= Premium Content

  • Monday, May 28, 2012

The Global Ticker

Previous

Next

Indian Government Increases Budget for Higher Education

March 1, 2011, 11:55 am

The Indian government has allocated $2.9-billion for higher education in its 2011-12 budget, a 34-percent increase from the previous year. India’s public technical-education institutions will get the biggest chunk, with $1.25-billion, followed by the country’s university regulator, which will receive $1.16-billion. “Our demographic dividend” of a relatively younger population compared with developed countries is as much an opportunity as it is a challenge, said Pranab Mukherjee, India’s finance minister, in his budget speech, adding that by 2025 more than 70 percent of Indians will be of working age. “In this context, universalizing access to secondary education, increasing the percentage of our scholars in higher education, and providing skill training is necessary,” Mr. Mukherjee said. Even though the budget increase is considerable, some analysts say India will need to spend more if it wants to meet its goal of quickly raising overall enrollment.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

  • Print
  • Comment
  • machimon

    Pretty disgusting. I blogged about the effort to intimidate Cronon, and indeed, all academics who comment on important issues of the day.
    http://machimon.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/cronon-the-odd-case-of-historian-bashing/

  • sciencegrad

    I am strongly opposed to China’s actions to discourage majors that are not apparently immediately employable.  Unfortunately, the issue is complicated in China and the US.  With student loans at an all-time high, many taxpayers are opposed to the “fluffy” degrees that don’t necessarily lead to a stable career and many politicians are quick to jump aboard and discourage these majors.

    One thing I would like to suggest is that someone – be it the professors, career services, academic advisors, etc – help students understand how versatile a bachelor’s degree can be, regardless of the major.  Students need to know how to highlight the benefits of their degree on a resume and cover letter.  Perhaps the easiest strength for many of the liberal arts majors is their written, and sometimes verbal, communication skills.  Nearly every job opening I’ve seen asks for excellent communication skills, but how many people actually address this requirement in their cover letter?  I have a BA in the humanities and a BS in the applied sciences and I have noticed a difference in my job search process when I specifically highlight my writing experience up there with my technical skills.  Each interview I’ve had since I added that to my resume focused quite heavily on these communication skills and they have been quite helpful in getting me jobs.

  • commserver

    What is the purpose of college education? Is it a stepping stone for getting a job or for knowledge?

    The original colleges were for the acquiring of knowledge. Very few people went to college, as opposed to today where it seems everyone wants to go to college.

    Today you have liberal arts schools where students are encouraged to learn. My daughter goes to William College which uses the 4-1-4 system. There is winter intersession where students are encouraged to take courses that they might not have considered taking.

    For job training then it is important to go to those institutions where students can be trained.

    My wife is from China. She has relative who has degree in Computer Technology but having a hard time getting job that is relevant. He was offerred job as telephone answerer answering general questions. How important was it getting college degree in Computer Technology if the job he has isn’t even related to the degree?

    My wife has friends whose children have similar experiences. There is one child who has degree in biology but the only job available was a salesperson for real estate. What a waste!!!!!

    The problem in China isn’t the degree but the job prospects. There are too many college graduates but too few jobs. The number of jobs that are being created is low in comparison to the number of college graduates evey year. It has been estimated that there will be around 6.6 million newly minted college graduates in China in 2011.

    http://www.econmatters.com/2011/07/college-graduates-too-many-in-china-not.html

    Look at the following

    Indeed, China is the largest developing country in the world far from being fully industrialized, and lacks the necessary infrastructure to properly place these highly educated young people. The nation owes much of its GDP (and therefore new jobs) to the manufacturing, industrial, and exporting sector, which mostly have more openings for blue collar workers instead of white collar jobs. There are simply more of them than jobs that they are qualified for, and the lack of affordable housing also has contributed to the “Ant Tribes” formation. Furthermore, due to the imbalance of social and economic development between urban and rural areas, ‘’Ant Tribes’ are clustered around major coastal regions like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, whereas rural areas, especially in the western regions, where work environment can be difficult, have a much higher demand for college graduates.

    It therefore seems that China simply doesn’t have the number of jobs available.

  • mycantarella

    This is a balanced response. I value that. Among my own observations are that upper class, predominantly white students who attend liberal arts colleges and major in whatever, ultimately rule the world. That is to say, the broad based skills they acquire provide them with the intellectual agility to navigate a changing work environment more easily and therefore progress with more options. Whereas the students who, primarily low-income, first generation and minority, coming from underperforming K-!2 environments are not only challenged by college but also are more invested in the linear career pathway. They then turn to highly vocational programs like medical coding, which while a useful skill, is not on a par with the broad skills learned as a history major who can then navigate many career paths using the research, communications, and critical thinking skills that major has provided. It would help considerably if we were to be more explicit in explaining to all students what the value is in the varied majors they may choose. Keep in mind that the canon of majors has not changed dramatically in 4 year schools while the array of careers available and embraced has. Furthermore few engage in careers that reflect their majors. How does that happen unless there is inherent value in the SKILLS gained. But in the current environment we need to speak to those skills. Faculty should know what their majors are doing with their degrees beyond the academy. More on this:
    The “Is College Worth it” Debate—Not a Debate Worth Having.
    icanfinishcollege.wordpress.com | Found via Marcia Cantarella
    http://icanfinishcollege.wordpress.com/
    Marcia Y. Cantarella, PhD, Author, I CAN Finish College: The Overcome Any Obstacle and Get Your Degree Guide

  • johnlehman

    In regard to the idea that “The original colleges were for the acquiring of knowledge,” this is an a-historical fantasy based on 19th century quarrels over educational policy in Great Britain.  Higher education, whether in Roman times or with the foundation of European universities in the middle ages, was vocational — the latter trained theologians, church and secular lawyers and administrators, and doctors.  Early American colleges were for the training of ministers and lawyers — later doctors.  They required large amounts of “liberal arts” because professionals needed to master the Latin (and later Greek) language and culture in which knowledge was expressed and professional life was carried out at the time.  At the same time, knowledge of classical languages and literature became a very strong social class marker. 

    With the rise of modern languages and science, utilitarians in the 19th century tried to reform higher education to better meet the needs of the modern world, and conservatives defended a focus on classical languages and literature as better meeting the needs of the British Empire as a “modern Rome,”  based on 19th century fantasies of a Graeco-Roman inspired government by letters-loving aristocrats rather than ambitious technocrats from the lower orders.  Hence the ideal of education for education’s sake — aimed at those who would never actually need to work for a living, but might condescend to lead and administer the country for the good of all.In the Chinese case, one of the complicating factors is that the number of each major at each university each year is still centrally determined, so this sort of input-output analysis goes on informally all the time.  I have been involved with Chinese higher education ever since I was a Chinese language major studying in Taiwan in 1970, and both the sociology and politics of education in China is very different from the US.

  • arrive2__net

    It seems to me that it’s a bad plan because it will have the effect of creating what amounts to “blind spot” disciplines in China’s intellectual capital. Certain disciplines may longer have active practitioners in China, if those disciplines are eliminated from China’s colleges.   

    I would trust market forces to control the numbers of graduates in different majors, rather than central planners.  Perhaps the Chinese could vary cost-subsidies by course or major, based on some kind of expected payback model (with payback coming though expected income taxes or some measure of productivity) but I think central planning and prohibiting certain majors is a mistake.  It seems to me that, in America or China, if college students have trustworthy and accurate information about the job market they will face on graduation, many will be likely to migrate into comparable but better paying majors on their own, without a need for central planning or coercion. 

    In the American system, all college majors apparently give an economic benefit, compared with high school diplomas, and recent college grads also have a much lower unemployment rate than recent high school grads ( http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/Unemployment.Final.pdf ).  To the extent that there are economic benefits to all majors, you could not prohibit or eliminate a major in America without also eliminating something that was providing an economic benefit to many.   

    If students were somehow systematically high pressured into giving up selected majors, it could change the supply and demand balance in the labor market, so that the distribution of low pay and unemployment would simply be redistributed on some other basis and would not necessarily create more jobs and better pay.  Perhaps there are certain limits on the total number of jobs and the amount of pay available in the “practical majors”, and redistributing majors may not change that. 

    Forcing the unwilling into certain majors may also leave them discouraged, and lead them to drop out, where they might have continued with a major they would have found stimulating.  Students who drop out will have missed the economic benefit that the Georgetown study (above) found for any completed major. 

    Bart Schuster
    OnlineGraduateSchool.tripod.com
    Twitter.com/arrive2_net

  • gloverparker

    Dear dear Ben:   Your last sentence is a giveaway:  ”I don’t see why anyone should have a major problem with that.”  Perhaps only every [American] family that kicks in to assist their kid[s] get through college on the assumption that it will lead them to a job that will later enable them to lead a better life than they did..Wasn’t that always the rationale for going to college?  If families discuss the stats with their kid at the kitchen table during the senior year at high school this year, maybe we’ll see a more realistic view of what the future holds for the Class of 2015:  OK,  we’ll help you pay for college but only if you major in x, y or z;  if not, ooops –then what?  I know: for those families of a certain means, this discussion never takes place. For everyone else, it’s about the trade-offs of working for work’s sake, perhaps not in a field you care much about, or entering the job market in a low-paying/low skill job without much hope of climbing up and into the middle class lifestyle your family wishes for you.  The lofty prose in this post belies the reality that most families face when discussing whether or not they can or should send their child to a college or university.
     

  • mscardenas

    Well, I am an education major, taught for a few years and now back in school for a M.S. in higher education. I definitely did not chose either concentration for the salary involved but rather because I see a great need for teachers/mentors in our world.  On the other hand, I understand that not many can give themselves this “luxury” and will chose their majors based on employment. I don’t think following China’s approach is the answer, the U.S. has and will continue to benefit from all their college graduates.  Some will earn more than others in dollars but I think all will add value to the society they chose to live in.

  • llouis

    This will be a fabulous example to use in library instruction classes to discuss research, peer review and the scholarly conversation.

  • chandrak

    It is a very interesting discussion.  However, so far no one knows exactly how birds navigate.

  • greenhills73

    Man cannot fathom the brilliant mysteries of our creator, yet he has endowed us with a curiousity that keeps us busily trying to solve them.   

  • prole

    Magnetic sensors. In a bird. Is it science or just language that makes me miserable?

  • x7c00

    From now on I will take BirdBrain as a complement.
    Regards,
    Tim

  • rosinbio

    Searching for magneico-sensors in any living organisms is a futile waste of time and good research funds. The belief that any living organisms can respond t the earth’s magnetic field, through biological organs, and use that field to avigate, although still accepted by many who consider themselves serious scientists, has never been supported by any valid evidence that can withstand a fully rigorous examination. It is just one of the worst science-fiction stories ever old, second only to the greatest science-fiction stories of all times, i.e. the Nobel Prize winning claim for the existence of a honeybee “dance language” (touted on p. 17 of this isse of the journal).

    The only living organisms able to navigate by using the earth”s magnetic field are humans, and humans can do it, not by using a biological magneto-sensor organ, but onyl provided they fashion, purchase, borrow, or steal a magnetic compass; which is an external tool made of inanimate matter, and not part of their live body.

    The whole field of animal (including human) behavior is unfortunately rife with nonsensical beliefs, which like religious faith, are based on a mixture of shoddy logic and a tremendous amount of wishful thinking.

Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.