A more democratic learning

Higher education can be made easier and cheaper without diluting content. New beginnings are being made in this direction

throwing in advanced ideas that happen to be topical.

What is really exciting is, however, that these universities have made the video lectures which they use to teach their own students available to the world free for anyone who wants to listen and learn from them. They are also encouraging colleges and universities all over the world to integrate these online courses into their own pedagogy, picking the pieces that are appropriate for their needs and building a package around them.

The most recent step in this unfolding might be the most exciting. These universities are now preparing to offer actual credentials based on these online courses. On February 6, MIT launched what it calls a Micromasters in data and economics for development policy, which is a package of five online courses that, on successful completion, will lead to a degree from MITX, a newly set up degree granting institution under the MIT umbrella (for full disclosure, we are excited about this initiative in part because we created it). The Micromasters, unlike the courses themselves, is not free but the entire package will cost at most Rs 1 lakh for all but the richest Indians, and much less than that for those who can demonstrate that they cannot afford that much. One main reason why the degree is not entirely free is because the exams for these courses need to be credible

C R Sasikumar and it is costly to organise properly proctored exams. As a result, students need only pay when they decide to take the exam for the course — till then it’s just another set of free online lectures; although by signing up early they will get the support of a remote MIT teaching assistant and the community of Micromasters students.

This Micromasters programme has no fixed schedule. A student could take all five courses at once, or just one every year or semester, and whenever she gets done, in four months or four years, she is entitled to the degree. It is open to anyone who can complete the courses successfully, even if she has no previous qualifications whatsoever.

MIT is also encouraging other institutions worldwide (including in India) to follow suit and offer their own masters programmes with the MITX Micromasters as the foundation and the primary qualification. The idea is to make getting advanced credentials easier and cheaper without diluting the content.

This is, of course, just the beginning. But many other Micromasters will be coming online soon, and they have the potential to make high quality higher education much more democratic.

Banerjee and Duflo teach economics at MIT and are co-creators of MIT’S Micromasters in Data and Economics for Development Policy WHAT IS COMMON to Bhutan, Venezuela, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Madhya Pradesh? All of them have a ministry/department for happiness. Bhutan is talked about the most, with the idea of GNH (Gross National Happiness) presented as some kind of alternative to GDP (gross domestic product). GNH is built into Bhutan’s constitution, in Article 9, on Principles of State Policy. What is invariably quoted is Article 9.2: “The State shall strive to promote those conditions that will enable the pursuit of Gross National Happiness.” However, this follows Article 9.1: “The State shall endeavour to apply the Principles of State Policy set out in this Article to ensure a good quality of life for the people of Bhutan in a progressive and prosperous country that is committed to peace and amity in the world.”

Operationally, what does this mean? Those who mention Bhutan talk about GNHI (Gross National Happiness Index), administered by the Centre for Bhutan Studies and GNH Research. GNHI is based on four pillars (political, economic, cultural and environmental) and nine domains (which can be skipped for present purposes). There were surveys in 2010 and 2015 to determine how Bhutan performed on GNHI. Hence, along a happiness/unhappiness continuum, progress could be measured and one had an aggregate measure that was an alternative or supplement to GDP, based on subjective responses to questionnaires that were then aggregated. To state the obvious, Bhutan has a population of around 7,50,000.

But I don’t think the alternative or supplementary summary measure is the point. The point is the Planning Commission and Committee of Secretaries being subsumed in the Gross National Happiness Commission (GNHC). In other words, feedback received from GNHI surveys is factored into government policies and public expenditure priorities, reflected in central and local body plans. More than the aggregate measure, if I have understood the idea right, this suggests decentralised planning to me. Ascertain the needs of gram panchayats/urban local bodies. Use those local plans to aggregate and move up to a block level, district level and national plan. If we get too fixated on the alternative to the GDP idea, we lost sight of this process, the operational and much more important part.

After a lot of sarcastic comments and dark humour in 2013, I haven’t heard much about Venezuela’s vice ministry of supreme social happiness. Perhaps it just vanished, because of chaos and general uncertainty. The initial idea seems to have been to converge anti-poverty programmes directed at disabled, homeless, poor and old-age pensioners. Unlike Bhutan, you don’t ask people