I am often asked, particularly by youngsters, why our institutions of learning are unable to attract scholars from across the globe. In other words, why are they not able to engage and even employ—in meaningful ways—scholars and researchers of international repute? The natural accompanying question is why are we not able to attract students from developed nations, in significant numbers, for the purpose of acquiring knowledge in our land? This second query should be contrasted with the fact that the number of students from India who enrolled in American universities in 2022 was in excess of four lakh and those who enrolled in the UK were in excess of one lakh. The reasons for such skewed statistics are not far to seek.
But before I discuss these reasons, it may perhaps lend perspective to the discussion if I point out some facts that indicate that Indian institutions have attracted distinguished scholars. Alas, the lessons that need to be imbibed from such commendable practices have been lost.
I can think of two outstanding instances from the last century. In 1929, the vice-chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Syed Ross Masood, appointed a talented and budding young French mathematician, Andre Weil, to a chair at Aligarh. Weil spent two years at AMU and brought about much-needed benefits and changes to the mathematics department. It is worth mentioning that he went on to become one of the greatest mathematicians of the 20th century.
The other instance that I know of happened at Allahabad University under the stewardship of its vice-chancellor Amarnath Jha. In 1938, when Meghnad Saha left Allahabad University, Jha appointed the Austrian physicist and Nobel Laureate Erwin Schrodinger as a replacement. Schrodinger had accepted and would have joined had World War II not broken out. Of course, there are some other instances of such stories, but none in the category of these two at an Indian university.
What impedes the appointments of accomplished foreign faculty at Indian universities? To my mind nothing much, and the examples of IIT Delhi, as well as some private universities, prove my point. Yet, most government-funded universities do not seem to be interested in adding variety and quality. During my time at the helm of affairs at the Delhi University (DU), we were able to regularly attract by instituting a well-designed process, distinguished scientists and scholars from India as well as foreign shores to spend a minimum of one month at the university as honorary professors.
They came and lent much lustre to our activities, especially with undergraduates. In a similar fashion, during the same period, DU was also able to attract—again through well-crafted MoUs—a good number of students from some leading European institutions. They came to gain academic credit from some of our highly innovative and acclaimed programmes that have found a place in the National Education Policy (NEP). I must mention two things here.
Our universities do not seem to possess a continuity of vision and this is borne out by what happened once my tenure at DU came to an end. The above-mentioned activities also ceased. The second thing is that we can easily attract good faculty for short-term visits if we can implement the NEP in all its glory. The freedom and innovative activities that it allows shall easily attract faculty and students from abroad to our shores.
Dinesh Singh
Former Vice-Chancellor, Delhi University; Adjunct Professor of Mathematics, University of Houston, US
Twitter: @DineshSinghEDU