Criteria in higher education: are they relevant?

Hi all,

You are aware that I teach / have taught at 8 #IIMs, School of Management and Entrepreneurship, IIT Jodhpur , International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore , Thiagarajar School of Management and elsewhere. I have been #teaching since 2003, beginning with the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore , with probably an year's gap in the two decades. There are many things I noticed in higher education. I have a few concerns with the practices adopted in Indian higher education sector.

1. #GRE. I have taken GRE, #CAT and other entrance tests. I can categorically say that GRE is a child's play when compared to CAT. CAT score is accepted in many #BSchools in India. While GRE may be suitable for foreign students seeking admissions in Indian B-Schools (a very small number of such students indeed), it may not be appropriate for #Indian #students. I have a few specific concerns with GRE. GRE is too easy and can almost be a backdoor to getting admission at an IIM. Taking GRE is #expensive. If the student (examinee) has decided the #colleges / #universities at the time of taking GRE, then the student can enter up to 5 (not sure of the latest number) schools in the GRE system at the time of completing the exam, to send the score to. The GRE organization charges for any request to send the score to any other university. This too is quite expensive. Any #addon is priced extra and the score is "valid" for 5 years. The #assessment of #English section content of GRE is #subjective.
2. #Accreditation. Many Indian B-Schools have obtained AACSB , #AMBA, #EQUIS accreditation. I have a few concerns with these "accreditations". Who are these "accreditation" entities? To me, they are self-styled, commercial, self-serving, neo-#colonizers. Should Indian higher education institutes continue with a colonial hangover and the obsession to be certified / accredited by western commercial entity? There is no need to seek such pseudo-legitimacy. I am not being parochialist; Indian #institutes just have a hangover of revering anything #western as gospel truth. Are their accreditation requirements really appropriate to Indian B-Schools and their students? Such certifications may have already hurt #innovation in Indian B-Schools. For example, a faculty from a top B-School in India mentioned to me that one of these accreditations limits the use of #adjunct #faculty to 10% of the courses (or course hours, not sure). So, this school was forced to limit the number of adjunct faculty. B-Schools get enriched with new courses, primarily due to the adjunct faculty launching new, #industry relevant courses. How can a self-styled "accreditation" entity decide what is best for a B-School in another country, India or any other? How stupid it is for a B-School to pay huge recurring sums to obtain such irrelevant accreditation from such entities, and comply with such self-destructive requirements?
3. #Cases. Indian B-Schools pay huge sums to procure western cases. I appreciate that the west has innovated a lot in business, good or otherwise. Indian institutes should put focused #efforts towards writing cases. There is abundant material available here itself.
4. #Top-rated #journals. I got to know that a few higher #education #schools require their #PhD. #scholars to publish 3 #research #papers in A-rated or #A*-rated journals, failing which such scholars are not granted Ph.D. Which are these journals? All are from the west. Who gave these journals star ratings? Probably self-styled, again. There are more problems. The Indian research scholar finds it very expensive to read the papers published in these journals (to cite in his / her research). It is well known (probably correctly so) that #Chinese origin papers get published more than the Indian origin papers. The Chinese are accused of exerting influence by wining-and-dining the journal authorities during their sponsored-invited visits (#junkets) to Chinese universities. Do their star ratings really have any meaning? Apparently, the University Grants Commission (UGC) does not mandate publishing in such journals as a requirement for granting Ph.D. Still, a few #autonomous higher education institutes are obsessed with publishing in such self-starred journals. I heard that a Ph.D scholar of a reputed higher education institute has filed a case because the institute did not grant him / her Ph.D., due to non-publication in starred journals. This is another instance of potentially meaningless obsession of Indian schools.
5. #Citations. It appears that most Ph.D. supervisors are obsessed with the number of times their papers are cited by other researchers and Ph.D. scholars. In my industry experience, none of my bosses / senior management ever read a paper to aid running their business. These papers are often far removed from reality as the authors discuss esoteric topics with intentionally long titles written with (again) intentionally hard to understand language. IgNobel awards are best examples! :-) What's the point of any research and publication, if it doesn't help humanity much? 10 citations? The authoring will be throwing a party! Who cited? 10 other researchers, none from the industry! 100 such citations, the author / supervisor will seek a promotion / increment / job in a better paying institute!
6. Papers or #Monographs? Most B-schools require Ph.D. scholars to write and publish 3 research papers in such "star" journals, with the supervisor's name added as first #author (page rank in academia), so that the supervisor's CV will strengthen. Hence, the university / school discourages monographs, as monographs do not cite the supervisor as the author / co-author. A very well known western academic has said in a virally shared video that just publishing a paper in a star rated peer-reviewed journal does not mean anything more than three professors agreeing to what's written in the paper and has nothing to do with the strength of the research per-se.

There may be more such pseudo standards that the higher education institutes in India may be following. Indian academia should wake up and put its act together, strengthen itself and stop worshipping false gods.

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"??? ? ?????, ???? ???? ???? ??"!

This is the translation of the famous #Urdu #couplet cited above:

Make yourself so high

That before every fate

God himself asks you

"Tell me, o man, what is your wish"!

In #Samskruta too, #AdiShankaracharya said something close:

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The translation is: "I am the creator".

Two personal notes:

1. By now you all know that I am obsessed with education. The love for studies is something that my mother inculcated in me. There was an abundance of magazines and books in my house, when I was growing up. I am grateful to my parents for these.
2. I am sorry I could not write the #January #edition of your #favourite #newsletter #Cosmic #Matters. Things were beyond my control, due to urgent family requirements. I am #grateful for your continued #readership!

Till my next edition, adios amigos!