At majority of business schools in India including many IIMs, these foundation courses are taught in a manner that lulls people into going to sleep or are taught by absolutely incompetent people. A lot of students don't know how bad it is because they have never known how good it can be. With the advent of internet and the development of Online Classroom courses from websites like Academicearth.org, edx.org and coursera.org students in India are being introduced to high quality education.
For decades, education has been passed off in India with no questions asked on quality. Private companies and politicians have raked in millions of dollars just because thousands of Indians wanted education and didn't know where to go. They accepted whatever was given to them. Education in India is still very regulated. It is very painful to set up anything from a primary school to an university. However, things are about to change in a big way. Last week, in a surprisingly progressive move, foreign universities have now been given permission to set up shop here without needing a local partner. It will be sometime before the first fully foreign university comes up but the policy move will have far reaching effects. Irrespective of when a brick and mortar university with a foreign brand comes up in India, the online revolution will be hard to stop. Our frailties will be exposed. An IIM director can give thousands of interviews to Economic times but the academic quality rot will be out for all to see and no amount of branding will help.
Students will demand more. They will ask for accountability. What are we paying INR 1 Million for if I get better quality content for free online? Is it just a paper degree that you are offering? Is it the brand? How long will your brand be worth?
One cynical point of view is that Indian students do not really care for content. They are only interested in getting a job and the degree. Our view on this - The only reason Indian students do not care about content is that they have only been offered poor quality content. Outdated and boring content will be ignored. It should be ignored. Quality content that solves a problem always has an audience.
A lot is going to happen in the next one year. Unless they pull up their socks, Indian business schools could be in deep trouble very soon.
Please find the Wharton courses here
- Ankit Doshi
(The author is the Creator of InsideIIM.com)
All articles by Ankit Doshi can be found here
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