Subordinating universities to every purpose but the cultivation of the intellect

[The drive towards a uniform syllabus for all Indian universities is symptomatic of the dangers that afflict the system. Such a move undermines the very integrity of the concept of a university. The very core of the idea of a university vanishes if it cannot, within some constraints, control who it can teach, what it can teach, and how it teaches. It is a community of professionals accountable to students, peers, and a sense of vocation...

The decline of Indian higher education can be traced to that peculiar combination of the Congress and the Left that dominated higher education in the seventies. It killed higher education through a combination of state control, populism, patronage and subordinating universities to every purpose but the cultivation of the intellect. The combination continues: Pratap Bhanu Mehta One size can’t fit all Home > Edits & Columns > Indian Express: Monday, January 07, 2008 The UGC proposal to standardise curriculum will destroy creativity. The writer is president, Centre for Policy Research pratapbmehta@yahoo.co.in]

It came as a rude shock when Pratap Bhanu Mehta chose to resign in a huff from the National Knowledge Commission, where he had the opportunity in contributing to implementation of ideas. His noble pleading for “the very integrity of the concept of a university” amounts to a cruel joke when we look at the stranglehold of Marxist Professors in top universities like JNU and DU. [TNM]