“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance”
-Will Durant
Universities form an important part of the educational system of any country. The very presence of these classic and large education residences instills confidence among one and all that all is well in our educational system. This article sheds light on the types of universities we have today, what is being done to improve the quality of education they offer? And what is the status of the University Plans.
Although the Chinese and the Japanese also had very well-established education systems from a very early period, the difference was that the Japanese sent their children to learn Buddhism and the Chinese had their own classical texts to learn. Even in 1857, when India was establishing its first full-fledged universities, neither the Chinese nor the Japanese had any universities by then.
In 1857, India saw the start of the University of Mumbai, the University of Madras, and the University of Calcutta.
The number has grown enormously since then. And today, we have no fewer than 350 universities of all shapes and sizes located throughout the vast country that is India.
IITs and IIMs, as we all know, have continued to top all major ratings including Indian and foreign rating agencies. The quality of education has been impeccable and they have succeeded in providing unique research-based technical, management and medical education to in-service candidates over the years.
It is the central colleges and the considerate and open colleges that are, of course, entrusted with the job of producing educated qualifications in every conceivable subject. Considering the large number of people they have to serve and the corresponding lack of quality teaching staff, they have done a commendable job. But lately, there has been a lot of fuss about the quality of education that these universities are providing. So much so that our Union Minister for HRD, Mr. Kapil Sibal, thought it was suitable for a considerable number of the Recently Considered Universities.
The issue of the quality of education immediately leads us to the most important factor in the curricula followed in these universities. There is an urgency to revamp the university curriculum to make it more relevant to business, entrepreneurial and employment reality and more application-oriented and forward-looking. There is already some progress in this direction. Soon, we will have a university curriculum that uniformly caters to all subjects and universities and is also world-class.
Once this is done, the students are clear about what they need to study and how. Here, helping you to clarify the university question papers, are the freely available online question papers. Latestt is one of those sites that provides free college question papers for almost every subject taught.