Time to think beyond fixed-module courses
With the kind of technology and connectivity we have now, there’s little difference between moving cities within india and moving to a neighbouring country like Bangladesh to study. Moreover, there are employment opportunities in these countries too. DR KK AGGARWAL, former president of the Indian Medical Association
nised by India so that, on their return, they can clear an eligibility test and begin practising.
EASY COME, EASY GO
“A lot of the colleges that students opt for in Asia have ties with Indian institutions. Hence, these places also prepare the students for the eligibility test back home,” says Dr KK Aggarwal, president of Heart Care Foundation of India and former president of the Indian Medical Association.
For Dr Abdul Mateen, who studied medicine in the Philippines in 2011, it was just a cheaper option than a private medical school in India.
“Also, the spectrum of disease there, unlike in Russia, is very similar to the spectrum of disease in India,” he says.
Aggarwal points out that, as the number of medical colleges in neighbouring countries such as Nepal and Bangladesh grows, the number of students applying to study medicine there will likely rise too.
“With the kind of technology and connectivity we have now, there’s little difference between moving cities within India and moving to a neighbouring country like Bangladesh to study,” Dr Aggarwal says.
“Moreover, there are employment opportunities in these countries too.”
THE IB IMPASSE
For students studying in the growing number of IB schools, applying abroad is often the simpler and surer path.
“To be eligible to study medicine in India, a student needs to have a combination of physics, chemistry and biology.
“IB students cannot take more than two science subjects, except with special permission,” says Kimberly Wright Dixit, president of study-abroad consultancy Red Pen.
A student must apply to the Board saying they’d like to study an extra Science subject, or do a non-regular diploma, if they want to qualify for India’s medical entrance exam. “For many students, this is a daunting, timeconsuming and uncertain prospect; it’s easier to just apply abroad,” Dixit says.
Raashi Shah, a Class 12 student at the Dhirubhai Ambani International School in Mumbai, for instance, has applied only to medical colleges in the UK.
“The special permission from the Board can take a lot of time. Then you have to study an extra subject, and you may end up not qualifying anyway, because you didn’t score well enough,” she says.
Given the steep competition and limited seats, many students feel it is better to focus on the board results, whether SSC, ICSE, IB or other, because to study abroad, your Board results count for a lot, Dixit adds.
For the rest, Dr Mehta points out that the only way to arrest the trend is to have more affordable medical colleges in India. “That way students from all sections of society can study medicine,” she says. India has seen a rapid increase in student enrolments for higher education in management, health sciences, hospitality and tourism over the last five years. The MBA programme too is now under critical observation and review.
Higher education aspirants now want courses tweaked so they can guarantee employment, many actively seek more convenient part-time and online courses. So business schools are under pressure to meet the changed demand.
Many have responded with specialised courses like MBAS in advertising, digital media marketing, supply chain management, technology management, hospitality management, travel and tourism, a part of hotel management education that is seeing unexpected success.
A significant change is the rapid emergence of skill-based courses in retailing, banking, sales, mobile repairs, embroidery, and fashion design.
These courses are typically of short duration, ranging from three months to 12 months, and focus on practical training; exams are often based on practical, offline and online tests and examinations.
Many of these programmes include a job guarantee (typically a placement), so they’re understandably attractive to applicants.
But exercise caution. Many of these courses do not yet qualify for academic recognition within our education system.
The government, through their NSDC (National Skill Development Corporation), has instituted a system to recognise some of these skill-based programmes to ensure academic rigor and standardization. Once institutionalised, it will change India’s employment patterns.the need of the hour is to allow flexibility in how a student completes a course.
Programmes rarely allow for breaks or let a candidate pace his or her education based on his comfort.
It might help to have a system that allows students to get certified upon completion of certain milestones, say a certificate after writing an exam after six months, a diploma after a year and a degree after two years, with the caveat that they com-
With The artificial Learning and Virtual reality Tools That are now available, Lessons and Tests Could Be Computerbased, paving The Way For Courses That are More Flexible
plete the degree within four years of starting.
This will allow a good blend of theory and practice and also minimise dropouts during the education process.
Institutions of higher education are the right places to become hubs of innovation. Many people now worry that technology will replace human intelligence.
It is also a matter of concern for professors that technology might take over teaching students. However, technology and e-learning platforms can be a boon and facilitate the learning process in several ways.
Students can be given and examined on project-based and experiential learning. Technology will also enable the faculty to increase the importance of data interpretation and data analytics, which could be a useful tool to measure the performance of students’ learning.
With increased use of online quizzes, tests, group projects and group discussions, different examination patterns are likely to emerge, creating better options when it comes to the ways in which professors analyse their teaching as well as each student’s understanding of a subject.
More smart classrooms and online lessons will allow increase in the level of student ownership during the learning process and the student would also be able to take more responsibility. Moreover, teachers can help students in clarifying and solving their doubts by using these tools.
To facilitate smoother learning processes, there should be personalised learning at one’s own pace and speed. students should be given to choose flexible study patterns and subjects of their choice.
With the artificial learning and virtual reality tools in educational institutions, classrooms would move towards being paperless. Lessons, tests, would be computer-based, paving way for monitoring a student’s growth and analysing the reasons behind it.
Using technology and internet-based lessons results in blended learning, flipped classrooms and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device).
With the rise in online teaching and studying, mentoring will become more important. Though the students will incorporate independence into their learning process, mentoring will become fundamental to a student’s success.
Changing times do warrant a change in the higher education options that are available to students out in the field.
I think that the time has arrived to radically evaluate existing programmes and reinvent them as needed; thus innovation is the keyword.
RSS Mani is vice president of institutional development at the ITM Group of Institutions