Education and Research in Doldrums in India

Introduction In the Twenty-First Century the value of education has taken on a completely new meaning. Education is an importance tool that contributes to several aspects of a person's life in order to take advantage of what have been learns and how productively it is used in either personal or professional life. Education is a kind of services which have been divided into a five categories (i) higher education, (ii) secondary education, (iii) primary education, (iv) adult education, and (v) other education. If we take a look at the advanced countries like Unites States, Russia, Japan and the European Union nations sharing similar political system such India, all of then have stable growth not only in term of GDP but also in education, infrastructure etc. Although India had a decent GDP growth in past years yet, a reliable metric still remain to emerge. The education sector is perhaps the weakest links in the whole development process. Similarly, if we talk about research, it is defined by "The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998)" research as "The systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions." Doctoral Education i.e. research, is intimately connected with academic research, which is typically conducted in educational institutions. It is a unique privilege and an extraordinary pursuit. Indian is backward in research area also it has occupied 33rd rank among all countries. The result indicates a general failure of Indian universities to do high quality academic research and train Ph.D. students Objectives: In-spite of passing more than 60 years of becoming India free to govern and regulate independently, no direction has been set for setting the academic standards in field of education and research, specially, in the universities and institutions of higher learning. This type of feeling in general certainly motivated towards the present study.

The aim of the present paper is to analyze critically the present scenario of education and research set up in the seats of learning as the universities and technical institutions and R&D centers related to the industrial sector are deemed to be recognized as seat of learning. Besides this major objective, the paper also touched the academic standards set by the different bodies related such as UGC, AICTE etc. We assess all relevant problems at two levels. Let us glance over these. Existing Environment of India's Education India's response is very sluggish for a variety of reasons over education system. There are hardly 50 institutions in India (including IIMs, IITs, NITs, IIS-B and few universities and colleges) which may be recognized as institution of excellence. Except these few institutions, all other universities/deemed to be

universities/university level institutions and over 12000 colleges continue to be concerned about the movement of thousands of students to other countries for getting higher education undeveloped education system. Beside these short comings, regional and occupational imbalance has always been the grey areas of the Indian education system. However, glorious past and shiny present inspire Indian academicians and entrepreneurs to spread their wings for gaining International level of educations. In this direction, the efforts that have been made so far by Indian Institutions like now day they are conducting a International level exams for selecting a creamy layers of students like CAT, MAT, RMAT, AIEEE, PET, PMT, IIT etc. and also run lots of new professional courses similar to other developed countries. A few institutional efforts put India to strong ground of competitive edge and also opening a opportunities for Indian education system. Priorities for Promoting Indian Education 1. Providing Distance Learning Courses and On-line education: This challenge has produced significant changes in the way that higher educational institutions operate. Keeping such development in view, a few

Indian Institutions have started taking initiatives in this direction. IGNOU, New Delhi has already achieved heights in the matter of distance education. IIT-K, IIT-C, IIT-B and other institutes started pertaining to online education. 2. Standardization should be made for educational institutions through rating agencies: In this context UGC/AICTE has develop one agency i.e. NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation council) which develop a grading system on a scale of A++ (the best) to C (the worst). This should be update by UGC according to the infrastructure, facilities and staff, and offered course. 3. Admission procedures should be made easy and fee structure should be economized: Today many institutes are conducting international level exams viz., CAT, MAT, PET, PMT etc. all these should made easy in context of admission procedure like entrance test should made easy so that average student also can attempt etc. and should also be reduced fee structure specially in professional courses like MBA, Engineering etc. 4. Applied unique teaching methodology: We should give a focus on developing a unique teaching methodology like some institutions promoted "case study" in teaching style, some use "Electric approach", some have "quantitative bias" other have "qualitative bias". The electronic media, teleconferencing are important instructional methodology. Every institute should use such kind of unique teaching methodology. 5. Continuous efforts should made for faculty development: The role of teacher played a important role for development of sound education system. Therefore, an effective training, retraining and re-deployment programme organized on continuous basis for faculty. 6. Continuous improvement in quality of different kinds of courses: The qualities of course played a crucial role for develop a effective education

system. Therefore, directors, teachers should aware about the course content and it should update according new happening by time to time. 7. Govt. should increase the grant amount: Government of India should increase the aid amount in union budget for the education sector. So that it can be equipped with modern amenities. There is no denying the fact that in spite of efforts we are still quite a distance away from effective education system. Scenario of Academic Research in India "Doctoral education is one of the most important of all tasks of the universities because it is the foundation for the nation's research and development enterprises". Prof. Frank Rhodes (2001). Research Requires years of intensely studying and researching in minute detail some area of human knowledge and writing dissertation based on findings. According to Prof. Frank Rhodes characterized research as: Variable. Ph.D. is flexible and loosely structured to allow creative studentteacher interaction. Vulnerable. Funding depends on diverse sources like government, university, private charity and foundation, industry, and personal resources. Expensive. Typically students receive stipends and do not pay tuition. Highly educated and trained professors spend long hours supervising student research and dissertation writing. Research equipments and materials tend to be costly. Wasteful. Many students fail to finish. After wasting lot of time and effort, a research project can come to a dead end.

Long lasting. Ph.D. has longer duration than other degrees-although students at front ranked universities typically finish in four to six years, instances of people taking much longer, even ten to fifteen years, can be found.

Ambiguous. There is considerable disagreement among Ph.D.'s purposes like (1) preparing future university teachers, (2) training for and initiation into the conduct of research, (3) conducting independent research that is a substantial contribution to the general pool of knowledge, and (4) producing "trained minds" to meet the fundamental needs to address the larger issues of contemporary society. Before discussing the present we take a bird's eye view of the history of

research and doctoral studies in India. Pre-Independence period To finding about research we have to go in time of 1784 when Sir William Jones established the Asiatic society of Bengal in Culcutta for promoting oriental studies. Due to these spawned efforts many learned and scientific bodies had established in India and prepared the ground for research education. Asia's first universities were established in 1857 in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Punjab and Allahabad. Changes begun in University of Calcutta under Sir Asutosh Mookejee. He started departments for Post Graduate study in various disciplines. This was a great start. There were small but active group of outstanding academics in colonial India, who did world class research and published articles in world's leading academic journals. Post Independence Period Despite an excellent start, India has squandered the lead and fallen behind in this immensely complex activity after independence. Degree granting in India is regulated by University Grant Commission (UGC) which was established in 1953 by an act of the parliament. In India UGC approved the American influenced Ph.D. approach, which is gaining ground in Indian Institutes, where students take courses in general and special areas, pass appropriate qualifying examination and then start research and thesis writing which build a trail of record indicating progress. Although Independent India had significant success in diverse areas, yet, India does poorly in terms of quality of academic research. For eg. India is a country with several renowed institutions like IIms, IITs that train world class students. The unfortunate part of this

training has been the fact that many of these graduates preferred to settle down and work overseas because there are more avenues for intellectual stimulation and growth. Unfortunately, these avenues were lacking in India as the industries or academic/research organizations did not need them. Today, a large percentage of these "world class graduates" do not take up teaching/research but opt for higher paying jobs in India, which actually killed their knowledge gain. Probable causes of poor performance and some possible remedies: As expressed earlier, Indian universities are facing acute problem of poor performances in research work. Some are explained below: 1. Lack of resources for research scholars: In India Ph.D. students are facing a problem as research resources as they are not equipped with different relevant facilities and opportunities viz., faculty, seminar series, conferences etc. 2. Migration of Research Scholars: As stated earlier world-class graduates could not take a research as their carries option because other sectors are providing higher packages to them. 3. Financial Resources: It is expensive to attract, retain and nurture scholars. The cost of faculty salary. Ph.D. student and journal subscriptions, expenditure for seminar and conference attendance is very high. Indian Institutions/Universities cannot spend high amount on it. 4. Academic leadership: Good research requires a extraordinary talented individuals who typically possess high academic distinctions, leadership skills, pleasing personality, strong prior administrative record; political appointments are rare. In India we can not found easily such kind of personality through out. 5. Other issues: Many other characteristics like the board structure, internal governance structure, and incentive scheme are rarely found in India.

Independent India's education policy making is yet to demonstrate familiarly with the complex issues that underlie highest level academics and have failed to build great research university and institutes. UGC should standardized the Doctoral Degree Programme. UGC should provide the talented faculty. It may be attract by carefully creating packages that may include higher salary, lower teaching load, support for Ph.D. students, generous research budget and facilities, good office location, spousal job opportunities, opportunity to build department and so on. Conclusion Even passing more than 60 years of independence no direction has been set for academic excellence and standard for higher education, technical education and academic and industrial research in India. Undoubtedly, efforts done by the different regulators and governing bodies such as UGC, AICTE and central and states government are highly appreciable up to large extend but still there is a scope for further improvements. Likewise, the paper also looked at to two major aspect first education and second research as a study. Education is the key that allows people to move up in the world, seeking better job and ultimately succeed fully in life. The paper covers the present scenario of education system along with opportunities. It also focused on the suggestion to promote education system. Similarly, paper also explain the oxford dictionary definition and clear the meaning of research. Paper describes the different phases of doctoral education in India with pre and post independence period and also explain how Indian universities got lost in a quagmire. It also explains the state of doctoral education and academic research in India is very poor. Reasons behind these are complex and defy easy explanations. Several probable causes in term of resources/facilities/opportunities granted to research scholars, faculty quality, financial resources, academic leadership and other issues are explored and some suggestions for improvement are provided.

There should be nation wide agenda for discussion on which list either union list, state list or concurrent list. The matter of higher education and research be considered. Scope for further Research: Now it is a right time to organize research study considering the different dimensions of education and research in India. Similarly, a comparative study of education research in LDCs and developed countries. References 1. Chatterjea, Arkadev, 2004. "Two Roots and Little Else. The Telegraphy", Ananda Bazar, Patrika Private Limited, Kolkata, India. 2. Ehrenberg, Ronal G., 2002. "Tuition Rising: Why College Cost So Much". Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 3. Ghatak, U.R. (Chairman, Publication sub-committee), S.C. Mukhejee, A.K. Chaudhari, S.B. Banerjee, S.N. Bhattacharya, S.P. Ghosh, and M.N. Bagchi (Secretary), July 1976. "Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science: A Century". Published by the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Printed at Sree Saraswaty Press Ltd., Calcutta, India. 4. Rhodes, Frank H.T., 2001. "The Creation of the Future". Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA. 5. Singh, Amrik, 2004. "Fifty Years of Higher Education in India: The Role of the University Grants Commission". Sage Publication, New Delhi, India. 6. Gupta, Lalit, (2006), "Accounting Education, Research and Profession in India: Critical Reflections and agenda ahead", Indian Journal of Accounting, The Journal of the Indian Accounting assocation, Vol. XXXVI (2), June 2006, pp. 8-17.

7.

Jain Ravindra, Chatterjee Rajat and Jain Sarita, (2006), "Multilateral Trading in Educational Services and India's Competitive Edge", The Indian Journal of Commerce, Vol. 59, No. 4, Oct. Dec. 2006.

8.

Singh RP, "A Critique of Indian Education: Developing Insights" University News, Vol. 39, No. 40, October 1-7, 2001, pp. 1-9.

Others 1. 1. Google Search Engine Yahoo Search Engine