Annual Report 2007 - Observer Research Foundation

(left to right)
● Mr. G.C. Saxena,
former Governor
of J&K, speaking
at a conference on
“Security and Liberty”.
● Amb. Abid Hussain
and Lalit Bhasin
at a discussion on
“Terrorism and Law”.
● Mr. Harish Khare and
Mohan Guruswami at
a discussion on “China
today and tomorrow”.
There is need for massive expansion and a
qualitative improvement in the institutions of
higher learning in the country. This is needed so
that we can improve access to higher education
reservation in jobs, education and political institutions spanning last 56 years. The report of the study
is under final review.
STUDIES &
INITIATIVES
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AND HIGHER EDUCATION
A Study of Issues in Higher Education in Science has been completed by Professor Shobhit
Mahajan, Professor of Physics, Delhi University for ORF. Following are the main recommendations
of the study:
There is need for massive expansion and a qualitative improvement in the institutions of
higher learning in the country. This is needed so that we can improve access to higher education
to all our citizens.
Improving the quality and increasing the quantity of institutions of higher learning require huge
resources. Judicious use of resources, changes in mindsets, improving systems of governance and incentives
and building on our strengths is required.
There is need for the teacher to have greater control over what is taught. Institutional mechanisms
to encourage larger participation of the teachers in syllabus making need to be devised.
Undergraduate teaching needs to have a much larger emphasis on research and project work.
There is urgent need to overhaul the laboratory curricula so that the students are taught techniques
and instrumentation besides experimental methods. Project work and supervised research should be
mandatory and could be arranged during the summer vacations.
Curricula should be flexible enough for interested students to take courses outside their main area
of interest. There should be opportunities for students to be able to change their course of study midstream
without too much loss of time.
Centralised examination system should be replaced by a decentralized one as soon as possible. The
assessment needs to be continuous and not once a year as is the norm now. Information Technology
should be used to make the examination process as transparent and efficient as possible.
Physical infrastructure in colleges needs massive improvement. Resources should be made available
for maintenance and upgrade of class rooms, faculty and tutorial rooms, laboratories etc. Li-
24 Observer Research Foundation ◆ Annual Report 2007