With 317 universities and 15,000 plus colleges India has the world’s second largest higher education system. But a recent study confirms the worst fears of educationists — that the performance of this huge academic system lags behind many smaller countries, particularly in science and research. In the ‘Academic Ranking of World Universities 2003’ conducted by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s Institute of Higher Education in December 2003, which ranked the world’s top 500 universities on academic and research performance, only three Indian institutions were included: the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore ranked in the 251-300 slot and the Indian Institutes of Technology, Delhi and Kharagpur, both ranked in the 451-500 bracket.

The dominance of Western universities in the list was inevitable with 157 US and 42 British universities making it into the top 500 list. But the research quality of Asian universities is also improving. Thirty six Japanese universities made it into the list, China (including Hong Kong) had 14, South Korea seven and Taiwan and Brazil four each against India’s three.

Not only have smaller countries overtaken India, the quantum of research activity in India has actually declined. In 1973, Indian scientists produced almost half the third world’s research publications with this country ranked as the eighth largest publisher of scientific papers worldwide. But by 1998, India had slid to 15th place. In 1980, Indian scientists published 14,983 papers, an output which declined to 12,127 papers in 2000. During this period, China increased its output of scientific papers more than 20 times from 924 to 22,061. Other developing countries have also outpaced India in terms of percentage growth of number of papers published. Against India’s 19 percent decline in output, China recorded an increase of 2,388 percent, Israel 162 percent, South Korea 6,064 percent and Brazil 432 percent.

Admittedly research is not confined to universities. In India, several dedicated institutes such as the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Council for Scientific & Industrial Research, National Institute of Nutrition etc are continuously engaged in research work. But these institutes contribute only a small fraction of the research output of the country.

Against this depressing backdrop one needs to attempt to summarise the major factors which impede the growth and development of Indian science. Among them:

Poor facilities. Indian universities are plagued by poor research facilities, primitive equipment, lack of consumables and inadequate maintenance of physical infrastructure and equipment. Moreover varsity libraries have small budgets for books and journals. Government grants for research are limited and cronyism is the norm in the award of grants.

Poor training and sloppy methodology. Inadequately trained scientists and technicians cannot use equipment optimally, keep it calibrated or maintain safety standards. Experimental methodology and statistical interpretation are superficial, therefore hard-to-come-by grants are wasted in poor technique and haphazard conclusions. And when experiments are finally written up, the articles are characterised by “multiple mistakes in spelling, syntax and semantics and you have to wonder when they did their science if they weren’t also making similar errors of inattention,” says William H Glaze, editor of Science, about researchers from developing countries.

Poor motivation to study science. Smart students are side-stepping science and academic research. The brightest doctors go into private practice; brilliant engineers into industry rather than academia or research because careers in the academic sciences pay poorly, seniority prevails over merit and one has to constantly fight bureaucracy and vested interests. Indeed most of India’s best scientists are near retirement and this is perhaps a major reason for the decline in research output in India.

The scientific temper mandates a search for solutions to problems. The broad outlines which provide a framework for resolving problems afflicting science and technology education in India are:

Reward universities that encourage quality research. In the UK, university departments are graded by their quality of research and the best ones receive the highest research grants. Outstanding scientists and promising youngsters require good labs and adequate budgets as well as access to international journals, internet connectivity and sponsorship to international conferences.

Increase the number of scientists. It’s important to expand the pool of science workers. This can be done by awarding special scholarships for students who enter science and mathematics degree programmes, and providing facilitative work environments. “India needs at least a 50-fold increase in its science activity to begin to catch up with developed countries,” says Gagan Prathap of the Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation, CSIR, Bangalore.

Increase research funding outlays. The Union ministry of human resource development has rightly increased outlays for primary education. This means higher education must pay for itself and even government universities must charge fees which balance expenses. The University Grants Commission must earmark the bulk of its funds not towards the operational budgets of universities, but for setting up labs, research infrastructure and libraries and convening research seminars in India and abroad. Otherwise after the present generation of scientists retires, the continuity and expansion of research in India’s universities may be irreparably compromised.

 

(Dr. Glenn Christo is vice-chancellor, Lutheran University, Raipur. E-mail: lutheranuniversity@dishnetdsl.net)