Topic – Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.
4) Excellence is not just about governmental recognition, but ought to be the raison d’etre of all higher education institutions. Comment, in the light of the recent government policy to create “institutes of eminence” in the country.(250 words)
Why this question
The centre has in the recent past, accorded the status of institutes of eminence to six institutes in India. The concept is aimed at improving the quality of higher education in India and specifically improve the ranking of Indian institutes at global level. It is therefore important to discuss the efficacy and potential of this policy.
Directive word
Comment- here we have to express our knowledge and understanding of the issue and form an overall opinion thereupon.
Key demand of the question.
The question wants us to express or opinion as to why Excellence is not just about governmental recognition, but ought to be the raison d’etre of all higher education institutions. We can also object to the opinion. Whatever our opinion, we have to back it with sufficient and proper arguments/ facts/ examples.
Structure of the answer
Introduction– write a few lines about the institutes of eminence concept- the reason for their making, facilities available to them etc.
Body-
Discuss why excellence is not just about governmental recognition, but ought to be the raison d’etre of all higher education institutions.
E.g The terms of references under which the Empowered Committee was tasked to identify universities were not made public. The process of selecting the empowering universities was arbitrary; The attention should have been on empowering existing brown-field universities, rather than recognising non-existing universities as contenders; Institution building is about a deeper recognition of what it takes to build a culture of excellence. Lived experiences of individuals matter more in universities than in any other organisation; Even if there was a vision to recognise green-field institutions, there should have been a separate criteria and process to evaluate them. At a policy level, identical treatment of existing and green-field institutions was unfair and a grave mistake; the key characteristics that are vital to any world-class university were missing from the exercise of selecting institutions. This includes, for instance, internationalisation of faculty, research, students, courses and outlook. Moreover, the selection process should have had a holistic approach to disciplines. By giving pre-eminence to the sciences and engineering, we have completely neglected the humanities and social sciences etc
Conclusion– sum up your discussion in a few lines and form a fair and a balanced conclusion on the above issue.
