourt Butler Technological Institute at Agricultural Gardens in Kanpur with just 100 students, but today, in its golden jubilee year, it has 4,500 students with the student-teacher ratio being 10:1.

In affirmation of its commitment to excellence are its mechanical and nuclear engineering and technology departments which were instrumental in designing Jugnu, a 3.5-kg nanosatellite, which was handed over to the ISRO in March this year. Director Sanjay G. Dhande calls these successes a result of the institute's passion to excel in the field of teaching, research and innovation.

"While maintaining our excellent undergraduate programmes, we want to scale new heights in our research and postgraduate programmes. We are very keen to use technical developments for the benefit of society."

The undergraduate courses offered here have the reputation of being the toughest in the country. Professor Nalinaksh S. Vyas, head, department of mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering and technology programme, IIT-Kanpur, however, believes that undergraduate education in the country is predominantly faculty dependent and to overcome faculty shortage, it should be made branchless.

Compulsory course content should involve fundamental and generic courses from all basic streams and the student should be allowed to choose his/her area of specialisation in specific areas but only at the postgraduate level.

The quality of research here is exemplary. They have undertaken many ambitious projects, amongst them the Himalayan task of cleaning up the 2,510-km Ganges under The National Ganga River Basin Management Plan project. With as many as six other IITs, including Delhi and Chennai, joining hands with IIT-Kanpur, many believe this ambitious plan is no longer impossible.

The IITs in Chennai, Kharagpur, Mumbai, Roorkee and Guwahati are others in the Top 10 list with IIT-Kharagpur slipping two positions, from second to fourth. The only new entrant this year in the Top 10 is the National Institute of Technology, Surathkal, which has moved up from 11th to 10th position while the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, has slipped from eighth to 11th position.

After being on the top for two consecutive years, IIT-Delhi lost its numero uno position to IIT-Kanpur. Surendra Prasad, director, IIT-Delhi, believes that "IITs have remained good centres of technical learning because they have autonomy, best facilities and good funding for quality research work".

About the faculty at IIT-Delhi, Prasad says the average age of 100 new faculty members is 32 years and most of them have been exposed to the best practices in the best educational institutes in the world. "The course contents are reviewed every year so as to adapt them to the current state of knowledge. Even the student's input is given due consideration," Prasad says. At IIT-Delhi, the emphasis is on research work with about Rs 100 crore earmarked for it every year.

The third slot in the Top 10 is occupied by IIT-Madras. Spread over a 250-hectare campus, canopied by lush green forest, it has a vision clear for itself: an academic institution in equilibrium with its social, ecological and economic environment striving continuously for excellence in education, research and technology.

This vision is exemplified by its Centre for Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research (IC and SR) that promotes interaction between the industry and institute.

The institute has established itself as a premier centre for teaching, research and industrial consultancy in the country and currently has around 4,500 students, 460 teachers and 1,250 technical staff on its roll. To keep up with the best and the latest in the world of science and technology, the focus is on research and consultancy projects.

M.S. Ananth, director, IIT-Madras, says, "At times, our students fail to meet the expectations of the recruiting companies. We are working towards bridging this gap. IIT-Madras is very particular that its syllabus should cater to the needs of the companies and produce engineering graduates who match their expectations."

A special placement cell at the campus ensures 100 per cent placement for hundreds of its engineering and MBA graduates, who are hired by some of the best like Tower Research Capital, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs at an attractive compensation package.

Seventy per cent of our students who had registered for placements were hired by the best in the industry last year and this year too, 200 companies visited the campus," says Jayakumar, deputy registrar of training and placement at IIT-Madras.

Now there are seven iits instead of original four that lead to the obvious apprehension: will growing numbers mean dilution in the quality of teaching? Prasad dispels such fears: "If the evolution process is good, there would be no dilution." IITs still remain potent instruments to change the world through scientific approach.

with Farzand Ahmed and Lakshmi Subramanian

Reproduced From India Today. All rights reserved.

India's best law colleges

It has spawned 10 other law universities across India since it was established in 1987. But none of other law schools has been able to dislodge the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bangalore, from its premier status, a fact reflected in the India Today-Nielsen Survey.

Close behind is the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR), Hyderabad. Moving up to third position is the National Law Institute University, (NLIU) Bhopal, while the Faculty of Law, Delhi University, moves further down. The Symbiosis Society's Law College moves up to the fifth slot, while the Gujarat National Law University breaks into the Top 10 at ninth spot and Amity Law School slips to the tenth position.

By providing the best infrastructure and enriching the academic environment for personal and professional development, the 18-acre NLSIU, from where the 18th batch of graduates will pass out this year, continues to grow rapidly.

It provides a platform for greater synergy between students and the cream of the legal community, as select judges and jurists regularly visit the campus. Vice-Chancellor R. Venkata Rao is keen on introducing relevant courses keeping in mind the newer national laws as well as the impact of international laws.

NLSIU has laid emphasis on not just academic excellence but has also pushed students into taking part in national and international law and allied competitions. "The key is to push for record-breaking results in the area of academics, curricular and co-curricular activities," says Rao. No wonder NLSIU graduates are recipients of the coveted Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford almost every year.

Distinguished professors of law, jurists and judges visiting NLSIU and exploring joint research opportunities with institutions like Germany's Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law have also helped add to quality. Students are involved in in-depth studies of varied subjects-from the American Sarbanes-Oxley Act's influence on Indian corporate governance norms to data protection efforts in India or even dissecting the complex interplay between law and society.

NLSIU also organises several offtrack events like ethnic days, rock shows and music fests just to contrast with its famous NLSIU Debate, South Asia's largest parliamentary-style debating tournament. Despite the recession, this school has reported 100 per cent placement every year from top law firms in the country and abroad. Some students even shun lucrative offers to provide their expertise to social causes, so it is not surprising to see NLSIU graduates taking up human rights causes or green concerns.

NALSAR, the second on the list, was set up in 1998 and has now ventured into the frontier area of Law and Management and has introduced courses in cyber law, intellectual property rights, insurance and banking laws, civil aviation management, realty sector, law and administration and aerospace studies and research. It has a number of advanced centres for higher studies and research in SAARC policy and laws, disability studies, aerospace research, international humanitarian law, environmental laws, cyber laws and media laws.

NALSAR is to open a centre in Sharjah, UAE, for a one-year post graduate diploma in aviation law and air transport management in collaboration with the Institute of Applied Aviation Management, Calicut.

It is collaborating with the National Academy of Construction, Hyderabad, to offer a one-year diploma course in law of contract administration and real estate management and a one-year postgraduate diploma course in the law of infrastructure and disaster management from this academic year onward. "We are an exclusive institution because our teaching is interactive and the students get the highest level of professional exposure by way of internship with international and national legal corporates, courts, senior lawyers and NGOs," says NALSAR Vice-Chancellor Veer Singh.

This has enabled students to make a mark in international and national moot court competitions, in which NALSAR is currently ranked as the best in the country. They also participate in international conferences besides publishing three journals that NALSAR rolls out exclusively. As many as 20 students have travelled to foreign universities for a semester under the Student Exchange Programme.

Established in 1997, NLIU has also evolved into one of the top law schools by offering a master's programme and a slew of diploma courses beyond the five-year integrated LLB course that is still a big draw to and admissions for which are made through the Common Law Admission Test. The numbers of aspirants is growing, from 12,271 in 2009 to 17,316 this year, vying for a slot in the country's prestigious law school.

with Ambreesh Mishra and Stephen David

Reproduced From India Today. All rights reserved.

India's best colleges in Medicine

If you wish to study at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) spend a day there. Step inside any OPD at 12 noon. Try walking up and down a corridor without getting trampled by the crowd. If you can imagine yourself one day in the future at the centre of this daily surge of humanity, handling patients swarming around your desk with patience-dare to think of AIIMS.

Everything is king-size here-from the awe-inspiring campus with nearly 18 lakh patient footfalls a year, an array of 50 disciplines, 25 clinical departments and six super speciality centres managing every type of disease, to more than 54,000 wannabes who compete fiercely for one of its 77 MBBS seats.
"It's a place that has always swarmed with brilliant doctors-chairing international committees, giving lectures around the world, getting diseases named after them. With them as mentors, students are encouraged to vie with each other and become role models themselves," says Dr R.C. Deka, AIIMS director.
The top destination in the India Today survey of academic excellence in medicine this year is once again AIIMS. As it turns out, it's not the only institute to have retained its position.
The top five medical colleges this year have survived the shake-up in the rankings, visible more in the middle order. Chasing AIIMS closely are the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) in Pune, the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry and the Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) in Delhi.
The Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, gave a credible performance by moving up to the sixth slot from last year's ninth, pipping at the post the Madras Medical College, Chennai, in the process. Lady Hardinge Medical College, Delhi, muscled its way to the seventh spot.
A welcome entrant in the Top 10 league this year is St. John's Medical College, Bangalore, which jumped four slots to grab the eighth position.
Research is what sets the toppers apart. AIIMS, which brings out more than 50 per cent of all the medical research from India, published over 1,500 original work in high-impact journals this year.
"Our faculty had 381 ongoing projects and initiated 110 new projects worth nearly Rs 58.7 crore," says Deka. At CMC, research is the mantra, too, with number of publications zooming up-from less than 100 in 2002 to over 220 now. "At least 3 to 4 per cent of our budget is set aside for research," says Dr. George Mathew, principal. From epidemiology to stem cells, motorised hands to the indigenous rotovirus vaccine-the pipeline is varied and growing.
AFMC is one of the few colleges to have research at the undergraduate level. The Indian Council of Medical Research has assigned as many as 18 projects to MBBS students here. "This is the highest a medical college has got at that level," says Lt Gen D.P. Vats, director and commandant of AFMC. There's much to learn at the 105-year-old CMC. The serene ambience, away from the madding metros, is ideal for those who believe in giving back to society.
There's a wealth of clinical experience to be gained from the Community Health and Development Unit, which sends graduates to outlying villages every year for a few weeks, to get hands-on exposure to rural hospitals. "We want to create a workforce of physicians who can meet the challenges of modern medicine and at the same time be socially conscious," says Mathew.
Along with Tufts University, US, CMC is planning to bring all lectures and demos online for students working in hospitals within its network.
For a different experience, enter the Connaught Barracks in Pune. Check out the hum and buzz, the bright young faces, the breathtaking campus and doctors in crisp white or green busy on the rounds.
The place radiates the combined aura of military discipline, the pride and power of India's armed forces along with the exuberance of a medical college. From a humble postgraduate training centre in 1948, it has grown today into a formidable institute with 29 departments, 35 courses and six affiliated hospitals-for those who want to serve the armed forces.
"We prepare 'doctor officers' and not just doctors. They have to be mentally strong in war-prone areas, alert and also compassionate," adds Vats.
Cash-rich corporates may have changed India's healthcare delivery landscape, but they do not seem to have made much headway in medical education.
That's probably because the fundamental metric of most of India's top medical schools is premised on research, in which the private sector lags seriously behind. Intellect doesn't seem to have kowtowed to the jingle of coins in the world of medical education yet.
with Lakshmi Subramanian and Mitali Patel
Reproduced From India Today. All rights reserved.

India's best colleges India will simultaneously have the youngest age profile among large economies and the largest national workforce

If India's leading educationists and economists were asked to sit down to dinner and agree on a single idea without causing cutlery to fly, it would have to be this: that it is India's evolving education system which will feed its growing economy.

As urban India rises in prosperity and demand, its next two decades rest on the shoulders of those who are now beginning their higher education. If 2010 marks the beginning of a new decade in which India will have to raise its game to become an even stronger global competitor, the gamechangers are just getting into college.

According to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington D.C., by the year 2028, "India will simultaneously have the youngest age profile among large economies and the largest national workforce." It is India's colleges that decide what that workforce will be like.

India's best colleges in Medicine

India's best law colleges

India's best engineering colleges

In Parliament, educational reform has become a priority with the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operation) Bill being passed, with the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill 2010 still pending.

In this dynamic educational environment, the India Today Best Colleges rankings reflect where Indian higher education stands today. Our rankings are the established benchmark for quality education and it also lets us know what is required. The purpose of these rankings is never to merely keep score but to reveal where there is real change and development.

Now in its 14th year, the India Today Best Colleges rankings are now virtually an institution in themselves, both as a comprehensive database for undergraduate education in the country and as a trend-spotter.

The news this year is that no one is daunted by the arrival of foreign educational institutions. P.C. Jain, principal, Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) has predicted that foreign colleges would impact India in three ways, a surrender from some, a collaboration by others and, he says, "some colleges who will accept the challenge and will not only survive but also excel in future."

Professor Nalinaksh S. Vyas, head, department of mechanical engineering and nuclear engineering and technology programme, IIT-Kanpur (IIT-K), has a different idea: "We don't fear foreign institutions. Before they are allowed in India, IIT-K would have set its feet in other countries." Meenakshi Gopinath, principal of Lady Shri Ram College, says India must build, "its own idiom of undergraduate education and not ape the West". Sanjay G. Dhanda, director, IIT-K, also believes India needs an undergraduate 'model' of education. He has codenamed it the 'Nalanda' model-after the ancient university-which should be followed across the country.

There remains amongst leaders in our education a desire to make undergraduate learning more flexible with a greater research component in some streams to help students in the workforce. The reason St. Xavier's College, Kolkata, took the No.1 spot in the commerce stream this year after SRCC's 12-year hold had much to do with its philosophy of constantly upgrading its curriculum to make its courses professional. As St. Xavier's principal Reverend Felix Raj says, "The education system should have practical training beyond the regular classroom."

India's best colleges in Arts

India's best science colleges

India's best commerce colleges

At the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, Rajasthan, a task force called Vision 2020 has been set up, its plan being to make BITS a leading institution in the world. G. Raghurama, director of BITS, says the plan involves international collaboration, "to invest heavily in modern infrastructure to let our faculty engage in research as needed by industry and government agencies."

To keep pace with the demand for an increase in its Gross National Product, India will have to double its Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in education. In real terms that means doubling the available seats.

Even though only 12.4 students in a 100 currently enter higher education, the ratio for seats is monumental. Over 4.5 lakh entrants sat for the joint entrance exam for 9,500 engineering seats in the IITs, Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, and Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. For the liberal arts courses, Delhi University sold over 1.8 lakh applications for its 54,000 seats. Loyola College, Chennai, has about 20,000 applicants for its 2,100 seats.

Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal wants India's GER raised so that 30 students in 100 can leave school and enter college for a degree, be it vocational, professional or liberal arts and pure sciences. He was quoted as saying it meant India needed 600 more universities and 35,000 more colleges in the next 12 years. Even if these numbers may seem grossly exaggerated, what India's needs now is expansion of a basic quality of college education.

It could come from the elite deciding to expand centres in new cities, driven by their philosophy of excellence and high standards. The arrival of foreign universities may stir the pot, but as Sanjib Ghosh, principal, Presidency College, Kolkata, says that should only happen "with less commercialisation and exploitation".

The current rash in private education offers both a solution and a challenge. India's leading colleges remain non-profit organisations, whose emphasis is on their students, not on bottomlines. Our college toppers, in fact, provide the blueprint for what an ideal education is all about.

With Amarnath K. Menon, Sarbani Sen, Diksha Madhok, Nandini Vaish and Rohit Parihar

Reproduced From India Today. © 2010. LMIL. All rights reserved.