BA Pass, otherwise fail

A lot of hand-wringing on thuggish student politics has followed the murder of a professor in Ujjain. Student politicians have been asked to behave better. They have been seen as representing India8217;s new youth culture of ideas-less materialism. Political parties have been blamed. The Lyngdoh report on student politics has received considerable attention. All this sounds most sensible 8212; and misses an unpleasant truth. India is awash with second-rate universities that offer second-rate education that in turn attracts academically challenged students. This is not to say good universities/bright students and politics don8217;t mix. Or that student politics in such contexts can8217;t be volatile. The global ferment in universities in 1960s and early 1970s was mostly a product of serious politics practised by bright students.

What8217;s been happening in many of India8217;s second-rate universities is different. These so-called institutions of higher education are ideal training grounds for lumpen politics because they don8217;t offer anything by way of serious academic pursuit. Indeed, from the point of pure economic rationality, one can see what student politicians in these universities want to do: they are more or less unfit for the medium or high end of the white collar job market but politics offers a well-paying alternative; so use the university as a graduation centre for learning how to cope with the rough and tumble of politics.

Does this sound elitist? It should. Higher education must always prioritise quality. Our tragedy is that we have a handful of IIMs and IITs but hundreds of universities. Universities have been set up with all kinds of goals in mind but those related to academic excellence. Entry to universities in India is ridiculously easy if one is prepared to overlook the quality of teaching and the quality of fellow students. But these second-rate universities have created a false sense of respectability about 8216;graduate education8217;. Vocational education is considered a real mark of failure while an absurdly taught and awarded BA degree is seen as an accomplishment. So university reform is now impossible. Politics won8217;t permit it.