India, Singapore may join hands to prepare future-ready workforce

Courtesy: @SGinIndia on Twitter

India and Singapore are exploring the possibility of joining hands to prepare a future-ready workforce. According to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, “skill development and knowledge collaboration are an important element of the strategic partnership.” Pradhan was addressing a G20 workshop on “Skill Architecture and Governance Models of India and Singapore.”

“Skilling is lifelong. In the next quarter century, 25 % of the global working population will come from India. Until and unless we skill, re-skill and up-skill our young demography and prepare them for the Future of Work, we cannot fulfil global responsibilities.”

Singapore’s High Commissioner to India, Simon Wong said that Singapore was honoured to be part of India’s education and skilling journey. The G20 workshop was attended by representatives from schools, government, industry and other stakeholders.

At a time when India’s “worthless degrees” have come under flak, a strategic partnership and exchange of best practices could help India revamp its model with focus on skill development as laid out in the National Education Policy 2020.

NIRF Rankings: Comparing Apples and Oranges?

 

Courtesy: Pixabay

University and college rankings have always been a controversial topic in the higher education space. There is definitely a strong case for collecting data relating to performance, teaching, research, graduation outcomes and holding institutions accountable to certain standards of excellence. But the quest to ace the rankings game often pits institutions against one another in an unhealthy bidding war to increase enrolments. Often the data collected does not reflect the reality on the ground and students are left feeling deceived about their academic choices.
 
The seventh edition of India’s Ministry of Education-driven National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings 2022 has thrown up the same questions. With the usual suspects – IITs, IISc Bangalore, IIMs bagging top spots with scores similar to last year, there seem to be few surprises. Comparing smaller, better-funded institutes with larger, diverse state universities may not be the best way to judge performance. “Putting JNU and IISc together is comparing apples with oranges,” Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi remarked after JNU lost the number one position to IISc.
 
The NIRF rankings are prepared based on parameters such as teaching, learning, resource quality, research, professional practice, graduation outcomes, outreach, inclusivity and perception. However, given the sheer numbers of HEIs, creating one solid framework to assess and rank institutes will have weak links to begin with. According to the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE), there are 1043 universities, 39931 colleges and 10725 independent institutions. 
 
Union Minister Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan said that India’s “HEIs are working towards making our education ecosystem more vibrant and making our youth future ready. A robust and objective framework for assessment, accreditation and ranking will play a major role in enhancing quality in the higher education ecosystem.”
 
This is not the first time higher education institutes are being ranked in India. The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC – for colleges and universities) and the National Board of Accreditation (NBA – for technical and professional institutions) was the first government initiative to rank institutions in 1994. Publications such as India Today and The Week also publish their own ranking of colleges and universities. But the NIRF has taken things to a different level.
 
It makes sense for public higher education institutes to participate in this exercise to improve their chances of better funding. Plus the NIRF is being touted as transparent and a good way for institutes to showcase themselves and drive enrolments. However, there needs to be a connect between the data collected via the questionnaire and on-ground realities for the exercise to yield positive outcomes. Otherwise it will remain a hollow attempt without any real value delivered to either institutions or students.

However, there needs to be a link between the data collected via the questionnaire and on-ground realities for it to accurately reveal the performance and increase student satisfaction. Otherwise it will remain a hollow attempt without any real value delivered to either institutions or students.
 
Note: The list of top 100 ranking colleges and Universities in Engineering, Management, Medical, Dental, Law and Architecture fields is available on the official NIRF website.