India’s campus appeal (The Hindu)

Mains Paper 2 : National
Prelims level : Institute of Eminence
Mains level : India’s education behaviour

Context

•  India had 47,427 foreign students from 164 countries in 2018-19.
•  That sounds like a good number, but is a minuscule fraction of the entire student population.
•  For the government’s Study in India initiative to make a difference, we need a lot more foreigners taking admission to colleges and varsities in India. According to a report in this newspaper, that number for 2018-19 was less than 1,500 more than the count for the previous year.
•  Most of the students were from Nepal (26.9%), followed by Afghanistan (9.8%), Bangladesh (4.4%), and then Sudan, Bhutan, Nigeria, the US, Yemen, Sri Lanka and Iran with fewer numbers.

Key scenarios in the India’s education behaviour

•  So far, India’s global appeal has been the low cost of higher education available here. That advantage should remain.
•  But the quality of life on campus is no less significant a factor that influences student decisions.
•  Among poorer countries, for decades India has stood out for the sheer diversity of opinion on its campuses.
•  Some foreign students have been impressed that the range of political views, spanning the spectrum from left to right, is even wider in India than it is on America’s famed Ivy League university campuses.
•  As most educationists believe, exposure to thoughts of all kinds and the free exchange of ideas are crucial to the process of education.

Way forward

•  However, political polarization globally has meant that campuses have begun to witness increasing intolerance of unpopular views.
•  In the US, various colleges have stopped leaders from speaking because their views were considered offensive to most students.
•  Such trends need to be resisted. Informal settings in India may be relatively immune to them, but there is reason to fear a loss in the openness of campus culture in many places.
•  If India can make freedom of speech on campus a real selling proposition, it could attract a lot of students from everywhere.

Prelims Questions:

Q.1) ‘UNNATI’ is often seen in news. Which of the following statements best explains ‘UNNATI’?
(a) It is a nutrition programme aimed at reducing the incidence of anaemia in women aged 20-49 years.
(b) It is a scheme through which ISRO will impart technical knowhow to different countries in building nano-satellites.
(c) It is an indicator developed by the NITI Aayog to rank the Indian States in terms of their education progress.
(d) None of the above

Answer: B
Mains Questions:
Q.1) Among poorer countries, for decades India has stood out for the sheer diversity of opinion on its campuses. Critically analyse the statement.