Class Struggles

Technology has,in one sense,been liberating: the library is no longer the site for exclusive access to knowledge; in many cases it has become unnecessary. The gatekeeping power of universities has diminished,and the accumulation of knowledge has now to be made more instrumental to the demands of the economy. The second spatial layout of the universities was determined by something called the “disciplines”,where disciplines were defined by domain and technique. Universities are very institutionally conservative places,and the structure of accumulated disciplines is hard to displace. But the emerging structures of knowledge,for good or ill,will reconfigure the disciplines,and how they are carved out. The promise of the new paradigm lies in the hope that the real innovation comes in the interstices and linkages between the so-called disciplines — students will inhabit zones that create links across structures of knowledge rather than defend boundaries. But the danger also lies,particularly in the social sciences,in having single techniques colonise discipline. Political science departments will resemble economics departments and so forth,premised on formal modelling,statistics and randomised experiments. There will be more technical wizards in the newer paradigm,but arguably fewer people who understand the things universities were meant to explore: human nature and self-knowledge in all its forms.

R-squared variances will replace the close reading of the Mahabharata and Montaigne as the only way to understand human psychology and it is not clear this will be for the better. The kids will be smarter,but perhaps none the wiser.

The third feature a campus had was forms of sociability,amongst faculty and students. The campus is arguably becoming less relevant to forms of faculty sociability,at least where sociability has a modicum of connection with intellectual life. Technology has made sociability truly global,both virtually and literally,and networks are likely to be stronger with colleagues thousands of miles away. For students,the campus will remain a rite of passage,that first moment of real independence; a site as likely to yield your soul mate as a career (or convince you that you can live with lesser liaisons); and a genuine place for exploration,exhilaration and frustration.

The fourth feature of a campus was the idea of a professoriate. This was a cultural ideal as much as a professional one. A group of people who had forsaken the allures of high income,committed to snatching a bit of intellectual order in the world,whose sense of joy amongst books and labs was unparalleled,and who saw themselves as members of a single community: the Sanskritist was as valuable as the computer scientist. In some ways this idea has vanished. There is greater inequality of wealth and esteem between disciplines; professors are as likely to be consultants as they are committed to order,and a sense of a community is less structurally pronounced. Some changes have been for the good: for the professoriate often came with a sense of arbitrary power over students and this has been considerably disciplined. But as the professional has replaced the professoriate,the real eccentrics,those that made the campus interesting,have also disappeared. Instead of those insolvent,intellectually combative,somewhat unkempt characters walking around campus,you will see more clones of a corporatised culture.

The future campus will also be marked by the fact that

millions of students in countries like India will be accessing the campus for the first time. They will bring a drive and energy,a hunger. Whether our campuses can respond to this is very much an open question. The dystopian thought is that the campus may end up being neither the space for self-cultivation as in its classical form; nor the space for professionalised knowledge. Instead,the campus could become the symbol of youth anomie,thousands of young men and women who have no idea where to go,nothing to excite them,except the allure of ideologies that tap into resentment. That the future campus will not escape serious political activity is beyond doubt; what form that political activity takes is open to question. The future campus is going to be poised between social connection and political anomie,freedom and discipline,hope and anxiety.

The author is President and chief executive,Centre for Policy Research

& The Last Decade

Brain Drain II
In 2006,nearly three million students were enrolled in higher education institutions outside their own countries,a rise of more than 50 per cent since 2000. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, over a million students were enrolled at educational institutes outside their country of origin in 1980. Two decades on,the figure had almost doubled; less than a decade after that,it had tripled.

One of the most significant trends in education of the past decade has been the increase in the number of students studying outside their home country and India has been one of the biggest importers of students to the UK and US. According to the Institute of International Education,the number of Indian students in US universities increased from 55,000 in 2000-2001 to over a lakh in 2009-10. Countries like Canada and New Zealand,which 10 years ago welcomed only around 2,500 Indian students,are also part of the change: around 10,000 Indian students went to study in the two countries this year.

What’s changed
It’s a smaller world,and higher education in foreign countries is in the realm of the possible. Ruchika Castelino,the head of Indian operations of Study Overseas,a company that advises students,believes that “awareness” is a key contributing factor for the increase in the number of students going abroad. Peggy Blumenthal,chief operating officer and executive vice-president,Institute of International Education,says most international students are “attracted by the huge range of American institutions (over 4,000),the high reputation of US higher education,and the value of a US degree back home.” She feels that the expansion of optional practical training (which allows graduates to work in their field of study on completing their studies) to 29 months for students in science and technology is another incentive. The increasing affluence of the Indian middle class has also made the exodus possible. Dr Geetha Nambissan,professor at Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies,Jawaharlal Nehru University,says,“The expansion of the Indian middle class and its participation in the global market of education has made a significant impact this decade.”

What Next?
For the first time this year,more students from south India went for MBAs than traditional degrees in technology and engineering. With the American economy in a slump,graduates are finding that India throws up more job opportunities. The end of the decade has seen more students returning to India after their graduation.

—Nandini Nair