Disclosure: I knew Dinesh Singh when I was a student at St Stephen’s. I was directed to him when I had a question about measures and uncountability (he pointed out where I was wrong, but I now realise that there are deeper issues here that have caused controversy since the early 20th century). He seemed an enthusiastic pedagogue committed to the cause of undergraduate education. A little later, he started an outfit called the Mathematical Sciences Foundation, which was a good idea and generated much enthusiasm, but did not stay free of controversy. What I was disappointed by was that he made no effort to tie up with any Indian institution, but had a partnership with the University of Houston instead whereby students, after studying one year at his Foundation, would go to Houston for a degree programme. There were several corporate supporters, such as ICICI Bank and NASSCOM, but the one Indian academic interaction the foundation had, with St Stephen’s College (which originally housed the Foundation), collapsed acrimoniously.(*) Singh’s position, as I understood it (I may be wrong), seemed to be that all Indian institutions are irredeemably bureaucratic and inflexible. It is strange that such a man chose to become vice-chancellor of one of the largest Indian universities (he earlier headed the south campus of Delhi University). But, having taken up that job, it appears that he did not develop any new respect for his academic colleagues at the University. Worse, he did not learn from the best practices at universities elsewhere in the world. The result, as the document from St Stephen’s describes, is a disaster in the making. The result fails to take account of the needs of Delhi University students, who come from very diverse backgrounds; it fails to learn from international experience or make use of best international practices; it completely ignores prior Indian experience in flexible teaching; it has alienated the majority of the teachers, who are the ones meant to implement the programme; and, despite taking a year longer than the current honours programmes, it does not provide any additional educational value. (It does, however, make it easier to apply for master’s programmes in the USA, which require four years of undergraduate education.) All I can say is, I am glad I am not looking to do an undergraduate degree in Delhi today. (*)I can’t help contrasting the Mathematical Sciences Foundation with another institution that started around the same time with the same goal of fostering undergraduate mathematical education, with private-sector support. Started in 1989 as part of the SPIC Science Foundation, and autonomous since 1996, the Chennai Mathematical Institute has successfully run its own degree programme, originally in association with Bhoj Open University, and now independently as a deemed university. It maintains active links with several Indian academic institutions including mine. But the key point, it seems to me, is that CMI did not start with the assumption that existing institutions in India were atrociously bad and to be steered clear from. A man who is vice-chancellor of a university as large, diverse, prestigious and historically important as Delhi University needs to have a proven record of being able to work with others respectfully. Dinesh Singh’s record was quite the opposite. horadecubitus.wordpress/2013/05/03/how-not-to-modernise-a-university-dinesh-singhs-ham-handed-efforts-at-reform/
Posted on: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:50:35 +0000
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