Dr. S N Balakrishnan, Chancellor, Shiv Nadar University, speaks to Abhay Anand on how research can be integrated with education in Indian higher education system...
Q. You have been teaching in the US for a long time where the education system is somewhat research-driven. How important is research in the Indian context?
A. If you look at research fundamentally, I always tell my students that while doing research you have to see how it is useful to the society and industry. If you do research then you are looking at something that doesn’t exist or you can do better so, in that way you are going to be the leaders. This approach is missing in the Indian system. If we look at China, it is pushing higher education research on all fronts.
Q. Is it because China is investing heavily on that?
A. One part is that they have got a lot of money to do that, but that is not the whole scenario. If you want to do post doc with me, you do not need to pay me anything, my government will support me. There is something like visiting scholar, in which they study one year in their country and then one and-a-half years in the US and then they would go back and get the degree.
This is a win-win situation. The process is so good and smooth that I would take good students from the top 100 universities there. The number of Indian students wanting to do Ph.D. abroad is on a decline.
Q. Why is it so? Are they doing research in India?
This story is from the March 2018 edition of Careers 360.
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This story is from the March 2018 edition of Careers 360.
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