PD Agarwal Lecture2013

I ndian I nstitute of Health Management Research Bhoruka Charitable Trust
The P. D. Agarwal Memorial Lecture 2013

Frontiers of Higher Education :
Access, Quality and I nnovation in
I ndia and the United States
Prof. Ronald J . Daniels
President
J ohns Hopkins University, USA
The P. D. Agarwal Memorial Lecture - February 2013
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Shri Prabhu Dayal Agarwal was born on J anuary
01, 1920 in Nangal Kalan (Bhorugram) village of
Churu district in Rajasthan. He had a humble
beginning and rose to great heights by sheer self-
confi dence, determi nati on, tenaci ty, gri t,
dedication, hard work and innate competence.
People used to call him PDJ i.
PDJ i studied upto class VII and then went to North
Bengal to serve as a shop-assistant. However, he was
always proactive and forward looking and kept himself
abreast of the happenings around him and around the
world. In fact, his first major business decision to become
an owner of a small grocery store was in 1939. He collected a
loan of Rs. 5000/ - to purchase a shop, when he was less
than 20 years of age. PDJ i went to Kolkata in mid-forties
and set up a cloth business. He started Transport
Corporation of India in 1958 with just one truck and 3
branches and it became the largest road transport company
of Asia.
PDJ i devoted his entire life to the betterment of his fellow-
men, irrespective of caste, creed or colour. People who came
to him found in him a patient and sympathetic listener, who
gave advice, guidance and financial assistance. He
found means by which one may earn an honest
and decent living. He often gave more than they
asked for. He established educational and
vocational institutions, clinics and dispensaries in
remote areas for the benefit of rural people. He also
opened blood banks and research institutes. He
was a busy man, yet he found time for all these
missions. PD J i possessed the will and naturally
found a way.
PDJ i was a trendsetter so far as the road transport industry
is concerned. The industry is what it is today because he
gave leadership to it. He showed foresight, business
acumen, a flair for decision making and readiness to take
risks.
In his own organization, PD J i identified himself with
officers, assistants, staff and labourers: his rapport was
superb. He encouraged and gave assistance to employees to
qualify themselves better so that they could assume greater
responsibilities. He was a tough administrator, a man
endowed with an iron will, but gentle in his ways. He evinced
keen interest in the welfare of his staff and their families.
The Visionary : Late Shri Prabhu Dayal Agarwal
(01.01.1920 17.09.1982)
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Their problems were his. His philosophy, beliefs and
convictions inspired them.
For PD J i the journey of life was endless. He was a visionary.
There was no final destination. His ambition fired his
imagination. He wanted to make it to the top. His success in
road transport kindled his ambition. He acquired a textile
mill in Mumbai. He set up a steel plant in Bangalore. But
ambition in his case was not barren. It meant increasing
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social commitment. He used to say that one of his six sons
should be dedicated and committed to doing charity and
developmental activities for the weaker sections of society.
th
PDJ i passed away on 17 September, 1982 at the age of 62
years after a bypass surgery. His life is a source of
inspiration, particularly to businessmen, technologists,
socialites and educationists, to bring to their pursuits the
spirit of the Lords teaching: Love thy neighbour as thyself.
th
Ronald J . Daniels became the 14 president of The
J ohns Hopkins University in March 2009.Hopkins
is the largest university recipient of federal
research funds in the United States, and is the
home to a host of preeminent schools and
programs (including: J ohns Hopkins Medicine,
Bloomberg School of Public Health, School of
Nursing, School of Advanced International
Studies, Applied Physics Lab, and Peabody
Institute of Music). Previously, he was provost and professor
of law at the University of Pennsylvania (2005-2009) and
dean and J ames M. Tory Professor of Law at the University
of Toronto (1995-2005).
Since arriving at J ohns Hopkins, Daniels has focused his
leadership on three overarching themes: enhanced
interdisciplinary collaboration, increased student
accessibility, and community engagement. These themes
are detailed in a comprehensive framework document he
developed with the universitys leadership that sets out 10
major priorities for the university to achieve by 2020. As
Chair of the Executive Committee for J ohns Hopkins
Medicine, he works closely with the trustees of J ohns
Hopkins Medicine, serving as a bridge between the
university and health system.
Daniels is involved in a number of different
community and professional organizations. He
has lent considerable personal leadership to the
re-development of 88 acres in East Baltimore, a
$1.8 billion initiative, which constitutes the largest
urban re-development project in the nation. He
also sits on the boards of the Baltimore
Community Foundation, the Maryland Chamber
of Commerce, the Governors International
Advisory Council, and the Asia Pacific Rim Universities
World Institute. He serves on the executive committee of the
Association of American Universities the umbrella
organization for the nations top research universities.
Previously, Daniels served in a variety of capacities advising
on a range of policy issues including the Ontario Panel of the
Future of Government (Chair), Ontario Government on
Reform of Accounting Standards (Special Advisor), Market
Design Committee (Chair, Ontario Government committee
responsible for defining market structure of new
competitive electricity markets in Ontario), the Ontario
Government Task Force on Securities Regulation (Chair)
and The Toronto Stock Exchange Committee on Corporate
Governance in Canada (Member, The Dey Committee).He
has also been a director on the following public company
boards in Canada: Brookfield Renewable Power (2001-
Prof. Ronald J . Daniels
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2005), Canwest Global (2004-2009), Moore Corporation
(2002-2004) and Rockwater Capital Canada (2003-2005).
A law and economics scholar, Daniels holds an
appointment as professor in the Department of
PoliticalScience at J ohns Hopkins. Daniels research
focuses on the intersections of law, economics,
development, and public policy, in such areas as corporate
and securities law, social and economic regulation and the
role of law and legal institutions in promoting third world
development. He is an author or editor of seven books,
including Rule of Law Reform and Development (2008), on
the role of legal institutions in the economies of third world
countries, and Rethinking the Welfare State (2005), an
analysis of global social welfare policies, especially the
effectiveness of government vouchers (both co-authored
with Michael Trebilcock). He is also the author or co-author
of dozens of scholarly articles.
Daniels earned an LLM from Yale University in 1988 and a
J D in 1986 from the University of Toronto, where he served
as co-editor-in-chief of the law review and earned several
academic honors. He received a BA from the University of
Toronto in 1982, with high distinction as a political science
and economics major. He has been visiting professor and
Coca-Cola World Fellow at Yale Law School and J ohn M.
Olin Visiting Fellow at Cornell Law School. In 2009, he was
elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences.
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Bhoruka Charitable Trust (BCT) was founded in 1962 by the
entrepreneur and philanthropist, the Late Shri Prabhu
Dayal Agarwal to care for his native region. Since then BCT
has developed into one of Indias leading rural development
NGOs, managing a wide range of programs in the states of
Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
BCT is registered under Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950.
BCT has completed 50 years of its developmental journey
and made substantial contributions to society.
Our Mission: Bhoruka Charitable Trust is dedicated to
socio-economic transformation of rural and remote areas of
India, especially the weaker and socially under-privileged
groups, through physical, social, cultural and economic
development of rural people, groups and institutions.
BCT has been engaged in integrated rural developmental
activities in the villages of Churu district since 1973.
Presently, the Trust is working in about 21 districts in
Rajasthan. It is implementing programs in the field of
health, education, water & sanitation, natural resource
management, livelihoods promotion and strengthening of
SHGs and income generation activities, development of
rural infrastructure, empowerment of grassroots level
NGOs etc. The Trust is also implementing health programs,
primarily on HIV/ AIDS in the states of Karnataka (6
districts) and Andhra Pradesh (2 districts) and one district
in Tamil Nadu.
Some of our major programs in Rajasthan are Health for the
Urban Poor (HUP) implanting in the slums of J aipur and
developing a City Model for J aipur district, facilitating
medical and health care through Mobile Medical Units
(MMUs) and Mobile Medical Vans (MMVs) in Churu,
Hanumangarh and Dungarpur districts in Rajasthan,
conducting Eye Camps, School Eye Sight Screening
programs, 30-bedded Hospital at Bhorugram (Churu),
construction of Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting Structures,
renovation and refurbishment of traditional sources of
drinking water, construction of low cost sanitation units,
capacity building of Gram Panchayat members, farmers,
water user associations for water resource management,
skill development training programs in different trades,
formation and strengthening of SHGs, improvement of rural
infrastructure etc.
BCT has been running an English Medium 10+2 co-
educational public school (BRJ D Public School,
Bhorugram), affiliated to CBSE, focused on imparting value
based education and improving vocational education,
Dhanwati Devi Girls High School, Prabhu Dhan Degree
College with three faculties (Commerce, Science & Arts)
Bhoruka Charitable Trust
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affiliated to Maharaja Ganga Singh University, Bikaner and
elementary residential schools for underprivileged children
in remote areas ( Barmer & J alore districts).
Volunteers : BCT hosts volunteers from the country and
abroad to give them hands-on experience relating to
developmental issues.
Awards & recognitions : In recognition of its activities, the
Trust has been conferred upon many awards by the
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governmental and non-governmental agencies, like FICCI
Annual award (1991-92) in recognition of the institutional
initiatives in the field of rural development, State level
award for distinguished services in the field of Family
Welfare (1996-97), Pam Davar Award (1998-99) in
recognition of excellent work in the field of Rural
Technology, GD Birla International Award (2002) for Rural
Upliftment, Rajasthan State level awards for promotion of
SHGs by NABARD (2002-03 and 2003-2004) respectively.
The Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR) is a premier,
perhaps a unique organization, in the country engaged in health
management research, education and training. It's an institution
dedicated to the improvement in standards of health through better
management of health care and related programs. It seeks to
accomplish its mission through management research, education,
training and institutional networking in a national and global
perspective in the health sector.
The Institute is designated as a WHO Collaborating Center for District
Health Systems based on Primary Health Care, for its significant
contribution in the area of health care management research and
education in India and abroad. As a collaborating center, the Institute is
in network with about sixty such centers in ten countries of South East
Asia Region, in the area of training, research and education. The
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India has also
identified the Institute as an Institute of Excellence.
At present the Institute has collaborative arrangements with the
following national and international institutions for undertaking
collaborative research on the areas of mutual interest. Like World
Health Organization (WHO), South-East Asia Public Health Education
Institution Network (SEAPHEIN), The J ohns Hopkins Bloomberg School
of Public Health, Baltimore, USA, International Union against
Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), Paris, France, Partners in
Population and Development (PPD), Mahidol University, Thailand,
Padjadjaran University, Indonesia, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia,
Hasanuddin University, Indonesia, Afghanistan Centre for Training and
Development (ACTD), IbnSina, Kabul, Afghanistan, SUPBIOTECH,
Paris, France, United Nations Childrens' Fund (UNICEF) and Gulf
Medical University, Ajman, UAE
Since its inception in 1984, not only it has made a distinct place for
itself, but also a key force in establishing health management as a
distinctive discipline in the country. Over the past two decades, the
health care and systems research and program evaluation undertaken
at the national and international level by the Institute, has made a
significant influence on policies and programs in the health sector. In
addition, short-term training programs conducted for national and
state level administrators and policy makers, have immensely
contributed to skill development in management in the health sector. It
also has served as resource center in the area of health management
and is playing an important role in information sharing and
dissemination.
The Institute has extensively worked on assignments/ consultancies for
studies and projects funded by Government of India, Ministry of Health
& Family Welfare, Department of Personnel and Training, Planning
Commission, National Institute of Health & Family Welfare (New Delhi),
Indian Council of Medical Research, various state Governments in
India, and UN, International and Bilateral Agencies, namely, UNICEF,
UNFPA, USAID, World Health Organization, World Food Program, World
Bank, CARE, Ford Foundation, DFID, DANIDA, and others.
The Institute has conducted several research studies that have high
relevance to health policies and programs. Some of the important
studies include: Institutional Assessment of Tuberculosis Control
Program, Institutional and Organization Mechanism and Effectiveness
National Vector Borne Disease Control Program, Mid term Evaluation
National AIDS Control Program (Currently undertaking final
Independent Evaluation National AIDS Control Program II), Study of
Organization Effectiveness, Independent Assessment of National
Leprosy Elimination Program, National Family Health Survey III, End-
I ndian I nstitute of Health Management Research
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Line Evaluation of Integrated Child Development Scheme, Social
Assessment, and Training Evaluation of Emergency Obstetric Care.
The Institute has also made its presence felt at the international level. In
collaboration with the Department of International Health, J ohns
Hopkins School of Public Health, the Institute provides technical
support to the Ministry of Health, Afghanistan for developing a
monitoring and evaluation system. The Institute conducted several
research projects in Afghanistan including the very recent Afghanistan
Mortality Survey. A health systems project, supported by DFID, has
been initiated with the Department of International Health and Institute
of Development Studies, UK with partner institutions in Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, China, Nigeria and Uganda. A MoU with Mahidol
University, Bangkok, and other universities in south-east Asia has been
signed for collaborative research and student and faculty exchange in
order to build capacity, especially in Public Health and Management.
We signed a MoU with BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Nepal to
build capacity in health management and provide support in developing
MPH Program. The Institute is now an active partner in the South-East
Network of Public Health Education Institutions of WHO SEARO. As a
member of the network, the Institute was invited by the Ministry of
Health, Government of Maldives to develop an academic program in
health management leading to an advanced diploma and by the
University of Colombo for capacity building in Health Economics.
The Institute, through its Management Development Programs (MDP),
continued to focus on capacity building in healthcare management of
national, state and district level managers of the projects funded by
development agencies for the developing countries. The Institute
conducts MDPs on leadership and management development in health
care, health sector reforms, quality assurance/ health management
information systems, communication planning and management for
behaviour change, result-based management, management of health
programs, and NGO management.
IIHMR has started the Fellow Program in Health and Hospital
Management (FPM), a doctoral level program in 2011 with the objective
of developing research capacity and adequate in-depth knowledge
among the students who are interested to build careers in research,
teaching and consultancy in health care organizations, academic
institutions and health care related programs. The program is approved
by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). The J ohns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (J HSPH), in collaboration
with Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR), plans to offer
Masters in Public Health (MPH) program in India. The Postgraduate
Programe in Hospital and Health Management (PGDHM) has attained a
status of a premier program in the country. It is rated as one of the best
sectoral business management programs in the country. The program
has set high standards of management education in the health sector.
In order to address the professional management needs specific to the
fast growing pharmaceutical industry, the Institute also conducts
AICTE Approved two year full time Pharmaceutical Management
course. A Post Graduate program in Rural Management is offered to
prepare rural management professionals who would contribute to
bettering the quality of life in rural areas. To further strengthen this
commitment to progressive social change, the School of Rural
Management (SRM) was established in 2011.
The Institute has been ranked 1 in Top 5 Healthcare Management
B Schools in India by various leading & reputed rating agencies.
Besides research, training and teaching, the Institute is engaged
in consulting in the areas of organization and institution capacity
development, health care management, program evaluation,
project planning and implementation of health programs. One of
the major activities of the Institute is Networking of the academic
institutions, and professional organizations in the area of health
management and training in India and abroad; and also
dissemination of research and resource material.
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and save lives, especially in low and middle-income
populations.
I would like to talk today about the interplay between these
two transformative forces, embodied in the Institute . . .
education and public health.
Education is one of the most important if not the most
important factors in the social and economic well being of a
country.
Education correlates with a seemingly endless number of
indicia of prosperity and health, and is one of the most
powerful instruments available for the betterment of
society. Research in the United States indicates that
educated people are likely to live longer, have greater health
knowledge and engage in health promoting behaviors
including smoking less and getting regular care. And the
same research shows that the health benefits begin early
studies demonstrate conclusively that children of
educated parents have much better health outcomes along
a range of dimensions.
I am grateful for the invitation to visit this remarkable
country and for the wonderful hospitality my colleagues and
I have been shown by the Agarwal family since our arrival.
This is my first visit, but I know it will not be my last a
weeks time is simply not enough to experience the richness,
breadth, and excitement of India.
Knowing my time in this country would be brief, I am very
pleased to spend at least some of it here with all of you. It is a
tremendous honor to be asked to give the P.D. Agarwal
Memorial lecture. I am grateful to Dr. Ashok Agarwal, who
J ohns Hopkins is very proud to count as one of our alumni,
and his family, for this opportunity. It feels especially
appropriate to be speaking on the topic of seizing
opportunities and innovating for our common future at an
event named for someone of Shri P.D. Agarwals vision,
courage, and generosity.
Almost thirty years ago, the Agarwal family founded the
Indian Institute of Health Management Research, a beacon
in this country and across Asia for the power of institutions
of higher education to create solutions that improve health
Frontiers of Higher Education :
Access, Quality and I nnovation in I ndia and the United States
Ronald J . Daniels
ABSTRACT
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generation of idle young people who are denied the
knowledge and tools to lift themselves and their families out
of poverty and disease.
This breakdown in fostering human capital stands as a
gravecrisis of public policy.
And it is a crisisthe state has failed to properly address.
The disparities in access to quality post-secondary
education are evident in both the United States and India.
In the United States, the clearest socioeconomic dividing
line is between the 30 percent who have a college degree and
the 70 percent who do not. We live in a time of enormous
income inequality, an erosionof the middle class, and as
Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz describe in their
recent book, these trends are closely related to the decline
and eventual halt in the growth of educational attainment
from one generation to another, and the withdrawal of state
investment in colleges and universities. Only three percent
of the entering class at the top 146 American colleges and
universities in 2006 were from families in the lowest quarter
of wage earners. Tuition is rising faster than any other
product or service. Default rates for students continue to
rise student debt is now roughly one trillion dollars, or
one-sixteenth of the total debt of the United States.
One can see the same trends in India, where funding to
support students from poor backgrounds in accessing
higher education is nearly absent. There are disparities in
access for students from rural areas, for women, for the
This is no less true of higher education, an investment in
human capital that provides profound returns in the form of
job creation, economic growth and effective government,
knowledge production and civic involvement, technological
development and social mobility as well fostering
entrepreneurship. Practically everywhere in the world,
there has been a positive correlation between rising income
and enrollment in post-secondary education. One recent
study shows that an additional year of average university
level education in a country raises national output by a
remarkable 19 percent. Pawan Agarwal, author of the
recent book, Indian Higher Education: Envisioning the
Future, has concluded thatit is the quality and size of the
higher education system that will differentiate a dynamic
economy from a marginalized one.
And yet, there is still a wide divide in access to higher
education across the world. One scholar recently noted that
on some streets around the world as many as eight of 10
young people go to college, while in other areas in close
proximity the number is less than eight in 100. The gross
enrollment ratio for sub-Saharan Africa is now only 6.8
percent. This is at a time when many countries, particularly
in the developing world, are experiencing what New York
Times columnist Thomas Friedman calls a youth bulge
an exploding population under the age of 30, who
areincreasingly connected by technology but very unevenly
educated.
There is a deep bifurcation growing a divide between those
who are given the means for upward mobilityand a
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research has declined in real terms over the last decade. At
the state level, there has been a 26 percent reduction in
funding for higher education. Additional serious budget
cuts loom on the horizon as fiscal talks continue in
Washington D.C. At the very least, public funding is
unlikely to return to previous levels, particularly as other
costs such as health care continue to rise. In India, the Yash
PalCommittee has characterized funding as unpredictable,
inadequate and inflexible. J ust last month, New Delhi
slashed the budget for higher education by 13 percent.
Spending on all education in India as a percentage of GDP is
lower than in Brazil, Mexico, Iran, China, Botswana or
Uganda.
As educators, scholars and citizens, we must act briskly
and effectively to meet these challenges.
And our inability to do soto date represents a
monumentalfailure of state action.
In truth, there are failures to act in multiple areas:
normative (should states be involved in solving the
problem?), technical (how should they do so?), financial
(where to find the money to invest in a solution?) and
political (how to overcome the barriers set by those who
would wish to preserve the status quo?).
These issues have been the topic of debate by lawmakers in
both of our countries. However, I do not want to comment on
those pieces of legislation here. Rather, I want to spend my
time discussing five rules of engagement for how to address
these challenges in the coming years.
poor, for students from Scheduled Castes and Tribes.
According to 2008 data, 11.1 percent of individuals in rural
areas in India attend colleges or universities, compared to
30 percent in urban areas. The gross attendance ratio for
scheduled tribes was 7.7 percent, compared to a national
average of 17.2 percent. Students are also inhibited from
accessing higher education due to a simple shortage in
supply: By one estimate, to merely keep pace with growth in
demand, India will need to add nine million new post-
secondary seats by 2016. And according to a recent
government report, India has a dearth of roughly 400,000
faculty members.
Of course, the issue is not merely one of access and
affordability, but of quality and innovation as well. On these
axes, our nations are falling short. Sociologists Richard
Arum and J osipa Roka recently concluded that American
higher education is characterized by limited or no learning
for a large proportion of students. More than one third of
students leave college in the United States without
ultimately obtaining a degree or certificate. And Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh recently noted that the
university system in India is in a state of disrepair . . . In
almost half the districts in the country, higher education
enrollments are abysmally low, almost two-third of our
universities and 90 percent of our colleges are rated as
below average on quality parameters.
All of this is occurring at a moment when, in the face of fiscal
pressures, governments in both countries are retrenching.
In the United States, the national governments support for
P. D. Agarwal Memorial Lecture - February 2013
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happenstance, but rather through a strong investment of
public dollars in higher education students and research
over many decades.
Second, we need to buildinstitutions of governance that are
able to deflect and manage the politics that can distort rule
making. In a policy arena that is linked so closely to the core
goals of social transformation, equity, economic growth,
policy direction will be shaped by changes in political
leadership, and their susceptibility to pressures from
narrowly defined interest groups. Examples of political
interference that injure institutions of higher learning are
abundant in the United States and India alike, on issues
ranging from faculty salaries to tuition levels to academic
programs. Witness the sharp breaks in the trajectory of
regulatory and funding decisions depending on the political
party in the office, or the efforts of politicians to discredit or
slash funding for particular departments or programs, or
officials who would use the system of higher education as an
outlet for cronyism, appointments, political favors and
nepotism. Given the public goals espoused earlier, it is clear
that higher education policy is grist for the politicians mill.
These distortions are the enemy of rational and effective
governance. We must find a way to create durable
regulatory oversight mechanisms, the design, structure
and composition of which limit the scope for destabilizing
political influence, goals that I know are echoed in both of
the recent Yash Pal Committee and the National Knowledge
Commission reports on higher education in India. Following
the model of central banks and independent regulatory
First,this is an area in which the state must play a
fundamental role in shaping behavior. Gurcharan Das, the
former CEO of Procter & Gamble India, notes that while the
economic growth of Indias recent history is a necessary
condition for lifting the poor, it is not a sufficient condition.
People need, in addition, honest policemen and diligent
officials, functioning schools and primary health centres.
And to achieve those results, the state is of first-order
importance.
In the higher education arena in particular, states pursue a
range of legitimate and robust policy goals, among them the
promotion of research and discovery, civic values and
economic growth, among other public goods; righting
failures in human capital markets that can constrain the
ability of students to finance their education; and
addressing information asymmetries that prevent students
from making informed decisions about their educational
opportunities.
For this reason, the government wears many hats in higher
education: market participant, accreditor, monitor,
regulator, and funder. And so, while one might be tempted
to say that the free market can shoulder this industry, there
is, in truth, a critical role for the state in supporting,
regulating, and shaping an industry that is the wellspring of
so much good for its citizens. In particular, one cannot
understate the importance of a robust and sustained
investment of state funding in colleges and universities. As
J onathan Cole has chronicled, the rise of the great
universities in the United States did not occur by
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that the literature has moved away from a command and
control model of regulation and towards incentive based
approaches. The question is how do you get at quality and
access without thesort of micromanagement of programs
that leads to sclerotic institutions? For example, salary
restrictions on faculty or the stipulation of faculty-student
ratios are straightjackets that can enervate. Rather, one
might favor federal payments based on performance
benchmarks, such as student completion, in order to
address attrition issues that have plagued many sectors of
higher education in the United States. And, the mode of
governance is as important at an institutional level as at the
national level: boards of governors, if they are constituted
properly and represent the estates that make up the
university, if they have a clear mandate, and if they are
deployed effectively, can assume the work of regulation in a
manner that is tailored to the needs of the individual
institution.
Finally, given the needs for additional supply in the
sector,we must make sure we see innovation and do not
create unnecessary barriers to entry that would impede
competition. Consider the potential oftechnology to
overcome the looming demand and access challenges in
higher education. It is sometimes said that higher education
is the last of the sectors to be reshaped by information
technology. J ohns Hopkins and its peer institutions in the
United States are wrestling with how we can keep pace as
information technologies reshape the potential modes of
education and discovery. How do we incorporate technology
into the classroom and flip our lectures to better engage
agencies, one of our goals must be to strike a more
appropriate balance between the goals of independence and
accountability, creating public institutions for the
regulation of the participants in the realm of higher
education that are not subject to regular political
interference.
Third, we need to support our pinnacle institutes of higher
education these would be IITs here or the elite private
universities like Harvard, Yale or J ohns Hopkins or public
universities like the University of California in the United
States. These institutions can cast a broad aura over the
entire system of post-secondary education. Such
institutions have in the United States, India and elsewhere
set the high bar for the educational landscape: standards
ofexcellence areemulated by other institutions, the research
results are adapted and developed further, the graduates
who are trained then populate other institutions as faculty,
and so on. Although lawmakers, quite understandably, face
the political challenge of making direct investments in one
set of institutions at the expense of others, the constellation
of the whole system is made brighter by these leading lights.
One approach to building these peak institutions is to
establish amerit-based funding system. Over time,
countries such as China and the United States have moved
towards funding individual researchers on a project-by-
project basis. In the United States, the outcome has been
that over 30 percent of federal research funding goes to
researchers at the top 20 universities.
Fourth, regulation and more specifically its character
matters. Drawing on the teachings of public policy, we know
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students?How do we use the internet to expand our reach
around the world? Already, 1.3 million people in India take
online classes each year, and those courses hold the
potential to bridge geographic divides as never before,
uniting a nation and offering education to people from the
rural villages in Tamil Nadu to the streets of Bangalore that
would otherwise go uneducated.
Similar questions abound regarding foreign participation in
the marketplace. If we agreethat exposing our students to
the best thinking is a key goal of educationand acknowledge
that globalization has increasingly put knowledge from
around the world in our hands with a keystroke, then why
not, as the Yash Pal Committee report suggests, open the
doors to the worlds best scholars and thinkers? Yet it is fair
and appropriate to ask: What is the optimal matrix of
regulation to invite and promote appropriate involvement of
foreign institutions that will enhance the national
landscape without overwhelming it? What would such
participation look like? How can you incentivize
participation in such a way that attracts the best actors and
discourages the worst?
A robust role for the state; governance bodies that are built
to resist political interference; pinnacle colleges and
universities; regulations that incentivize rather than direct;
targeted investments in innovation and competition.
These are the fundaments of higher education in the 21st
century, the building blocks that bring us closer to a quality
education for the millions who will ensure our success in
the 22nd century.
Sel ected References
Agarwal, Pawan,Indian Higher Education: Envisioning the Future. New Delhi:
Sage Publications, 2009.
Arum, Richard and J osipa Roksa, Are Undergraduates Actually Learning
An yt h i n g? C h r on i cl e, J an u ar y 18, 2011, avai l abl e at
http:/ / chronicle.com/ article/ Are-Undergraduates-Actually/ 125979/ .
Daniels, Ronald J . and Michael J . Trebilcock, Towards a New Compact in
University Education in Ontario, in Frank Iacobucci and Carolyn Tuohy, ed.,
Taking Public Universities Seriously. Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
2005.
Daniels, Ronald J . and Michael J . Trebilcock, Rethinking the Welfare State: The
Prospects for Government by Voucher, London: Routledge, 2005.
Das, Gurcharan, India Grows at Night: A Liberal Case for a Strong State, Allen
Lane, 2012.
Friedman, Thomas, India vs. China vs. Egypt, New York Times, February 5,
2013, available at http:/ / www.nytimes.com/ 2013/ 02/ 06/ opinion/ friedman-
india-vs-china-vs-egypt.html?_r=0.
Goldin, Claudia Dale and Lawrence F. Katz. The Race Between Education and
Technology. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008.
Kapur, Devesh. Indian Higher Education, in Charles T. Clotfelter, ed.,
American Universities in a Global Market, Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
2010.
Lindsey, Brink,Human Capitalism: How Economic Growth Has Made Us
Smarterand More Unequal. Princeton: Princeton University Press 2012.
Mukherjee, Rohan, Higher Education in India: Contemporary Issues and
Opportunities for Foreign Participation, April 1, 2008, available at SSRN:
http:/ / ssrn.com/ abstract=132601.
National Knowledge Commission. Report to the Nation, 2006-2009, New Delhi:
National Knowledge Commission, Government of India, 2009.
Pal, Yash, et. al. Report of the Committee to Advise on Renovation and
Rejuvenation of Higher Education. New Delhi: Department of Human
Resources, Government of India, 2009.
Robert Wood J ohnson Foundation. Issue Brief 6, Commission to Build a
Healthier America, 9/ 2009.
Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2013. New Delhi: Ministry of Science
and Technology, Government of India, 2013.
Sunder, Shyam, Higher Education Reform in India, December 7, 2011, Yale
SOM Working Paper, available at SSRN: http:/ / ssrn.com/ abstract=1975844
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