<p>This is one question that lurks in my mind everyday especially when i go to college.why are most indian colleges so horrible???In the sense that they have really poor infrastructure,bad quality of education,terrible professors,weird peers,washrooms that stink,bad food in the cafetaria etc etc.nd the list goes on and on</p>
<p>(PS:i am a student of delhi college of engineering wjich is considered fairly good in the country yet i come across such stuff.i dread to imagine what is the state of affairs in other colleges in the country)</p>
<p>When such questions arise, I always like to give one answer first. </p>
<p>Most of the colleges in US that international students look for (both major research universities and the LACs) have a history of more than 200+ years. US, as a country, has a history of almost 300 years. While, India has a history of no more than 65-70 years. </p>
<p>So, what do you expect? For any country that has a history of less than a century, India has done significantly good. Remember that Education and Politics are the two things that has direct correlation with the society. Education in a 70 year old country, like India, can’t compete with that of a society and modern culture that is almost 300 years old. </p>
<p>P.S. - In Pre-modern Era, India (which was a collective name for ‘Bharatvarsha’ that included India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, parts of Afghanistan, Iran etc) had one of the best education system and Universities in the world (Like Magadh University, Nalanda University) because no country can compete with India in the field of ancient knowledge. Now, that we have shunned our ancient philosophy, Science and Mathematics, we lament that our education system is rotten. Classic case of planting an Oak and expecting an apple.</p>
<p>Age isn’t an indicator of the strength of the university. There are plenty of universities in Europe much older than the ones in America which, rankings wise, don’t hold a candle to them. The reason US universities are the best facilities wise is because they can afford to build and maintain those facilities. Public universities in America receive funding that rivals the endowments of private universities everywhere else and private universities sit on a goldmine of billions of dollars. Both of these are a consequence of the fact that America is the by far the biggest economy in the world. </p>
<p>Another consequence of this fact is that research programs, especially in the 20th century, were funded by the massive US government. No country anywhere in the world put as much money into research as the US did. This attracted the best professors, which in turn attracted the best students, which in turn was an impetus to more research and more funding/investments. All of this snowballed into today where universities in the US have the greatest research output of any university in the world and thus their grad/phd departments are ranked the best in the world, with the undergrad departments riding on their coattails. This is a phenomenon that has not been replicated by any first world country with the possible exception of Britain and its easy to see why universities in India can’t even be compared to ones in America. Even the funding for the IITs, which the government puts the most money into, pales in comparison to random nameless state colleges let alone the upper tier universities.</p>
<p>There are community colleges with lower enrollments and faculty that IIT’s, and yet they have a larger operating budget than the IIT’s.</p>
<p>For all our governments claims that they invest in education, very little is directed towards colleges. Most of it goes to primary and secondary schools, night schools, adult schools, and so on. Moreover, these funds also go to technical training programs as well. There is no regulation by the Government as to the quality of education provided at new colleges which are set up in haste for a quick profit.</p>
<p>Also, a section of well-qualified students and professors go abroad to foreign universities ;)</p>
<p>Plus, as long as you have students gaining admission by means of graft, and professors being paid(however miserly that pay may be) irrespective of performance, it’s bound to be hard for a college to improve.</p>
<p>I am completely siding with Ascaris here. Age in no way determines how good a college is. It is also not about sticking to our ancient philosophy as well. It is about moving with time and recognising the current trends in education. We all feel so proud whenever see some book recognising India as the birth place of zero and also the works of Aryabhatta and Madhava, but why don’t we feel a lot worse when we realise that we haven’t done much after that?</p>
<p>Another mentality of us Indians is that we are not at all accepting of our mistakes and faults. When someone raises some doubts over our system, we automatically spring up the cliched defence about the works of CV Raman, Bose… That’s great. But what about the next hundred years? We have to realise our education system’s fallings. </p>
<p>But perhaps the biggest problem is the lack of freedoms and rigidity of the society; nobody here’s free to take up courses he or she wants to, creativity is killed in the name of tradition and parents place their unfulfilled dreams on their children’s heads…</p>
<p>If we have to bring any change, we first have to accept something’s wrong withh our system that mass produces foot soldiers who’s ideas, dreams and aspirations are crushed… And also whatever Ascaris pointed out…</p>
<p>Pay IITs or any other Indian college for that matter the fee you’d pay for a college in US, the colleges here will bloom exponentially. True story.</p>
<p>The poor state of the system is a combination of the rotten political system, the Indian mentality and the lack of funding available to colleges. Also, the number of decent colleges is inadequate for a country where a significant portion of the population is below 30.</p>
;)</p>