"A value is a value only if the value of the value is valuable to oneself” is one of the most profound lessons I learned from Swami Dayananda Saraswati, a Vedantic saint, and Founder of the Arsha Vidya Gurukulam. This learning is applicable to all facets of every individual’s or institution’s life cycle.
Many State Boards of Education have declared their Class XII results and hopefully, the Class XII results of all State Boards and the CBSE shall be declared by the second week of July. A high school pass-out or a fresh undergraduate will be at the crossroads of his or her career and their parents equally concerned about their wards’ future. The value of university admission to different higher education programs assumes different proportions based on the nature of admission. Here is more to the value story.
In a written reply to the Parliament, it was informed that the total vacant seats in the institutions of national importance—IITs, NITs, and IIITs during the 2021-22 year—were 5,296 of which 4,900 seats were vacant in the postgraduate and Ph.D. programs. The flagship undergraduate degree programs were almost filled to the brink. The undergraduate degree from these most-valued institutions becomes less valuable as students search outside India for their postgraduate or Ph.D. degrees.
Just before the onset of Covid, India had over 1.1 million students studying abroad with the country being in the top 3 student importers to the top 5 host countries like the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, and China. Whether the value of the host foreign institutions is better than our institutions of national importance is a question that shall seek answers forever. However, the vacancy position in the undergraduate degree programs despite the McDonaldisation of IITs, NITs, and IIITs is encouraging and makes them valuable due to the undiluted competition and endured patience among applicants. Check the endurance level as we go one step down.
The vacancy position in India’s engineering colleges that are outside the orbit of IITs, NITs and IIITs is a product of another value story. As per the AICTE’s statistical dashboard, there are over 2,800 engineering colleges offering admissions to over 12,50,000 engineering seats at the undergraduate level. Of this, it is estimated that around 20 percent to 25 percent of seats remain vacant every year. In such a vacancy situation, what makes admission to engineering colleges competitive as it appears to many? It’s the shocking endurance level that is different from the one witnessed in the IITs and NITs which is less than 10 percent of India’s engineering admissions. Admissions to many of the popular private engineering colleges would have commenced even before the candidate has appeared for Class XII exams.
The admission that gets ‘blocked’ gets regularised on payment of a premium fee once the Class XII results are declared. The premium fee is not prescribed by any recognised competent authority but by the colleges themselves based on the type of courses. More popular courses mean more premia. The value of such admissions is not directly related to students’ performance but their parent’s networking abilities and capacity to pay the premium fee. The lack of patience and endurance amongst parents and students is one of the main reasons for this unfortunate situation that makes such an admission process less valuable to the student. How can the admission value be genuinely enriched?
It doesn’t require rocket science to realise that most of the admissions secured through the special payment gateways would have still been possible if the student/parent had been patient and participated in the counselling process conducted by the competent authority. There may be small misses by way of course or college but definitely, the students’ performance would have been meritoriously rewarded. It requires patience and endurance to uncork the hidden value.
The biggest reward that parents can give to their own wards is an experience of success due to their own efforts. There cannot be a time more appropriate than now to push back and introspect. By choosing an alternate path, parents are not only denying a valuable experience to their wards but also depriving another student of his or her meritorious admission. Parents: you waited for 10 months to give birth, won’t you wait for a few weeks to give a valuable life?
S Vaidhyasubramaniam is Vice-Chancellor, SASTRA Deemed University. You can reach him at vaidhya@sastra.edu