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IndianComputer Science (CS) & Information Technology (IT) Academic Reform Activism Consolidated Blog DocumentRavi S. IyerSoftware ConsultantPuttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, IndiaVersion: 1.0, 6th Sept. 2014Contact: ravi@Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Introduction PAGEREF _Toc397803430 \h 4Improving the Practice of Software Development in Indian CS & IT Academia PAGEREF _Toc397803431 \h 5Improve the Practice of Software Development in India by Having a Software Development Career Track in Indian CS & IT Academia PAGEREF _Toc397803432 \h 7Ten Computer Science (CS) & Information Technology (IT) higher education policy changes to improve practice of software development in India PAGEREF _Toc397803433 \h 29Wrote to Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, on improving practice of software development in Indian CS & IT academia PAGEREF _Toc397803434 \h 31Suggestions to Improve CS & IT Education in India sent to Think India - A Public Policy Advocacy Think-Tank PAGEREF _Toc397803435 \h 32Poor software development skills Indian CS graduates - Google Search Results PAGEREF _Toc397803436 \h 34Comments on Software Development Career Track Paper PAGEREF _Toc397803437 \h 38Concrete Suggestions for Measuring Teaching Quality in Practice-Oriented Computer Science/Information Technology streams PAGEREF _Toc397803438 \h 40CS & IT Academia: Serious Systemic Problems? PAGEREF _Toc397803439 \h 46CS & IT Academia: How To Relieve Suffering of Students, Parents and Employers PAGEREF _Toc397803440 \h 56CS & IT Academia: Inform Students About Software Contribution Record of Faculty PAGEREF _Toc397803441 \h 59Publicly Funded Higher Education Institutions should put up Detailed Course contents on the Internet PAGEREF _Toc397803442 \h 63Holistically Elite CS/IT Education vs. Technically Elite CS/IT Education PAGEREF _Toc397803443 \h 65The Software Development Professor! PAGEREF _Toc397803444 \h 68Is (Seoul Accord) Accreditation using Outcome Based Assessment methods the way forward to improve teaching standards in Indian CS & IT academia? PAGEREF _Toc397803445 \h 73NBA India: World Summit on Accreditation - Themes include Bridging Academia & Industry and Outcome Assessment Tools PAGEREF _Toc397803446 \h 79Discussion on Concrete Suggestions for Measuring Teaching Quality ... PAGEREF _Toc397803447 \h 81CS & IT Academia: Profs. May Not Like Idea of Software Contribution Record PAGEREF _Toc397803448 \h 85Prof. Stroustrup: Software development is a potentially noble profession like medicine or classical engg. disciplines but long way to go PAGEREF _Toc397803449 \h 87US CS PhD student's Comparative View of US and Indian Academia PAGEREF _Toc397803450 \h 88A Tough View of US & UK CS Academia PAGEREF _Toc397803451 \h 95Top Leaders (Country Presidents/Prime Minister/Ministers/US Senators) Views on Education PAGEREF _Toc397803452 \h 97Education and IT related parts of President Mukherjee's address to Parliament PAGEREF _Toc397803453 \h 98Education and IT related excerpts from PM Narendra Modi speech in Lok Sabha on June 11th 2014 PAGEREF _Toc397803454 \h 101Education Related Parts of US President Obama's State of the Union 2014 Speech PAGEREF _Toc397803455 \h 106USA - Student Right to Know Before You Go Act PAGEREF _Toc397803456 \h 109Judge me by my work - Terrific response by new non-graduate HRD minister, Smriti Irani PAGEREF _Toc397803457 \h 111Indian HRD Minister of State, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Writes Newspaper Article on Indian Academic Controversy PAGEREF _Toc397803458 \h 114First Question in 2nd US Presidential debate: Student asks about employment after graduation! PAGEREF _Toc397803459 \h 116Academic Reform, Higher Education Bubble, Student Loan Problem & Private Universities PAGEREF _Toc397803460 \h 117Transparency is the way to differentiate between good and bad deemed universities PAGEREF _Toc397803461 \h 119For-profit Corinthian Colleges goes for orderly dissolution of company; One of the largest USA higher education closures; Lessons for India PAGEREF _Toc397803462 \h 122Prof. Yashpal Committee: Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education Report (2009) - Extracts related to private higher ed. providers and capitation fee PAGEREF _Toc397803463 \h 125Private study (informal data): (Illegal) Donation/Capitation fees in India from KG to PG of Rs. 48,400 crores (US $ 8 Billion) per year PAGEREF _Toc397803464 \h 130Is Brazil blazing a new path for low-cost and high-capacity higher education that countries like India can follow? PAGEREF _Toc397803465 \h 131Tough talking articles about USA Higher Education's 1200+ percent tuition fees increase over past 30 years and Student Debt Trap PAGEREF _Toc397803466 \h 138Two Hindu articles on Radically reforming higher education, Student loan procedures and concerns; Aspiring Minds employment linkage to edX MOOC courses PAGEREF _Toc397803467 \h 140Recent articles in The Hindu arguing for and against privatisation of (professional) higher education (in India) PAGEREF _Toc397803468 \h 144Flip-Flop Trauma for 44 Deemed Universities and Lakhs of students, parents, faculty and others associated with them PAGEREF _Toc397803469 \h 148Private Deemed Universities - A model for excellence in Indian technical education? But what about its high costs to students, and so, social impact? PAGEREF _Toc397803470 \h 152USA Higher Education Bubble? What about Indian Higher Education Bubble? PAGEREF _Toc397803471 \h 1642013 Milken Institute Panel Discussion - The Future of Higher Education in America PAGEREF _Toc397803472 \h 175Decline in USA Higher Education - PBS Documentary dated 2005; What about Indian Higher Education? PAGEREF _Toc397803473 \h 177Think India Education Debate on Indian National English TV Channel PAGEREF _Toc397803474 \h 187For-profit college in California, USA, faces lawsuit from Attorney General for Systematic Deception of Students PAGEREF _Toc397803475 \h 192Some Serious Dangers of For-Profit Education Schools (Colleges) For Poor and Naive Students PAGEREF _Toc397803476 \h 194How Online Education challenge is shaking up US academia PAGEREF _Toc397803477 \h 196Napster, mp3 music industry disruption and MOOC PAGEREF _Toc397803478 \h 200Tough Times for US Academia; Lessons for India? PAGEREF _Toc397803479 \h 202Nature News, April 2011, Articles on PhD System Challenges PAGEREF _Toc397803480 \h 204USA: The Student Loan Debt Disaster! Update: Income Based Repayment Plan Seems to be a Superb Solution PAGEREF _Toc397803481 \h 206Online Higher Education; MOOCs PAGEREF _Toc397803482 \h 209Affordable Subject-Wise Certification from Govt. Recognized Academia PAGEREF _Toc397803483 \h 210NPTEL - IIT Madras - offers online course and certification in Programming, Data Structures & Algorithms PAGEREF _Toc397803484 \h 213Georgia Tech, Udacity and AT&T offer Online MS degree in CS under $7000 PAGEREF _Toc397803485 \h 216CS & IT: Internet Based Learning PAGEREF _Toc397803486 \h 220Wall Street Journal article on "Higher Education's Online Revolution" PAGEREF _Toc397803487 \h 224NYT article on Massively Open Online Courses PAGEREF _Toc397803488 \h 227Prof. Sebastain Thrun's experience of teaching 160,000 students AI for free! PAGEREF _Toc397803489 \h 229A Princeton Sociology Professor's Online Teaching Experience PAGEREF _Toc397803490 \h 235CS & IT Academia: Use Stanford Engineering Everywhere to Teach Programming PAGEREF _Toc397803491 \h 236Online Programming Courses: Use MIT's OCW or IIT's NPTEL or Stanford's SEE PAGEREF _Toc397803492 \h 239The Brains Behind Aakash, the Rs. 3000 (aka $35) Tablet PAGEREF _Toc397803493 \h 243Academic PhD Club & Bureaucratic POWER structure PAGEREF _Toc397803494 \h 247CS & IT Academia: The PhD Glass Ceiling PAGEREF _Toc397803495 \h 248CS & IT Academia: A Bureaucratic POWER structure PAGEREF _Toc397803496 \h 251The very strange case of 20th century era Department(s) of Mathematics and Computer Science in Indian academia in today's early 21st century world PAGEREF _Toc397803497 \h 254Mainstream Indian newspaper article on Delhi University's Academic Council - "Everyone is terrified ..." PAGEREF _Toc397803498 \h 255Delhi University Four Year Degree Program Mess! Do Indian university administration mechanisms promote dictatorial tendencies? PAGEREF _Toc397803499 \h 259Dictatorial Powers of VC in Indian Central Universities PAGEREF _Toc397803500 \h 264UGC scraps Research-linked appraisal for appointments! PAGEREF _Toc397803501 \h 265Supreme Court rules that AICTE can only advise but not impose sanctions on universities/colleges PAGEREF _Toc397803502 \h 267Indian Engineering Colleges: General Info. and Graduate Employability PAGEREF _Toc397803503 \h 269Private study claims: Less than 9% of Indian engineering students have required programming and algorithm skills for IT product company jobs PAGEREF _Toc397803504 \h 270GATE and UGC NET CS & IT exams can be employability measures if they include practical knowledge assessment PAGEREF _Toc397803505 \h 274The Hindu's higher education student guidebook - thenxt.step 2013 - CS & IT picture PAGEREF _Toc397803506 \h 2752014 National (India) Employability report - Poor Employability of Andhra Pradesh Engineering Graduates PAGEREF _Toc397803507 \h 280Andhra Pradesh (India) Engineering Colleges - Half Empty! PAGEREF _Toc397803508 \h 282An "educated guess" analysis of Large no. of Seats in Andhra Pradesh (India) Engg. Colleges Going Empty PAGEREF _Toc397803509 \h 284How to Teach Programming? PAGEREF _Toc397803510 \h 287Programming: Practical Solution Mindset vs. Scientific Mindset PAGEREF _Toc397803511 \h 288Does a Teacher of Programming Need to Know Turing Machine? PAGEREF _Toc397803512 \h 296Comments on Stroustrup's paper, "Software Development for Infrastructure" in IEEE Computer, Jan. 2012 PAGEREF _Toc397803513 \h 298Texas A&M University's Approach to Teaching Programming in (US) CS Academia PAGEREF _Toc397803514 \h 304CS & IT Academia: How to Teach Programming? PAGEREF _Toc397803515 \h 306CS & IT Academia: Some Comments on Teaching Programming PAGEREF _Toc397803516 \h 317US CS & IT Academia: Usually TAs/RAs Teach Programming PAGEREF _Toc397803517 \h 323CS & IT Academia: Should 'Customize' Instead of 'Build' be Taught? PAGEREF _Toc397803518 \h 325Research vs. Teaching PAGEREF _Toc397803519 \h 328Improving Indian Academic Research and Teaching: Have Separate Research-Intensive Universities and Teaching-Intensive Universities PAGEREF _Toc397803520 \h 329Is Academic Research Grant Money Corrupting Academic Teaching Ideals? PAGEREF _Toc397803521 \h 333CS & IT Academia: Is Teaching Excellence Important? PAGEREF _Toc397803522 \h 337Is a PhD in CS/IT Necessarily a Good Teacher? PAGEREF _Toc397803523 \h 340Suggestion of Separate University Rankings for Research Excellence and Teaching Excellence PAGEREF _Toc397803524 \h 345CS & IT Academia: Research vs. Teaching PAGEREF _Toc397803525 \h 349A Defense of The CS/IT PhD Teacher PAGEREF _Toc397803526 \h 354Nature and Science 2011 Articles on Lack of Importance Given to Teaching Nowadays PAGEREF _Toc397803527 \h 358Suggestion of Separate Tracks for Teaching and Research by US Academics PAGEREF _Toc397803528 \h 359India (and Other Emerging/Developing Countries) Should Not Obsess about Higher Education Rankings PAGEREF _Toc397803529 \h 360CS & IT Research PAGEREF _Toc397803530 \h 362Should M.Tech.(CS) Project be CS Research Oriented Or Software Engineering Project Oriented? PAGEREF _Toc397803531 \h 363Pursuing CS/IT Research Individually - Ph.D. Possibility? PAGEREF _Toc397803532 \h 378CS & IT: Pure vs. Applied Reseach PAGEREF _Toc397803533 \h 382Google's Hybrid Research + Development Model PAGEREF _Toc397803534 \h 385Prof. David Parnas' views on Corruption of (Academic) Computer Science Researchers/Scientists by Publication Counts PAGEREF _Toc397803535 \h 388Oct. 2013 Economist article on Problems with scientific research - How science goes wrong PAGEREF _Toc397803536 \h 391Ground Rules for Sending Scientific Papers for Publication PAGEREF _Toc397803537 \h 394Grad-Student. What does it really mean? PAGEREF _Toc397803538 \h 396Open Access Journal Scams PAGEREF _Toc397803539 \h 398Off-Campus PhD Degrees - Assam State Government to reduce pay of teachers with such degrees! PAGEREF _Toc397803540 \h 400UGC seeks details on Ph.D. candidates in state universities PAGEREF _Toc397803541 \h 403Science Research PAGEREF _Toc397803542 \h 404Great article about Fields Medal winner Manjul Bhargava and his blend of Maths, music & poetry (incl. Sanskrit poems) interests PAGEREF _Toc397803543 \h 405Nature April 2014 article - Policy: Free Indian science by Dr. Mathai Joseph et al. PAGEREF _Toc397803544 \h 408Jayant Narlikar, famous Indian astrophysicist, on Dr. Joseph's Nature article about Indian science policy problems PAGEREF _Toc397803545 \h 412A Hard Look at the Indian Scientific Establishment PAGEREF _Toc397803546 \h 415Whistle-blowing on the Internet - Solution for problem of Science Fraud? PAGEREF _Toc397803547 \h 417Suspended jail sentence for scientific fraud for South Korean scientist PAGEREF _Toc397803548 \h 418Software Warranty PAGEREF _Toc397803549 \h 422The Without Warranty Wild West Software Industry PAGEREF _Toc397803550 \h 423A Debate on Warranty for Software PAGEREF _Toc397803551 \h 429Miscellaneous PAGEREF _Toc397803552 \h 439Illegal wealth case registered by CBI against former Vice-Chancellor of an Indian university PAGEREF _Toc397803553 \h 440Mumbai college principal arrested over charge of demanding donation for admission to XIth standard Science class PAGEREF _Toc397803554 \h 442Information Technology - Products vs. Services PAGEREF _Toc397803555 \h 444Srinvasan Ramani - First Indian perhaps in Internet Hall of Fame; Not Agriculture vs. IT but both Agriculture and IT PAGEREF _Toc397803556 \h 446Dr. Ramani's blogpost about students not formally complaining about illegal fees and Dr. Joseph's Hindu article (mainly) on R&D in Indian software service companies PAGEREF _Toc397803557 \h 449Content of Programming Courses shared on Blog For Free Access To Anybody PAGEREF _Toc397803558 \h 452Will wake up the world to the urgent need for professionalism and accountability in software development? PAGEREF _Toc397803559 \h 454Book Summary: Digital Republic, India’s Rise to IT Power by Mathai Joseph PAGEREF _Toc397803560 \h 456Ethics Policy for Sharing Content of Mail Exchanges on This Blog PAGEREF _Toc397803561 \h 468Truth Telling - A Tough Job PAGEREF _Toc397803562 \h 470Free Coaching for CSIR-UGC-NET Exam in AP University PAGEREF _Toc397803563 \h 471Safe Path for Budding Academics in India PAGEREF _Toc397803564 \h 473Steve Jobs PAGEREF _Toc397803565 \h 475Steve Jobs: One of The Greatest Tech. Revolutionaries of Our Times PAGEREF _Toc397803566 \h 476Steve Jobs: The iPhone Introduction (2007) PAGEREF _Toc397803567 \h 483Steve Jobs: Some Criticism and Some Defense PAGEREF _Toc397803568 \h 492Dennis Ritchie PAGEREF _Toc397803569 \h 496Dennis Ritchie, a Truly Great Software Guy PAGEREF _Toc397803570 \h 497IT Finishing Schools PAGEREF _Toc397803571 \h 499IT Finishing Schools PAGEREF _Toc397803572 \h 500More on IT Finishing Schools PAGEREF _Toc397803573 \h 503About This Blog, Stats. and a Small God Post PAGEREF _Toc397803574 \h 505Pageviews of this blog cross 10,000 over nearly 3 years; Top ten audience countries & posts PAGEREF _Toc397803575 \h 506Eminent Indian computer scientist-cum-administrator Dr. S. Ramani writes: this Indian CS & IT academic reform activism blog is interesting PAGEREF _Toc397803576 \h 509Contributors PAGEREF _Toc397803577 \h 510About Me PAGEREF _Toc397803578 \h 511God is One PAGEREF _Toc397803579 \h 513Top-Level Categorization Links At A GlanceIntroductionThe posts on this blog (document) have been categorized as follows (you may click on the category to jump to the list of posts in that category):Improving the Practice of Software Development in Indian CS & IT AcademiaTop Leaders (Country Presidents/Prime Minister/Ministers/US Senators) Views on EducationAcademic Reform, Higher Education Bubble, Student Loan Problem & Private UniversitiesOnline Higher Education; MOOCsAcademic PhD Club & Bureaucratic POWER structureIndian Engineering Colleges: General Info. and Graduate EmployabilityHow to Teach Programming?Research vs. TeachingCS & IT ResearchScience ResearchSoftware WarrantyMiscellaneousSteve JobsDennis RitchieIT Finishing SchoolsAbout This Blog, Stats. and a Small God PostSome of the above categories are divided into my articles/viewpoints and discussion/informative posts. The month and year of the post are mentioned at the end of the post link.IntroductionThis is a manually created consolidated document of my “Peaceful and amicable Indian Computer Science (CS) and Information Technology (IT) Academic Reform Activism” blog, (later referred as the eklavyasai blog). In a few cases minor editing of the blog post contents have been done to make it suitable for this document. Please note that this document has internal links (other places within this document) as well as external links (Internet addresses). My focus in the eklavyasai blog is on improving the practice of software development in Indian CS & IT academia. But I think that it is such a vital part of the CS & IT field and that it is so poor in many parts of Indian CS & IT academia, that I feel it is appropriate to refer to my efforts as Indian CS & IT academic reform activism efforts.The blog also covers other related topics like student loan problem, private universities, Indian engineering colleges, online higher education, academic bureaucracy and research. Besides the Indian academic system the blog also covers the USA academic (higher education) system to some extent, especially in the CS & IT fields.The posts have been made using my name (Ravi S. Iyer) as well as a pseudonym, Eklavya Sai Maalik, that I used for earlier posts. A few friends and mail correspondents have made significant contributions to the eklavyasai blog. I would like to put on record my appreciation for their contributions. Content of other contributors have been clearly shown as their contribution (usually as anonymous contributors).I am a Physics Graduate (and Physics Masters drop-out) from India who was industry-trained and later self-taught in software development. I worked in the international software industry (US, Europe, Japan, South Korea, India etc.) developing systems as well as applications software (CS & IT) for over 18 years after which I retired from commercial work. Later, mainly as an "honorary faculty/visiting faculty", I offered free service of teaching programming courses (lab. courses) and being a "technical consultant" for student projects in a Maths & Computer Science department of a deemed university in India for 9 years.Improving the Practice of Software Development in Indian CS & IT AcademiaPreprint "Paper" on hosted by Cornell University, USAImprove the Practice of Software Development in India by Having a Software Development Career Track in Indian CS & IT AcademiaAbstract: : ?(for HTML see link below)Posts Related to Above PaperHTML version of above mentioned paperTen Computer Science (CS) & Information Technology (IT) higher education policy changes to improve practice of software development in India, August 2014Wrote to Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, on improving practice of software development in Indian CS & IT academia, May 2014Suggestions to Improve CS & IT Education in India sent to Think India - A Public Policy Advocacy Think-Tank, December 2013Poor software development skills Indian CS graduates - Google Search Results, January 2013?Comments on Software Development Career Track Paper, January 2013My Additional Viewpoints/ArticlesConcrete Suggestions for Measuring Teaching Quality in Practice-Oriented Computer Science/Information Technology streams, June 2013CS & IT Academia: Serious Systemic Problems?, January 2012?CS & IT Academia: How To Relieve Suffering of Students, Parents and Employers, November 2011?CS & IT Academia: Inform Students About Software Contribution Record of Faculty, November 2011?Publicly Funded Higher Education Institutions should put up Detailed Course contents on the Internet, April 2014Holistically Elite CS/IT Education vs Technically Elite CS/IT Education, January 2012?The Software Development Professor!, October 2011?Discussion/Informative Posts Involving Others' Articles/Views, Media reports and Some Comments from meIs (Seoul Accord) Accreditation using Outcome Based Assessment methods the way forward to improve teaching standards in Indian CS & IT academia? June 2014NBA India: World Summit on Accreditation - Themes include Bridging Academia & Industry and Outcome Assessment Tools, March 2014Discussion on Concrete Suggestions for Measuring Teaching Quality ..., June 2013CS & IT Academia: Profs. May Not Like Idea of Software Contribution Record, November 2011?Prof. Stroustrup: Software development is a potentially noble profession like medicine or classical engg. disciplines but long way to go, August 2014US CS PhD student's Comparative View of US and Indian Academia, June 2013A Tough View of US & UK CS Academia, December 2011?Monday, August 25, 2014Improve the Practice of Software Development in India by Having a Software Development Career Track in Indian CS & IT AcademiaNet url: is an HTML version of my paper (pdf version) put up on the pre-print archive of Cornell University, USA here:? the Practice of Software Development in India by Having a Software Development Career Track in Indian CS & IT AcademiaRavi S. IyerSoftware Consultant, Puttaparthi, Andhra Pradesh, Indiaravi@December 21st, 2012AbstractMany, but not all, Indian CS & IT academics tend to have a focus on theory and research. They do not give much importance to the practice of software development. This paper proposes an additional software development career track for Indian CS & IT academics different from the existing research oriented career track. A measure of software contribution record is suggested. It opines that adoption of such changes to academic regulations will result in significant improvement of software development skill set in Indian CS & IT academia which, in turn, will result in better software development skill set in Indian CS & IT graduates.Note: The review remarks for this article by a noted international academic publication focused on CS education and the response of the author are provided in Appendix A.IntroductionThe author is a Physics Graduate (and Physics Masters drop-out) from India who was industry-trained and later self-taught in software development. He worked in the international software industry (US, Europe, Japan, South Korea, India etc.) developing systems as well as applications software (CS & IT) for over 18 years after which he retired from commercial work. He later, mainly as an "honorary faculty/visiting faculty", offered free service of teaching programming courses (lab. courses) and being a "technical consultant" for student projects in a Maths & Computer Science department of a deemed university in India for 9 years. This paper is mainly based on this experience of the author.The rather odd reality of the vast number of CS & IT departments of universities & colleges in India is that the majority of the teachers in these departments focus on theory and research publications but do not give much importance to practical areas like Software Design and Programming or Coding. Therefore the practice of software development is quite poor in most Indian CS & IT departments. The sections below give references to support these statements.Peer Reviewed Academic Literature Sources on Poor Software Development Skill Set in Indian CS & IT AcademiaMahanti et al., 2005, state that in India, "Software engineering does not yet have an independent curriculum with enough durable, codified content to justify a separate undergraduate curriculum." [20]. They further state that in India, "Limited exposure to industry problems, inability to adapt course curricula to dynamic industry requirements, limited exposure to latest tools & techniques, inability to enter into emerging areas, rigid and outdated course curricula, (repetition omitted), poor industry linkages, little real-life case studies, little scope for creative learning are some of the drawbacks in the software education system in the universities."Garg et al., 2008, conducted a survey of major software services companies in India and reported that the training programs of these companies include retraining on programming and Software Engineering (SE) as Indian academia is not able to impart these skills to the level that they expect [21]. They further state that they studied the publicly available syllabi related to SE for a large number of Indian universities and found that the focus is on theoretical aspects and "Practical aspects, best practices, recent developments are not included and students rarely get a chance for application of the knowledge and skills they learned."General Public Views on Poor Software Development Skill Set in Indian CS & IT AcademiaThe author believes that Indian CS & IT academics should also listen to views of students and others like the news media and teacher blogs on this matter. While these views may be contested as not having been validated by means of an academic/scientific peer review process the author is of the opinion that the almost unanimous voice of the general Indian public must be given some importance. The Indian public naturally expects that Indian CS & IT academics will prepare Indian CS & IT students to contribute mainly as competent software developers to the explosively growing software systems that pervade many aspects of modern life in India and the world.Most of the students graduating out of Indian CS & IT academia end up having somewhat strong theoretical and, at times, research-oriented skills but being poor in Software Design and Programming [1, 12, 13]. The problem lies not with the CS & IT academics but with the Indian CS & IT academic system which provides career growth mainly for research output and largely ignores software contribution output [1].?A study of over 50,000 engineers who graduated in 2011 in India, very alarmingly states, "The percentage of ready-to-deploy engineers for IT jobs is dismally low at 2.68%" [19]. It further, alarmingly again, states, "An economy with a large percent of unemployable qualified candidates is not only inefficient, but socially dangerous." A Bangalore, India industry organization is planning to set up a task force to have an interface between IT industry and academia to restructure academic courses to ensure that IT graduates have skills desired by industry [18].For this rather odd situation, where most Indian CS & IT academics/teachers do not have a strong software development skill set, to improve, Indian academic regulations should provide career advancement incentive for CS & IT academics who have a software contribution record [4]. Further, students should be informed of the software contribution record of faculty of CS & IT departments by making it mandatory for CS & IT departments to put up such information on its web site [5].Teaching excellence in Indian CS & IT academia does not seem to be given much importance. It may be due to an obsession with research as there seems to be no significant rewards or recognition for teaching excellence whereas research excellence gives recognition, even fame at times, and career advancement [6].How can we improve software development teaching standards in Indian CS & IT academia? The sections below examine Indian academic regulations with this objective.?A Short Introduction to The Indian CS & IT Academic SystemThe University Grants Commission (UGC) is the apex academic body of India [10]. "The UGC has the unique distinction of being the only grant-giving agency in the country which has been vested with two responsibilities: that of providing funds and that of coordination, determination and maintenance of standards in institutions of higher education." [10a]. The All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) [10d] is a professional council which operates under UGC umbrella. The UGC website states about AICTE, "The council is authorized to take all steps that are considered appropriate for ensuring coordinated and integrated development of technical education and for maintenance of standards." [10b].?"The UGC serves as a vital link between the Union and State Governments and the institutions of higher learning." [10c]. The UGC regulations/norms for appointment of academics [7] has a significant influence on the career of Indian academics of all academic streams including CS & IT who are employed in any higher education institution regulated by UGC or its professional councils like AICTE. But the extent of influence may vary depending on whether the educational institution receives government aid (funds) or not. The entry level position for a regular teacher post (as against a Teaching Assistant post) is the Assistant Professor position. The other teacher positions are Associate Professor and Professor.In India the degrees awarded for software education by UGC/AICTE regulated academia are mainly termed as Computer Science (CS) or Information Technology (IT) degrees with an additional variant of Computer Applications degrees [15]. The Software Engineering (SE) degree/program is not well known in Indian academia. Most universities offer Software Engineering as a course along with other courses in their CS (and IT) curriculum [21].The elite Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) institutions are independent of UGC & AICTE but they cater to only a small percentage of technical students in India. There are also thriving private software education/training institutes with a nation-wide presence sustained over decades but their certifications are different from the CS & IT degrees offered by UGC/AICTE recognized universities. This paper limits itself to UGC/AICTE recognized CS & IT educational institutions.UGC Appointment & Promotion Regulations for Music & Dance DisciplineMusic, including the vocal art of singing, & Dance are performing arts. The teacher of these arts must be a capable performer first and should also have adequate theoretical knowledge.This aspect of Music & Dance being a practice-oriented discipline is reflected in UGC [10] regulations for appointment of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor & Professor for Music & Dance discipline on Pages 7 - 9 of its regulations for appointment of teachers [7]. The author presumes that the regulations for promotion for Music & Dance discipline teachers will be on similar lines. These UGC regulations for Music & Dance discipline can be summarized as follows:For the Assistant Professor post, the candidate should conform to standards similar to regular disciplines like Physics and Mathematics which are: Master's degree with 55 % Marks + NET/SLET/SET (National Eligibility Test, State Eligibility Test etc.) qualification; PhD, adequate research publication record etc. come into play for higher posts of Associate Professor and Professor.? ? ORFor the Assistant Professor post, the candidate should have studied under noted traditional masters, be a high grade artist of AIR/TV (Radio/Television) and have adequate theoretical knowledge; years of performance, participation in national/international seminars/workshops etc. come into play for higher posts of Associate Professor and Professor.Specifically, practical expertise of the performer is recognized and formal academic degree qualification in Music or Dance as well as research publications are not necessary.Suggestion of Two Tracks for CS & IT Academics: Research Oriented and Software Development OrientedThe software development discipline is a very practice oriented discipline. Design & programming (coding) are vital skills. Of course, theoretical background is important but theory not backed by competent design & programming skill will make a software development practitioner/professional as incompetent as a musician or dancer who knows theory well but is not competent in performing music or dance.Research is also vital for the software field. It is research that creates fundamental advances in the Computer Science & Information Technology (CS & IT) fields. Without research, the great and revolutionary force of the Internet would not have been created. This single example, itself, of the benefit of research shows how critical it is for progress in the software field. There are many, many other areas of CS & IT research that are of great importance to the software field.In the author's opinion, we need both types of CS & IT teachers - practice oriented software development teachers & research oriented teachers. A very few teachers may excel at both, software development as well as research. But that will, in all probability, be a numerically insignificant minority among the huge number of CS & IT academics in the country.As of now, UGC appointment & promotion regulations do not differentiate between CS & IT disciplines and disciplines like Physics & Mathematics [7]. The author could not find an equivalent regulations document for AICTE on its website but the general impression is that AICTE follows regulations similar to UGC in this regard. There is no incentive for practice-oriented software development teachers resulting in the majority of CS & IT academics being theory and research-oriented with not-so-strong software development skill set/knowledge. When the software development teacher himself is not so knowledgeable about software development the probability of students being taught software development skills well is very low.The author suggests that UGC & AICTE regulations for appointment and promotion of CS & IT academics be modeled on the lines of that of Music & Dance discipline. The author would not like to get into the debate of CS as science vs. CS as art. His emphasis is on the software development part of CS & IT being a very practice oriented discipline like Music and the performing arts. Further, in a tightly regulated system like Indian academia, precedent for any suggested change makes it easier to consider the change. Since the regulations for Music and the performing arts already have a mechanism to cater to both the research oriented teachers and the practice oriented teachers, the author considers it appropriate to refer to the precedent and suggest a similar mechanism for Indian CS & IT teachers.There should be two tracks for CS & IT academics - the current one for research oriented academics and another for practice oriented software development academics. Like the measure for competence in research for the (research oriented) CS / IT academic is the research publication record, the measure for competence of the software development CS / IT academic should be the quality and quantity of her open source software contribution record.Suggested Changes to Teacher Eligibility Tests (NET/SLET/SET) for CS & IT DisciplinesAccording to UGC regulations [7] the minimum requirements for an Assistant Professor appointment in engineering and technology discipline (which includes CS & IT) are a first class Master's degree in the appropriate branch of engineering and technology and qualifying in the teacher eligibility tests (NET/SLET/SET) [11]. AICTE seems to have watered down the requirement of Master’s degree to a Bachelor’s degree in engineering/technology discipline probably due to paucity of adequately qualified candidates applying for the Assistant Professor position. The teacher eligibility test is waived for candidates who have been awarded a Ph.D. degree [7].The present teacher eligibility test (NET/SLET/SET) for CS / IT academics is a paper only test (though the syllabus includes C/C++ & SQL [11]) due to which an aspirant can become eligible to be appointed as Assistant Professor without having good practical software development skills! That may be acceptable for a research track CS / IT teacher. But it is unacceptable for a software development track CS / IT teacher. Aspirants who do not have good practical software development skills should NOT be appointed as software development track CS / IT Assistant Professors (or other grade Professors).A new teacher eligibility test for software development track CS / IT academics should be introduced which will have a 50% weight-age practical test (on computer) involving programming and some amount of design, and 50% weight-age on theory. This will ensure that software development track teacher-aspirants will have to be reasonably good in both theory and practice aspects of CS / IT.?Allow Movement from Research Track to Software Development Track & Vice-Versa?A CS / IT academic should be able to switch track from research oriented to software development oriented if her software contribution record is appropriate. Similarly a software development oriented CS / IT academic should be able to switch track to research oriented if his research publication record is appropriate. Some CS / IT academics may have a respectable research publication record as well as a respectable software contribution record which would be a wonderfully balanced contribution record.How Do We Measure a Software Contribution?This will have to be evolved over time. Software industry bodies in India like NASSCOM & CSI [8] (other countries would have other such bodies) can arrive at norms for evaluating an academic software contribution which can be updated at appropriate intervals to reflect the rapidly changing software practice. The author suggests the following for measuring (and sharing) the academic software contribution:It should be open source allowing any person to download the software and use it, examine it or modify it.Industry professionals should "peer review" the candidate academic software contribution using norms provided by industry bodies like NASSCOM or CSI and decide whether it is of requisite quality & quantity to be considered as a "peer reviewed" academic software contribution. Note that the contribution can be a single author contribution or a multiple author contribution like academic publications can be single author or multiple author.Over time, an impact factor similar to one used by scientific journals [9] can be evolved for a "peer reviewed" software contribution. Extent of usage of software can be considered for this impact factor like citations are considered in arriving at a scientific journal's impact factor.To make it difficult for contributor-aspirants to fake, plagiarize or wrongly influence peer review of software contributions, any "peer reviewed" software contribution should be open to challenge by suitable industry professionals or academics. As the software will be downloadable including its source, a challenger will be in a position to study the contribution in depth and challenge its acceptance as a "peer reviewed" contribution. The challenge can be decided by an industry body like NASSCOM or CSI appointed referee.All these "peer reviewed" open source academic software contributions should be properly listed and organized in a web based repository which is openly accessible.Involving the software industry in this "peer review" of academic software contributions may go a long way in reducing the huge academia-industry disconnect in the software field today.Concern of Research Rigour Being Watered DownOne concern may be that the research rigour of CS & IT departments will get diluted by having practice oriented software development track teachers. Well, we need a balance. CS & IT departments should have the "right" balance of research oriented teachers & software development oriented teachers. The "right" balance for a research-intensive department could be 80 % research oriented teachers and 20 % software development oriented teachers. In contrast, the "right" balance for a teaching-intensive department could be more like 50 % software development oriented teachers and 50 % research oriented teachers. Please note that the software development oriented teacher has to be good at theory too and has to prove his theoretical knowledge by clearing the software development track NET/SLET/SET exam.Allow Industry-Trained & Self-Taught Professionals to Become CS & IT Teachers By Clearing Teacher Eligibility Tests (NET/SLET/SET)The software industry has a huge number of industry-trained and self-taught professionals who do not have a CS / IT academic qualification. Some of the biggest icons of the software industry who are world-famous like Bill Gates (Microsoft), Late Steve Jobs (Apple) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) are/were self-taught. India, in particular, has a vast number of industry-trained software professionals who come from various disciplines in engineering, science, management, commerce & even arts. UGC & AICTE must recognize this reality of the software/CS & IT fields and allow interested industry-trained and self-taught professionals with significant number of years of experience in the software industry to become regular (paid) CS & IT software development academics. For such software industry professionals the requirement of a Master's degree in CS / IT should be waived like it is waived for the performing artist track in Music & Dance discipline. But the self-taught software professional MUST prove his/her capability by passing the software development track eligibility test (NET/SLET/SET) which will test both his/her theoretical knowledge as well as practical competence.Please note that UGC regulations (and AICTE regulations too, it is presumed) allow for an "outstanding professional" of a field to be appointed as a Professor. The above mentioned suggestion is for those who are not eminent but are knowledgeable & competent industry-trained and/or self-taught software professionals.Industry Professionals as Visiting Faculty/Industry ConsultantsIndustry professionals who are not NET/SLET/SET qualified nor possess a PhD but are offering free/honorary teaching service may be accommodated as visiting faculty/industry consultants if their knowledge and skill-set are found competent by university/college & department administrative authorities. Such industry professionals who offer their services to a university/college regularly may be an insignificant minority of the CS & IT teachers of the country. They may be treated as exception cases.A Brief Look at Software Engineering Education, Certification and Professional Licensure in USA and Some Other CountriesThe author has direct exposure to only Indian software education academia and so has focused on it for most of this article. However, it was felt that mention of software education practices in some other countries would give a larger, international perspective. So he did a small literature survey to study efforts made to ensure good software development practice in software education in USA and some other countries, and extended it to cover certification and professional licensure. The study focuses more on Software Engineering (SE) degree programs than Computer Science (CS) degree programs. Judging what aspects of this small study report could be useful in Indian environment may ideally need somebody who has direct exposure to software education field in both India and other countries like USA. This author leaves those aspects for others to consider, if they find it worthy of consideration.SE is an established program in USA academia distinct from a CS program [22]. The SE2004 volume gives guidelines for a SE curriculum and its website indicates that it was an exhaustive effort at improving SE education quality in the USA, UK, Australia, Canada, etc. [23]. Accreditations of SE (and other engineering & technology) programs are conducted by organizations specializing in accrediting technical education. Lethbridge et al., 2007, give details of SE programs and their accreditation in USA, Canada and UK [22].At a USA institute, "software engineering is a five year program, with students graduating with the equivalent of almost a full year of work experience." and there is collaboration between various companies and the institute on projects as part of the SE education program [25]. Its website states that its senior projects involve a team of 4 to 5 students working on challenging, real-world software issues for companies & organizations and results in a functional software tool ready to be used by the organization [26].Stroustrup and others have adopted a "software curriculum" in a CS program with an aim to produce ‘software professionals (for some definition of "professional")’ and reported largely positive results from it [3].?The IEEE Computer Society offers certification of graduates as well as self-taught software development professionals by conducting certification exams [24]. It’s "Certified Software Development Associate (CSDA)" certification/credential "is intended for graduating software engineers and entry-level software professionals and serves to bridge the gap between your educational experience and real-world work requirements" [24a]. Its more advanced "Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP)" certification/credential "is intended for mid-career software development professionals that want to confirm their proficiency of standard software development practices and advance in their careers" [24b]. IEEE Computer Society claims that its certification programs are "industry standard measurements of fundamental software engineering practices" and so are different from vendor-specific & product-specific certifications [24c].Land et al., 2012, argue that current circumstances are favorable for formal certification in software engineering to be considered and state that there is growing support for IEEE CSDA and CSDP in both industry and academia [27]. They further state that these certifications are based on the IEEE Computer Society's Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) [28] which is followed by the CS and SE programs of some colleges and universities.Laplante, 2012, mentions that 10 states of USA may soon be requiring licensure for software engineers working on systems related to "public health, safety, and welfare" [27a]. He further mentions that the professional licensure requirements for software engineers will be similar to those of other engineering professions in the states of the USA and that most components of such licensure requirements/exams for software engineers are already in place with a final component expected to be available in April 2013. However, Miller, 2012, suggests that the enthusiasm for professional licensure of software engineers be tempered with caution [27b]. He states, "Questions about professionalism and licensing in IT have a complex, international history."Mead, 2009, gives a timeline of SE education in USA and some other countries [29], notably:1980's seeing the first conference on SE education;1990's seeing first class graduating with Master of Software Engineering (MSE) degree of Carnegie Mellon University, undergraduate SE programs in other universities and its accreditation, growth of industry-university collaborations, a joint committee of ACM & IEEE Computer Society being formed to promote SE as a profession, licensing being introduced by US state of Texas and a lot of controversy being generated over licensing that "continues to this day", distance learning enabling global SE education;2000's seeing IEEE Computer Society adopting SWEBOK and offering CSDP certification, many universities offering international SE programs and SE education track being introduced in other conferences besides CSEET.Critical Views on Software Education in USA and Some Other CountriesThe author felt it appropriate to share some critical views on software education in USA and some other countries from academic and general public sources.Stroustrup, 2010, has argued that “fundamental changes to computer science education are required to better address the needs of industry”, and shows the disconnect between CS academia and industry [2]. Parnas, a veteran SE academic, in an ACM Fellow profile interview in 1999, states, "Most students who are studying computer science really want to study software engineering but they don't have that choice. There are very few programs that are designed as engineering programs but specialize in software." [30]. He also states that the term software engineering is often confused with project management techniques.Mark Tarver, who taught in UK CS academia prior to 2000, is harshly critical of programming skills of UK final year project CS graduate students who confessed to not being able to do any programming. He is also harshly critical of UK CS education in general [14].A student, 2010, captured the feelings of the student community when he wrote, "I'm graduating with a Computer Science degree but I don't feel like I know how to program" and tried to seek advice from a professional programmer forum [16]. A USA employer/interviewer, 2011, who has hired dozens of C/C++ programmers, stated, "A surprisingly large fraction of applicants, even those with masters' degrees and PhDs in computer science, fail during interviews when asked to carry out basic programming tasks" [17].ConclusionIf the practice oriented software development career track, as suggested in this paper, is introduced in UGC & AICTE regulations for appointment and promotion of Indian CS & IT academics then, over time, we will have a healthy mix of both research oriented as well as software development oriented Indian CS & IT academics. We may even have significant number of software development experts from the software industry moving to Indian CS & IT academia. What a boon that will be for boosting the software development skill set of Indian CS & IT academia! It will also dramatically reduce the huge academia-industry gap that plagues the Indian software field today.These changes, in turn, will, at least for the teaching-intensive Indian CS & IT departments, result in graduates & post-graduates of CS / IT having a good balance of theory and practice of software development with some appreciation for the research angle of CS / IT as well. Some of these graduates/post-graduates may choose to pursue research by doing a PhD in CS / IT. Some may become CS / IT academics who will be more knowledgeable about practical software development than is the case now. The majority of them will typically take up industry software development jobs for which they will be far better equipped with the required software development practice skill set than they are now.AcknowledgementsThe author's software industry and CS doctoral student friends have provided valuable contributions to the author's Indian CS & IT academic reform activism blog: . These interactions greatly encouraged the author to attempt this rather daunting task of making a case for a software development career track in Indian CS & IT academia to improve the practice of software development in India. However, the author would like to clarify that the views in this paper are his individual views. The author thanks the reviewers of a noted academic publication focused on CS education for their critical comments which led the author to limit most of his views to the Indian context as that is what the author has studied and experienced, strengthen the article with more peer reviewed academic references and broaden its view with a brief study of software education in USA and some other countries.References1. Ravi S. Iyer, (Indian) CS & IT Academia: Serious Systemic Problems?, Blog post, Sept. 2011, . Bjarne Stroustrup, What Should We Teach New Software Developers? Why?, “Communications of the ACM”, Jan. 2010,?. Bjarne Stroustrup, Programming in an undergraduate CS curriculum, WCCCE ’09, May 2009, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada,?. Ravi S. Iyer, (Indian) CS & IT Academia: How To Relieve Suffering of Students, Parents and Employers, Blog post, Nov. 2011,?. Ravi S. Iyer, (Indian) CS & IT Academia: Inform Students About Software Contribution Record of Faculty, Blog post, Nov. 2011,?. Ravi S. Iyer, (Indian) CS & IT Academia: Is Teaching Excellence Important?, Blog post, Jan. 2012,?. UGC (University Grants Commission) regulations on minimum qualifications for appointment of teachers and other academic staff in universities and colleges and measures for the maintenance of standards in higher education, 2010, . NASSCOM: The National Association of Software and Services Companies, the premier software industry trade organization of India,?. CSI: Computer Society of India, a leading Indian CS & IT professionals body,?. Impact Factor of Scientific journals: A measure which is considered by Indian academic regulatory bodies to be reflective of relative importance of a journal within its field, . UGC: University Grants Commission, the apex academic body of India,?; 10a. University Grants Commission Mandate,?; 10b. Professional Councils of UGC, AICTE entry:?; 10c. Higher Education in India at a Glance, Feb. 2012,?; 10d. AICTE: All India Council of Technical Education:?. UGC National Eligibility Test (NET) has only one subject for CS & IT which is Computer Science and Applications:?. The syllabus for Computer Science and Applications subject is available here:? eligibility tests for Science subjects are conducted by a different organization, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and that list,?, does not have any CS & IT subject(s). But "Common Elementary Computer Science" questions are part of the syllabus of all Science subjects.12. Pallab De, The State of Engineering in India, techie-, May 2011,?. Geeta Anand, India Graduates Millions, but Too Few Are Fit to Hire, The Wall Street Journal, April 2011, . Mark Tarver, Why I am not a Professor, Lambda Associates, 2007, . Computer Science (CS) / Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) and Information Technology (IT) departments in India offer:B.E./B.Tech.(CS/CSE), M.E./M.Tech.(CS/CSE)B.E./B.Tech.(IT), M.E./M.Tech.(IT)B.C.A. and M.C.A. degrees.[B.E. - Bachelor of Engineering, M.E. - ?Master of EngineeringB.Tech. - Bachelor of Technology, M.Tech. - Master of TechnologyB.C.A. - Bachelor in Computer Applications, M.C.A. - Master in Computer Applications.]Model syllabus for:B.E./B.Tech. in CSE:?. A CS student, I'm graduating with a Computer Science degree but I don't feel like I know how to program, programmers., May 2010, . Dan Kegel, How To Get Hired -- What CS Students Need to Know,?, June 2011,?. V.S. Karnic, Tackling the 'graduate but unemployable' syndrome in India, IANS India, Jan. 2012,?. Varun Aggarwal, Aspiring Minds’ National Employability Report – Engineering Graduates, 2011,?. Rupa Mahanti, P. K. Mahanti, "Software Engineering Education From Indian Perspective," cseet, pp.111-117, 18th Conference on Software Engineering Education & Training (CSEET'05), 2005,?. Kirti Garg, Vasudeva Varma, "Software Engineering Education in India: Issues and Challenges," cseet, pp.110-117, 21st Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training, 2008,?. Lethbridge, T.C. et. al., "Improving software practice through education: Challenges and future trends", pp.12-28, Future of Software Engineering, FOSE '07, 2007, . Software Engineering 2004 (SE2004), Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Software Engineering,?. IEEE Computer Society Certification & Training, ; 24a. IEEE Computer Society Certified Software Development Associate (CSDA) credential, ; 24b. IEEE Computer Society Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) credential, ; 24c. IEEE Computer Society certification FAQ and Resources,?. Reichlmayr, T.J., "Collaborating with industry: strategies for an undergraduate software engineering program", pp.13-16, Proceedings of the 2006 international workshop on Summit on software engineering education SSEE '06, 2006,?. Rochester Institute of Technology, Senior Project done by every RIT Software Engineering senior,?. Land, S.K. et al., "Software engineering certification in today's environment ", pp. 50 - 54, IT Professional, May-June 2012, Volume: 14, Issue: 3,?; 27a. Laplante, P.A., "Professional Licensure of Software Engineers", Side-bar article in [27]; 27b. Miller, K.W. "IT Professionalism and Licensure: Yes, But…", Side-bar article in [27]28. IEEE Computer Society's Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK), . Mead N. R., "Software engineering education: How far we’ve come and how far we have to go", pp. 571-575, Journal of Systems and Software, Volume 82, Issue 4, April 2009, . ACM Fellow Profile: David Lorge Parnas, May 1999,? AReview Remarks of Noted International Academic Publication and Response of AuthorAfter a lot of consideration the author decided to take the unusual step of sharing review remarks for this article by a noted international academic publication focused on CS education. The editor-in-chief of the publication graciously provided permission to share the valuable review remarks of the knowledgeable reviewers in this appendix. The author thanks him and the publication for this kind gesture.As the author sees it, the stake holders of software education imparted by UGC/AICTE recognised institutions in India are:Students (& Parents): They invest their time and pay the tuition fees.Teachers/Academics: They are supposed to be knowledgeable and do the primary task of imparting appropriate knowledge to students.Employers (Industry): They use the products of the education system (students-turned-graduates) to contribute to economic work and provide a livelihood for these students-turned-graduates.Funding agencies & regulators, namely MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development, ), UGC & AICTE: They provide the tax payer contributed money for higher education (e.g. as UGC grants) and try to maintain good standards of education. They also look at nationwide issues and society issues like the needs of the country and imparting ethics. Further, they try to promote an environment that will encourage good education (attract good teachers, provide job security to teachers, give students a safe environment, etc.)The author is of the opinion that this article/paper may not be easily accepted in a forum primarily controlled by one of the stakeholders here, namely the teachers/academics, as it is somewhat critical of them even though the criticism is mainly directed at the system rather than the individual academics. But the article/paper may find a lot of acceptance in forums of some of the other stakeholders especially students, parents, industry and perhaps even MHRD.This article went through 2 rounds of review with the noted international academic publication. The first round feedback was incorporated in this version of the article, which is what was submitted for the 2nd round review (except for a minor difference in the title of the article). It was not found suitable for the publication in the 2nd round review though the reviewers had some appreciation for the article.The author views the 2nd round reviewer comments and his response to them as a debate between CS academic viewpoint and industry software developer viewpoint. (The author is not an academic but a software design & development practitioner from the industry who helped out a CS department in an Indian educational institution, a deemed university, to improve the practice of software development in it). He opines that some stakeholders of software education like students, parents and industry practitioners may want to read this debate and that it may contribute to a better understanding of this issue among the public at large. Very importantly, the reviewers provided very knowledgeable comments which contribute significantly to the discourse on the topic. Therefore the author decided to share the review remarks and his response to them in this appendix.Reviewer: 1Comments to the AuthorAuthor: Firstly, thank you very much for your valuable remarks. They have contributed significantly to my understanding of this issue from an international perspective.Reviewer1: This paper makes an interesting and controversial case for creating career tracks in the Indian CS&IT academia for faculty who, instead of pursuing theoretical research, would opt for establishing academic credentials based on their output of open source software. Much of this seems to reflect from the author's personal journey from being a non-CS graduate, with extensive experience in the CS&IT Software Development industry, and then trying to "fit in" into the academic make-up of an Indian University which seems to be heavily regulated centrally.Author: I disagree with a part of the last statement. I consider myself to be an accomplished industry-trained and self-taught software industry technical consultant, who, mainly as an Honorary Faculty/Visiting Faculty, provided free teaching and guidance service to students in software development/engineering and thereby contributed to strengthening the practice of software development/engineering in a CS department in India. I was not and am not interested to "fit in" the academic make-up of any Indian university at all - my intention was to help students learn the practice of software development well, and I believe I succeeded in no small measure in that regard. From my experience of Indian CS academia I had some suggestions to improve the practice of software design & development/engineering in it which I put forward in this article/paper.Reviewer1: Many issues here: the first and foremost, whether the specific situation in Indian academia is worth publishing in ---publication-name-description-blinded--- with a much broader international audience. On the other hand, given that such situations exist in several countries, this is a good discussion starter to bring a broader awareness to the issues faced and the possible (in my mind, skewed) solution being proposed.From what I gather, the main problem seems to be in the area of software engineering education.Author: Yes, but the whole gamut of software engineering involving design, development, testing etc. and not just a software development process/life-cycle theory course. A published research paper mentioned that in India, "Most universities offer SE as just one of the courses along with other Computer Science courses.", Kirti Garg, Vasudeva Varma, "Software Engineering Education in India: Issues and Challenges," cseet, pp.110-117, 21st Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training, 2008, : While, on one hand, most CS&IT faculty in India seem to be primarily devoted to theoretical research, there seems to be a practice among academia of relaxing the qualifications for hiring CS&IT faculty due to the "paucity" of qualified faculty. It is easy to see that the poor quality of Indian CS&IT graduates being prepared for software development jobs in India upon graduation is an artifact of poor quality software engineering education (or a complete lack of it).Author: I tend to agree with these views in the Indian context.Reviewer1: The solution being proposed, to create UGC regulated mandates for separate faculty career tracks, is rather controversial, and perhaps misplaced when one sees it in the larger context of the role of academia. Much of the problem should, and can, be addressed by creating a well qualified pool of faculty in the CS&IT disciplines, software engineering included. Additionally, along with the faculty, to create educational tracks in CS&IT Departments at universities to teach software engineering curricula. Without a presence of these two things, it seems like a proposal to create accommodations for industry professionals to enter non-research tracks in academia, is misplaced and a poor solution.Author: It certainly is *not* a proposal focused on creating accommodations for industry professionals to enter non-research tracks in academia. It is a proposal to provide career growth incentive for Indian CS & IT academics to excel in the practice of software development instead of focusing on research publication output and ignoring excellence in practice of software development. Industry professionals being accommodated in a non-research software development career track is a secondary and optional part of what this paper proposes, which in my opinion, has significant value for improving the practice of software development in Indian CS & IT academia.Reviewer1: This can be detrimental to the intrinsic health and make-up of an entire higher educational system. The case is made, based on faculty in the Performing Arts which tends to be one of the few outliers in this regard. Even in Performing Arts, there is much resistance. Ordinary, day-to-day practitioners of the art seldom attain faculty status even in the Performing Arts.Author: In India, it is common to see faculty of the performing arts deliver a performance to the public which leaves students, parents and the public in general in no doubt as to the practical skill of the performing arts faculty. In marked contrast, there is huge amount of doubt in the mind of students, parents and the public in general about the practical software development/engineering skill of most Indian CS & IT academics.Reviewer1: Besides, there are existing models that accommodate "both" classes of faculty in a single framework that are present outside India that need to be examined. For example, giving academic credit for software artifacts during the promotion and tenure process is widely promoted by the Guidelines published by the Computing Research Association (in the USA). The author should take a look at that.Author: It is interesting and it will be good if Indian academic regulations take note of it and provide significant academic credit for software artifacts. I agree very much with the view expressed therein that, "Assessing artifacts requires evaluation from knowledgeable peers." In the Indian context, in my opinion, at least in the short term, it is the software industry which has the capacity to provide enough numbers of knowledgeable peers to evaluate software artifacts produced by Indian CS & IT academia.Reviewer1: Much of the surveys presented in the paper are about the state (or lack there of) of software engineering education in India. To suggest that a government regulated body create a "practitioner track directed to serving a dimension of a transient and evolving industry" and further put into place specific software-based evaluation metrics for the hiring, promotion, and career advancement of such faculty is a bizarre idea that makes for an excellent blog post, or an opinion piece.Author: I humbly submit that as a practitioner of software development I find it bizarre that, in the key regulations that govern Indian CS & IT academia, there is zero career growth incentive to excel in the practice of software development. That, in my opinion, is the key reason for such poor quality of software engineering/software development skills in most Indian CS & IT academics.Further, I believe that the huge growth of the software design & development field in India is enough reason to seriously consider the suggestion of a specific Indian academic career track which focuses on software design & development. It may be a very strange suggestion for academia in general but the software revolution in the past few decades has changed India and the world quite a bit and Indian academia may need to look at new ways to effectively handle its duties of teaching Indian students the vital skill of software design & development.Reviewer1: This submission to ---publication-name-blinded---, in this sense, is misplaced.Reviewer: 2Comments to the AuthorAuthor: Firstly, thank you very much for your valuable remarks. They have contributed significantly to my understanding of this issue from an international perspective.Reviewer2: It is good to see a paper addressing issues relating to the relevance and quality of computing education at a national level in India, and the challenges in preparing competent practitioners for the local IT industry. ?Such a discussion has potential to be of interest to ---publication-name-blinded--- readers. ?However the solutions proposed fail to take into account several critical issues.The move beyond computing as CS, EE or IS to a broader set of cognate computing disciplines in a wider family as noted in the ACM 2005 overview report. Therefore institutions need the flexibility to adapt curricula to meet both local conditions and international standards. ?A highly rigid national framework militates against such adaptability, and thus we see private organisations filling the gaps by providing vocationally focussed certifications. ?If the core degree learning provides a sound underpinning education, then maybe this is ok?Shackelford, R., Cassel, L., Cross, J., Davies, G., Impagliazzo, J., Kamali, R., Lawson, E., LeBlanc, R., McGettrick, A., Slona, R., Topi, H. and vanVeen, M. Computing Curricula 2005 The Overview Report including The Guide to Undergraduate Degree Programs in Computing, Joint Task Force ACM, AIS, IEEE-CS, New York, 2005, 46.Author: The above document seems to be a very well thought out and well researched document from a North-American perspective. However I do not know how well it can help solve the problem of very poor practice of software design & development in Indian CS & IT academia which is heavily influenced by the regulations and guidelines of UGC & AICTE.Reviewer2: It needs to be recognised that the nature of the CS/SE divide is historical and long standing, [as is the role of programming in CS] but the divide is arguably one of the strengths of CS and SE that both theory and practice must interrelate in the achieving of outcomes – so education should recognise this in some form. ?Cf. for instance the discussion below:Lister, R., Berglund, A., Clear, T., Bergin, J., Garvin-Doxas, K., Hanks, B., Hitchner, L., Reilly, A. L., Sanders, K., Schulte, C. and Whalley, J. Research Perspectives on the Objects-Early Debate. SIGCSE Bulletin, 38, 4 (Dec 2006), 146-165.Author: Noted.Reviewer2: “These distinctions can be traced back to the origins of the discipline, and early schisms “between the logicians and the technicians”, (Clark, 2003) depending upon whether one came from a more theoretically oriented mathematical background, or a more practically oriented engineering background”.The role of the SE discipline has always been problematic, and the tensions between the body of knowledge, the evolving nature of practice in the field, what skills should be taught and the nature of the academy and its value systems has always been an issue. ?But University systems are by their nature international, and local solutions which focus primarily on the vocational teaching mission [with a goal of producing immediately productive ‘drones for industry’] without doing equal justice to the research mission, are likely to result in reputational damage to the institution. ?Cf. the discussion below:Clear, T. Software Engineering and The Academy: Uncomfortable Bedfellows? SIGCSE Bulletin, 36, 2 (June 2004), 14-15.Author: I read some other messages in the above article:"Reflecting upon how this experience had enriched his teaching upon his return to the academy, he also noted that few engineering educators possessed any experience of engineering practice."..."If we consider medicine as an analogous profession, have not the medical educators themselves completed clinical practice requirements? Would doctors who had never practiced be regarded as credible professors of clinical medicine? Why do we privilege the doctoral qualification over the practice credentials in the case of our software engineering professors?"..."Being prepared to recruit ex-practitioners without PhD qualifications, and recognise their value in non-traditional ways may be strategies vital to success in teaching a quality software engineering programme."In my opinion the above views match the views expressed in my paper.Reviewer2: But I doubt that measuring an academic’s software capability and contribution by open source software production is practicable. ?(Although for the ‘R’ statistical software package, newly contributed and specialised statistical modules are formally peer reviewed before acceptance). ?For instance Open Source is but one mode of software development. ?What of the skills of developing proprietary software in teams?Author: The problem with proprietary software would be availability of source code for reviewers. I guess this would be similar to proprietary research work which is not published in academic research publications and therefore may not contribute to an academic's career growth directly.Reviewer2: What of domains of application? What of experience of software engineering gained through research involvement with software development firms? ?Such partnership models are often applied as academics move away from regular software development, and perhaps through supervision of development by students, to a more theoretical, SE process, SE practice or managerial SE research focus.Author: The software contribution record that I suggested looked only at software contributions. It can be discussed whether it should be expanded to include some of the above suggestions and the manner in which it should be included.Reviewer2: The reality of the research teaching divide is also endemic in the academy, as developed in the paper below, and as recently observed by the Business School Accreditation Body AACSB’s Blue Ribbon Committee in the report below:Clear, T., Valuing Computer Science Education Research? [Invited Presentation]. in 6th Baltic Sea Conference on Computing Education Research ?(Koli Calling 2006), (Koli, Finland, 2006), Uppsala University, Uppsala.AACSB. Discussion Paper – Relationship Between Research and Teaching, AACSB Blue Ribbon Committee on Accreditation Quality 2011, 1-5.Author: Noted.Reviewer2: In other systems when hiring academics, their skill sets are carefully considered against the needs of the department. ?It is unlikely that an academic with no knowledge of software engineering practice would be hired to teach a software engineering course, although they may teach a math course or a course in theoretical CS.Author: Unfortunately what Clear,T. wrote (mentioned earlier), "few engineering educators possessed any experience of engineering practice" applies very well to Indian CS & IT academia. Career growth incentive to them to improve in software engineering practice may lead them to make efforts to do so. Otherwise it is natural that they will be attracted only towards producing research publications as that provides career growth.Reviewer2: As presented, while there is active debate in many of these areas, the paper does not fully address the issues [disciplinary, institutional, cultural, political] that are obstacles to implementing such a nationwide programme of change in the Indian Higher Education System.It poses a challenging set of questions in the context of the author and his perspective on computing education in his country, and how practice and theory gap might be reduced. ?To that extent the issues are important to all computing educators, so a debate could certainly be had. ?As it stands unfortunately the paper lacks the dimensions to productively lead that debate.With a more considered set of proposals and a wider understanding of the academic setting and how to effect change in a complex context with local and global dimensions, there could be a stronger candidate for publication.Monday, August 25, 2014Ten Computer Science (CS) & Information Technology (IT) higher education policy changes to improve practice of software development in IndiaNet url: submitted the following today (25th August 2014), with the same title as that of this blog post, to an appropriate Indian govt. online forum (which is accessible only to its registered users - but any Indian citizen can easily register in it for free):1) Have two career tracks for CS/IT academics: Research Oriented and Software Development Oriented2) Like the measure for competence in research for the CS/IT academic is the research publication record, the measure for competence in software development of the CS/IT academic should be the quality and quantity of his/her software contribution record.3) Change teacher eligibility tests (NET/SLET/SET) for CS & IT disciplines to have 50% weight-age practical test (on computer) involving programming and some amount of design, and 50% weight-age on theory.4) Allow industry-trained & self-taught professionals who are not academically qualified in CS/IT to become CS & IT Teachers by clearing teacher eligibility tests (NET/SLET/SET)5) Encourage industry professionals to contribute as well paid visiting faculty/industry consultants.6) Study CS/IT professional licensure & certification in USA and other technologically advanced countries and explore possibility of introducing similar CS/IT licensing and certification exams in India.For more on points 1 to 6, see my paper, "Improve the Practice of Software Development in India by Having a Software Development Career Track in Indian CS & IT Academia", ) Teachers who create course material for a course (as against using course material from other sources) should have their course material reviewed by other teachers just like research papers are reviewed. Appropriate career growth related credit should be given to teachers whose course material gets a good review. The review may include student assignment submissions including source code, so that reviewers get an idea of how students are benefiting from the course.8) Lab. courses should be evaluated as strictly as theory courses. It should have external examiners like theory courses. There should be no hesitation in failing students who fare poorly in assignment submissions and exams. Administrators should examine lab. course result patterns and compare it with theory course result patterns. Very high success rates in lab. courses contrasted by quite different success rates in theory courses should ring alarm bells and invite investigation.9) Lab. course credits should be at least equal to theory course credits. Further, the number of lab. courses should be roughly equal to the number of theory courses. [I believe, the typical current ratio is 4 to 5 theory courses and 2 lab. courses in a semester, with theory courses having 3 credits and lab. courses having 2 credits.]10) The practice of relegating lab. courses to junior teachers must be abandoned. Given the vital importance of practice in CS/IT, senior teachers should teach lab. courses.For more on points 7 to 10, see my blog post, Concrete Suggestions for Measuring Teaching Quality in Practice-Oriented Computer Science/Information Technology streams Wednesday, May 28, 2014Wrote to Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, on improving practice of software development in Indian CS & IT academiaNet url: sent the following message yesterday (27th May 2014) to Honourable Prime Minister (of India), Shri Narendra Modi, via the PM website link:?: EducationComments: Sir, in an interaction you had with TV18 during your campaign, you had mentioned about employability issues in our education system. I share a similar concern in the field of Information Technology in India. I request you or your aides to go through my pre-print paper on , Cornell University, USA, titled, Improve the Practice of Software Development in India by Having a Software Development Career Track in Indian CS & IT Academia. Abstract link: Paper link: note that for the past many months (if not a year or two) this pre-print paper of mine is the first or second result for Google search for the following termspoor programming skills Indian CS graduatespoor programming skills Indian CS and IT graduatespoor programming skills Indian Computer Science graduatesimprove programming skills Indian CS graduatesimprove programming skills Indian software graduates--- end comments ---A little while after I submitted the message, I received a standard email acknowledgement from PMO Public Response Unit, do-not-reply@gov.in, mentioning, "Your Mail is being ?reviewed."So far, so good. Let's see whether matters go beyond this perhaps automated response.Monday, December 16, 2013Suggestions to Improve CS & IT Education in India sent to Think India - A Public Policy Advocacy Think-TankNet url: on CNN-IBN,?, perhaps the most popular and most powerful Indian English TV news channel, I saw a message on the ticker asking for suggestions to improve education in India from?. The About us page, , states "The Think India Foundation is a brand new initiative of Network 18. The Foundation will act as a media-active think tank engaged in the task of public policy advocacy. It will be our objective to adhere to, and propagate, the principles of fiscal conservatism, regulated free markets and social liberalism, which are the hallmarks of most successful economies and advanced societies. ? The main objective of Think India Foundation is to influence public policy through thoughtful advocacy, independent research, public speaking engagements and events, and regular interactions with policy-makers, business and social entrepreneurs, using partnerships with multiple media (print, TV, online, social and blogs) to achieve these goals."I think Network 18 owns the CNN-IBN TV channel and so it has powerful media connections.I have given below the main content (slightly edited to make it suitable for a blog post) of the two mails I sent to them (on Dec. 14th and Dec. 15th 2013).-------- First mail ------------------I have been making fair amount of effort over the past two years or so to share my views on how to improve the practice of software development in Indian Computer Science and Information Technology academia.You may want to view my preprint paper (not yet published in a peer reviewed publication) titled, Improve the Practice of Software Development in India by Having a Software Development Career Track in Indian CS & IT Academia,? may also want to view my recent blog post having details of a mail exchange between me and Mr. Phil Baty of Times Higher Education Rankings which publishes The World University Rankings (response from Mr. Baty is a very short one). The post is titled, Suggestion of Separate University Rankings for Research Excellence and Teaching Excellence.If you would like to know more about my views on Indian CS & IT academia - problems, suggestions for improvement and some other material - you may please visit my blog, Second Mail -----------------------------------------------------------------I forgot to mention in my mail of yesterday that Google search for the following terms (on my computer):poor software development skills Indian Computer Science graduatespoor software development skills Indian CS graduatespoor software development skills Computer Science graduatespoor software development skills CS graduatesimprove software development skills Indian Computer Science graduatesimprove software development skills Indian CS graduatesimprove programming skills Indian CS graduatesgives my paper, Improve the Practice of Software Development in India by Having a Software Development Career Track in Indian CS & IT Academia,?, as the first non-advertisement result.In addition the same paper comes up within the first ten results in Google Search for the terms:poor programming skills Indian Computer Science graduatespoor programming skills Indian CS graduatespoor programming skills CS graduatesimprove programming skills Indian Computer Science graduatesFriday, January 25, 2013Poor software development skills Indian CS graduates - Google Search ResultsNet url: felt it appropriate to share on this blog a mail I sent on December 27th, 2012 to the (Indian) Ministry of Human Resource Development,?Ministry of Communication & Information Technology, UGC,?AICTE?and?AIB-ITE?heads (top academic administrators of the country) and?Planning Commission?Nodal officer. I also felt it appropriate to share that I received a prompt response from the office of a Minister of State from the Ministry of Communication & Information Technology, which was copied to all the other mail recipients of the original mail. The response acknowledged receipt of the mail and mentioned that the mail will be forwarded to another official in the same ministry for "his kind perusal and needful further action thereof". I have not had any further response from them so far (January 25th 2013).I am quite happy that at least the mail was acknowledged by a Union minister of state's office. Hopefully it may result in some discussion/debate on the matter.The mail was sent on December 27th, 2012 and its contents are given below:Dear Gentlemen,Teaching software development skills effectively to current and future generations of Indian Computer Science (CS) and Information Technology (IT) graduates is, in my humble opinion, vital for India's material/economic development. In fact, software has become so pervasive now that software development skills are becoming necessary for graduates of other streams like Bio-sciences/Bioinformatics, Physics, Chemistry, as well as, I presume, most, if not all, engineering streams (Electrical engineering, Civil engineering, Chemical engineering etc.)However the current standards of teaching of software development skills in most of Indian academia are quite unsatisfactory.Google search for?poor software development skills Indian CS graduates?Orimprove software development skills Indian CS graduatesgives my academic paper/article, "Improve the Practice of Software Development in India by Having a Software Development Career Track in Indian CS & IT Academia", as the first result.As you gentlemen are very influential in formulating and implementing higher education and Information Technology policy for the whole of India I felt it appropriate to draw the above Google search results top ranking of my paper for the above terms, to your kind attention. Please note that a friend of mine who lives in the USA confirmed today that Google Search from a USA computer for the above terms gives the same top ranking result for my paper.If you would like to read my paper (latest version dated 21st December 2012) hosted on the ?e-print facility of Cornell University, USA, you may please visit the (currently) top Google search result link for search terms mentioned above or the links given below:Abstract:?[Of course, the Google search results ranking change over time and so my paper may lose its current top ranking for the above mentioned terms. But I presume it will retain this ranking for the next few days, at least.Also note that the short description that comes below the search results has text (date) from the older version of the article but the result link takes one to the latest version of the article.]For your reading convenience, I have also attached to this mail a copy of my paper.Please note that the review remarks for my article by a noted international academic publication focused on CS education and my response to the same are provided in Appendix A of the paper.I felt it appropriate to include the introduction in the Appendix of my paper in this mail itself, below:Appendix AReview Remarks of Noted International Academic Publication and Response of AuthorAfter a lot of consideration the author decided to take the unusual step of sharing review remarks for this article by a noted international academic publication focused on CS education. The editor-in-chief of the publication graciously provided permission to share the valuable review remarks of the knowledgeable reviewers in this appendix. The author thanks him and the publication for this kind gesture.As the author sees it, the stake holders of software education imparted by UGC/AICTE recognised institutions in India are:1.?????Students (& Parents): They invest their time and pay the tuition fees.2.?????Teachers/Academics: They are supposed to be knowledgeable and do the primary task of imparting appropriate knowledge to students.3.?????Employers (Industry): They use the products of the education system (students-turned-graduates) to contribute to economic work and provide a livelihood for these students-turned-graduates.4.?????Funding agencies & regulators, namely MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development, ), UGC & AICTE: They provide the tax payer contributed money for higher education (e.g. as UGC grants) and try to maintain good standards of education. They also look at nationwide issues and society issues like the needs of the country and imparting ethics. Further, they try to promote an environment that will encourage good education (attract good teachers, provide job security to teachers, give students a safe environment, etc.)The author is of the opinion that this article/paper may not be easily accepted in a forum primarily controlled by one of the stakeholders here, namely the teachers/academics, as it is somewhat critical of them even though the criticism is mainly directed at the system rather than the individual academics. But the article/paper may find a lot of acceptance in forums of some of the other stakeholders especially students, parents, industry and perhaps even MHRD.This article went through 2 rounds of review with the noted international academic publication. The first round feedback was incorporated in this version of the article, which is what was submitted for the 2nd round review (except for a minor difference in the title of the article). It was not found suitable for the publication in the 2nd round review though the reviewers had some appreciation for the article.The author views the 2nd round reviewer comments and his response to them as a debate between CS academic viewpoint and industry software developer viewpoint. (The author is not an academic but a software design & development practitioner from the industry who helped out a CS department in an Indian educational institution, a deemed university, to improve the practice of software development in it). He opines that some stakeholders of software education like students, parents and industry practitioners may want to read this debate and that it may contribute to a better understanding of this issue among the public at large. Very importantly, the reviewers provided very knowledgeable comments which contribute significantly to the discourse on the topic. Therefore the author decided to share the review remarks and his response to them in this appendix.--- end extract from Appendix of paper ---If you gentlemen have any comments on my paper, critical or otherwise, I will be glad to know of them. I would like to mention that my intention in putting out this paper (and this mail) is to help Indian CS & IT students learn software development skills well.Thanks & RegardsRavi S. IyerSoftware Consultant--- remainder of email signature snipped --Monday, March 19, 2012Comments on Software Development Career Track PaperNet url: Updated On 26th January 2013Given below are comments I received from Dr. Mark Tarver for my academic paper, "Improve the Practice of Software Development in India by Having a Software Development Career Track in Indian CS & IT Academia" whose preprint version is available on??hosted by Cornell University, USA:?Abstract;?Pdf.March 23rd, 2012Dr. Mark Tarver's Comments on an earlier version of the paper,?Abstract,?PDFDr. Mark Tarver of?, who is also?a former UK CS academic, was kind enough to share his valuable comments on the above paper. He further kindly permitted me to post his comments (and my response) suitably edited for a blog post, here. As I do not have express permission to share his comments using CC-BY license, his comments are excluded from the general CC-BY license applied to this blog post/page.Let me take this opportunity to thank Dr. Tarver for his very frank and very well expressed views in his?articles?on CS academia. These articles and some of?Prof. Bjarne Stroustrup's articles and a few private mail exchanges that an internationally renowned software development practitioner and CS academic kindly had with me, gave me the courage to challenge Indian CS/IT academic mind-set regarding software development practice.Of course, my views may have flaws. Prof. Stroustrup and Dr. Tarver may disagree with part or all of my views. But, in my considered opinion, the situation is so dire in Indian CS/IT academia, in general, that it has almost become dysfunctional! There may be some exceptions, of course, but, in general, in my considered opinion, CS/IT students are getting a very raw deal. CS/IT academia in other countries may also be partly dysfunctional. We urgently need discussion followed by concerted attempts of corrective action to improve life for CS/IT students & employers.Dr. Mark Tarver (MT) wrote: I read your paper with interest; and I agree with the thrust of what you say.Ravi S. Iyer (RI) responded: That is vital input for me. Thanks again.MT: Two points to consider.1. Industry is rarely innovative and trend-setting in terms of practice and computer-language development. Practices linger on in industry due to the costs of adoption long after they are left behind by best academic practice.RI: I tend to agree with your views here, though I do not have wide spread exposure to world wide academia to comment on "best academic practice".MT: Lisp, Prolog, ML were all developed at university. It was industry, not academia, that kept Cobol alive for a long time.RI: Industry marches to the beat of a different drummer, the money making drummer :). I agree.MT: Hence placing the criteria for academic promotion in the hands of commerce is likely to stultify innovation in software practice.RI: Very interesting point. In India, software practice in academia is quite poor. While we do have an Open Source community in India, as far as I know, it is nowhere near the thriving Open Source community that say, the US, has. So, I felt that industry should get involved in the "peer review" in the initial years.Over time, if Indian CS/IT academia itself acquires the capability to "peer review" software development contributions, then industry can be dropped from the "peer review" process. But, as of now, in India, industry is the only community, I think, that can deliver on software development "peer review" for the huge numbers of students that India has.MT: I would say it needs to be put in the hands of the open source community.RI: I think, this would be a wonderful option for countries like the US and UK. And, if it proves itself as a sustainable and successful process, then other countries like India can follow their lead.MT: 2. There is a third class of teacher who is neither productive in terms of writing (commercially significant) code or in writing papers but who is simply an excellent teacher. This sort of person is totally under-served at the moment.RI: I entirely agree. In fact, I have at first hand seen how teaching excellence is neglected. You may want to read my blog post,?CS & IT Academia: Is Teaching Excellence Important?, where I conclude by writing, "I think I am an old school guy who feels that the FIRST and FOREMOST DUTY of a TEACHER is to TEACH and TEACH WELL."Tuesday, June 4, 2013Concrete Suggestions for Measuring Teaching Quality in Practice-Oriented Computer Science/Information Technology streamsNet url: updated on 6th June 2013At the outset, I request the kind indulgence of readers for blowing my own bugle a little, with the intention of substantiating my case.Yesterday I received an email from a recently passed out M.Tech. (Computer Science) student (I don't know if exam results have been declared yet but the student is a high-flyer and will, in all probability, pass). He thanked me for my C++ classes which he felt played a significant role in him clearing a job interview and getting a job offer which he intends to take up.--- Start passed out student message extract ----I must thank you for getting this offer because my interview was solely based on C++ programming and very little of algorithms. Even the latter was with respect to data structures that are part of the C++ STL. Your C++ classes, and at a later stage your slides were of great help to understand the basics of C++. Therefore, I felt this urge within to inform you about this.--- End passed out student message extract ----I would have taught him the C++ course when he was in Ist M.Sc. (Maths) in academic year 2009-10. The department is a Mathematics & Computer Science department. Many of the two year M.Sc. (Maths) program students continue on to do the two year M.Tech. (Computer Science) program. [BTW in March 2012 I parted ways with the above-mentioned department and educational institution.]Now I would not like to comment much on why the tech. interview (as per the student's description) did not cover algorithms in some depth. IMHO, ideally there should have been a balance of questions on both algorithms and the particular programming language skills they are interested in, which was C++ in this case.However, the reality of the situation is that the practical programming skills imparted to the student via the lab. course was instrumental in him clearing the job interview and landing the job. So the teacher concerned would seem to have done a good job and would earn the appreciation of academic administrators.But the way things are run in?UGC/AICTE?regulated educational institutions in India, with accreditation agencies like?NAAC?being powerful forces, good teaching quality like in the above case, are not recorded in any fashion in their evaluation metrics. If I am not mistaken, the teaching quality assessment according to UGC/ACITE norms is supposed to be or can be a self-assessment! Naturally all teachers will be assessed as good or excellent teachers then :-) (unless there are many theory exam failures).The key measure that is recorded is the research publication record. NAAC (the key national accreditation agency for UGC institutions, I believe) seems to be focused mainly on the research publication record of institutions it accredits and grades. So academic administrators have become obsessed with research publication record to ensure that the institutions they administer get a good NAAC rating. This results in a scenario where academic administrators put immense pressure on teachers to publish research papers, and almost ignore promoting excellence in teaching quality.Now, in my special case, I had retired from commercial work in Sept. 2002, and was offering honorary service of teaching lab. courses in a 'deemed' university. I was utterly disinterested in an academic career or in academic research (my designation during my stint was Honorary Staff, Honorary Faculty and finally Visiting Faculty). I was only interested in my spiritual career and part of that involved serving students by teaching them what they needed to know using my knowledge base of 18 years international software industry practitioner experience and also studying new knowledge areas required to teach specific lab. courses allotted to me. So my focus was on excellence in teaching lab. courses. I have had the satisfaction of teaching them to the best of my ability, given the circumstances, and receiving the love and gratitude of the students in return. From a spiritual and ex-software industry practitioner/professional career point of view I consider it to be a very successful stint (9 years) of spiritual and industry-quality service.But from an Indian academic system point of view my question is, will the typical Indian CS/IT academic focus on excellence on teaching lab. courses like the C++ course I taught? IMHO, the clear answer is No (there may be some exceptions, of course - I am talking about the typical Indian CS/IT academic). As his/her bosses are mainly bothered about NAAC grading and UGC/AICTE norms for which the only thing that really matters is research publication record.Further, lab. courses are looked down upon as unimportant courses which can be handled by junior staff like Teaching Assistants or Research Assistants (Research Scholars). The evaluation of lab. courses are very lenient. Rarely is a student failed and many students get the top grade. Theory courses have paper examinations with external evaluation. That is considered far more important in the (UGC/AICTE) Indian academic system. Theory courses have more credit than lab. courses. [If UGC/ACITE publish statistics about failures in CS/IT lab. courses in the institutions they regulate, I am quite sure it will be a miniscule number. However, the failures in CS/IT theory courses will be, I am quite sure, a not insignificant number, in comparison.]This is very strange for a very practice oriented field like Computer Science/Information Technology. As the above freshly passed out student interview example clearly shows, the vital skill that is assessed during typical CS/IT job interviews is the practical skill. Of course, theory is important too and ideally there should be a balance between theory and practice. But, IMHO, an administration policy where the teaching of the practice of software development (lab. courses) is relegated to junior teachers and considered unimportant, is a disastrous education policy for a practice-oriented field like Computer Science/Information Technology.What can we do to rectify the situation? Teaching Quality must be measured even if the measures may have some flaws in it (like the flaws in measuring research contributions). Over time the flaws in measuring teaching quality could be addressed/controlled. I have a few concrete suggestions for measuring teaching quality of lab. courses in Indian (UGC/AICTE) CS/IT academia:1) Teachers who create course material for a course (as against using course material from other sources) should have their course material reviewed by other teachers just like research papers are reviewed. Appropriate credit should be given to teachers whose course material gets a good review. The review may include student assignment submissions including source code, so that reviewers get an idea of how students are benefiting from the course.2) Lab. courses should be evaluated as strictly as theory courses. It should have external examiners like theory courses. There should be no hesitation in failing students who fare poorly in assignment submissions and exams. Administrators should examine lab. course result patterns and compare it with theory course result patterns. Very high success rates in lab. courses contrasted by quite different success rates in theory courses should ring alarm bells and invite investigation. If the teachers concerned are found to have done an overly lenient job of evaluation they should be penalized.Additional suggestions to improve the teaching of the practice of software development, not related to measuring teaching quality, are:a) Lab. course credits should be at least equal to theory course credits. Further, the number of lab. courses should be roughly equal to the number of theory courses. [I believe, the typical current ratio is 4 to 5 theory courses and 2 lab. courses in a semester, with theory courses having 3 credits and lab. courses having 2 credits.]b) The practice of relegating lab. courses to junior teachers must be abandoned. Given the vital importance of practice in CS/IT, senior teachers should teach lab. courses.Initially I had suggested student feedback as one measure of teaching quality, as follows:*) Student feedback about the course should be collected. Industry training institutes heavily use participant feedback to get an idea of the quality of teaching and suggestions for improvement. Academia can learn from them. Yes, there may be some serious concerns like students using it as a weapon against the teacher, and the teacher targeting classes where he/she receives bad feedback. But there surely must be ways to mitigate such issues. Students are the key customers/stakeholders, usually paying customers, of the education system. Teachers in academia must learn to respect this fact and learn to accept criticism from students about their teaching, just like teachers in industry training institutes respect (or are forced to respect) criticism from participants/students of their courses.--- end suggestion ---I received vehement criticism from a US CS academic (over two separate mails which he allowed me to share with others). I have shared below the key parts of the mail exchange:The US CS academic wrote:It may not have occurred to you but some students punish good teachers for being demanding and for not being soft at grading. I have seen the most outrageous *anonymous* student feedback for a professor who caught many cheating. The easiest way for a professor to get a good rating from anonymous feedback is to lower standards and give higher grades.My response was: Oh Lord! While I thought that certainly there were possibilities of students using the anonymous feedback as a weapon against the teacher, I did not know that they actually do go that far. You have the experience of such feedback systems in academia - I don't (though I do have industry feedback experience, which I think is a very different ball game). I am quite shocked to know of this. Hmm.The US CS academic wrote back:Note that anonymous accusations traditionally are absolutely disregarded or in cases even illegal under Western law. Except, it seems for professors. Disgusting.My response (slightly edited to give more clarity) was: Thank you so much for bringing out this aspect so clearly. I think an academic who gets targeted via such anonymous feedback/accusations would go through horrifying emotional torture. He/She would feel there has been no justice, no chance for him/her to prove his/her case.? Hmm.I really need to pause, think hard, and ensure that my blog post does reflect this horrifying abuse possibility. And then explore whether there is a "safe" way to use student-customer feedback as one measure of teaching quality. As of now, I am quite clueless about suggestions on how to prevent abuse of student feedback like the cases you mentioned and how to address/prevent/resolve the 'disgusting' nature of anonymous feedback accusations being considered as a negative measure of teaching quality.Thanks again for the reality-bite.--- end mail exchange extracts ---After learning about the US academic's experience with abuse of anonymous student feedback to punish good teachers I realize that my earlier view that "there surely must be ways to mitigate such issues" may be wrong. I am not so sure any more about ways to prevent or even mitigate such issues in the Indian UGC/AICTE regulated institutions context. [For the 'cheating' example shared above one could ignore feedback from such students but they could influence their student-colleague-friends to give bad feedback.] My experience of teaching in academia is limited to an educational institution with a focus on human and spiritual values where the students were exceptionally well behaved and had tremendous respect for their teachers. Perhaps there is a very real possibility of such abuse of anonymous student feedback to punish good teachers in some other Indian educational institutions.Direct (non-anonymous) student feedback used as a measure of teaching quality, when negative, has the possibility of seriously damaging the human relationship between student and teacher. So I don't think that can be considered.Therefore I withdraw the suggestion of using student feedback as a measure of teaching quality.2 comments:Ravi S. Iyer, June 6, 2013 at 9:04 PMShankar Balasubramanian wrote over email:It is definitely true that using student feedback to measure teaching quality of an individual could be biased due to (mis) understanding of students, who may be a bit immature in judging the quality of teaching recd.Its also determined by peer influence or just to have fun as a prank in belittling the teacher without realising gravity of their deed.Our Scriptures treat Guru / Teacher as GOD, Matru Devo Bhava, Pitru Devo Bhava, Acharya Devo Bhava and all divine personalities have always shown to common man that by revering their Guru, the students achieve success in all aspects of their life.But feedback when given in a matured way can give assessment of quality of teaching of an institution. Its like a 360 degree appraisal in Management Parlance. It will also be an indicator to the teacher on what the students expect when they receive the lessons.So maturity on part of both teacher and the taught will help in assessing the quality through a good feedback.Ravi S. Iyer, June 6, 2013 at 9:15 PMThanks for the comment, Shankar. I think your view has some valid points, for sure. But if abuse cannot be prevented then using it for assessing teaching quality of teachers is very risky.However, using the feedback informally is a different matter. I believe teachers in UGC/AICTE universities are free to do so. But it will not reflect in their appraisal. So only interested teachers will go that far - BTW I regularly collected feedback from my lab. course students in an informal fashion, and that feedback did help me in ways similar to some of the points you mentioned in your comments.Tuesday, September 13, 2011CS & IT Academia: Serious Systemic Problems?Net url: Updated On January 28th 2012The unfortunate reality of the vast number of CS & IT departments of universities & colleges in the country is that the Professors of these departments are strong in theory and research publications but not so strong in practical areas like Software Design and Programming or Coding. Naturally the students graduating out of CS & IT academia also end up having somewhat strong theoretical and research-oriented skills but being weak in Software Design and Programming.But the biggest employer for CS & IT graduates is the software industry which mainly needs strong software design and programming skills. Yes, there are some industry research jobs too where research orientation would be very useful but such jobs are very few.Most parents want their children to get a good industry job after they finish their CS & IT education. They get shocked when their children even after graduating/post-graduating with a B.E./B.Tech./BCA/M.Tech./MCA do not land a job. The reality is that campus recruitment is the main mechanism though which ‘freshers’ get jobs. Otherwise it is very tough for a CS & IT stream graduate to get a job!Why is that? Is there not enough demand for CS & IT skills? Well, the problem is that most of the ‘fresh’ graduates simply do not have the skills to do software programming jobs. The large software companies put the ‘freshers’ through intensive in-house training before they are deployed on ‘live’ projects.The ‘freshers’ who fail to get recruited at campus, many times, pay through their noses and go through an additional private i.e. not government recognized, “job oriented” training course which gives them “job oriented” skill set. But should not CS & IT academia provide that? That is what parents and students expect. Even common people expect that an M.Tech. in CS/IT or an MCA fresher will be able to straight away do programming tasks.The reason lies in policies adopted by AICTE/UGC which are the vital academic regulatory agencies of the country. The primary factor for the career growth of any academician lies in his/her research work measured in terms of research publications. The CS & IT academician naturally has to focus on research to enhance his career. If he focuses on programming then he may stagnate. And so, in general, the teachers themselves neglect programming in favour of research. When the teacher himself does not focus on programming how will the students learn programming well? The system instead encourages the students also to do research and discourages too much interest in programming!So is there any solution? There should be policy changes which will encourage CS & IT academicians to grow in software design and programming. For such changes to come AICTE/UGC MUST have significant industry representation. As of now AICTE/UGC policy makers seem to be research oriented Professors with limited exposure to software industry’s engineering needs.But will AICTE/UGC be willing to listen to such words? In all probability the research oriented Professors will look down upon such views. So what do we common folk, non Professors, do? Well, we should approach the Ministry of Human Resources & Development (MHRD). We common folk pay taxes and it is OUR TAX MONEY which MHRD gives to AICTE/UGC and which flows down to universities and colleges. MHRD is answerable to the TAX PAYER and is answerable to the parents and students about why most, but not all, CS & IT graduates are weak in practical design and programming skills.MHRD should insist that AICTE/UGC policy making bodies MUST have significant software industry representation. MHRD should ensure that AICTE/UGC norms for career growth for CS & IT academicians give a growth path where software design & coding expertise is given as much importance as research publications. Perhaps AICTE/UGC rules should be changed to allow non-research-oriented software engineering professionals from industry to become university teachers.This problem is not peculiar to India alone. U.S. academia too has significant problems. Here is the world-famous Inventor of C++, Prof. Bjarne Stroustrup’s article in the reputed “Communications of the ACM” publication on changes needed in CS education:?What Should We Teach New Software Developers? Why?Prof. Bjarne Stroustrup is a Distinguished Professor & holder of College of Engineering Chair in Computer Science at Texas A&M University. He is an ACM fellow as well as an IEEE fellow. For more details, see:? comments:Eklavya Sai Maalik, September 17, 2011 at 12:04 PMOne comment I received today over email was:The disconnect between industry and academia exists in almost all trades- not just on CS. It seems, this is the major shortcoming of Indian education.--I (Eklavya Sai) think that it is really acute in the case of CS & IT. There is a huge "job oriented" private (not government recognised) IT training institute industry in India. I don't think we have anything similar in scale for, say, Mechanical Engineering or Electrical Engineering.I am sure most of us would know of many cases of CS/IT graduates doing private "job oriented" courses after graduation, to land a job. But it may help readers of this blog post if I illustrate the matter with a couple of cases.a) Recently an MCA fresher from Kerala was telling me that many of his colleagues including him are struggling to get a job. Note that his MCA was a 9 semester one (4.5 years) after he finished his B.Sc.! Each semester fees was around Rs. 6,500/- I am told.But one student did a 3 month "job oriented" course, after his MCA, paying Rs. 30,000/-. The MCA fresher I spoke to put it well saying that the 30,000/- paid was fine even if it was for 3 months only BECAUSE THE STUDENT GOT A JOB!!He then told me that during interviews he is asked questions like do you have experience with PHP frameworks (one IT technology example). Unfortunately he has only done a PHP/mySQL mini-project without using any framework. He then told me that while doing his MCA course, for electives they were offered courses like Speech Processing and Finite Automata (or something like that). They asked the teachers whether they could do something like PHP frameworks course - the teachers said that course is not offered as elective! Please note that this is for an M.C.A. (Master of Computer Applications) course and not an M.Tech. (Computer Science) course.I think the reason for poor technology hands-on courses in government (AICTE/UGC) recognised CS/IT academia is the seemingly blinkered research only mind-set of AICTE/UGC policy makers. Their influence on the university teachers is MASSIVE. I am not blaming the teachers. What can they do if their top masters provide career growth only through research?I asked the MCA fresher whether it would have been better for him to have done a "job oriented" IT course in a private (non government recognised) training institute after his B.Sc. instead of his M.C.A. He agreed that it would have been a better option from the point of view of getting a job!!! He probably would have been a 3.5 year experienced IT professional now with a significant bank balance instead of still being an IT job seeker!b) Some time ago a B.Tech./B.E. in Computer Engg. or something like that from a Hyderabad Engg. college was struggling to get a job. He too followed the same route. i.e. He paid through his nose for a "job oriented" course in Hyderabad again and then, if I recall correctly, landed a job.So, in conclusion, while there may be an industry-academia disconnect in most streams (trades), I feel that in CS/IT the disconnect is really glaring.Eklavya Sai Maalik, September 21, 2011 at 12:38 PMA friend sent this link: article!My take is that there should be differentiation. IT schools and CS schools.Java or PHP or & Rapid Appl. Dev. tools in general, IMHO, are perfect for IT work. In my industry days we would call it Application Software and at that time people used to say that 80 % of programming work/business is Application software. While developing App. software, understanding and fulfilling customer needs is the most important - efficiency of code is required but not that vital. So one needs app. domain knowledge (e.g. banking, insurance, manufacturing etc.) to some extent. Then all you want is a tool that allows you to quickly develop the app. - the simpler the tool the better - so long as it does not compromise too much on efficiency and maintenance (lifetime of software). I am now quickly learning the PHP framework CodeIgniter with the same mindset - I am picking up just what I need to know to generate a simple database form oriented web app.Pointers, Recursion ... are VITAL for a Computer Science (CS) course. During my industry days we would call CS kind of stuff as "system software" and this was around 20% of the programming work/business. The CS/Sys. software guys are the ELITE. Their earnings are also typically far more than the application software guys. They develop the core systems or tools on top of which IT/application software guys work. So the OS and the compilers/interpreters and the internet protocols will typically be done by the CS guys. The IT guys do the business apps. on top of it.I agree with the author that Java is not a good choice for a CS course.However, many times students/colleges/universities have this massive problem of jobs after they finish their courses. The smart guys have the capacity to do pointers & recursion. But many of the students are not that smart. So they struggle through such courses and either get 'weeded out' or worse, as is typical in India, somehow manage to finish with a CS degree but without the CS aptitude. The latter struggle to get a job. They don't know any IT to get IT jobs (unless they get swept in during 'bulk intake' campus interviews of major IT software consultancy companies) and are not good enough in CS to get system software jobs.I think it is these realities of jobs for the students that makes many CS schools, at least in India, have some IT courses as well.The elite tech. schools like an IIT in India, for example, don't need to worry about such things as they get capable students to start with.Eklavya Sai Maalik, September 22, 2011 at 9:40 PMA friend wrote (some words are edited):- Paul Graham has written eloquently about this: really should read these, despite the length -- they are worth every word.- This is part of the reason I did not do a PhD - the goal of academia seems to be publishing papers, or at any rate things that sound suitably academic and formal. Type systems, for example, are a good topic for academics, because you can do any amount of intellectual gymnastics about them. So, if A is the set of all integers and B is the set of all chars, struct { int x; char y;} takes on values represented by the set A x B (cross product, the math operator).I remember arguing with an IIT prof about this, asking: this is all fine, but how does it help me write better programs? He didn't have an answer, but he didn't care -- for him, "formal" is an end to itself. --- snip ---(Unrelated to the above) In my last week of stay at IIT, as I was sitting in my advisor's office with the bookshelves containing all the previous years PHd and Mtech thesis impressively bound and looking like a formidable intellectual arsenal, I was depressed. Who is going to read all this? Whereas the Orkut app I worked on at Google that had 1 lakh users may not win me a Turing Award. But it lets people keep in touch with their girlfriends and boyfriends! Did all this theoretical gymnastics help a single person in any concrete way?In other words, the motivations of CS academia are wrong. When that is the case, is there any surprise if the results are not ideal? --- snip ---People sometimes say that industry is where you do routine work and academia is where you learn and build knowledge for the next generation of systems. Except that there's a lot of dog work in academia, too, at least to the tiny degree that I'm aware of academia. My MTech thesis involved building a different kind of debugger for an academic language called Haskell. This language has some impressive properties, for sure, and it was good to be exposed to that way of thinking, but the debugger I built is more of routine work than any kind of invention or research or original contribution to the world.Perhaps it would be more useful if you can take one idea from Haskell and apply it to mainstream languages. Useful in the sense that it helps people. If I build a more efficient and cheaper solar panel but nobody uses it, whom does it help?--- end part 1 of Friend's comment --Eklavya Sai Maalik, September 22, 2011 at 9:41 PM--- start part 2 of friend's comment ---You often get good things by combining existing ideas in a slightly different way, but academia looks down on this kind of work. The kind of work I'd like to do is to look at what people use and ask, "how can I improve this?" This most likely entails using an existing idea rather than coming up with a new one, just as a painter uses existing colors in a new way rather than producing a tube of paint in a different shade.Academia focuses on coming up with something new, rather than something useful. If you look at the status quo and come up with an idea on how to improve it, is the idea any less useful if it wasn't original? Coming up with new ideas should be a means to an end (improve the technology that people use), but academia made it an end to itself.I think I've finally understood -- at least partially -- what people mean by the disconnect between industry and academia. But in my view, the fault lies with academia, which has confused its means for its ends.To summarize, academia focuses on things that are (a) formal and (b) original while forgetting what really matters, which is whether it's useful.- Masters should be only for people who have worked for a few years. A student should first learn how things are done before taking an advanced course (Mtech) or doing research.- A different kind of innovation from core OS is interfaces. I get irritated when I read an article saying "the iPad doesn't do anything that my Unix workstation in the early 80s didn't". Did your Unix workstation have more than a hundred million users who are repelled by the fact that traditional computers are too complex and don't work right in ways that people care about? It's easy to forget this since we're all geeks, but spending a little time with my mom is enough. I can suddenly see how badly designed things are from her perspective.This is the most interesting thing at work. Who knows, I might even make it the focus of my career.- Leaving aside theory for the sake of theory, I think a good education should equip people with a deep understanding of how computers work, at all levels of the stack -- why something is done in a particular way at one level of the stack, how else it could have been done, what the tradeoffs are, etc. Most BTech/MCA people don't have this knowledge.Nor do they care. They are more interested in getting a job. Which is fine, but I have no sympathy for these people. Didn't get a job? Tough luck, you weren't interested enough in learning computer science. And I certainly have no sympathy for CS depts that don't give students the kind of deep knowledge that I'm talking about.- I understand that the MCA student you mentioned in the comment was not well served by the MCA. Agreed. But why couldn't the student answer, "did you use PHP?" with "No, but I used Ruby on Rails, and CherryPy, and Closure, and a similar Java framework, and one or two templating languages, so I can pick up PHP before the day is out"?To me the fault is as much with the student as the department. Anybody can point fingers and say, "but they didn't teach me!". That's not useful. Anybody who's interested in learning will find a way to learn, rather than blaming someone else, even if the other party is at fault.Phew! :)Eklavya Sai Maalik, September 22, 2011 at 9:43 PMI (Eklavya Sai) replied:Thank you for your valuable views.Will read the Paul Graham articles later - they are opened in another window (like the Stroustrup article on your comp. :-)).You wrote, "This is part of the reason I did not do a PhD - the goal of academia seems to be publishing papers, or at any rate things that sound suitably academic and formal."That is how it comes across, isn't it? Actually the goal of academia should be to teach!!! And there are many academicians, I think, who focus on that. But for academic career growth publishing record is the metric. I mean, I have heard academicians being referred to as 'he has published 400 papers', which is supposed to mean that he is a great academic.I think this is a systemic issue for academia - especially Indian academia which is governed at the top-level by AICTE/UGC/Ministry of Human Resources & Development. They put out the 'norms' for recruitment and promotion of Indian academicians. For example, see think their problem is how do they compare one academician with another? They probably find it very difficult to come up with a country-wide, standardized & objective measure of how good a teacher one academician is compared to another. So, they probably ignore the teaching capability of the academician and lay emphasis on what they can easily measure which is the research publication output - both quantity and quality - of the academician. [For quality, I am given to understand that UGC uses impact factor ].And this career growth measure naturally is a MASSIVE influence on the academic community. I mean, they are also human and would want more money and status. So the system, IMHO, encourages the academician to concentrate less on his/her teaching and focus instead on his/her research publication output.Now I am not against academic research. Research is vital for society and academic research makes vital contributions to material progress of society. But my view is that there should be a proper balance between teaching and research in a University teacher. A further, perhaps, very radical view is that some academic teachers should be given the option to be only teachers and not researchers.--- end part 1 of Eklavya Sai response ---Eklavya Sai Maalik, September 22, 2011 at 9:47 PM---- start part 2 of Eklavya Sai response ---You wrote, "To summarize, academia focuses on things that are (a) formal and (b) original while forgetting what really matters, which is whether it's useful."I can fully empathise with you when you wrote, prior to the summary, about how you were interested in doing something that people find useful (Orkut for e.g.). My thinking is the same and that is why I have chosen not to get involved in research focused on only producing research publications.But then I respect the choice of academicians to do research. Their life and their choice. And, IMHO, as I said earlier, academic research does have a vital role in society.I don't think I agree with your generalization that academia focuses on things that are original but ignores whether it is useful. Academic freedom allows academicians, as I understand it, to pursue whatever they want irrespective of whether what they are doing will be useful or not (many times the utility aspects are discovered later on). So some academicians choose to be pure theoreticians and stay distant from applications of that knowledge.But many academicians choose to work on applied areas and there are many journals with significant impact factors which focus on such 'applied research' work. In fact, I feel some journals on topics like 'Technology for Education' look like 'research & development journals' as against a pure 'research only - no development' journal. See: & ELITE academia like an IIS (Indian Institute of Science) or some sections in a CS dept. in an IIT choose to focus on 'higher intellectual complexity' 'pure research' areas. Sometimes I feel it is almost like a religious monk's quest for 'purity' - pure intellectual quest of a particular knowledge area untainted by application of that knowledge area to society. But there are lots of other academic institutions in CS & IT which focus on 'applied research' areas which are aimed to doing something useful to society.Eklavya Sai Maalik, September 22, 2011 at 9:47 PM--- start part 3 of Eklavya Sai response ---I wholeheartedly agree with your comment about iPad vs. Unix workstation. "Did your Unix workstation have more than a hundred million users who are repelled by the fact that traditional computers are too complex and don't work right in ways that people care about?" Having come from a generation where I have been dazzled when I was a young techie, by the power and attractive UI of the Unix workstation as compared to the dumb terminals of mini-computers & mainframes, I was completely bowled over by my iPod Touch a year or so ago.My God! What a revolution in making computing devices so intuitive and so useful and so powerful! Wow!! Hats Off to Apple. Haven't tried out an iPad yet but I can imagine what a winner it will be for your Mom and millions or should I say potentially billions of people as compared to even the most powerful Unix workstation that money can buy today.About the MCA student who should have learnt Ruby on Rails or CherryPy or ... by himself - well, what I have realized as a teacher in academia, who, btw, focused only on teaching and ignored research, is that only a few smart and motivated students have the ability to do self-learning. Most need to be taught by a teacher. That is why parents spend money and send their students to university. I mean, if the student is smart enough to learn by himself why should he come to college to learn? [Of course, he may come to/ be sent to college for the experience of college life which has its own importance.]You perhaps do not have a teacher's view. Typically, it is once you take on that huge burden of teaching some knowledge to others that you experience the wide difference in intellect and grasping ability among students. My experience is that it is quite easy to teach standard stuff to a smart student - the real challenge is to motivate and impart knowledge to the average student.Rajendra S. Chittar, September 23, 2011 at 2:13 PMYes, in principle, I agree with you - we do have a serious gap. Having had fingers deep in both significant research and commercial software development (programming/design) - and also applying my research to commercial problems - has been very satisfying and the basis for my views. I feel it is perfectly possible to maintain a balance between both theory and practice - after all - what one practices is better if it is based on solid theory. A good theory is eminently practical. And all of programming and design has a good lot of solid theory at its foundation.But what I have seen of the Indian industry in the last few years (decade+) is that solid programming skills are NOT needed in most industry jobs. What is needed is mostly screen design and manipulations of simple web widgets like Dialog boxes, tree-lists etc. Hence, the industry does not even demand solid programming skills.Also, what I have encountered mostly is a kind of language bias - knowing to syntactically manipulate C++ or Java or Swing or what not - is considered sufficient. I meet a lot of freshers who are too keen to demonstrate their knowledge of these areas - but when it comes to demonstrating a solid algorithm or two in their chosen field, they go bonkers.Algorithm design - independent of the language - is a key skill that is certainly missing from the repertoire of current software engineers. All that most do is talk of Multi-threaded-Programming etc - and yet ask them to write programs from K&R C - they miserably fail. It is imperative that this algorithm design skill is taught - in a language independent way - and then implemented in a language of one's choice. And it is here that solid theory - turing machines etc - comes in as a strong foundation - along with results of computational complexity.With hardware available far more cheaper than in our times - there is a strong tendency to increase "Performance" by adding a couple of more CPUs or Threads. And that is at the cost of a good algorithm. This also increases overall cost to the customers. A solid course in Computational complexity - will save millions in terms of money and time - and get better performing products. I have been successful at retraining talented freshers so far in getting them to understand the theory and apply it to develop robust commercial software (hardcore programming) - Defect-free programming by Design rather than by testing - and also do solid research in parallel, commercialise it and patent it. This for me is the proof of the pudding of balance.Eklavya Sai Maalik, September 24, 2011 at 1:03 AMEklavya Sai's response to above comment by Rajendra Chittar exceeded 4096 characters and so is posted separately here: CS & IT Academia: How to Teach Programming?Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 3, 2011 at 3:57 PMLong discussion spawned as a child post: CS & IT Academia: Research vs. TeachingTuesday, November 8, 2011CS & IT Academia: How To Relieve Suffering of Students, Parents and EmployersNet url: think it is universally known that Indian CS & IT academia has very poor software development skill set - as its focus is on theory and research publication skill set.?Who is suffering due to this lack of software development skill in CS & IT academia? Is it the CS & IT academics? No, not at all. As their promotions are based on research publications and not on software contributions.?The people who suffer are students, parents and employers. The software industry suffers and so the economy of India where software is a very important component, suffers. In fact, software is so pervasive in all fields today that all the industries needing software skill set suffer and not the software industry alone. In general, I think I can say that almost everybody is suffering due to this lack of software development skill set in CS & IT academia.But are the CS & IT academics to blame? No, not at all. They are human beings like all of us. The academic system gives far more importance to research publications instead of software contributions and so they naturally focus on research publications. It typically would be a wrong decision career wise for a CS & IT academic to focus on software contributions - that is the plain and unvarnished TRUTH. Once the CS & IT academic system changes, the problem will get solved. As simple as that, IMHO.Prof. S.S. Mantha, the AICTE chairman is a mechanical engineer by training but is also a software specialist! See:?. He has implemented e-Governance projects, provided IT expertise for IT initiatives of several departments of the Govt. of Maharashtra, and is currently the IT Expert for the Department of IT, Government of Maharashtra. He also has co-authored a book on C++ Programming (Prof. Stroustrup created the C++ programming language). So Prof. S.S. Mantha, a professor of Mechanical Engineering, seems to have a software contribution record which most CS & IT professors in the country will not be able to match!!! As the CS & IT professors focus on research publications instead of software contributions due to lack of significant rewards/recognition in academia for software development work.Further Prof. Mantha does not seem to have any academic qualifications for CS & IT. He seems to be self-taught in software. And he is not alone in that regard. Here are some well known self-taught software preeminent people:a) The Late Steve Jobs, perhaps the most famous computer technologist today, known for the iPod, iPhone and the iPad amongst other things.??[Steve Jobs was far more into hardware but did have software knowledge too.]b) Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and famous philanthropist. Fortune recently listed him as the fifth most powerful person in the world?. Here is his wiki:?) Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. He is only 27 years old now and Fortune recently listed him as the ninth most powerful person in the world?. Here is his wiki:? the three persons above dropped out of college before finishing their graduation. But they developed / were instrumental in developing very significant software which had a MASSIVE IMPACT on the world. I am quite sure their research publication record, if any, will not be great. So we can conclude that the software contribution/development skill set is a very different skill set from a CS & IT research publication skill set.I think it is clear that for the dire situation to improve, CS & IT teachers must become experts in software development and have significant software contributions. Otherwise how will they be able to capably teach software development skills to CS & IT students? And for that to happen, IMHO, AICTE/UGC regulations should have two simple changes:a) Provide promotion incentive for CS & IT teachers based on software contribution record as well as research publication record. The software contribution record should be given as much importance as research publication record.b) Make it mandatory for CS & IT departments to show software contribution record as well as research publication record of all CS & IT teachers on its website so that prospective students and their parents, and prospective employers can make well informed choices about which college/university to join/recruit from.?Currently AICTE/UGC may be following a "one size fits all" policy with same recruitment and promotion norms for all branches of science, engineering, commerce & humanities/arts. CS & IT are very different areas with explosive growth in knowledge and in applications of that knowledge across almost every aspect of life like life-saving surgical equipment, technology enhanced education, business process workflows, e-Governance, home entertainment etc. Software Development has become an inter-disciplinary skill set with almost all branches of science, engineering, commerce as well as humanities having a need for it at some level. E.g. Language learning software is quite popular to teach/learn English.Given this background AICTE/UGC must treat the practice oriented CS & IT branches differently from other branches like Mathematics or Physics.I think it is high time AICTE/UGC change CS & IT academic regulations to provide promotion incentive for software contribution (development). Otherwise CS & IT students, parents of those students and huge number of employers needing software skilled professionals will continue to suffer. Note that the employers are not limited to software industry as software has permeated almost all walks of life today and so software skill set is needed in all kinds of industries and offices.So I think I can say that the entire country will continue to suffer unless AICTE/UGC act.Friday, November 4, 2011CS & IT Academia: Inform Students About Software Contribution Record of FacultyNet url: Updated On 8th Nov. 2011Some of the proposals I have outlined in previous blog posts may have some implementation challenges, even if the proposals are found interesting by CS & IT academic administrators.Here is a simple and, IMHO, easily implementable proposal to improve software development skills in CS & IT academia.AICTE & UGC should make it mandatory for CS & IT departments to put up the software contribution (development) record of each faculty on its website. Now, typically, only the research interests and, possibly, research publication record of the faculty are put up.The software contribution record could have following information for each software contribution:Short description of the software including development platform (Operating System, Software tools used etc.)If the software is free or open source then a download link from where the software & documentation can be downloaded and used/verified by anybody.If the software is proprietary then a link to the website of the company for which the software was developed where the software details are mentioned. Ideally that page should have a credits menu/link which should list the faculty as a contributor.Role faculty played - Architect, Requirements Analyst, Designer, Developer, Tester etc.Duration of involvement of faculty with the software development.Besides such individual faculty software contribution record, a consolidated department software contribution record should also be put on the website.Such information would allow students, parents and employers to get some idea of the software development skills of the faculty & department besides the research skills.If a CS / IT department has only research publication record with very limited or no software contribution record then students, parents and employers who are interested in software development skill set can make an informed choice to not study in/recruit from that department. Instead students, parents and employers who are interested in research can make an informed choice to study in/recruit from that department.Okay, but how will this proposal improve software development skills in CS & IT academia? Well, the reality is that the overwhelming majority of students, parents & employers are interested in software development skills. So CS & IT departments which have zero or limited software contribution record will, over time, lose out to CS & IT departments which have a good software contribution record. That will motivate CS & IT academia to improve its software development skills.6 comments:Unknown, November 6, 2011 at 2:17 AMMy comments are based on limited experience. I have done my M.Tech in CS from a deemed University, worked for 3 years in a software product development multi-national firm and currently pursuing my PhD in CS in the area of Machine Learning and Computer Vision at Arizona State University.I think this is a good idea but it will be a while before it sees the light of the day. I say this because:1) I imagine there will be few people who will root for this. Having a paper publication-record has benefits that are immediate but a software publication-record does not show immediate benefits. In fact, academia may be loathe to sharing its intellectual property with seemingly few benefits.2) There is, in most cases, little software of quality that comes out of academic institutions. Unlike in the US, Indian academia does not emphasize or pride itself on quality software. Apart from a handful institutions, most colleges/Universities will have little to show in terms of software in comparison with paper publications.3) Professors perhaps believe they get more from their students publishing papers than if they were to write splendid software.4) The companies that hire know they can turn a Chemical/Civil Engineer into a IT professional. They care very less about the degree, its just a license to apply for an IT job. The students in turn know they will get the job and can keep it with little effort and they need not have to be really good programmers coming out from college. They can pick it up on the job because the companies don't expect them to know it all.IMHO, at the root of it all is the incorrect assumption that academic professors can teach IT. It is like a teacher of Biology trying to teach surgery. There may be a lot in common but the differences cannot be bridged either. The solution to this problem may not lie entirely with academia. It rather requires a marriage of academia and the industry. Just like it is mandatory for doctors to practice in rural areas, IT professionals must spend time with academia. The government should enforce such commitments from the software industry.Please note again, the comments above are my perceptions which have been gathered from having observed how academia works and also from having been associated with the software industry for a while.HemanthEklavya Sai Maalik, November 7, 2011 at 2:47 PMThanks Hemanth for your views.You wrote, "The companies that hire know they can turn a Chemical/Civil Engineer into a IT professional". IMHO, companies take on the burden of education of freshers because of CS & IT academia's failure to teach them practical skills (design & code) properly. If companies had a choice of freshers who are industry-ready software professionals they will surely opt for them as then they will save the costs of company-paid-education.You wrote, "The students in turn know they will get the job and can keep it with little effort and they need not have to be really good programmers coming out from college." Do all CS & IT students get a job so easily? Can software professionals in all companies keep their jobs with little effort? Is it so simple? I feel there are plenty of software industry jobs which need very good design & code skills. Further it takes significant effort to create good software.You wrote, "Just like it is mandatory for doctors to practice in rural areas, IT professionals must spend time with academia. The government should enforce such commitments from the software industry." Force does not work in a democracy. And, thank God for democrcacy. Indian CS & IT Academia which must be receiving significant amount of tax payer money, must make efforts to welcome software industry professionals to teach. Unfortunately AICTE/UGC regulations for recruitment and promotion of teaching staff are such that industry expertise is not given any real importance unless the person has a PhD. So it is very hard for non-PhD industry professionals to consider changing their career from industry to academia. Without a PhD they can join only as an Asst. Professor which is the entry level. A person with significant industry experience would feel odd to be clubbed with entry level teachers. He/she would expect to be appointed as an Assoc. Professor. That needs a PhD. Once again, the academic "PhD club" mindset comes into play.Eklavya Sai Maalik, November 8, 2011 at 5:52 PMBased on feedback, changed "software publication record" term in the post to "software contribution record".Eklavya Sai Maalik, November 8, 2011 at 7:38 PMAn email exchange with a friend on this post is captured here: CS & IT Academia: Profs. May Not Like Idea of Software Contribution RecordEklavya Sai Maalik, November 8, 2011 at 8:20 PMAn email exchange with another friend on this post is captured here: US CS & IT Academia: Usually TAs/RAs Teach Programming.Eklavya Sai Maalik, November 8, 2011 at 10:42 PMAn email exchange with yet another friend on this post is captured here: CS & IT Academia: Should 'Customize' Instead of 'Build' be Taught?Monday, April 7, 2014Publicly Funded Higher Education Institutions should put up Detailed Course contents on the InternetNet url: updated on 8th April 2014Given below is an email that I plan to send shortly to top persons associated with Indian academic/higher education funding, oversight and administration. [Update: Mail sent on 7th April 2014.]Dear sir/madam,In the computer science/information technology (CS/IT) academic field some US universities have done an outstanding public service by making available freely on the Internet the following for their courses:Course structureCourse book(s) - if the course is based primarily on it/themReference books and other resources, if anyTeaching material (could be prepared by the faculty or be a re-use of external publicly available material with clear attribution or as an external link)AssignmentsHere is an example of such detailed course content: Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment -? a teacher of over ten different computer programming (lab.) courses (as honorary staff/honorary faculty/visiting faculty) in a deemed university in Andhra Pradesh, India from 2003 to 2011, I found such course content to be very useful and was inspired by such examples and tried to, whenever I could, do the same for my courses on the university Intranet. [Now I am in the process of putting up the course material of most of these courses on the Internet here: , just in case it may be of use to others on the Internet.]It seems to me that most CS/IT departments of Indian higher educational institutions generally do not follow such a practice. Some have course content pages (e.g. some of the IITs) but the information contained is minimal and does not come close to what I have mentioned above about some US university course pages. Yes, we have NPTEL,?, but that is a single national level portal which may find it difficult to accommodate various types of teaching methodologies and levels of rigour across the huge variety of educational institutions in the country.Given this situation, I have a suggestion that publicly funded higher educational institutions in India should strongly encourage the faculty of these institutions in CS/IT departments and other departments as well to put up their course material in detail on their institution website so that it becomes available to any interested person in India (and abroad) over the Internet. I think it will be a wonderful return to the public on public money investment in publicly funded higher educational institutions of India. University assessment organizations like?NAAC?and?NBA?as well as prospective students (and their parents) can then look up these course pages to get some idea of the methodology and rigour used by the faculty to teach these courses.As of now, it is extremely difficult for outsiders including prospective students (and parents) as well as, I presume, university assessment organizations like NAAC and NBA to get a decent feel of teaching standards in most Indian higher education institutions. This sort of transparency and accountability for teaching duties of faculty especially in publicly funded higher educational institutions of India may do wonders for improving the teaching standards of higher education in India.RegardsRavi S. IyerSoftware Consultant---rest of email signature snipped----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[Mail update (below) sent on 8th April 2014]A couple of clarifications:1. By publicly funded higher education institutions I mean government (tax payer) funded higher education institutions.2. The last sentence of the main body of the previous mail would be better expressed as follows: The above mentioned suggestion (faculty putting up detailed course material on the Internet) may result in the sort of transparency and accountability for teaching duties of faculty especially in publicly funded higher educational institutions of India that may do wonders for improving the teaching standards of higher education in India.Thursday, January 19, 2012Holistically Elite CS/IT Education vs. Technically Elite CS/IT EducationNet url: Updated On January 21st 2012A holistic, service to society view would favour CS/IT education which combines technical know-how with application of this technical know-how to current socially relevant problems especially rural Indian society's problems as they are the most needy section of the country. Students who are taught in this fashion will have technical know-how and also experience the joy of serving the needy through CS/IT and earning their love. Such students may, later on in life, not only flourish commercially in industry or in academia but also contribute back to society, especially its needy, through software solving its problems, thereby leading to inclusive and harmonious growth of the community at large.Some of the points touched upon in this post are general to higher education and not specific to CS/IT. But I am qualified by industry work & teaching experience and academic lab course teaching & projects' consultant experience only in CS/IT. So I make specific suggestions mainly about the CS/IT academic stream. I would also like to state that CS/IT being an applied field may have direct service to society application possibilities as well as research possibilities. Pure science fields like Physics, Chemistry, Bio-sciences or Mathematics may contribute via fundamental research. I do not have significant knowledge about these fields to comment on them. But by no means am I implying that their fundamental research contributions are "any lesser" in service to society than applied CS/IT software development contributions or CS/IT research contributions.For CS/IT students to develop such a country-citizen/world-citizen, broad-minded outlook some time has to be devoted to teaching them application of human values/ethical values/spiritual values to CS/IT field. Some, perhaps most, educational institutions may prefer to be secular and not get involved with spirituality/religion but will certainly want to promote moral/human/ethical values. The financial system challenges that are threatening Europe, US and the world in general has its roots in grossly unethical & immoral actions of the financial system elite. The brunt of the suffering is not borne by the financial system elite who caused the problem in the first place but by the poor commoners who were taken for a royal ride by the financial system elite. So I think that all educational institutions, whether secular only or a combination of secular+spiritual, will agree that for the betterment of the world, education in moral/human/ethical values is urgently needed, especially at higher education levels, as it is the lack of these values in the "highly educated" financial system elite which has brought the global financial system and the global community in general to such a precarious state.But some educational institutions focus on pursuing excellence in specialized fields only and achieve fame in those specialized fields. It is these "elite" institutions that are revered by society today and almost every other educational institution tries to emulate them. I learned a new term the other day, "Ivy League Envy", from this Economist, Dec. 10th 2011, article, Schumpeter - University challenge:?. The students from these "elite" institutions typically get the highest-paid fresher jobs in their area of specialization. Money earned by students and not their contribution to society, especially its poor, is the typical measure of success for most of the freshly passed out students and their parents. In India, for the CS/IT field, it is the IITs & now, probably, the IIITs which fall in this "elite" category.In my view, these are "elite" from a speciality-excellence point of view only. There are other educational institutions which are "holistically elite" giving the "right", in my humble opinion :), balance of speciality-knowledge & human values knowledge.I guess there will always be hallowed portals of "elite" education both at material/secular levels [MIT, Harvard, Oxford, IITs etc.] and at spiritual levels [Elite institutions among Christian seminaries, Muslim Madrasas, Jewish seminaries, Buddhist monasteries, Hindu monasteries etc.]A few educational institutions go for a combination of spiritual/moral/ethical, cultural, sports & 'secular' education as they want to give both an education for life (truthful, ethical, peaceful and loving way of life - moral/ethical/spiritual life) & an education for a living (material life). These holistic educational institutions cannot aim for the same level of excellence in secular education like that of the elite secular only educational institutions. But it must be noted that they achieve excellence by holistic standards and so become a hot destination for parents & students desiring holistic education. So they are "holistically elite" as against being "secular only elite".But some parents and students may want to avoid any value based education, especially at higher education levels like CS/IT graduate/post-graduate level. There should be NO compulsion. Such parents & students can steer clear of value-based educational institutions. Anyway, as of today, value-based higher education institutions are a very small minority.Another vital factor is the "big paycheque" motivation for students & parents. The "holistically elite" CS/IT fresher graduate would get a decent paycheque but it would typically be significantly lesser than the paycheque of the "technically elite" CS/IT fresher graduate. So students & parents interested in a "big paycheque", also can steer clear of value-based educational institutions.Then we have an issue of best education for intellectually-elite students versus best education for intellectually-commoner students. [Note that an intellectually-elite student may be weak in social/humanistic skills, whereas an intellectually-commoner student may be very talented in social/humanistic skills i.e. he may be a social-humanistic-nature-wise-elite student.] Some intellectually-talented educators would like to focus on creating the best education system for the intellectually-elite.In my humble opinion, we should not suffocate the elite and force them to learn in commoner student ways. Society must allow the crème de la crème to pursue excellence in its chosen fields. We must keep alive, within bounds of reason and social acceptability/relevance, the portals, physical and digital, which inspire, ignite and elevate minds to achieve excellence. Such excellence can be in secular fields like Physics, Evolution, Computing, Medicine, Sociology, Economics and also in spiritual fields. Why limit ourselves to only Darwin, Newton, Neils Bohr, Einstein ... We should also have beacons of love, joy, peace & light like Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, a Mahatma Gandhi, a Mother Teresa, a Pope John Paul II, a Ramana Maharishi () etc.But we should not ignore the non-elite, the 99 %, as the Occupy movement refers to itself. We need solutions to cater to their educational needs as well. That is ABSOLUTELY VITAL for social peace and harmony. The intellectually-elite can have the freedom to pursue their area of excellence only if social peace and harmony is ensured.In conclusion, I feel that "holistically elite" CS/IT education is what society needs today far more than "technically elite" CS/IT education. The amount of money that students earn after they finish their education should not be the primary measure of success of the "holistically elite" educational system. The contribution made by students using the CS/IT skills they have gained from academia, after they finish their education, or in some rare cases, even while they are undergoing their education, to society's needs, especially the needs of society's poor, and how much love, joy & peace they bring to their individual life, their family and the community in general should be the primary measure of success of the "holistically elite" CS/IT educational system.Saturday, October 1, 2011The Software Development Professor!Net url: , we still don't have such a CS/IT Professor. We have only CS/IT Research Professors. But what if we had CS/IT Software Development Professors? I think such a career track will do wonders for the quality of Design & Code taught in CS/IT academia.The entry level minimum requirements as per UGC rules are:3.3.0 The minimum requirements of a good academic record, 55% marks (or an equivalent grade in a point scale wherever grading system is followed) at the master’s level and qualifying in the National Eligibility Test (NET), or an accredited test (State Level Eligibility Test - SLET/SET), shall remain for the appointment of Assistant Professors.Source:??(Page 4 of 130).So a master's degree in CS/IT (M.Tech., MCA etc.) followed by clearing NET/SLET/SET allows a person to be considered for appointment as Assistant Professor (lowest level of university teacher - earlier it used to be Lecturer - I am not including T.A. - Teaching Assistant).However I get the impression that the NET/SLET/SET exams are very theory oriented. Really don't know how much design & code expertise is tested there. Maybe not tested at all - it is a paper exam.Alternatively if a person has a PhD in CS/IT he need not clear NET/SLET/SET to be appointed as Assistant Professor.But the promotion to Associate Professor and Professor is where PhD becomes almost mandatory (Professor - mandatory). Direct recruitment of Associate Professor also seems to have mandatory requirement of PhD. Research publication record is given great value.Is it any wonder then that CS/IT academicians focus on PhD and research publications? And naturally, design & code in CS/IT academia becomes irrelevant from a career growth point of view. And so, design & code knowledge level among CS/IT teachers in academia is generally poor with students' learning in design & code also being correspondingly poor. This is THE key systemic problem in CS/IT academia.In a previous post, Is a PhD in CS/IT Necessarily a Good Teacher??I had suggested academic teaching CS/IT departments and academic research CS/IT departments. The current AICTE/UGC norms may fit perfectly for academic research CS/IT departments.But for academic teaching CS/IT departments, different norms based on software development expertise of the teacher may be introduced. Instead of research publication record we could have Open Source software-development-record. We could also have an impact factor based on how many people are using the software developed.Norms could be made to decide quality and quantity of software development which can be considered as PhD equivalent. Like the PhD defense, the software development PhD equivalent candidate could be grilled by software development experts (initially from industry but over time from academic software development professors).Appointment as / Promotion to Associate Professor should recognise Software-Development-PhD-equivalent like current rules recognise Research PhD.For appointment as / promotion to Software Development Professor appropriate norms of quality & quantity of software development work including guiding/mentoring Software-Development-PhD-equivalent candidates can be arrived at.So we can have a complete software design & development academic career track with no research component at all for the Software-Development-Professors. Such Software-Development-Professors (Asst. Prof., Assoc. Prof. & Prof.) may be very suitable for academic teaching CS/IT departments. They will be unsuitable for academic research CS/IT departments.If AICTE/UGC introduce this software-development-professor career track for CS/IT, I think we will see a quantum jump in job-oriented-skill-set quality improvement of CS/IT graduates/post-graduates. Which is exactly what most students and their parents want. Which is what the CS/IT industry will want. Which is what will help the country's economy as industry will not have to spend huge time & money to train 'freshers'. Which will allow 'freshers' to straight-away consider becoming software development free-lancers or entrepreneurs (like a Mark Zuckerberg).Research needs of industry and the country can be met via the academic research CS/IT deparments and industry research.Let supply and demand factors drive how many academic teaching CS/IT departments are set up and how many academic research CS/IT departments are set up. Let us not coax innocent students to do research oriented CS/IT study if what they really want to learn is software development expertise so that they can get a good job. Let students have full and well informed academic freedom about what they want to learn - CS/IT research or software development.I think this will be a great boon for CS/IT teachers. Right now they are under immense pressure. They have to try to keep some pace with ever changing software technology - so syllabus changes have to be made for courses quite regularly. And they have to produce research publications and take up 'project' work as well. Then there is an expectation from society that 'computer' professors can help them with software development. All this places a huge and impossible burden on the CS/IT academician.IMHO, separation into two tracks - Research and Software Development - will simplify life greatly for the CS/IT academician. The Research CS/IT academician focuses on research and teaches research-oriented students. He can safely point software development queries and work to the CS/IT Software Development academician, who focuses on software development and does not bother about research.Industry software development professionals who would like to contemplate moving to academia can fit in very well in the CS/IT Software-Development-Professor track. Entry of such industry experienced professionals can be a great boon to academic teaching CS/IT departments. AICTE/UGC in conjunction/consultation with software industry experts can come up with norms for deciding equivalence of industry experience quality and quantity wise with academic software-development-record.As CS/IT is a special field in industry where we have persons from various streams of academia - Physics, Mech. Engg., Metallurgy etc. - the academic degree stream for industry professionals entering into academic teaching CS/IT departments should not be expected to be CS/IT only. If that sounds surprising to CS/IT academic policy makers, Andrew Tanenbaum, the famous CS textbook writer and famous Professor of Computer Science has a PhD in Physics, . So he moved from Physics to Computer Science. Similar movement happens in CS/IT industry.These thoughts may seem very unusual. But I think they have significant value if AICTE/UGC policy makers want to fix the serious systemic problems regarding design & code in CS/IT academia that causes signficant suffering to countless students and parents in the country.3 comments:Rajendra S. Chittar, October 1, 2011 at 10:26 PMI have fulfilled both roles to some extent - have taught hardcore theory for MS CompSc students (Pune Univ) for a year, and hardcore programming (with C as the language). I am not a PhD - but just an BSc. I think, as I have said earlier, the right blend required for the industry is a blend of both the appropriate theory and its practice in a programming context. I would love to teach again - but my lack of qualifications is a big hurdle. And, I do not want to play politics - which is what rules these days. Any ideas???Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 2, 2011 at 10:05 PMAs I understand the system:Private Colleges (limited or no govt. funding) - You can be paid "visiting faculty" type - this will be like contractor instead of employee in industry. If what you teach helps in job placement of students, the private colleges may be willing to pay handsomely. Govt. funded colleges - I think these colleges will be careful not to upset AICTE/UGC as otherwise they may not be given funds! So they may be happy to have you as a FREE "visiting faculty" - no issues whatsoever there about qualifications if they are convinced of your knowledge level. But if you want a paid academician career there, you have to either do a Master's in CS/IT (get above 55%) & clear NET/SLET/SET exam OR acquire a PhD in CS/IT. Otherwise there is no way that you will be taken as a regular "on scale" academician (Asst. Prof.).BTW if you acquire a PhD then due to your industry experience they may consider appointment as Assoc. Prof.However my entire understanding above could be wrong. You could check with some engg. colleges.Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 2, 2011 at 10:12 PMOh! I missed out mentioning pre-eminent clause.AICTE/UGC allow for pre-eminent persons in a field to be made Profs irrespective of their academic qualification. But I guess that would apply to only really well-known experts like a Mr. Narayan Moorthy or Mr. Nandan Nilekani.And IFIRC 5 journal papers in journals with impact factor of 2.0 and above in the same technical area is considered equivalent to PhD. So if you crack 5 journal papers in your area then you can probably be taken as Assoc. Prof.Don't know how much value they place on patents. I mean, how many do they expect and how they measure the quality of the patent (impact factor equivalent) to treat it as PhD equivalent.Sunday, June 15, 2014Is (Seoul Accord) Accreditation using Outcome Based Assessment methods the way forward to improve teaching standards in Indian CS & IT academia?Net url: updated June 16th 2014It seems that the top technical education academic administrators in the country involving?Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD),?All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)?and the?National Board of Accrediation (NBA)?are taking steps in the direction of Outcome Based Education being adopted by technical education institutions in the country. This applies to all technical education in which Computer Science and Information Technology are two streams (besides streams like Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering etc.).Here's a report in The Hindu today, ‘NBA accreditation helps students secure quality education’, , about such efforts in the Andhra Pradesh district of Chitoor. Two small extracts:"A three-day National Board Accreditation (NBA) workshop on ‘Outcome-based Accreditation’, under the aegis of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University – Anantapur’s (JNTUA) NBA Nodal Centre, was inaugurated at Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering (SVCE) here on Saturday."[Ravi: Here refers to Tirupathi, a city in Chitoor district of Andhra Pradesh.]..."They explained about the existing model of NBA i.e., ‘Outcome-based Accreditation’ and spoke on its process, validation and several other issues like how to define vision and mission of a programme, how to map Program Outcome (POs), Course Outcomes (COs) and Program Enabled Outcomes (PEOs) supplemented by its benefits to technical institutes."--- end extracts ---From?, "NBA in its present form came into existence as an autonomous body with effect from 7th January 2010, with the objective of Assurance of Quality and Relevance of Education, especially of the programmes in professional and technical disciplines, i.e., Engineering and Technology, Management, Architecture, Pharmacy and Hospitality, through the mechanism of accreditation of programs offered by technical institutions.? ? ? NBA has introduced a new process, parameters and criteria for accreditation. These are in line with the best international practices and oriented to assess the outcomes of the programme."Ravi: So the stamp of approval from the top level in the country for Computer Science and Information Technology academic programs (e.g. B.Tech. Computer Science & Engineering, M.Tech. Computer Science & Engineering) is the NBA accreditation. NAAC may not be the suitable accreditation organization for CS & IT programs.Outcome Based Education (OBE) seems to be the big thing for NBA. The two Powerpoint slides' files here:? some idea of NBA's approach.I have given below some key content related to OBE from one of its two Powerpoint files (Overview of Outcome Based Accreditation and Outcome Based Education -) given in the above link:[From slide 6]What are the Outcomes?Outcomes with reference to Educational Programme are the competencies, skills, knowledge and proficiency a student is expected to get at the time of graduation out of the programme.Outcomes in educational terms could be Program Outcomes and Course Outcomes.Program outcomes are statements that describe what students are expected to know and be able to do by the time of graduation....[From slide 19]Outcome Based EducationStarting with a clear picture of what is important for students to be able to do ...Then organizing the curriculum, delivery and assessment to make sure learning happens ......[From slide 20]Outcome Based Education -> Outcome Based Curriculum (What the student should be able to do?) -> Outcome Based Learning & Teaching (How to make the student achieve the outcome?) -> Outcome Based Assessment (How to measure what the student has achieved?)--- end slide extracts ---Ravi: The above extracts seem to be really great on the face of it. But the?wikipedia page for Outcome Based Education?gives a mixed account. It seems that OBE did not go well in some places, and it seems to be not so popular a term in the USA now.The Washington Accord uses OBE. First about the Washington Accord from , "The Washington Accord is an international accreditation agreement for professional engineering academic degrees, between the bodies responsible for accreditation in its signatory countries. Established in 1989, the signatories as of 2014 are Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong China, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States."Additionally, "The Washington Accord covers undergraduate engineering degrees under Outcome-based education approach". The wiki page links to this pdf explaining OBE -'s an interesting recent Indian news item "Boost for engineers: India now part of Washington Accord",? notes and comments:India has become the 17th member of the Washington Accord after a lot of effort including some failures....Washington Accord seems to exclude CS & IT which are covered by Seoul Accord...."Becoming part of Washington Accord also does not necessarily mean that all engineering degrees by all Indian colleges will get equivalence with those of other member countries. NBA has shortlisted 220-odd engineering colleges as Tier-I institutes whose undergraduate engineering programme is in tune with what is required under the Accord."[Ravi: This effort by NBA sounds encouraging. IT is excluded - so that is not good news. Hopefully NBA and MHRD are working on becoming a member of the Seoul accord too. BTW I did not know of these Washington and Seoul accords till I read news reports about the Washington accord recently.]...Extensive verification of these Tier-I institutes will need to be done prior to them being deemed as Washington Accord educational institutions. It is expected that courses will be redesigned to focus on outcomes and students given freedom to explore and innovate.[Ravi: Excellent! I love the emphasis on outcomes (presumably involving a large component of learning outcomes). This kind of initiative will force engg. colleges to reorient their thinking towards improving the learning outcomes of their undergraduate programs.]...Other educational institutions have been given a roadmap by NBA to be followed if they want to attempt becoming institutions covered/approved by Washington Accord.[Ravi: Sounds good.]---- end notes and comments ---Here is a link with Washington accord listed member countries (India is still shown as provisional status member),?'s another article about India becoming a signatory to Washington Accord: [Ravi: The above link seems to give inside info. about how it was pushed through. It seems that former HRD ministers?Shri Kapil Sibal?and?Shri Pallam Raju?deserve congratulations for having pushed this through from a political and administrative will point of view.?Separation of NBA from AICTE may have been the real big decision that paid dividends.?NBA chief and former IIT Delhi Director Prof. Surendra Prasad, Dr. D.K. Paliwal and Shri Ashok Thakur of MHRD are reported to have been key contributors for this effort and deserve to be congratulated (perhaps congratulated more as they may have been doing the real hard work). ]Ravi: Now about the Seoul Accord as that is what comes into play for CS & IT field. I struggled a little to get quick overview info. of the Seoul Accord. Here's what I have been able to garner:From? Seoul Accord, established in 2008, is a mutual recognition agreement pertaining to computing and IT-related programs accredited by its signatories within their respective jurisdiction. Signatories to the Seoul Accord are organizations responsible for accrediting computing and IT-related programs in Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States.[Ravi: That's pretty recent - around 6 years ago. No wonder it is not so well known.]...Graduate attributes form a set of individually-assessable outcomes that are indicative of a graduate's potential competency. The graduate attributes are exemplars of the attributes expected of a graduate from an accredited program.The Seoul Accord has identified the characteristics of graduates of all computing programs that fall within the scope of the accord. A signatory may identify additional attributes that differentiate specific programs accredited by the signatory.--- end extracts from ---Details of the graduate attributes are available at the Seoul accord website here: it is not an easy first read.Ravi: Perhaps one can say that the graduate attributes of the Seoul accord are roughly the outcomes expected, and so the Seoul Accord could implicitly promote Outcome Based Education.I guess NBA would be trying/will try to get on board with the Seoul Accord too. Once that gets done then Indian Computer Science and Information Technology departments of technical education institutions can strive for Seoul Accord accreditation through NBA. That may lead to emphasis on well defined learning outcomes of CS & IT graduates and post-graduates in India. These learning outcomes would also include, I presume, the practice of software development.So, it seems to me, the Seoul Accord may be a great thing for NBA and then Indian CS & IT academic departments to get on board from a perspective of improvement in knowledge of and skill in the practice of software development of Indian CS & IT graduates & post-graduates. Here's the link for NBA's manual for accreditation of UG engineering programs, first edition, dated March 2012, 93 pages:?. But in my quick browsing of this doc. and of the NBA site, I did not get well defined course specific outcomes for courses in CS & IT (e.g. C++ programming or Network programming lab. courses or even more generic courses like Operating Systems).ABET seems to be a big accreditation organization in the USA (and other countries). Interestingly it has a find accredited programs link:?. Computer Engineering, Computer Engineering Technology and Computer Science are three separate listed programs. Similarly Information Engineering Technology, Information Systems and Information Technology are three separate listed programs.Searching for Computer Science in India lists only VIT university in its results, . But its CS entry does not show Seoul Accord status, as expected (since India (NBA) is not yet a signatory to Seoul Accord).Searching for Computer Science in USA lists 265 results! I checked out a few for Seoul Accord status for its CS program. All the ones I checked - Arizona State University, Florida State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, Rochester Institute of Technology, State University of New York at Binghamton, Texas A&M University, University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Riverside, University of Massachusetts Boston, University of New Hampshire, University of Virginia and Washington State University - have Seoul Accord status for its Computer Science program(s)! [Some have Computer Engineering programs having Washington Accord status not Seoul Accord! But I will skip that detail for now.]Clearly the way forward for Indian CS & IT academic departments is to get their programs under Seoul Accord. For that, first MHRD and NBA (and AICTE implicitly) have to engage with Seoul Accord folks like they engaged with Washington Accord folks, and do the needful, even if it involves lots of hard work and some failures, for India (NBA) to become a signatory to the Seoul Accord.To conclude this post, let me return to the title question, is (Seoul Accord) accreditation using Outcome Based Assessment methods the way forward to improve teaching standards in Indian CS & IT academia? I think the answer seems to be Yes. In any case, MHRD, AICTE and NBA are going the (Washington Accord) accreditation using Outcome Based Assessment methods way from an entire technical education perspective. So, it seems to me, technical education institutions of India do not have much of a choice and will have to follow Outcome Based Education and then get accredited by NBA.I hope that the learning outcomes for CS & IT field in NBA accreditation, in terms of both program outcomes as well as (individual) course outcomes are defined well. In particular, I hope that the learning outcomes for software lab. courses are defined well.Friday, March 7, 2014NBA India: World Summit on Accreditation - Themes include Bridging Academia & Industry and Outcome Assessment ToolsNet url: came across a very interesting advertisement in Today's Hindu about India's National Board of Accreditation organizing the 2nd world summit on accreditation (8th to 10th March 2014).?The program schedule is available here:? sessions have the following topics (besides inaugural. plenary and valedictory sessions):*) International Recognition of Professional Qualifications*) Harmonization in Accreditation Practices*) Bridging Academia and Industry*) Outcome Assessment Tools*) Role of Government and Public Policy in AccreditationThe speakers in the various sessions include some current and former top (very powerful figures) of Indian academia:Prof. Surendra Prasad, Chairman, NBAProf. R. Natarajan, Former Chairman, AICTE, Former Director, IIT MadrasPadmashree Dr. M. Anandakrishnan, Chairman, BOG, IIT KanpurProf. Dinesh Singh, Chairman, NAAC (to be confirmed)Prof. S. K. Khanna, Former Chairman, AICTEProf. Devi Singh, Director, IIM LucknowProf. B.S. Sahay, Director, IIM RaipurDr. S. ?G. Dhande, Former Director, IIT KanpurProf. D.P. Agrawal, Chairman UPSC, New DelhiProf. Prafulla Agnihotri, Director, IIM TrichyProf. ?R. K. Shevgaonkar, Director, IIT DelhiProf. Ved Prakash, Chairman, UGCProf. S.S. Mantha, Chairman, AICTEWow! That's a who's who of top Indian academic administrators - UGC, AICTE, NAAC, NBA, IIMs and IITs.It also has speakers from foreign academia and foreign accreditation agencies including ABET.The chief guest is Shri Ashok Thakur, Secretary, MHRD.This page,?, gives the names of the members of the committees associated with the event.From my small interest area of improving the practice of software development in Indian Computer Science and Information Technology academia, I am very happy to see the two sessions on bridging academia and industry, and outcome assessment tools. I think the latter may enable some sort of measure of learning outcomes of the practice of software development which could then help academic administrators to reward good teachers (of the practice of software develoment) and ensure that poor and mediocre teachers (of this area) are incentivized to improve their teaching (of this area). In my considered opinion, the lack of a good measure of learning outcome of the practice of software development is a key reason for the, by and large, poor quality teaching of the practice of software development in Indian academia.Wednesday, June 5, 2013Discussion on Concrete Suggestions for Measuring Teaching Quality ...Net url: post is a follow up discussion post to the?Concrete Suggestions for Measuring Teaching Quality in Practice-Oriented Computer Science/Information Technology streams?post.A correspondent who is now doing a PhD in Computer Science in a US university wrote (slightly edited):Interesting views from you on teaching lab courses, balance between lab and theory, and evaluating teaching techniques and teachers. If you are interested, here is how I have perceived teaching in the US. Note that this is just my view and I have taken only a few courses/classes and come to this conclusion by mere observation.I firmly believe that teachers must be evaluated on an yearly basis. Here in the US, at the end of every semester the students go through an anonymous survey where they rate their instructors and the facilities in the lab. There is a "Best Teacher Award" every semester. There is also a "Best Researcher Award" too. In spite of all such measures in place, there are good and poor teachers here as well. I have come to understand that being a good teacher is a matter of attitude more than anything else. I have seen the busiest of professors spend inordinate amounts of time and effort to make themselves understood and convey the course content very effectively. On the other hand, I have seen/heard of professors who take their tenure-ship for granted and just breeze through the classes. These teachers get poor ratings in surveys but nothing seems to be done about it. While I believe that we need anonymous online evaluation of instructors and facilities, I also believe that the system can only do so much and inspirational/excellent teaching is a matter of teacher-attitude.Regarding programming courses, let me go through how its done in the US. I have been a teaching assistant (TA) for basic Java, C++ and Assembly Language programming courses. There is proportional weight given to different aspects, like Exams, Assignments, Labs, Quiz(surprise tests in class). The instructor meets the students in class, twice a week for a total of 3 - 4 hours. He/She is also available for office hours during other times of the week. The instructor and TAs are available by email anytime during the semester. The introductory programming courses have one lab every week where the TA is there to help the students understand the lab. The instructor usually designs the lab and the students get all the help they need to complete the labs. The labs are evaluated, though very leniently. Every fortnight there is an assignment. And these are tough assignments that require at least a few hours to a couple of days to complete successfully. All of these are graded very objectively and there is always a check for plagiarism. One important aspect of the courses here - the instructor decides the syllabus and the evaluation criteria. This is a bit tricky to implement in India but seems to work in the US in most cases. A fifteen week course usually ends up having 8 assignments, 14 labs, 10 quizzes and 3 exams. There is also a website for the course where assignments, labs, lecture slides, solutions, reviews for exams and course material is regularly uploaded. I mentioned all of this to tell you the different aspects that go into making a programming course successful, here in the US. I am not certain that there is this much of rigour that goes into programming courses in most Engineering institutions in India. No wonder we have very different programmers in US compared to India.I believe technology (course website, plagiarism checks, etc.) and resources (labs, TAs) are definitely needed to make a programming course successful. But the most important aspect is the instructors' attitude towards the course. With all of this technology and resources, we still have effective and ineffective instructors and that's just a matter of attitude.I (Ravi) responded (slightly edited):Thanks for the detailed info. and thoughtful comments. They are very useful.Allowing teaching excellence to be an optional goal left to the attitude of the teacher, IMHO, is a disastrous management approach to quality education. A good management approach *must* reward excellent teaching and punish bad teaching. Such rewards and punishments will ensure that teachers will develop the right attitude towards their primary duty of teaching else they will be either left behind in their career or even asked to pursue another career option.In my view, the key point here is that the academic administrative authorities in your US university have some measure of teaching quality (as viewed by the student-customers of the system). It may not be a perfect measure like academic research publication record is not a perfect measure of academic research contribution. This measure along with other informal assessments allows the academic administrative authorities to reward good teaching, not reward indifferent teaching, and punish bad teaching. Whether the academic administrative authorities in your US university are doing so or not, would be a confidential matter, and so not known to us. However, by the view you have that there are some ineffective instructors (bad teachers) in the system in your university, it seems that the academic administrative authorities are not acting effectively on the student feedback or are not in a position to do so.In UGC/AICTE Indian educational institutions, for CS/IT lab. courses, there seems to be no proper measure available to academic administrative authorities to differentiate between good, indifferent and bad lab. course teachers. The course grades (given to students) seem to be given very leniently, so they are not a proper measure. This creates a situation where there is no incentive whatsoever for good teaching or any disincentive for bad teaching for CS/IT lab. courses. Is it any wonder then that most Indian CS/IT graduates are poor in software development skills/practice of software development?The recently passed out M.Tech. (CS) student who gave the comments mentioned in the Concrete Suggestions for Measuring Teaching Quality in Practice-Oriented Computer Science/Information Technology streams?post wrote (slightly edited):Sir,I went through your suggestions. I would like to propose a few other minor things which are as follows:1) A programming lab. course should not just teach the syntax and features of a language but the endeavour should be to teach the small things, which make a big difference, such as indentations while writing code, writing easy to understand comments, choosing meaningful variable names and planning the modules before writing a piece of code. I think these programming aesthetics should be part of the evaluation process.2) This one may not always be possible. However, with a little motivation from the teacher and some interest from the students it is not as humongous a task as it may apparently be. I am talking about including a small software development project as part of the course. This can be a group project. At the end of the course the students can be made to give a presentation about their software to external examiners. (I do not know if you remember but we had a similar component, although without external examination, in the Web Programming using and C# lab. course that you had conducted for us. Also, 5 of us had volunteered the same year to write an assembler for a hypothetical architecture that was used in our Systems Programming text book to explain the concepts of assemblers, linkers, loaders, etc. We wrote the bare bones of it in C and this has undergone evolution over the years in the hands of subsequent batches. Now, I believe all the features of an assembler that were discussed in the course have been implemented and the software can be used to demonstrate an assembler to students. However, I am not sure if it still has a GUI.)I (Ravi) responded (slightly edited):Thanks for your comments.On point 1, I agree. But I feel this should be part of the two semester 'C' programming course that is taught at B.Sc. level, which is the first programming course lab. in the Department of Mathematics & Computer Science system (in that educational institution).On point 2, useful input. I agree. The issue from a teacher's perspective is time. Sometimes there is a bare minimum of topics that must be covered in a lab. course, and that leaves no time for group projects in such lab. courses, especially in time-wise, very tight educational systems.Tuesday, November 8, 2011CS & IT Academia: Profs. May Not Like Idea of Software Contribution RecordNet url: post captures a slightly edited email exchange with a friend on the?"CS & IT Academia: Inform Students About Software Contribution Record of Faculty"?post.Friend wrote: Its a clever idea and tries to work around the problem but it seems like a somewhat superficial solution to a deeply ingrained problem.Eklavya Sai responded: I entirely agree that it is not a proper/complete solution to a deeply ingrained problem.Friend wrote: I don't think profs will go with the suggestion since they think programming expertise isn't important in the first place and therefore don't want to be judged by this irrelevant (to them) criterion.Eklavya Sai responded: Vital point. I read somewhere, in a recent newspaper issue I think, about HRD Minister Shri Kapil Sibal talking about independence of academia from government (interference) during some IIMs related discussions.So profs will reject it as it does not suit them. Some may realize the importance of programming/software development but will not say so in public when such a measure is suggested.But I am given to understand that students & parents at counseling (engg. college admission) time do question college/university representatives about the placement record. If placement record is poor then they tend to shy away from that college/university. So college/university managements give value to placement and as they pay the salaries of the academics, the academics have no choice but to listen to them.If AICTE/UGC feel that this "software contribution record" is worth trying out and agree (perhaps under people pressure), then profs. may have no choice but to go with it.Friend wrote: Students and parents have no idea what makes an engineer or a prof a good one any more than they know what makes a painter good.Eklavya Sai responded: I am given to understand that many students & parents do put a lot of questions at counseling time. I think the high college education costs makes it somewhat like an investment and so I think they do try, with their limited knowledge, to assess where best to invest their time & money. If "software contribution record" is available then they may use that like they use placement record, as a parameter to decide their choice.Friend wrote: Besides ideas that require the network effect to be useful are hard to get off the ground, unlike ideas that are useful to their practitioners even if others don't go with them.So, sorry, but I'm not bullish on this one.Eklavya Sai responded: I can understand. To be honest, I know that we are up against a solid wall.Friend wrote: We can still give it a shot, though.Eklavya Sai responded: That's exactly what I feel. I mean, it is like negotiating a tough deal. If MHRD and NASSCOM agree that something needs to be done, then AICTE/UGC admin. profs. may have to accept something. This may be the easiest thing to push through.?Even if it does get pushed through, whether it will really be adopted in the proper spirit ... and so succeed is another thing altogether. For that we have to experiment and wait & see.I guess all we can do is raise the problem, suggest some easily implementable solutions and use 'amicable & peaceful' means to make them (MHRD/AICTE/UGC) at least acknowledge these issues & suggested solutions. After that it is completely out of our hands.Tuesday, August 26, 2014Prof. Stroustrup: Software development is a potentially noble profession like medicine or classical engg. disciplines but long way to goNet url: below is the link of a very interesting interview of one of the living legends of the software development field, Prof. Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of C++,?, . I found this statement of Stroustrup (in the interview) to be quite insightful as well as visionary, "I see software development as a potentially noble profession, like medicine or some of the classical engineering disciplines, but we still have a long way to go to get there."The article is dated Dec. 2013, ‘We need better balance between theory and practice’, Bjarne Stroustrup, Father of C++.? think it will be really great if software development practitioners view their profession with the maturity and responsibility that medical practitioners & engineering professionals view their professions. Of course, there are some bad apples among medical practitioners & engg. professionals too, especially in economically developing countries including India, but overall they are a far more accountable & responsible set of people, with that accountability being mandated by law in many cases.Friday, June 7, 2013US CS PhD student's Comparative View of US and Indian AcademiaNet url: updated on June 8th 2013I had an interesting mail exchange about US and Indian academia with a correspondent who is doing his PhD in Computer Science at a US university and also acts as a TA for programming courses there. I thought readers may be interested in the exchange and so have given an edited version of the exchange below. The PhD student's views are based on his limited exposure and so may be "off target" at times. However, I think it is a fresh view of a relative newcomer to US CS academia and so is a valuable one. People who are in a system for many years tend to get used to the system and accept it without questioning it much.The correspondent (referred later as Corr) wrote: There is however one thing I would like to mention. You wrote in your email, "Such rewards and punishments will ensure that teachers will develop the right attitude towards their primary duty of teaching else they will be either left behind in their career or even asked to pursue another career option." [Ravi: Note this refers to a previous mail exchange between me and the correspondent on student feedback being used as a measure for teaching quality. Most of that exchange is captured as part of the post,?Discussion on Concrete Suggestions for Measuring Teaching Quality ...]I would like to bring to your notice that here in the US, teaching is not the primary duty for the instructor employed at an University. There are 3 responsibilities for a professor and they have roughly equal weight. 1) Teaching, 2) Research and 3) Service.Ravi responded: In previous interactions I had with another person who is also doing a PhD in USA, I was informed that in the US, broadly there are higher-ranked research universities and lower-ranked teaching universities. Most or all of the lower-ranked universities want to become higher-ranked research universities.A related extract & link from a blog post, Affordable Subject-Wise Certification from Govt. Recognized Academia: US President Obama meets US university presidents to address/discuss their challenges:? article talks of the problems of rising costs in an age of austerity, more courses & more research students than there is money for and interestingly, Ivy league envy. "Ivy League envy leads to an obsession with research.", it states. This results in professors who are focused on research and don't do their job of teaching students well enough, and even causes teaching dysfunction at lower-level universities!I think the last problem is the case with lots of Indian universities too.--- end blog post extract ---I think what you have written above - roughly equal weight to teaching, research and service - may apply only to US research universities and not to US teaching (intensive) universities.Corr:?Teaching: Undertaking to teach a course at the University. Usually a professor does not teach more than one course a semester and may sometimes teach alternate semesters too.Ravi: Interesting. I was given the impression it is similar in IITs.Corr: There are, however, lecturers who teach 2-3 courses a semester, but they do not have the burden of Research or Service.Ravi: Oh! So then this becomes a teaching track option. I was told by a senior Indian academic that IITs used to give that option to its faculty - teaching track with no research, or research track with low teaching load. And for a teaching track academic even in a research university, teaching will be the primary duty!Corr: At the graduate level the classes may have 10-70 students and the undergraduate level may have 100-800 students.Ravi: 800! Mannn! I thought it would go upto maybe 150 or so. Are you sure about 800? Have you seen any such UG class with around 800 students?Corr: The instructor has a proportional number of TAs to help with grading and course administration.Ravi: Interesting point - the proportional number of TAs makes sense.[Later exchange. Corr: Yes, classroom sizes do get that large. I have myself been a TA for a class size of 250. The number 800, I came across from a freshman at UC Berkeley.Ravi: I see - very interesting info. As I thought more about it, so long as the classroom facilities are good with all students being able to see the presentations part and hear the lecturer clearly, I now feel it may be something that works out decently. For the hands-on lab. part, as you wrote earlier, there would be proportional number of TAs for the large number of students.If the classroom size is reduced to some fixed lower number, then interested students do not get a chance to learn the course! I had read that in Stanford the majority of the students who take the Introduction to Programming course are non CS majors! I think programming has become an important requirement for a wide spectrum of fields apart from Computer Science/Information Technology. So, I can now imagine 800 students for a programming course in a large US university. Hmm. My imagination did need some stretching to handle that though :).]Corr:?Research: The professor is expected to publish his research work in Conferences and Journals applicable to his/her domain and bring visibility to the University. The adage "Publish or Perish" still holds in many Universities.Ravi: I was told by a senior US academic that it applies particularly to those on tenure-track. Without a good publication record tenure-ship will not be granted.Corr: Depending on the nature of the work, some Universities would like their departments to encourage industry initiatives/collaborations and enhance the University visibility through media interaction. In such places the motto changes to, "Demo or Doom".Ravi: That's a new one for me :). Interesting!Corr: The most important aspect of research is to write grants where the professors seek funding from a multitude of agencies to support themselves and their students in doing research.Ravi: Well, that seems to be a slight exaggeration :). Of course, the research grant money is vital but research excellence in terms of research approach, results and publications with visibility/impact would be critical, wouldn't it?Corr:?Service: As an active member in the publishing community, the professor must be available during the year to review publications that have been submitted to conferences and journals in his/her domain.Ravi: I think the prof. must be choosing a few publications/conferences for this service and turning down others.Corr: He/she must also be ready to chair a session in a conference, organize a workshop etc. as part of a bigger conference. (All the major conferences are administrated by professors across the world).Ravi: Once again they must be choosing a few.Corr: They must also assist students by being in their committees and guide their thesis(Masters/PhD). A gamut of activities are included in service with no remuneration being involved.Ravi: Well, I think there would be some work load distribution norms with time periods allotted to different types of work. PhD students being guided clearly would be part of their work load as seen by academic administration - that's how it is here. For the others a certain level of activity may be expected and appropriate ("free") time given.In India, the impression I get is that as one becomes a senior Prof. the teaching load can go down even to zero, and the Prof. then is given enough time to play all these roles, on his/her full Professor salary. So, to me, it is not as if the Professors do the 'Service' activities on weekends and spare time after work. They must be doing the bulk of it within their regular worktime.Corr: It is therefore unfair to judge a professor only based on his/her teaching and student feedback. [Ravi: Note this refers to previous mail exchange(s) between me and the correspondent on student feedback being used as a measure for teaching quality. Most of that exchange is captured as part of the post,?Discussion on Concrete Suggestions for Measuring Teaching Quality ...]Ravi: I certainly was not suggesting that. I was limiting myself to measuring (judging) teaching quality of the teacher role played by the academic. I went even further by limiting myself only to teaching of lab. courses./practice of software development. Other roles that the academic plays have to be measured/judged differently and I am not touching upon that at all.Corr: There is also another reason behind this aura of untouchability that professors have. It is my understanding that once a professor is tenured, in most cases, there is nothing the department/University can do to dislodge them (unless in very exceptional cases).Ravi: I think you are right. I had read up about it some time back and it seems the reason (or one of the main reasons) is to provide the professor the freedom to explore new lines of thought/knowledge against popular opposition.Corr: Coming to India: Most of this is directly applicable to the big players like IISc and to some extent the IITs in India. But, a majority of the Engineering institutions have professors only doing teaching for most of the year. There is definitely Research to take into account, but the major difference between research in India and the US is this IMHO: students in India are funded by UGC and professors do not have that burden of funding students. (This is a big big bonus for professors).Ravi: Interesting! I did not realize/know that US does not fund research students via a UGC equivalent setup. In India, I am given to understand that UGC/CSIR pays research fellowship money (for max. 5 years) only for those students who clear the UGC/CSIR JRF NET exam (Junior Research Fellowship, National Entrance Test). I think there must be significant number of research scholars in UGC/AICTE educational institutions who do not clear JRF NET exam. They may have to be supported with some (usually lesser) stipend by the university itself or through some project grant funds.Corr: Professors still have to write grants to get funding for research (equipment/resources), but that is not a big problem. They would not lose their job if none of their grants got funded.Ravi: That seems to be correct.Corr: In fact, I have heard from reliable sources that the UGC funding for research grants in India is never completely used up. (This could be because of lack of worthy proposals or mere bureaucracy - and that is just speculation). This has its pros and cons. As a con, IMHO, this could be one of the reasons for the lackadaisical attitude towards research in India. This is also one of the reasons for the reverse brain drain in the academic community. Its definitely an easy life in India for the professors.Ravi: I see - reverse brain drain is interesting. But perhaps it has been triggered by US (and world) economic crisis of 2007-08, which, I believe, is still not fully resolved, resulting in major cuts to government funding of US academic stuff (research, teaching ..).Corr: In the US, the professors fund their PhD students doing research under them. There is a lot of pressure to write grants and get funding.Ravi: Yes, I had read a rather harrowing article on it, recently. In case you want to have a quick look, here's a blog post which has a Forbes article link about current US researcher issues and my comments on it,?Is Academic Research Grant Money Corrupting Academic Teaching Ideals?Corr: Also, the student teacher ratio is highly unfair to the teachers in India. To my knowledge, there is no concept of TAs in most Universities across India and the professors have to teach more than one course in a semester. It is still a huge burden.Ravi: I think in India, for lab. courses (in UGC/AICTE institutions) which have large number of students, there must be some support for the main teacher. But I don't know the exact situation.Corr: Then, there is the service aspect, but most of the major international conferences are headed by US/European/Australian faculty. There is representation from India mainly from the IISc and the IITs. Service is not a major factor for the Indian professor, IMHO.Ravi: Nowadays there is a lot of pressure to publish for UGC/AICTE academics too. And there are lots of Indian conferences and even journals. So, besides IITs and IISc, there certainly is significant research publication work that UGC/AICTE Indian academics are doing.Corr: And then there is bureaucracy, and I do not have time for that.Ravi: :)Corr: In short, research in India is a completely different animal as compared to research in the US. It would not be fair to draw exacting parallels between the two.Ravi: I entirely agree. One factor you don't seem to have brought out is the massive endowment that top research universities in USA have. MIT and Harvard have some super-duper endowment - that gives them the financial muscle to recruit top notch academics and have light teaching load for them. In India, I think equivalent financial muscle is available only to few institutions like IITs and IISc.Dug up some data: According to?a USA News report?for fiscal 2011 Harvard had an endowment of US $ 32 billion, Yale 19 billion, Princeton 17 billion, Stanford 16 billion and MIT 9 billion. In rupee terms (1 US $ = Rs. 57) Harvard's endowment is Rs. 1,82,472 crores i.e. One Lakh Eighty Two Thousand Four Hundred and Seventy Two?Crores! [Calc. (US $) 32,012,729,000 x 57 = (Rs.) 1,824,725,553,000 ]. MIT's endowment is Rs. 55,361 crores [Calc. (US $) 9,712,628,000 x 57 = (Rs.) 553,619,796,000 ].I tried getting endowment fund figures for IITs in India but it is not easily available. Here is some info.,?, which states, "The top 10 US universities in the US have endowments in excess of $ 100 billion. In comparison IIT Bombay’s alumni donations raised Rs 15 crores last year." [Rs. 15 crores = Rs. 150 million which at Rs. 57 for 1 US $ converts to US $ 2.6 million. Calc. 150,000,000 / 57 = 2,631,579 (rounded).] How much the government is contributing to IIT Bombay was not easily available. I wouldn't be surprised if the govt. contribution figure is pretty big by Indian standards - hundreds of crores (rupees) or more.My view based on information gathered over the past year or two is that, in both the US and India, a research university has to have powerful financial backing. If an educational institution does not have much financial muscle it can survive only as a mainly teaching university/college dependent on tuition fees from students as a major source of income with which to meet its expenses. Some small research (publication) work could be there with financial grant support from appropriate government departments/organizations (in India it would be UGC, DST etc.). [Small free education institutions supported by a small corpus fund are a special case. IMHO, they too can mainly function as a teaching university/college with some small amount of research (publication) work. If they want to be very ambitious on research side and compete with top research universities (IITs/IISc. for Indian context), they first need to ensure huge endowment/corpus funds.]Corr: But I do admire your efforts in reaching out to the authorities to usher in some drastic changes that would improve teaching in India. I believe it does need a revamp.Ravi: Thanks for the kind words. I am trying to do my bit with the focus being improving teaching of the practice of software development in UGC/AICTE regulated Indian CS/IT academia. That's an area where I believe I now have enough knowledge to comment rather authoritatively. I steer clear of other areas - even CS/IT theory course teaching or elite IIT teaching.Sunday, December 25, 2011A Tough View of US & UK CS AcademiaNet url: friend passed on "Hackers and Fighters" by Dr Mark Tarver:? . Tarver compares the "street programmer"/"street fighter" with the "CS grad."/"school-trained martial artist". I think it is an interesting comparison.He also talks about how difficult it is to do something innovative in CS academia. He said it took eight years for a CS dept. where he was working to decide to move from Pascal to C++!He also states that for a fast moving area like computing the university model is too slow to adapt. I entirely agree with his view.He mentions that the only way of handling the heavy teaching load of five to six courses a year at junior positions in academia is to go for canned courses. I think he is spot on here. At junior positions the teacher himself/herself is struggling to master his/her courses and when he/she is burdened with five to six courses, and fair bit of research work too sometimes, what can the teacher do but go the easy route of canned courses for most if not all the courses he/she has to teach.He wryly notes that the professor will comprehensively beat the street programmer in the "black arts of churning out papers". I think he is spot on here too :).Then an acquaintance sent another article by the same author, "Why I am Not a Professor OR The Decline and Fall of the British University". This is a vitriolic article about British universities in general and CS departments of those universities in particular just before 2000. It is brutal in its criticism but offers no thoughts of solutions. Read it only if you can stomach very harsh criticism: studied the article carefully. My God! What a terrible indictment of the British CS educational system (prior to year 2000)! [I don't mean to imply that India is better off - it may be worse off in the "commoner" universities.] The language used is stinging and sarcastic to the hilt.The analysis of the need for universities in Europe from the eleventh or twelfth centuries onwards and how free online "information" & general literacy is challenging the position of universities is interesting. So too is the analysis of the impact of British government policies on education post World War II.I get the feeling that a lot of what the author has penned must be true. But I wonder whether somebody from the British educational system rebutted his article. Maybe this author was with a not-so-great university ["but the procession of students who walked into my office and said 'Dr Tarver, I need to do a final year project but I can't do any programming'... well, they are more than I can remember or even want to remember."]. I find it hard to believe that most British university CS departments would have many students saying, "I need to do a final year project but I can't do any programming". The students, of course, may not be great programmers - but student himself/herself confessing to "can't do any programming" & looking for an easy way out with the project work - that seems hard to believe. Maybe that happens with lots of "commoner" Indian university CS/IT departments too - I just don't know.The author solved his problem by getting out of the system. I think many of the problems he points out, namely, egalitarianism requirements of politicians who are voicing the needs of the people at large, I guess, not being able to fail many students even if they deserved to be failed as otherwise the course may become unpopular and so be shut down, watering down of courses, farcical (maybe even fixed) teaching audits, the black arts of churning out papers (counterfeit academic Mozarts), academic profession becoming unattractive, foreign immigrant academics with poor language skills ... may be true even today, at least, to some extent of CS education worldwide. But I feel that today the academic system is being challenged by commoner students (the 99 %) (Occupy movement tried to make a point at Harvard), politicians and people at large, and so I am quite hopeful of some meaningful reform happening. The Internet can be a great force which may allow for elite, commoner ... various types of courses to co-exist & flourish based on student choice and industry demand.On deeper thought, I felt that Dr. Tarver's article is perhaps too negative, paints a depressing picture & offers no thoughts of solutions. A reader may feel that the system is beyond any possibility of redemption. Which I don't think is accurate. What we need to do is to raise awareness of the problems and work amicably and peacefully with politicians, bureaucrats, academics, industry, students & parents to improve the Leaders (Country Presidents/Prime Minister/Ministers/US Senators) Views on EducationEducation and IT related parts of President Mukherjee's address to Parliament, June 2014Education and IT related excerpts from PM Narendra Modi speech in Lok Sabha on June 11th 2014Education Related Parts of US President Obama's State of the Union 2014 Speech, January 2014USA - Student Right to Know Before You Go Act, December 2013Judge me by my work - Terrific response by new non-graduate HRD minister, Smriti Irani, May 2014Indian HRD Minister of State, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Writes Newspaper Article on Indian Academic Controversy, June 2013First Question in 2nd US Presidential debate: Student asks about employment after graduation!, October 2012Monday, June 9, 2014Education and IT related parts of President Mukherjee's address to ParliamentNet url: are some extracts and comments of President Mukherjee's speech to Parliament today (here's the full speech - a 14 page pdf document, ):12. India is the world’s oldest civilization. Today it is also a country with the largest population of the youth. We must equip and nurture our youth with the right kind of education, skill-set and opportunity to reap this demographic dividend. My government will strive to transition fromYouth Development to Youth-led Development. It will set up Massive Open Online Courses and virtual classrooms. It will formulate a National Education Policy aimed at meeting the challenges posed by lack of quality, research and innovation in our educational institutions. We will set up IITs and IIMs in every state. In order to empower school teachers and students, a national e-library will be established. With the motto of "Har Haath Ko Hunar", my government will strive to break the barriers between formal education and skill development, and put in place a mechanism to give academic equivalence to vocational qualifications. With the goal of Skilled India, my government will also launch a National Multi-skill Mission.[Ravi: I am so glad to see that education has been given significance in this govt's plan. Really great to see MOOCs being mentioned in the speech. MOOCs are the growing waves in higher education worldwide and seem to be going from strength to strength. India MUST get on to the bandwagon perhaps with a tie-up with leading players like edX and CourseEra."National education policy" - very interesting. But they must open it up to the public during the discussions stage itself rather than leave it to a small coterie of top academics and industry experts to make the policy, which is what seems to have been the case in the past. Use the Internet to involve all stakeholders including the vital students and parents stakeholders as well as junior faculty who have to deal with the teaching loads."academic equivalence to vocational qualifications" - wonder what that exactly means ... National Multi-skill Mission. Interesting. But one needs more information about them to comment meaningfully.IITs and IIMs in every state - I am somewhat disappointed by no mention of UGC & AICTE specifically (but National Education Policy may involve UGC & AICTE) which cater to the vast majority of higher education students in the country. There seems to be a belief that bringing an IIT and/or IIM to a state will magically improve its higher education. It may do that for the brightest/elite among the youth of that state. But how about the other students who can't get into the IIT/IIM? They are the vast majority. And it is UGC & AICTE regulated institutions that cater to them. The govt. must explore ways to improve such institutions on a priority basis as it affects a vast number of ?youth, and not give so much importance to IITs and IIMs that UGC & AICTE institutions get treated as unimportant.]...The government will especially strengthen measures to spread modern and technical education among minority communities and a National Madarsa Modernization Programme will be initiated.[Ravi: That's excellent.]...22. E-governance brings empowerment, equity and efficiency. It has the power to transform peoples’ lives. The backbone of my government's new ways of working will be a Digital India. IT will be used to drive re-engineering of government processes to improve service delivery andprogramme implementation. We will strive to provide Wi-Fi zones in critical public areas in the next five years. My government will rollout broadband highway to reach every village and make all schools e-enabled in a phased manner. Technology will be used to prepare our children for aknowledge society. The National e-governance plan will be expanded to cover every government office from the centre to the Panchayat; to provide a wide variety of services to citizens. Emerging technologies like Social Media will be used as a tool for participative governance,directly engaging the people in policy making and administration.[Ravi: Fascinating! Shri Modi is strongly pro-technology and pro-e-governance. It will be very interesting for an IT guy like me to see how these plans work out over the coming months and years.]...36. Our rich cultural heritage is the very foundation on which rests the unity of our diverse nation. Indian languages are repositories of our rich literature, history, culture, art and other achievements. My government will launch a national mission "e-Bhasha” that will develop digital vernacular content and disseminate our classic literature in different languages. My government will also provide the required resources for the maintenance and restoration of national heritage sites.[Ravi: That's great. Hopefully it will do a decent job, if not a good job.]...38. My government recognises the central role of Science and Technology in raising the quality of life. It will encourage and incentivize private sector investments, both domestic and foreign, in science and technology and in high-end research aimed at nurturing innovation. My government will build world class research centres in the fields of nanotechnology, material sciences, thorium technology, brain research, stem cells, etc. The government will also establish institutes of Technology for Rural Development and a Central University of Himalayan Studies.--- end President speech education and IT related extracts and comments ---Friday, June 13, 2014Education and IT related excerpts from PM Narendra Modi speech in Lok Sabha on June 11th 2014Net url: speech was, if I am not mistaken, the concluding speech on the motion of Thanks for the President's speech on June 9th (here's my blog post on it: Education and IT related parts of President Mukherjee's address to Parliament). Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi mentioned in his speech that around fifty speakers (from various political parties) had spoken on this motion.I could not locate a full text (translated to English) of this speech of Shri Modi so far. This link gives a lot of points from the speech:? excerpts of the speech and associated timestamps, mainly related to education and information technology, transcribed from this speech video,?, 1 hr 1 min 30 secs, are given below. These excerpts are a mix of full translation of Hindi sentences as well as only mention of key points.[I added the excerpts given below as a comment on the above youtube video. Here's the comment link:?. In this comment, clicking on the timestamp (which appears by default in blue colour) positions the video at that timestamp.]Around 11:35 - Government's first responsibility is towards the poorIf the rich need to teach their children they can send them to any school in the world/hire any teacher in the world. If somebody in the home of the rich fall ill, many doctors can come to his home. Where will the poor go? In his destiny (naseeb) he has (only) government schools and government hospitals. Therefore it is the first responsibility (daayitva) of the government that they listen to the poor and live for the poor. If we do not run the government machinery (karobaar) for the poor, for the benefit of the poor, then this country's people (jantha) will not (never) forgive us.Around 13:25 - Empower the poor to fight poverty through education and liberation from blind belief(Hindi:?Garib ko garibi se bahar lane ke liye, Uske andar wo taakath lani hai taaki wo garibi ke saath jujh sake. Garibi ke khilaaf ladaai ladne ki sabse bada (aujaar?) hota hai - shiksha. Garibi se ladne ka sabse bada saadhan hota hai - andh shraddha se mukthi. Agar hum garibi me - jo aaj andh shraddha ke bhaav pade hai, ashiksha ki avastha padi hai, agar usme se use bahaar lane me safal hote hai to is desh ka garib kisi ke tukdo par palne ka iccha nahi rakhta hai. Wo apne bal bute par apni duniya khadi karne ke liye taiyaar hai. Sammaan aur gaurav se jeena garib ka swabhaav hai. Hum iski us moolbhoot taakath ko pakad karke agar usko bal dene ka prayaas karte hain - Aur isliye sarkaar ke yojnaaye garib ko garibi se bahaar aane ki taakath de. Garib ko garibi ke khilaaf ladaayi ladne ki taakath de. Aur shaashan ki saari vyavasthayein garib ko shashakth banane ke liye kaam aani chaahiyein. Aur saari vyavasthaon ka antim nateeja us aakhri shor par baithe huen insaan ke kaam me aaye, us disha me hoga tab jaakar hum uska kalyan kar payenge.)English translation of above (there may be minor inaccuracies as my Hindi knowledge is of middling kind): To bring the poor out of poverty, he has to be given that strength, that power that will enable him to fight poverty. To fight poverty, the biggest weapon is - education. The biggest means to fight against poverty is liberation from blind belief. If we, within/among the poor who today are (trapped) in an environment of blind belief, in a state of being uneducated, are successful in removing them from that state then the poor of this country (do/will) not wish to live on the crumbs of others. He is ready to create his own world (life) based on his own strength. It is the nature of the poor to live with dignity and respect. If we catch this root strength of his (of the poor) and make efforts to give (more) power to it - and so the plans/projects of the government should give strength to the poor to come out of poverty; give strength to the poor to fight against poverty. And the entire government administration should be of help/use to empower the poor. And the end result of all administration should be in the direction of being useful to the human on the final (distant) shore (frontier), then we will be able to ensure his well being (serve him/serve the poor on the final frontier).Around 15:58 - Providing best teachers to (rural) villages using long distance education technologyWe have used one word - Rurban, for the progress of villages, which I saw in the speech of the president. (Hindi:?Jahaan suvidha shehar ki ho aatma gaon ki ho) English: Where the facilities should be of the kind in cities but the spirit (character) should be of the kind in villages. ... The noble character (the noble spirit) of the villages of our country is a priceless legacy which we must preserve. But will we deprive our villagers of modern facilities? And I am saying this with experience that when villages are given modern facilities they are making more contribution to the country's progress. If villages have 24 hour electric power supply, if villages have (Internet) broadband connectivity, (if) the children of villages get excellent education ... (If) we accept that we do not, (as of now), have good (best) teachers in our villages but today's science (and technology) gives us the full power of long distance education. (Using) the best of the best teachers sitting in cities we can teach the children sitting in villages (of the final frontier). Why should we not use the power of satellites, use modern science (and technology) for the education of poor children? If we can bring a change in the life of villages then nobody would want to leave their villages. What does the youth want? If he/she gets employment (in the village) he/she would prefer to stay with their parents. Can we not create industries in villages? ... Agro-based industries ...Around 19:40 - Agricultural universities' challenges; traditional farmer has to be changed to modern farmerWe have so many agricultural universities. A lot of research is going on. But the unfortunate thing is that what is in the lab. is not on the land. The journey from the lab. to the land, till we do not make (that journey) ... There is a need to change the farmer from traditional farmer to modern farmer. ... Gujarat's soil health card experiment ... (govt.) came to know of inappropriate crops sowed by the farmer for the soil he has ... the farmer came to know (was informed by govt.) of the flaws of his approach and was able to consider better approaches ... Agriculture university students of our country can, during their (summer) vacation (in their home villages/towns) do soil testing in the school laboratories in their villages (or towns). The students will get paid, the school will get paid, (soil testing data will be made available) - can this not become a people's movement?Around 22:42 - Indians recognized for Information Technology in the world; Yet we don't have real time data on Agri productsToday it is unfortunate in our country. Such a big technology came into being - Information Technology. (Hindi:?Duniya mein hum chaaye huve rahein. Software engineer ke roop mein hamari pehchaan ban gayi. Lekin aaj hamare desh ke paas agro product ka real time data nahi hain.) English: We are spread out in the world (in IT). We Indians are now viewed/recognized as software engineer(s). But today our country does not have real time data on agro products. Can we not do that? ... it will help in price control.Around 29:30 - Very big need for skill developmentThe whole world in the coming days has a very big need for skilled labour force/manpower. Those who know this knowledge area (shastra) know that the whole world needs skilled manpower. ... So skill development is an important agenda for all countries including the well developed countries. Our country's primary area (prathmikta) should be skill development. ... (Hindi:?To hame srameva jayate is mantra ko (charitartha) karna hoga) English: So we will have to (adopt) the mantra of work/effort alone triumphs. ... From an image of 'scam India' we have to make the image 'skill(ed) India'. ... So we have created a new ministry for entrepreneurship and skill development. Our country has a misfortune. If we ask somebody what have you studied, he says I am a graduate or MA or a double graduate. We like hearing that. ... (talks of a book he read during childhood with a real life account of a graduate looking for a job. When the graduate is asked what do you know, the person says he is a graduate but does not answer the question i.e. does not say what he knows. He is told OK you are a graduate but what do you know. The person repeats that he is a graduate - this sequence is repeated one or two times more). (Hindi, around 32:07:?Hum is baat se anubhav kar sakte hain ki jindagi ka gujara karne ke liye haath me hunar hona chahiye sirif haath me certificate hone se baath (nahi banthi)). English: From this we can (deduce) that to make a living we must have a skill in hand, just having a certificate in hand will not do.And so will have to give emphasis on skill development. But we also have to give a social status for the skilled worker. (He gives an example of a 7th standard student leaving the village school and enrolling into a skill development course. But people do not give value to him - they treat him as a 7th standard educated student and ask him to leave.) We will have to bring in equivalence (to academic qualifications) for these (skilled courses). In Gujarat I tried an experiment. Those who do two years ITI course, I made them equal to 10th standard (passed/qualified) persons. Those who came after 10th standard (into ITI course?) were made equal to 12th standard. (For these ITI qualified students) doors were opened for studying (enrolling) in Diploma or Degree programmes. He was 7th pass but he can go upto degree now - the pathway was opened up. We will have to make new decisions with a lot of courage (himmat). If we want to give emphasis to skill development then we will have to give social standing for that.... Today the whole world needs teachers. Can?Hindusthaan?(India) not export teachers? If we export Maths and Science teachers - if a businessman (vyapaari) goes abroad then at the most he will come back with Dollars - but if a teacher goes abroad he will bring back a whole generation along with him, this is the power (of teachers). [Applause.]Around 38:34 - Progress (vikaas) should be a people's movement (jan aandolan)We should make progress (vikaas) a people's movement (jan aandolan). If we make progress a government programme then (it won't work). But if we make progress a people's movement - in this country, every person must feel - a teacher also must feel, when I teach, I teach for the nation; even if a worker is carrying luggage in a railway station, he should feel that he is doing it for the nation, if a farmer is working on his fields, he should also feel he is working for the nation. Once again, in this country, a movement (aandolan) of good governance (suraajya) is required. ... And it is not that it is impossible. ... It is possible to create this feeling. (Hindi:?Aaj bhi hamare desh me desh bhakti ki koi kami nahi hai.) English: Even today, in our country, there is no dearth of devotion to the country. ... (Hindi:?Aavashyakta hain ki ham nethruthva pradaan kare. Yahan baithe huen sabhi samarthyavaan hain. Jan-jan ko jagane ki wo taakath rakhte hain - (us) taakath ko lagane ki jaroorath hain.) The need is that we (parliamentarians) should provide leadership. All the people seated here (parliament - lower house) are capable people. We have the power to rouse the populace - that power is needed to be used.Around 45:04 - Duryodhan quote - I know Dharma but it is not in my DNA English: Once Duryodhan (the arch-villain in the great Hindu epic Mahabharatha) was asked whether he understood?dharma?(righteous action/living) and?adharma(unrighteous action/living), truth and falsehood. Duryodhan said that he knew?dharma?but (following)?dharma?was not in his nature. I know what is truth and what is good, but that is not in my DNA.Around 46:29 - Seniors' blessings will save govt. from arrogance and teach humility(Hindi:?Aur Vijay hame sikhata hai namrata. Aur mai is sadan ko viswas deta hun. Aur mujhe viswas hain yehaan ke jo hamaare seniors hain, kisi bhi dal ke kyon na ho, unke aashirwaad se hum us taakaath ko praapt karenge jo hame ahankaar se bachaye. Jo hamein har pal namrata sikhayein. Yahaan par (gesturing towards treasury benches) kitni hi sankhya kyon na ho lekin mujhe aap ke bina (gesturing towards opposition benches) aage nahi badna hain. Hamein sankhya ke bal par nahin chalna hain hamein saamuhikta ke bal par chalna hain.) English: And victory teaches us humility. And I give this house an assurance - . And I have the faith that the seniors here, no matter which political party they are from, with their blessings we will acquire that strength which will save us from arrogance. Which will teach us humility at every step. No matter how many numbers we have here (treasury benches - massive majority) I do not want to move ahead without you (opposition benches). We do not want to proceed on the strength of numbers but we want to proceed on collective/united strength.Wednesday, January 29, 2014Education Related Parts of US President Obama's State of the Union 2014 SpeechNet url: below are extracts related to education from US president Obama's State of the Union 2014 address,? comments:[Please note that the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license does NOT apply to this post.]"Today in America, a teacher spent extra time with a student who needed it, and did her part to lift America’s graduation rate to its highest level in more than three decades."?[Ravi: This is the first sentence of his speech (after mentioning the persons the speech is addressed to). That shows how much importance the US president gives to teaching.]"Taking a page from that playbook, the White House just organized a College Opportunity Summit where already, 150 universities, businesses, and nonprofits have made concrete commitments to reduce inequality in access to higher education – and help every hardworking kid go to college and succeed when they get to campus.""We know where to start: the best measure of opportunity is access to a good job."[Ravi: I gave this extract as later on we see the importance given to education and training to make a person/student ready for that "good job".]"We also have the chance, right now, to beat other countries in the race for the next wave of high-tech manufacturing jobs. ?My administration has launched two hubs for high-tech manufacturing in Raleigh and Youngstown, where we’ve connected businesses to research universities that can help America lead the world in advanced technologies. ?Tonight, I’m announcing we’ll launch six more this year. ?Bipartisan bills in both houses could double the number of these hubs and the jobs they create. ?So get those bills to my desk and put more Americans back to work."?[Ravi: The link between research universities and the high-tech economy is clearly recognized by the US president.]"We know that the nation that goes all-in on innovation today will own the global economy tomorrow. ?This is an edge America cannot surrender. ?Federally-funded research helped lead to the ideas and inventions behind Google and smartphones. ?That’s why Congress should undo the damage done by last year’s cuts to basic research so we can unleash the next great American discovery – whether it’s vaccines that stay ahead of drug-resistant bacteria, or paper-thin material that’s stronger than steel. ?And let’s pass a patent reform bill that allows our businesses to stay focused on innovation, not costly, needless litigation."?[Ravi: No wonder governments are willing to provide lot of funds for hi-tech. research that delivers on innovative tech. that the world (market) needs.]"The ideas I’ve outlined so far can speed up growth and create more jobs. ?But in this rapidly-changing economy, we have to make sure that every American has the skills to fill those jobs.The good news is, we know how to do it. ?Two years ago, as the auto industry came roaring back, Andra Rush opened up a manufacturing firm in Detroit. ?She knew that Ford needed parts for the best-selling truck in America, and she knew how to make them. ?She just needed the workforce. ?So she dialed up what we call an American Job Center – places where folks can walk in to get the help or training they need to find a new job, or better job. ?She was flooded with new workers. ?And today, Detroit Manufacturing Systems has more than 700 employees.What Andra and her employees experienced is how it should be for every employer – and every job seeker. ?So tonight, I’ve asked Vice President Biden to lead an across-the-board reform of America’s training programs to make sure they have one mission: train Americans with the skills employers need, and match them to good jobs that need to be filled right now. ?That means more on-the-job training, and more apprenticeships that set a young worker on an upward trajectory for life. ?It means connecting companies to community colleges that can help design training to fill their specific needs. ?And if Congress wants to help, you can concentrate funding on proven programs that connect more ready-to-work Americans with ready-to-be-filled jobs."[Ravi: Clear focus on providing specific training/education to meet jobs available in industry. And the mention of community college in that context. I think India needs a good vocational training/education setup which offers a 2 year community college diploma/degree equivalent to students passing out of XIIth standard (which I think is equivalent to K-12 of the US). Can Information Technology education focusing on non-critical (IT) applications development be one area for such educaton/training? I don't know enough of vocational education in India to be able to answer the question but I think it is worth thinking about.]"Five years ago, we set out to change the odds for all our kids. ?We worked with lenders to reform student loans, and today, more young people are earning college degrees than ever before. ?Race to the Top, with the help of governors from both parties, has helped states raise expectations and performance. ?Teachers and principals in schools from Tennessee to Washington, D.C. are making big strides in preparing students with skills for the new economy – problem solving, critical thinking, science, technology, engineering, and math. ?Some of this change is hard. ?It requires everything from more challenging curriculums and more demanding parents to better support for teachers and new ways to measure how well our kids think, not how well they can fill in a bubble on a test. ?But it’s worth it – and it’s working."?[Ravi: Full marks to the US government for trying to fix the problem. It would be so great if top Indian education policy makers also speak up publicly on such matters instead of it being a closed door and opaque license-raj education policy-making setup.]"Research shows that one of the best investments we can make in a child’s life is high-quality early education. ?Last year, I asked this Congress to help states make high-quality pre-K available to every four year-old. ?As a parent as well as a President, I repeat that request tonight. But in the meantime, thirty states have raised pre-k funding on their own. ?They know we can’t wait. ?So just as we worked with states to reform our schools, this year, we’ll invest in new partnerships with states and communities across the country in a race to the top for our youngest children. ?And as Congress decides what it’s going to do, I’m going to pull together a coalition of elected officials, business leaders, and philanthropists willing to help more kids access the high-quality pre-K they need.""Last year, I also pledged to connect 99 percent of our students to high-speed broadband over the next four years. ?Tonight, I can announce that with the support of the FCC and companies like Apple, Microsoft, Sprint, and Verizon, we’ve got a down payment to start connecting more than 15,000 schools and twenty million students over the next two years, without adding a dime to the deficit."?[Ravi: Awesome contribution by US companies - without adding a dime to the deficit!]"We’re working to redesign high schools and partner them with colleges and employers that offer the real-world education and hands-on training that can lead directly to a job and career. ?We’re shaking up our system of higher education to give parents more information, and colleges more incentives to offer better value, so that no middle-class kid is priced out of a college education."?[Ravi: Terrific!!!]"We’re offering millions the opportunity to cap their monthly student loan payments to ten percent of their income, and I want to work with Congress to see how we can help even more Americans who feel trapped by student loan debt. ?And I’m reaching out to some of America’s leading foundations and corporations on a new initiative to help more young men of color facing tough odds stay on track and reach their full potential."----Ravi: It is so wonderful to see the top boss of a country, in a yearly stock-taking and future-direction address, give so much importance to education, and have a clear focus on education that imparts the skills the youth need in these job-wise challenging times. In contrast, in India, most of what I read about speeches made by top ministers and education policy makers is about research. I don't recall coming across any speech in recent times by any top Indian higher education policy maker about teaching Indian students useful skills that will help them get a decent job!BTW I saw the video of the speech as well. If you would like to do so here's the youtube video link I viewed,?, 1 hr. 29 min. 07 sec.Friday, December 27, 2013USA - Student Right to Know Before You Go ActNet url: updated on September 5th 2014Update on Sept. 5th 2014: The act (or rather bill) mentioned below seems to have got stuck at the introduction stage.? that it has only "4% chance of being enacted"!--- end update ---I was very happy that some senators in the USA have introduced a new act which will empower USA students and parents with more information for making crucial higher education decisions.Here's a press release dated May 9th 2013 about the act, "Sens. Warner, Rubio, Wyden Introduce Student Right to Know Before You Go Act", ?...[Note: The Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license does?not?apply to this post.]Some important extracts from the press release are given below:The legislation would streamline existing institutional reporting requirements to give students and their families more tools to easily compare graduation rates, student loan debt, employment prospects and potential future earnings as they make important decisions about higher education...."Many high school seniors who are heading to college this fall have just paid their tuition deposits, and they likely have real questions about what value they are getting for their money," Sen. Warner said. "This bipartisan legislation will combine relevant information in a rational way so that students and their families can access comparative information on which colleges and which majors will result in a good job....“A college education is one of the most important investments an American can make in their lifetime, so it’s critical that we equip potential students and their families with as much information as possible,” Sen. Rubio said. “With this legislation we can finally provide meaningful, easily accessible data to make higher education decisions easier for the 21st century student.”...“There’s been a needed focus on access to higher education, but it’s time to bring value into the equation,” Sen. Wyden said. “Instead of forcing students to make blind decisions on such a huge investment, this bill would empower them with a wide range of information about what their choices will mean in working world.”...Rising educational costs and uncertainty in the job market have made the stakes higher than ever for individuals looking to invest in higher education. According to the College Board, the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2012–2013 school year was $29,056 at private colleges, $8,655 for state residents at public colleges, and $21,706 for out-of-state residents attending public universities. Two-thirds of college seniors who graduated in 2011 had student loan debt, with an average of $26,600 per borrower.--- end extracts ---This USA Today article, "Column: Learning blind"?by Senators Wyden and Rubio, dated 19th September 2012, is about the same topic and very interesting (to me, at least).Indian students *must* also have access to similar information about Indian institutions of higher education.I am deeply thankful to USA senators Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) for bringing in this legislation. [I wonder whether it is law now.] Readers may wonder why I should be thankful for this law which has been introduced in the USA and not India. Well, I think this USA law can be a model for other countries in the world like India to emulate. I think it will be far easier for Indian legislators to bring in similar laws in India and convince Indian academic administrators and academics about its need, now that the USA has introduced it.Saturday, May 31, 2014Judge me by my work - Terrific response by new non-graduate HRD minister, Smriti IraniNet url: following comment of mine appears (under the name Ravi Ravi as Vuukle comments system has messed up my name as Ravi Ravi and does not give me an easy way to fix that) in The Hindu article dated May 29th 2014 covering the outcry about non-graduate Smriti Irani being appointed as HRD minister,?:"Judge me by my work" - Terrific response by Honourble Minster for HRD, Smt. Smriti Irani. She certainly is an articulate speaker and has achieved great success in her chosen field(s) of work at a young age. Hon'ble PM, Shri Narendra Modi, had said in an April 2013 speech, paraphrased - Today in our education system employability is low... We must work on skill development with a lot of energy. end-paraphrased-part. ... HRD minister has to bring in administrative determination and will to change the Indian academic system (at least those parts that are funded by taxpayer money) to better serve the needs of its students. That needs a strong personality who has self-confidence. A PhD qualification is needed for research and not administration. In fact, many times, PhDs are disconnected from ground realities and are poor administrators. Let us give Smt. Irani a chance to change the Indian academic system to deliver job oriented skills to youth thereby making them employable.--- end comment ---Notes on Shri Modi's April 2013 speech referred above are?available here?and the?youtube video of his speech is here. The notes related to Shri Modi's comments on education are as follows:[@ around 1 hr. 45 min. 00 secs.] Skill development. Today in our education system employability is low. Everybody says ten people came but none were of use (worthy to hire). We must bring a change in this. And we must do this with a lot of focus. We must work on skill development with a lot of energy.--- end notes on Shri Modi's comments on education ---Now the above-mentioned comment on The Hindu website has 43 up votes and 32 down votes with one opposing (down) response - Abhinesh responded that it's not a child's play to give her a chance and that (in his view) it is a blunder. He also said some school kids speak fluent English and that does not mean they can be made ministers.This above response has 74 up votes and 24 down votes.So, going by the cumulative up and down votes (reversing the up and down for opposing response), it is 67 in support of my comment and 106 against! Interesting :).My response to the above response as shown on the web page is as follows (slightly edited to fix a typo):Thanks Abhinesh for your response...In my view, Smt. Irani is a self-taught (beyond 12th std. or F.Y.B.A) and self-made person. She has shown her intellectual ability in debates she engaged in as a spokesperson of the BJP. You cannot prejudge that she will not be able to handle the Minister of HRD responsibility...Mr. Modi has received a clear mandate to be the PM of the country in a quasi-presidential style election. Now we have to give him freedom to appoint his team of ministers and some time for performance. He is reported to have asked for 100 day agendas from ministers. So let us give both Mr. Modi and Ms. Irani 100 days. If during that period her work does not come out to be satisfactory then I think citizens can suggest a change.--- end response ---The above response got 7 up votes and 0 down votes.[I had first submitted a response with this additional paragraph at the bottom, "Very importantly, the constitution does not dictate that ministers have to be graduates or have higher qualifications. We have to abide by the constitution or seek to amend it through constitutional means." As that did not get shown initially I resubmitted the comment without the above paragraph, and that comment got shown. Later my earlier comment was also accepted and is now shown towards the bottom of the comment thread on the article web page.]Abhinesh made a further comment (in response to another person's comment in the same comment thread) saying, in essence, "we might have missed scope of development which could be accomplished if it was some other knowledgeable person" (instead of Irani). The following two responses of mine are now shown below that comment:I think I understand how you feel about this qualification issue. But, it seems to me that, some of the HRD ministry main challenges now are political like getting more funding from govt., ensuring more effective utilization of funds, dealing with various pressure groups trying to get their way (and get the taxpayer funds for their groups/states), and dealing with a very messy legal situation about the lack of power in UGC and AICTE to punish poor performance and/or malpractices in universities and colleges…UPA-II tried to bring in a new bill to establish National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) replacing UGC and AICTE, but that bill ran into problems with some pressure groups....My view is that expert advice on higher education policy & implementation is available in plenty to the minister from senior academics like UGC chairman and imp. members, AICTE chairman and imp. members, Planning commission experts on education etc. and the officials of MHRD, UGC & AICTE....I must also add that my interest in higher education is in UGC and AICTE regulated institutions which serve the vast majority of higher education students in the country and so I have not mentioned anything about the elite IITs or IIMs (besides medical education sector as a whole).--- end 2 part response ---The above 2 comments have so far received 1 up vote and 0 down votes.In addition to the above-mentioned Hindu article, there are a couple more interesting articles related to this matter:1) This supports Smriti Irani as HRD minister and gives a not-so-positive view (author's view not mine) of three of the four previous HRD ministers who were well qualified, ) HRD minister Smt. Smriti Irani aiming for education reform! Here's the article, small extract from the article, "The aim is to equip students with skills and knowledge to eliminate manpower shortage in science, technology, academics and industry."Ravi: Fantastic! Way to go, HRD minister madam! I hope the proposed new commission on education will periodically share its findings and plans with the public and invite comments from the public.Saturday, June 1, 2013Indian HRD Minister of State, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Writes Newspaper Article on Indian Academic ControversyNet url: was very pleasantly surprised to read an article related to an academic controversy by the Honourable Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Govt. of India, Dr. Shashi Tharoor. I think it is wonderful that an HRD minister has chosen to interact with interested members of the public and academics via a newspaper article. [BTW currently India has one HRD minister, Dr. M.M. Pallam Raju, and two HRD ministers of state, one of whom is Dr. Shashi Tharoor,?.]First a little bit of background on Dr. Shashi Tharoor from his wikipedia page, . He did his graduate studies culminating in a Ph.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He served in the United Nations from 1978 to 2007 with his last post being UN Under-Secretary-General. He was nominated by the Govt. of India for the post of UN Secretary General, competed with present UN Secretary General Mr. Ban Ki-moon, eventually withdrawing his candidacy. He also has a literary career as an author of many English books. I think India is very fortunate to have such a distinguished person holding a union minister of state position for Human Resource Development (HRD).The article I referred earlier appeared in The Hindu today, "Drop the rhetoric, start the debate", . While the article's focus is on a current academic controversy in Delhi University, the article touches upon general academic issues including HRD ministry interaction with academic administrators, which was very interesting to me.[Please note that the Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY license does?not?apply to this post.]Dr. Tharoor writes, "It may be heresy to say it, but education as a sector remains the last frontier largely untouched by reforms. The economic reforms of the last 20-odd years have unleashed our economic potential, and the governance reforms of the last 10 years have raised our civic awareness. However, we as a nation need to completely overhaul our educational systems and processes if we are to realise the full potential of the demographic dividend that awaits us in the coming decades of the 21st century."I am delighted to see such an unequivocal statement put out by a union HRD minister on the need for academic reform in India. He goes on to say that Indian academic positions have become another government job for life positions with little incentive for performance or disincentives for non-performance! I think his view is quite right. But I have to clarify that I do not mean to imply that all Indian academics take it easy because it is a secure job. I am quite sure many will be working hard and trying to excel in teaching and research. But if the system is such that performance is not rewarded well and non-performance is not penalized then the motivation to excel in teaching and research will slowly but surely dwindle in most persons caught up, usually for an entire work-life, in such a system.He points out that the academic community (typically) blames the overbearing interference of government (HRD ministry and higher education regulators UGC & AICTE, I guess) functionaries for academics and academic institutions not being able to excel. This is an interesting issue for me. My opinion is that as huge amount of public tax payer money is given to academic institutions by the government, the recipients of such money must be answerable to representatives of the people, which are the elected members of Parliament and HRD ministers in particular. Top academic administrators should not be allowed to escape accountability by resorting to tactics of blaming government interference for poor performance of the institutions they administer.Students and parents of the students are key stakeholders in the academic system but are not in a strong position to raise their voice and be heard. Yes, there are student unions but I don't know how effective they are for improving the academic standards of teaching and evaluation. Once again, IMHO, it is the moral responsibility of elected members of Parliament especially the HRD ministers to hold academic administrators and academics responsible for their duties of teaching and evaluating students well. If Indian academics and Indian academic administrators are not willing to be accountable to even the HRD ministers then who will they be accountable to?Friday, October 19, 2012First Question in 2nd US Presidential debate: Student asks about employment after graduation!Net url: I saw the 2nd US Presidential debate held on October 16th, 2012, . Its transcript is available here: first question was by a young undergraduate student, "Mr. President, Governor Romney, as a 20-year-old college student, all I hear from professors, neighbors and others is that when I graduate, I will have little chance to get employment. Can — what can you say to reassure me, but more importantly my parents, that I will be able to sufficiently support myself after I graduate?" (Source: above transcript link from?)The transcript link also has the moderator saying that the questions were *not* known (prior to the debate) to the candidates and the commission (presidential debate commission, I guess) but known to the moderator and her team.I think it is a celebration of US democracy that a young undergraduate student is able to pose such a real-life-concern question directly to the sitting President and his challenger. Hats off to US democracy!The answers from the candidates were, well, politically correct :). But I am not sure whether they really were good answers. In my humble opinion, the challenges of today's tough economic times not only for the developed countries of the world but perhaps the whole world, must make educators/academics seriously examine whether the education they impart to students makes them job worthy. I think job-oriented education is the pressing need of the hour, worldwide.A graduate who has been taught knowledge which cannot fetch him/her a job in today's economy undergoes huge suffering. The student's seriousness when he asks the question and how he clarifies that it is more important that his parents be reassured than him on whether he will be able to sufficiently support himself after graduation, says it all, IMHO.Academic Reform, Higher Education Bubble, Student Loan Problem & Private UniversitiesMy Viewpoints/ArticlesTransparency is the way to differentiate between good and bad deemed universities, March 2014Discussion/Informative Posts Involving Others' Articles/Views, Media reports and Some Comments from meFor-profit Corinthian Colleges goes for orderly dissolution of company; One of the largest USA higher education closures; Lessons for India, July 2014Prof. Yashpal Committee: Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education Report (2009) - Extracts related to private higher ed. providers and capitation fee, July 2014Private study (informal data): (Illegal) Donation/Capitation fees in India from KG to PG of Rs. 48,400 crores (US $ 8 Billion) per year, July 2014Is Brazil blazing a new path for low-cost and high-capacity higher education that countries like India can follow? June 2014Tough talking articles about USA Higher Education's 1200+ percent tuition fees increase over past 30 years and Student Debt Trap, June 2014Two Hindu articles on Radically reforming higher education, Student loan procedures and concerns; Aspiring Minds employment linkage to edX MOOC courses, June 2014Recent articles in The Hindu arguing for and against privatisation of (professional) higher education (in India), May 2014Flip-Flop Trauma for 44 Deemed Universities and Lakhs of students, parents, faculty and others associated with them, March 2014Private Deemed Universities - A model for excellence in Indian technical education? But what about its high costs to students, and so, social impact?, May 2014USA Higher Education Bubble? What about Indian Higher Education Bubble? December 20132013 Milken Institute Panel Discussion - The Future of Higher Education in America, December 2013Decline in USA Higher Education - PBS Documentary dated 2005; What about Indian Higher Education?, December 2013Think India Education Debate on Indian National English TV Channel, January 2014For-profit college in California, USA, faces lawsuit from Attorney General for Systematic Deception of Students, January 2014Some Serious Dangers of For-Profit Education Schools (Colleges) For Poor and Naive Students, January 2014How Online Education challenge is shaking up US academia, November 2012Napster, mp3 music industry disruption and MOOC, November 2012Tough Times for US Academia; Lessons for India?, September 2012Nature News, April 2011, Articles on PhD System Challenges, May 2013USA: The Student Loan Debt Disaster! Update: Income Based Repayment Plan Seems to be a Superb Solution, February 2014Thursday, March 6, 2014Transparency is the way to differentiate between good and bad deemed universitiesNet url: term 'deemed university' seems to have acquired negative connotations in the media. Most of the reports one reads about deemed universities in the print media are about poor quality of teaching & research in such deemed universities. But the famous?IISc. Bangalore,?TIFR Mumbai, BITS Pilani?and?TISS Mumbai?are deemed universities too! This aspect does not seem to be highlighted by the press media reports.I think the reality is that like in the case of public universities (Central & State universities) and private universities in India, there are good deemed universities and bad deemed universities. But how do students, parents, academics and non-teaching staff who are considering joining/associating with a deemed university figure out whether it is good or bad? I think in the 21st century Internet connected academic world of India, transparency by means of suitable data being made available on key overseeing/regulatory agencies like MHRD, UGC and AICTE as well as national assessment/accreditation agencies like NAAC and NBA and international private accreditation agencies like ABET is the way to go.?[From?, "The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is an organization that assesses and accredits institutions of higher education in India. It is an autonomous body funded by University Grants Commission of Government of India headquartered in Bangalore."From?, "The National Board of Accreditation (NBA), India was initially established by AICTE (All India Council of Technical Education) under section 10(u) of AICTE act, in the year 1987, for periodic evaluations of technical institutions & programmes basis according to specified norms and standards as recommended by AICTE council.?? ? ? ?NBA in its present form came into existence as an autonomous body with effect from 7th January 2010, with the objective of Assurance of Quality and Relevance of Education, especially of the programmes in professional and technical disciplines, i.e., Engineering and Technology, Management, Architecture, Pharmacy and Hospitality, through the mechanism of accreditation of programs offered by technical institutions."From?, "ABET, incorporated as the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc., is a non-governmental organization that accredits post-secondary education programs in "applied science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology". The accreditation of these programs occurs mainly in the United States but also internationally. As of October 2012, around 3,278 programs are accredited, distributed over more than 670 universities and colleges in 23 countries."][Vellore Institute of Technology, a deemed university placed in Table II by the Tandon committee has received international accreditation (including from ABET) for some of its programs,?. I think this gives its internationally accredited programs a strong international credibility edge over others who have not sought international accreditation.]I thought I should see how MHRD, UGC and AICTE fare in this matter of sharing suitable data about deemed universities on its web sites??MHRD:? a short explanation about (its view of) deemed universities, "An Institution of Higher Education, other than universities, working at a very high standard in specific area of study, can be declared by the Central Govt on the advice of the UGC as an Institution ‘Deemed-to-be-university’. Institutions that are ‘deemed-to-be-university’ enjoy academic status and privileges of a university.These ‘Deemed-to-be-University’ Institutions have expanded the base of higher education in the country and are offering education and research facilities in various disciplines such as Medical Education, Physical Education, Fisheries Education, Languages, Social Sciences, Population Sciences, Dairy Research, Forest Research, Armament Technology, Maritime Education, Yoga, Music and Information Technology, etc.The Department is determined to introduce accountability and transparency in the processing of applications for grant of status of deemed-to-be-university under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956. The Department has therefore placed the information regarding status of such applications on its website and reviews the position periodically. The UGC also displays all information in the public domain."The last paragraph above is heartening to note. Also interesting to note is how UGC plays the advisory role in creation of deemed university with actual creation being in the hands of the Central/Union government (with MHRD playing the key role in the central govt. for this matter.)The site also has a link to the list of deemed universities.UGC:? a lot more info. than the MHRD web pages on deemed universities but perhaps that is to be expected as UGC seems to the main body responsible for deemed universities.The link titled "Consolidated Reports of the UGC Visiting Committees on Deemed to be Universities",?, seemed promising but the list has only 20 university visit reports! Further, at least some of these reports (I saw bits of 2 such reports) are rather old (2008 vintage).The lists of deemed universities getting grant money from UGC are also put up. But one does not know how current the info. is. I saw two of these lists - both of them did not have any date on it!I think UGC should put dates wherever required so that readers know the currency of the information. Further, UGC should put in all efforts to have information about all deemed universities made available on these web pages.[BTW UGC has a list of fake universities,??!]AICTE:? various type of universities and has a link for deemed universities which simply shows a list of deemed universities. I guess UGC has the statutory powers for deemed universities and so one cannot expect too much to be shown on AICTE website.[BTW? a list of deemed universities state-wise and year-of-creation-wise. An interesting statistic from it is that maximum number of deemed universities (25) were created in 2008, of which 10 were in Tamil Nadu, 7 were in Karnataka and 3 were in Andhra Pradesh. Overall from the 129 deemed universities (DU) the states with highest number of DUs are: 29 in Tamil Nadu, 21 in Maharashtra, 13 in Karnataka, 10 in Uttar Pradesh and 10 in Delhi. For Puttaparthi/AP folks: Andhra Pradesh has 7.]Interestingly I did not come across the Tandon committee report in the main deemed university web pages of MHRD, UGC and AICTE! Perhaps they have put it up somewhere but I missed it. If they have not put it up then MHRD may not be walking its talk of "accountability and transparency" about deemed universities.Friday, July 4, 2014For-profit Corinthian Colleges goes for orderly dissolution of company; One of the largest USA higher education closures; Lessons for IndiaNet url: updated on July 6th 2014In response to a mail with similar content as that of this blog post, "Prof. Yashpal Committee: Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education Report (2009) - Extracts related to private higher ed. providers and capitation fee", a US based academic shared the following New York Times, July 2nd 2014 report, "Corinthian Colleges Is Closing. Its Students May Be Better Off as a Result.", notes from the article [The Creative Commons Attribution License, CC-BY, does NOT apply to this post.]:* Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit company, which enrolls 72,000 students across over 100 campuses, announced its imminent bankruptcy.* The company was being investigated for bad educational and financial practices from multiple govt. agencies including the US Department of Education.* The US Department of Education was investigating allegations of "falsifying job placement data used in marketing claims to prospective students and allegations of altered grades and attendance." and announced temporary withholding of part of federal student aid money. The cash delay was enough to send the company into imminent bankruptcy, as federal student aid money was a vital part of its annual revenues!* The US govt. had proposed a new set of regulations to govern for-profit colleges which has been challenged in court by the for-profit education industry. But the govt. has gone ahead and released a report which has the results of the test it proposes to apply to these programs (a chart with the percentage of for-profit company programs that are deemed to be failures or are in a warning zone is included in the article).?[Ravi: I am impressed with the transparent way in which the US government education regulator is handling this challenge of keeping for-profit education companies in check. I think Indian top education regulators should carefully study the methods used by the US govt. education regulator.]* The report has 35 % of Corinthian Colleges programs (numbering 162) deemed as failures and 15 % (numbering 68) in the warning zone.* ?But some for-profit education companies have zero failures and zero warnings! [Ravi: So there are some good for-profits too in the USA higher ed. sector.]* "At its peak, Corinthian received more than half a billion dollars per year from the federal Pell Grant program, more than the entire University of California system." Due to federal law limiting federal financial aid to no more than 90% of company revenue, it seems that Corinthian invested some of its own money for student loans! The calculation being that for every one dollar Corinthian itself gave as student loan, it enabled the company to receive 9 dollars of federal student aid!?[Ravi: These sort of financial gimmicks to dig into government aid for economically challenged students, well within the law, is the real scary part for me. Already Andhra Pradesh state in India seems to have had a higher education bubble in engineering colleges fueled by the state govt. fee reimbursement scheme for economically challenged students. That bubble is bursting due to the state government's precarious financial state not allowing it to provide the promised fee reimbursements in a timely way (and perhaps the poor quality of education imparted in colleges mainly dependent on such students). From (Andhra_Pradesh), "Fee Reimbursement Scheme also called as Post Matric Scholorship is a student education sponsorship Programme by Government of Andhra Pradesh. It supports students belonging to economically weaker sections in the state. In 2012-13, more than 600,000 students in professional colleges were covered under the scheme, including around 150,000 students in engineering colleges." and "The scheme has been under controversies with some institutions misusing it. The government is planning to reduce the scholarship to Rs.35,000 for the year 2013-14. After the separation of Telangana from Andhra, the fee reimbursement has become a bone of contention between Andhra and Telangana. The new clause introduced by the Telangana government has affected around 39,000 Andha-origin students who had done their schooling and college education in Telangana."]* The article concludes that more scrutiny and regulation of the for-profit higher education companies is working with those that fail to serve students well being faced with closure and those that provide job skills at affordable price remaining open.--- end notes ---Ravi: This is a lot of food for thought for me. A materially advanced country like USA with its far stronger implementation of law and regulations has had to struggle to differentiate between good for-profit education companies and bad. In India, the brutal truth seems to be that even though the law allows only not-for-profit private educational trusts to run educational institutions, there are a lot of private educational institutions which seem to be under-the-table for-profit trusts! The government and regulatory agencies have not been able to prevent clearly illegal activities like capitation fees of large value being taken on a large scale by these under-the-table for-profit education trusts. [For more, please see the post titled, "Private study (informal data): (Illegal) Donation/Capitation fees in India from KG to PG of Rs. 48,400 crores (US $ 8 Billion) per year"]If this corruption in a lot of private educational institutions in India is so bad now itself, what could be the picture if the government changed the law to permit for-profit education companies to operate! Yes, that certainly may allow some genuine and law-abiding education entrepreneurs to enter the field of private education in India but, at the same time, the floodgates may get opened for scamsters and tricksters to swamp the private education sector in India, who will adroitly use legal loopholes and their clout & leverage with the political system, to create fortunes for themselves, at the expense of students, parents and government aid money for economically challenged students & parents. Given the very poor track record of Indian higher education regulators in preventing malpractices and fraud, I doubt whether they will be able to implement strong regulation like the US department of education and other US agencies like consumer protection agencies.In conclusion, I am now having a serious re-think about supporting policy changes allowing for-profit education companies to operate in India, given today's rather dismal state of affairs in prevention of malpractice and fraud in some parts of Indian higher education. Maybe India is just not ready for such free market education entrepreneurship in the field of higher education.----------------------------Dr. Srinivasan Ramani, one of India's eminent computer scientist-cum-administrators, first director of National Center for Software Technology. NCST (now CDAC-Mumbai, ), significant contributor to India's academic network, ERNET, , first director of HP Labs. India, and 2014 Internet Hall of fame inductee, , has put up a post on his blog titled, Regulating private educational institutions,?, which refers to this Indian CS & IT academic reform activism blog.Thursday, July 3, 2014Prof. Yashpal Committee: Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education Report (2009) - Extracts related to private higher ed. providers and capitation feeNet url: Committee (Chairman Prof. Yash Pal,?) Report (seems to have been done sometime in 2009), Formal name of committee: “Committee to Advise on the Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education”: ?[Obtained from Page 2 here: July 3rd 2014. So the report still seems to be an important one (only 14 reports are listed under MHRD committee reports)]The report seems to be an exhaustive one and perhaps was (perhaps still is) the key report for the formation of a new National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) which would have (perhaps may still) replaced UGC & AICTE. But the bill to create NCHER got stalled in the last (UPA-II) government. Don't know exactly what the current NDA govt. thinks about it. [For Puttaparthi folks & Sathya Sai devotees, former Vice-Chancellor of Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, Sri S.V. Giri, is one of the 24 members of the committee (no. 6 in the list on page 85).]As of now, I focussed only on the private higher educational providers and corruption parts of the report that I could dig up quickly in my quick browse. I plan to read the whole report sometime in the future - I mean, it is the academic top-guns report on Indian academic reform.I felt it appropriate to copy-paste one section of the report from Page 32 below (with some comments of mine):2.3.2 Growth of private-commercial providersThe absence of any significant expansion in different sectors of higher education by the State has created a space for the growth of private providers.However, there has been no policy or guidelines to measure the competence of private investors in starting and managing a technical institution other than the requirement that it should be registered as a non-profit or charitable trust or society.This lacuna has been exploited by many investors, who have no understanding or experience of the responsibilities associated with institutions of higher education. The trusts or societies that have been formed largely consist of immediate family members – some of whom had little or no educational background - with some exceptions.All investments on the institution and all appointments and service conditions and, to a considerable extent, most decisions on admission of students in the management quota have been under the control of such family trusts or societies. The principal or the other academic staff members have been mostly excluded from these processes and asked to mind only the requirements of the university in terms of syllabus and examinations.Specific studies need to be done regarding the sources of funds utilized by such family trusts or societies as there are allegations that such funds are either unaccounted wealth from business and political enterprises (occasionally with some bank loans for purposes of legitimacy) or from the capitation fees charged from the students in addition to a plethora of unexplained fees charged whimsically by these managements.[Ravi: Congratulations to the committee for frankly putting down the state of affairs. This is a top-shot committee engaged by HRD minister Shri Arjun Singh (in 2008) and then supported by later HRD minister Shri Kapil Sibal, and has top academic administrators in it. So its words are very weighty giving enough ground for the government/legislature to act by introducing changes in existing higher education acts or creating new acts to fix the problems. Terrific stuff from this committee! They have done a great service to the nation, IMHO, by writing the above five paragraphs in the report.]It must be mentioned that during the past two decades there have also been many respectable institutions established by private individuals or corporations either with some funding from the government or with no public funding. However, investors and philanthropists wishing to set upinstitutions of higher education with noble motives have been deterred by the unpredictable and often whimsical rules and regulations imposed on them by regulatory bodies in this sector.[Ravi: This is the other side of the coin; Well said.][Ravi: Boxed comment]In many private educational institutions, the appointment of teachers is made at the lowest possible cost. They are treated with scant dignity, thereby turning away competent persons from opting for the teaching profession. A limited number of senior positions are filled at attractive salaries, especially from other reputed institutions, mainly for prestige. Otherwise, there are many terrible instances of faculty being asked to work in more than one institution belonging to the management; their salary being paid only for nine months; actual payments being much less than the amount signed for; impounding of their certificates and passports; compelling them to award pass marks in the internal examination to the “favorites” and fail marks for students who protest illegal collections and so on.[Ravi: Wow! Hats off! This is what one hears about some of the poorer quality colleges - this committee wrote it down in the report. OK, so now the HRD ministry has got this picture from this top-committee. It must explore legal ways by which such private educational institutions are forced to mend their ways or close down.][Ravi: End-boxed comment]The solution to the unscrupulous methods of some private investors should not mean doing away with their participation in the field of higher education altogether.In order to reach the goals of doubling the higher education capacity from the present level, it will be necessary to encourage participation of the private sector. At the same time it must be emphasized that governments cannot afford to abandon the responsibility for further augmentation of the existing capacity entirely to the private sector.In fact we must recognize the need for different layers of institutions in the field of higher education, including state-run, private and those established through public-private partnerships. What is required in order to make all of them work efficiently and serve overall national goals is the framing of rational and consistent ground rules overseen by a transparent regulatory mechanism.[Ravi: I think the above three paragraphs are a very balanced view and I tend to support it.]Purely private initiatives require a credible corrective mechanism to do away with the ills associated with it currently. It would be necessary for instance that the present practice of family members who sometimes don’t have the experience or the competence relating to education occupying the controlling position of the governing systems of the private educational institutions be prevented. Similarly, the practice of conferring academic designations such as Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, and Pro Vice Chancellor on members of the family has to stop.There is a need to have a clear understanding of the difference in the roles of a promoter or philanthropist as a trustee as opposed to being an executive of the institution he or she establishes. Executives must have appropriate abilities and qualifications required for the job.All private institutions, which seek the status of a university, will have to submit to a national accreditation system.It is also important that private initiatives in the field of higher education are not driven by the sole motive of profit. They should not confine themselves only to ‘commercially viable’ sectors of education, such as management, accountancy and medicine etc. but should also encompass areas of social and natural sciences by establishing comprehensive universities.Alternately, such institutions should be allowed to confer only diplomas and certificates and not university degrees. These certificates or diplomas, however, may be recognized by universities for further upgradation to degree levels through programmes of a more holistic nature.[Ravi: Certificates & diplomas by private educational setups focusing on 'commercially viable' sectors of education being recognised by universities for further upgradation to degree levels through additional programmes seems a very viable option! Maybe certifcates from MOOCs of NPTEL/IIT-Madras could be recognised by universities similarly and they could provide a (shorter) upgrade path for a proper degree.]All this would mean modification in the legal framework under which such entities operate to include very tight regulations on auditing their accounts, on transparency, on paying a minimum stipulated salary to qualified and competent teachers, and an insistence on a certain percentage of seats being provided full scholarships/freeships on the basis of merit. The modalities of this and of any mandatory reservations can be worked out.--- end full section 2.3.2 Growth of private-commercial providers extract ---Extract from section 2.3.4 Issues of affordability (Page 38 onwards) and some comments [The section has the word programmers instead of programmes - I have made the correction below] :Many private institutions charge exorbitant fees (beyond the prescribed norms) in the form of many kinds of levy (not accounted for by vouchers and receipts) and are unable to provide even minimum competent faculty strength. The nonaffordability of the programmes of such institutions to a vast majority of eligible students is a matter of public concern.The regulatory agencies have been unable to come to grips with the problems of capitation fee and unauthorized annual fees mainly due to deficiencies in enforcement instruments, and partly due to high-level reluctance to sort out this problem.[Ravi: So here is the clear acknowledgement of these illegal fees and the "high-level reluctance" to fix the problem in a top-level official committee document.]Since the norms for fixation of fees are vague, the quantum of fees charged has no rational basis. The illegal capitation fees range from: Rs. 1-10 lakh for the engineering courses; Rs. 20-40 lakh for MBBS courses; Rs. 5-12 lakh for dental courses; and about Rs. 30,000-50,000 for courses in arts and science colleges, depending on the demand.[Ravi: Well, I think this just shows how toothless the govt. is in preventing this social menace. I mean, everybody seems to know the going rate for the illegal capitation fee - it is an open secret. I hope some new acts which give MHRD and other govt. authorities the teeth to act on such stuff gets passed, and then the govt. shows the political will to go after higher ed. institutions that charge these illegal fees. OR the govt. should make capitation fee legal. (one lakh is one hundred thousand; exchange rate for 1 US $ is approx. Rs. 60, so Rs. 10 Lakh is Rs. 1 million which is approx.?US $?16,666)]Studies and research show that most of the private investment in higher education is in the field of engineering, management and medicine whereas the majority of enrollment is taking place in traditional disciplines. The private providers are, therefore, not putting their money in areas which attract the bulk of the students, especially first generation university goers. This remains the responsibility of the state. It is the middle class, which has for long benefited from the state education system and is now breaking away from it.--- end extract from section 2.3.4 Issues of affordability ---[Please note that the Creative Commons Attribution license, CC-BY, does NOT apply to this post.]Wednesday, July 2, 2014Private study (informal data): (Illegal) Donation/Capitation fees in India from KG to PG of Rs. 48,400 crores (US $ 8 Billion) per yearNet url: was passed on a document over email which seems to be the same as this one on the net here: ?(15 pages), and which is a private study of (illegal) donation/capitation fee from KG to PG in India. As it is a private study put up on a Mumbai IT security firm website (associated with/owned by the author(s)), one should not take the figures it quotes as validated figures. However, on reading/browsing through it, I felt that, at least some of its calculations do not seem outlandish, given what I have read and heard about donations/capitation fees in India over the past couple of years or so. But then there are no proper/authorised data sources for donation/capitation fees as they are illegal! [(Educational Institution) Management quota seats having higher fee structure seems to be legally OK. But, from what I have gathered over my readings, selling a management quota seat against a particular sum of donation money, is illegal in India. I think there is some Supreme Court ruling to this effect.]Also, I think private educational institutions may be using this capitation fee/donations (black money) for some expenses related to their educational institutions like building infrastructure, labs. etc. I mean, one cannot presume that all this donation money is profit that is stashed away by the people who manage the educational institution, as the study seems to imply. In fact, I would not be surprised if there is an argument that it is this donation money from management quota seats that cross-subsidizes the open quota lower-fees seats.But what is becoming clear is that it would be better if the donation/capitation fee is made legal so that everybody knows for sure what is going on. In my humble view, the rich paying donations for management quota seats which cross-subsidizes the lower-fees seats for the poor and middle class is a good thing. But the education and examination standards should not be lowered for these management quota seat students.BTW here is the Rs. 48,400 crores approx. = ?US $ 8 billion calc: Rs. 48,400 crores = Rs. 484,000 million (as 1 crore = 100 * 1,00,000 = 10,000,000 = 10 million). Rs. 484,000 million is Rs. 484 billion. Taking round figure of Rs. 60 for 1 US $, 484/60 is slightly over US $ 8 billion.Sunday, June 29, 2014Is Brazil blazing a new path for low-cost and high-capacity higher education that countries like India can follow?Net url: updated on July 1st 2014Notes from?.* Brazil's for-profit higher education companies have around 75% of the market!?[Ravi: I guess that means that around 75 % of student enrollment in higher education in Brazil is in the for-profit higher-education sector. That is a great surprise to me!]* The fees of Brazil's for-profit higher education companies are low.?[Ravi: This is truly a pleasant surprise to me. Some private deemed universities in India have gained a strong reputation for excellence in education but their fees are exorbitant. It is great to see that in Brazil private ?higher education companies provide low-fees education to around 75% of the country's students.]* Online education model, adaptive learning materials, local teaching centre franchises with moderators etc. seem to be the ingredients of the winning formula of these for-profit low-fees higher education companies in Brazil.--- end Notes ---Ravi: India already has a widespread computer education private franchisee model network for decades (NIIT, Aptech etc.). Can they along with Ministry of Human Resource Development, UGC and AICTE, replicate this success of Brazil?P.S. The same post has been put up on?Google+ here, which has some interesting discussion captured in 5 comments. I have given below my part of the discussion:Thank you for your very interesting views, Dr. Ramani.I think it will be truly wonderful if CSR funds aid existing and create new top-notch universities & colleges focusing on research excellence as well as teaching excellence, which will charge reasonable fees from students (as against very high fees by some flourishing private deemed universities).But I have serious concerns about whether such CSR funds will be able to cater to the huge number of students in India who are interested in pursuing higher education, many of whom do so in the hope that the degrees earned and knowledge gained will land them well paid jobs.Perhaps the solution may lie in a mix where we have:a) Government and/or CSR funded elite universities focusing on top quality research and teaching, while charging reasonable fees.b) Top-notch private universities (and colleges) charging high fees but delivering great quality in teaching and decent research perhaps.c) Low-fees, decent-quality, job-oriented for-profit institutions using online education technology, teacher centre franchisee model etc. which caters to a majority of the large section of students in the country seeking affordable job-oriented higher education (similar to what has been described in the linked article about Brazil).....I entirely agree that educational institutions should not be merely profit-oriented. Their emphasis must be service to the community by educating the community. In this context I think for-profit educational institutions would be like private hospitals in India. The private hospital must have service to the community as the foremost objective and not profit as the foremost objective.The problem with not-for-profit educational institutions is that many of them descend into bureaucratic apathy and inertia. In a for-profit setup excellence gets rewarded via career growth and/or financial rewards which perhaps acts as a strong deterrent to bureaucratic apathy and inertia. Further, a for-profit setup cannot tolerate non-performers as competitors would then score over them in service quality.However, like in the case of private hospitals, for-profit educational institutions run the risk of losing the community service focus and concentrating only on profit making, which would make them institutions that exploit society rather than serve them. Top level education regulators should have some monitoring mechanisms, backed by suitable acts in parliament, if required, to ensure that exploitative for-profit educational institutions are spotted quickly and forced to mend their ways or to close down.The co-operative model for a university which you have described is interesting. During my nine year voluntary service stint (as Honorary Staff, Honorary Faculty and then Visiting Faculty) in a deemed university which offers free education to under-graduates going up to Ph.D., I came across many teaching and research faculty as well as non-teaching staff who offered voluntary services, usually as a short stint of some weeks, but sometimes full-time, to this free education university. I think people feel good about contributing in kind to such noble efforts. The backbone of the setup was full-time paid faculty and non-teaching staff who held everything together. I mention this as a practical working example of these type of community service oriented universities. The challenge, however, may be that replicating such institutions on a large scale may be very difficult, if not impossible.But the co-operative model has share-holding and returns on these shares (investment). So that may help in significantly improving possibilities of replication of the model on a larger scale.However, this co-operative model is also a for-profit educational institution. So this would be possible only when the law in India changes to allow for-profit educational institutions (with oversight by higher education regulators to prevent exploitation like charging students' exorbitant fees)....A correspondent responded over email as follows after the first exchange between Dr. Ramani and me (the correspondent was OK with me sharing it):Re: what you and Ramani have said, I think we should not so easily shift the onus of providing high quality education from the government to companies. Education is one of the key markers of a liberal, progressive society and providing it must remain one of the main objectives of any government. They may choose to provide it themselves (through central universities, IITs etc) and/or to create the conditions under which other bodies can provide it. They must continue to set standards and monitor the development of education.You may well ask, 'What's new? That's what we have now.'We need to demand that the bodies that control education are headed by genuine scholars and enlightened administrators. There should be publicly accessible evaluations and the bodies must measure themselves by international standards. Reports of accreditation must be made panies have other core activities. It is not realistic to expect them to also run educational establishments without seeking some payback: branding, loyalty, training a workforce and so on which are all contrary to an open educational environment. If their CSR activities channel funds into good institutions (not run by them) that is a bonus.--- end correspondent response ---I wrote back as follows (slightly edited for clarity):[Ravi: Referring to correspondent's view that government may choose to provide high quality education themselves (through central universities, IITs etc) and/or to create the conditions under which other bodies can provide it, I wrote:]I tend to agree with the qualification that "other bodies" can be for-profit educational institutions (under oversight of top level higher education regulators).I should also state that the government seems to just not have the money to create and run large number of higher educational institutions. I read/heard at least one HRD minister of state of UPA-II talk of PPP (Public-Private partnership, ) model in higher education. So, it seems to me, private funding is vital for meeting higher ed. needs in the country.In the absence of for-profit education entrepreneurs (due to the law of the land not allowing them to operate), the private funding and private owned colleges by supposedly not-for-profit trusts, are from other sources, which do not seem to be very professional. I think that may be contributing, in a not insignificant way, to poor teaching standards in many private colleges in the country.[Ravi: Referring to publicly accessible evaluations, measurement by international standards and reports of accreditation being made public (of higher ed. institutions i.e. universities and colleges), I wrote:]This will be just fantastic. International standards accreditation with reports available on the net for anybody to view (and so, question) will be a great step forward for Indian higher education. I think NAAC and NBA, the premier assessment and accreditation agencies in our country, may be working towards these goals (like Washington Accord goal achieved by NBA recently), but there seems to be quite some distance to be covered before these goals are met.?[Ravi: Referring to companies being involved with educational institutions having danger of companies seeking some payback like "branding, loyalty, training a workforce and so on which are all contrary to an open educational environment", I wrote:]I tend to agree. Shareholders want dividend and other kind of returns. They are not so bothered about service to society. And ultimately the board of directors (of a company) is answerable to shareholders. So companies who invest in educational establishments even as CSR may not be able to avoid influencing that (educational) establishment to suit the company's interests.--- end my response ---The correspondent wrote back:>> the government seems to just not have the money to create and run large number of higher educational institutionsThe question to ask is, why not? Today the government spends less per capita on higher education than it did 20 years ago (see the UGC website). Instead of spending on sloganeering schemes that do little to change the economic situation or the hardship faced by the poor (since most of the money gets siphoned off before it gets to its target) it should be trying to improve their employment capabilities and, simultaneously, creating job opportunities.Today, a lot of urban poor (say, housemaids, manual workers, etc.) spend from their own pocket to send their children to what they decide are better schools. There is so much commitment and drive there that could be channeled into effective job-creation avenues.As tax payers, we should be demanding that the government spends more on education. Politicians will change policies only when there is pressure from the electorate.--- end correspondent 2nd response ---Ravi: Here is my edited response to the above:[Ravi: Referring to why the government should not be directly involved in improving employment capabilities of the poor, I wrote:]I think that (improving employment capabilities of the poor through education, and govt. getting directly involved in higher education in general) is a very complex area with huge challenges. Some of the reasons involved as per my opinion, are quite sensitive and so I prefer to not cover that topic in a publicly accessible Internet post.As an example (of failure of govt. initiatives to improve employment capabilities of the poor), a local Puttaparthi youth came up to me a few days ago and asked whether I could teach him Microsoft Word, Excel etc. which might improve his chances of getting some assistant job in some Puttaparthi shop/small office, he said. I told him about some government efforts to provide free training in such subjects conducted in Anantapur, based on what I had read in the newspapers. He informed me that he had been through that course and got over 60% marks in the exam (and so, presumably, has the certificate) but that they did not teach anything much!That was very disappointing for me to hear. I guess I should not form an opinion about this AP govt. initiative till I get more feedback but I must say I was not too surprised to hear it.I guess I have given up on government only initiatives in the area of computer education to youth. They seem to carry some curse of failure with them.On the other hand, a PPP model seems to be delivering some results, in areas like computerized services being made available to citizens at low cost. The Mee Seva program of AP (and Telangana now), , has been delivering good results in Puttaparthi.The AP govt.'s computer education initiative for youth may have delivered better if it had been done in partnership with established (private) computer training houses like NIIT.But then higher education is different from basic computer training. However, I now feel that increased govt. participation in running it, as against only regulating it from a top level, is doomed to failure. I can't spell out clear reasons. I feel I have seen enough of govt. failures and it will be money down the drain, or worse (as the govt. would not look at alternative solutions then).I feel private companies using online education technologies may do a far superior job (than govt. directly) in delivering low-cost medium quality higher education to vast majority of poor and lower middle class Indians. I repeat, govt. must play a top-level regulatory role where it can boot out (private for-profit) companies that become exploiters of students.[Ravi: Referring to the urban poor spending from their own pocket to educate their children and there being so much commitment and drive that could be channeled into effective job-creation avenues.]Agreed. And I think these people would jump at Brazil type low fees private higher education model if it delivered job oriented skills. [And I see similar commitment and drive in small town Puttaparthi poor when it comes to educating their children. They desperately want their children to lead more comfortable lives than theirs and are willing to slog away for it.][Ravi: Referring to the tax paying electorate demanding from politicians that they spend more on education/improve education, I wrote:]Having done some reading up on articles, interviews and speeches of some of the top HRD associated politicians, who were ministers/ministers of state in the HRD ministry, in the past couple or so years (Shri Kapil Sibal and Dr. Shashi Tharoor mainly), the situation is that the ministers themselves despair of the bureaucratic apathy of Indian academia (viewed as a whole; there certainly are islands of excellence like IITs, IISc, IIMs etc.). Dr. Tharoor wrote a (mainstream newspaper) article referring to (govt. funded) academic jobs as 'sarkari' naukris (where one's job is fully protected)! My view today is that we cannot expect too much from the politicians. The academic bureaucratic system is a monster that can take on powerful politicians too like how the IITs blocked some moves of Shri Sibal (I do not know whether the Shri Sibal backed moves were good or not good; I am just pointing out the limits that HRD ministers have in bringing in change in Indian academia).I think too much of govt. involvement in funding and running higher ed. institutions creates institutions of apathy as against institutions of excellence. [Somehow, the accountability part of the govt. funded higher ed. institutions gets lost. Private higher ed. institutions depend on money paid by students (their customers) and so have to perform in providing decent education to their student-customers to survive in the private higher ed. market.]--- end my 2nd response to correspondent ---Saturday, June 21, 2014Tough talking articles about USA Higher Education's 1200+ percent tuition fees increase over past 30 years and Student Debt TrapNet url: ) "Colleges are full of it: Behind the three-decade scheme to raise tuition, bankrupt generations, and hypnotize the media", June 8th 2014, article refers to USA higher education. Some notes on it:* 1200+ percent increase in price of college tuition over last three decades, rising twice as fast as medical care costs* Over the decades, universities (administrators) have given the reasons for steep rise in tuition fees as utility bills, libraries, professor salaries (top professors costing top money), students demanding luxuries (carpeting, furniture, gymnasiums ...) etc.* Actually teaching duties in universities were/(are?) handled by graduate students and adjunct professors!?[Ravi: This clearly has some exaggeration. For effect perhaps. The reality may be that a significant part of the "teaching load" is handled by adjuncts and grad-students freeing up professors for research.]* In 1986, a spokesman of a higher-ed accreditation group told the New York Times, “A grant conveys the message, ‘We value you and will invest in your future,’ ” ... “The message of a loan is, ‘Go forward if you want, but on your own nickel.’ Loans reinforce privatist, instrumental values, a sense that you’re in college for yourself and that college studies have as an end only what comes later—a job and paying off the loan.”?[Ravi: Now, it seems to be almost all loans and preciously few grants for students in US higher-ed.]* The tuition fee big upward spiral started in 1981 with deregulation and free market principles sweeping higher education field.* Purpose of college education has become a pathway to a high paying job (one million dollars more, supposedly, over working lifetime with a college degree) and not serving the nation (being of benefit to the nation).---- end notes ---Ravi: India seems to be going down the same road in the case of private professional (higher) education! Can India learn from the mistakes of USA higher education and chart a different path?b) College costs expose the false meritocracy of the American dream, June 18th 2014 : PhD qualified Wall Street Banker who graduated from a Florida public college in 1987 paying $2,500 a year, discusses how steep rises in college cost are making it an exclusive path for the generation of his children, limited to the rich and those willing to get into big debt. And the top white collar jobs, including Wall Street jobs, have become the exclusive domain of Ivy league or similar schools.?Tuesday, June 3, 2014Two Hindu articles on Radically reforming higher education, Student loan procedures and concerns; Aspiring Minds employment linkage to edX MOOC coursesNet url: updated on June 7th 2014Yesterday The Hindu carried two articles of great interest to me.First, Radically reforming higher education,? Prof. PULAPRE BALAKRISHNAN of the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram). Some notes and comments:* The author writes that Indian higher education system 'cries out for reform' - hear, hear! But he omits the real big issues for most students and parents - better learning outcomes and better employability, both issues dealing with dissemination of knowledge (teaching) as against creation of knowledge (research).* The writer mentions the UGC regulations requiring college lecturers to teach for around 16 hours a week. Very clearly that will leave little time for research and/or quality of teaching will suffer. But reducing the time to say half would mean many higher ed. institutions would need to hire more faculty. And so that may not work. Here's a suggestion - Have two types of universities: a teaching intensive one where faculty has higher teaching load and so is less expensive to run and a research intensive one with low teaching load and so more expensive to run.* Appreciate the point about instituting student evaluation of courses in the context of faculty accountability especially after high salaries paid to faculty in those higher ed. institutions that have implemented sixth pay commission. It would help in improving teaching quality though students should not misuse it to penalize faculty for reasons like strict evaluation.* The author writes, "The purpose of a university is the creation of knowledge." The professor has missed out on teaching i.e. dissemination of knowledge, in the purpose of a university. University has to do both - teaching and research. From?, "A university (Latin: "universitas", "a whole") is an institution of higher education and research which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects and provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education." From?, "The Oxford and Cambridge Act, 1877 defined the purpose of a university in terms of its duty to foster 'religion, education, learning and research', and these objectives ( though the mention of religion has quietly been dropped) are still to be found in Cambridge's statutes as part of the job-description of University Teaching Officers and in Cambridge's latest publications about the evolution of its governance arrangements".---- end first article notes and comments ---[The following comment of mine appears on The Hindu article web page under the name Ravi Iyer and is the latest comment as of June 7th 2014 afternoon:Appreciate the point about instituting student evaluation of courses. It would help in improving teaching quality though students should not misuse it to penalize faculty for reasons like strict evaluation. Author wrote, "The purpose of a university is the creation of knowledge." The professor has missed out on teaching i.e. dissemination of knowledge, in the purpose of a university. University has to do both - teaching and research...About the 16 hours a week teaching load for Asst. Professors (lecturers) in UGC regulations: Very clearly that leaves little time for research. But reducing the time to say half would mean many higher ed. institutions would need to hire more faculty. And so that may not work. Here's a suggestion - Have two types of universities: a teaching intensive one where faculty has higher teaching load and so is less expensive to run and a research intensive one with low teaching load and so more expensive to run.]Here's the second article, Interest matters,?. Some notes and comments:* "As the cost of higher education touches new highs, education loans are nearly unavoidable today. How smooth is the process of getting one?" That's the lead paragraph. I am so disappointed by the powerlessness of society to control the costs of higher education. I think India is going down the USA route in professional higher education costs with the danger of student debt traps becoming a major social and so, political issue.* The author writes that the student loan ranges from Rs. 4 lakh to Rs. 40 lakh. What can I say? I feel very sympathetic towards poor and lower middle class Indian parents and students trapped under the crushing burden of (professional) higher education costs.* The student loan interest rates are higher than housing and vehicle loans! That is quite shocking news for me.* The author gives EMI calc. for a Rs. 10 Lakh student loan as Rs. 19,000 per month for seven years, and writes that therefore the student would target a job that pays (minimum) about Rs. 40,000 per month. If anybody still thinks that education in general must not be job-oriented but prepare students for the noble life etc., etc., they should have a rethink as the above sentences are the reality on the ground. Yes, if there are special higher education institutions that provide free or low-cost education, their case is different. But, in the vast majority of especially professional higher education institutions, enrolling for a degree entails significant investment. It has become a business decision. The students and parents have no option but to think about return on investment for the money spent on the degree!* The article mentions some relief for economically weaker sections where govt. repays interest during students' study period + some time till he gets a job (six months perhaps). But it is not as if the loan is waived for these students. They still have to pay back the loan after finishing their studies. For that they need to get a job that pays real well.* The article states that if a student fails then the loan may be discontinued! What a Damocles' sword to keep over the neck of the poor indebted student! If you fail, no money! Scary, real scary!* The article ends with the sentence, "Can this vicious cycle of overpriced education and overburdened young employees be broken?" The only way to break this cycle, it seems to me, is by bringing in low-cost decent quality (it is OK if it is not top quality) higher education which will act as a competitive force to bring down higher ed. costs. And the only such competitive force that I can see on the horizon is online education that awards government recognized degrees (like Georgia Tech, USA & Udacity's Online Master of Science in Computer Science - OMS-CS.)]---- end second article notes and comments ---[The following comment of mine appears twice on The Hindu article web page under the names Ravi Iyer and Ravi Ravi, and are the only comments on the article web page as of June 7th 2014 afternoon:Very informative article about student debt trap in India...I am so disappointed by the powerlessness of society, so far, to control the costs of higher education. I think India is going down the USA route in professional higher education costs with the danger of student debt traps becoming a major social and political issue. Enrolling for a degree in such higher ed. institutions has become a business decision. The students and parents have no option but to think about return on investment for the money spent on the degree!..The only way to break the vicious cycle of high cost education and indebted passed out students, it seems to me, is by bringing in low-cost decent quality (it is OK if it is not top quality) higher education which will act as a competitive force to bring down higher ed. costs. And the only such competitive force that I can see on the horizon is online education that teaches employable skills for free or at very low cost.]Around the time I sent out a mail with content similar to the above, I received an email newsletter from Aspiring Minds with this article in it, Bridging the Gap between Education and Employment with Aspiring Minds, notes and comments:* Aspiring Minds has taken the initiative to connect edX MOOC-takers with jobs. Ravi: That's a terrific initiative. I am so happy to know of this.* Aspiring Minds offered Indian edX learners (second largest group for edX) to register with them for job opportunities, and that offer was taken up by many.* The article reports that the first student in this group, a final year computer engg. student with a Rajasthan engg. college that does not have a great placement record, and who took a few edX MOOC courses, including "Introduction to Computer Science and Programming", got offered a software trainee job by a software firm (with USA & Rajasthan offices). The article concludes, "This first example is encouraging, and it demonstrates how committed MOOC learners, even those with limited job opportunities, can be connected to employers. This is a first step in achieving the vision of an ideal education-employment ecosystem through MOOCs and we look forward to learning a lot more from this experiment in the next 3-6 months."This is utterly fascinating to me! So a CS student from a not-so-great (at least from placements point of view) engg. college took the extra initiative of doing CS MOOC course(s) from edX and also registered with AspiringMinds. That led to a seemingly decent job offer. This can be replicated on a larger scale thereby giving CS students and degree holders from not-so-great (and not-so-expensive perhaps) engg. colleges of India to pick up employable skills from edX (and other) MOOC courses (free, as of now), and then land jobs via organizations like AspiringMinds. In fact, even students doing significantly less expensive degrees like B.Sc. in Physics, Chemisty, Maths etc. can do Computer Science/Information Technology MOOC courses and then shoot for a software job. Great work by AspiringMinds. BTW Varun Aggarwal of AspiringMinds, a joint author of this article, is an MIT alumnus, , May 11, 2014Recent articles in The Hindu arguing for and against privatisation of (professional) higher education (in India)Net url: updated on 25th May 2014Here's a very controversial article dated May 7th 2014, titled, "Privatising professional education". One look at the comments section shows how much negative response this article has generated.One comment of a Jaideep got 57 Up votes (and 6 Down votes). The 55 up votes are by far and away the highest in the article comments so far. One of the sentences in the short 3-sentence comment is: "The education loan payback makes life tough even for students from IIT & IIm, so Mr. Hegde suggesting this as an option only shows his lack of understanding on the matter".I think the 57 up votes on this comment is an indicator of education loan payback, especially for private professional education, being a major issue among students & parents.I added the following comment which appears on the article web page under the name 'Ravi Ravi':Interesting and informative article, especially the 2002 TMA Pai Foundation supreme court case judgement extract noting that it is "well established all over the world that those who seek professional education must pay for it", and seeming to not take objection to private professional education institutions taking donations and/or high fees. And that subsequent court benches struggled to reconcile with this part of the judgement.I entirely disagree with the author's view about Mr. Nilekani's entry into politics. I think Mr. Nilekani entering politics and hopefully getting into a position whereby he can influence government policy from the ministerial/parliamentary side on IT related areas should be welcomed. He has already done a stellar job with the Aadhaar project whose IT achievements have been fantastic, even if it getting translated into e-governance benefits, especially in the area of preventing leakages in subsidy delivery to citizens, seems to have run into some issues.--- end comment ---Interestingly a few days later, on May 10th 2014, The Hindu had an article making "The case against privatisation of education". This comes across, at least partly, as a response to the previous (above mentioned) controversial article on privatising professional education.I added the?following long-comment on Google+:With all due respect to the author, I would argue that the purpose of higher education is first and foremost education i.e. teaching of knowledge. Creation of knowledge should come next on the agenda. If the author is interested only in creation of knowledge, exclusive research-only institutions may suit that need.There certainly should be some regulation of private higher education by government or government appointed agencies. However, there should be transparency and probity in such regulation without the regulators becoming a top level source of corruption and unethical practices which corrupts the entire higher education sector regulated by them. The author's argument for drastically reforming higher education regulatory bodies instead of dismantling them is a good one. Over-regulated but under-governed is an excellent pithy description of the current state of Indian higher education.I entirely agree with the author that as a democracy, we should actually be rejoicing that public life is now attracting individuals from a more diverse educational gene pool like doctors and engineers (irrespective of whether they have been trained mainly on taxpayer's money or on their own (family) money).The author does not mention the main issue of the government simply not having the money to open enough public sector higher education institutions to satisfy the needs of the youth of our one and a quarter billion strong country. Therefore there is no choice but to allow private sector to step in to satisfy the need but within the overall control and transparent regulation of top. govt higher education regulatory bodies.---end comment ---I added a shorter comment fitting the comment-size on The Hindu article web page, which appears under the name Ravi Ravi. [BTW I wrote to vuukle support about my name not being shown correctly in the comments (vuukle plug-in/software manages the comments on The Hindu article web pages - a recent change). I was pleased to receive a prompt response from its CEO stating that profile editing features are expected to be available in 7 to 10 days. He also invited further suggestions from me.]-----------------------------------------Update:What a royal mess has been created with MHRD, UGC and AICTE trying to act tough with deemed universities (e.g. Tandon committee's arbitrary decree (firman) of removal of deemed university status from 44 deemed universities)! The deemed universities went to court (Supreme Court and High Court(s)) with the result that the court judgements seem to have made all these attempts of MHRD, UGC & AICTE completely ineffective.This article in The Hindu dated May 23rd 2014, UGC regulation on deemed varsities unconstitutional: High Court,?, takes the cake, IMHO. Some notes and comments:"The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday declared as “unconstitutional and invalid” the University Grants Commission (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulation 2010 pertaining to governance system, admission and fee structure and opening of campuses of deemed-to-be universities in the country. The High Court also quashed the circular issued by the UGC in 2010-11 asking all existing deemed-to-be universities to comply with the new regulation."[Ravi: The regulation seems to be this one (64 page document):, whose link is provided in the main UGC page on deemed universities here:?(under 3. The Gazette of India Notification reg.: UGC (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulation, 2010 - English Version).The Karnataka HC, as per my understanding, has just thrown away the above regulations and made it irrelevant! What a huge embarrassment to MHRD and UGC (and AICTE perhaps)! What a victory to the deemed universities!]The petition was filed by some universities like Manipal and their contention was that the UGC regulations interfered with their rights as private unaided educational institutions and that such interference violated Supreme Court rulings.Specifically the high court ruled that UGC or the union government cannot interfere in the admission process and fee structure fixation of these private unaided educational institutions.[Ravi: Admission process and fee structure - those are the vital things. Looks like previous Supreme Court verdicts may have gone in favour of private unaided educational institutions having a lot of freedom in admission and fee structure, as public money is not involved. The HC would have to go in line with previous Supreme Court verdicts unless there is a really strong case to challenge the previous verdicts.]--- end notes and comments ---Ravi: I think that is why the Higher Education And Research Bill 2011 was critical to MHRD, UGC & AICTE plans. From?, "The Bill seeks to establish the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER), a General Council and a Collegium of Scholars. ?It repeals the UGC Act, 1956, the AICTE Act, 1987, and the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993."Ravi: That seems to mean that this bill, once it becomes law, will decide the new rules of the game. And then the Courts will follow the new law. But I think this bill only got introduced in the Rajya Sabha and did not proceed further (i.e. did not get passed in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha) - the above link also seems to indicate that. So this bill is not an act i.e. not law yet. Don't know what the new Modi sarkar (government) will do with it.Tuesday, March 4, 2014Flip-Flop Trauma for 44 Deemed Universities and Lakhs of students, parents, faculty and others associated with themNet url: updated on 5th March 2014Over the past few months, off and on, there have been articles in The Hindu about Supreme Court being involved in deciding the fate of 44 deemed universities (and lakhs of students associated with them) whose deemed university status had been recommended to be withdrawn by the Tandon committee report (dated 2009).Today's The Hindu carries an article on it, A prescription for the ailing education sector,? small extract:"The Supreme Court’s 2014 new year order in the form of a University Grants Commission (UGC) review of 44 deemed universities has ensured more mental trauma for lakhs of students and applicants. Though it has not approved or disapproved of the infamous Tandon Committee, it has made a statutory body, the UGC, subservient to the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD)." [A lakh is one hundred thousand.]So, as I understand it, now the outcome of the UGC review will have to be awaited.From the article I gather that the legal challenge to the Tandon committee's constitution and method of grading of these deemed universities started in 2009 itself. And now it is 2014 with no decision yet.I wondered whether the list of these 44 universities could be obtained (as I don't think The Hindu provided that). Interestingly I found that the entire Tandon committee report is available on the net here:??(129 pages).The list of these 44 universities is Table III starting on page 27 in pdf file but numbered page 25 in the document footer. Table III universities are described as "those institutions deemed to be universities which, neither on past performance nor on their promise for the future, have the attributes, in our considered opinion, to retain their status as universities"The earlier pages contain Table I deemed universities described as 'those institutions which, on an aggregate of their achievements and performance as well potential, justify their continuation as "deemed universities"' and Table II deemed universities described as 'those, which on an aggregate we find to be deficient in some aspects which need to be rectified over a three year period for them to transit in to the first category referred here for their continuation as "deemed universities"'I think removing the status of deemed university for so many universities at one go is not an easy thing to do. I mean, it is one thing to derecognize an educational institution for matters like fraud but to derecognize educational institutions, a drastic action, on the basis of quality will naturally invite legal and other (say, political) challenges on the method of assessment given the negative impact on the large number of people (students, parents, faculty, non-teaching staff, university investors/management boards) associated with these institutions. Perhaps a more practical solution is called for which will balance need for good education quality with protecting the interests of lakhs of students and others already committed to such deemed universities.-----------------An update:The author of The Hindu article (as some may have noted from the article credits), Prof. R. Sethuraman, is vice-chancellor of SASTRA university (SASTRA stands for Shanmuga Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy and is located in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu).This deemed university is listed in Table II (entry 36) [BTW the well known or well advertised Vellore Institute of Technology is next at entry 37 in the same table].It seems that Prof. Sethuraman has been writing on this matter for a few years now. This letter to the HRD minister from Prof. Sethuraman questioning how SASTRA university got a score that it considers poor, is dated March 2010, . I wonder whether the Tandon committee responded to it. Probably not - I think these committees would not take kindly to being questioned openly.Another point I noted is that Table III which has the deemed universities threatened with withdrawal of deemed university status has 16 such universities from Tamil Nadu (out of a total of 44)! Table II has 11 universities from Tamil Nadu (out of a total of 44 again). [Tamil Nadu is a state in South India with Chennai as its capital.] Perhaps Prof. Sethuraman is actively writing challenging the Tandon committee report, in some sense, on behalf of these 27 deemed universities of Tamil Nadu alone (besides some other deemed universities listed in tables III and II). [Note that Table II universities are expected to rectify their deficiencies in three years from the date of the report (2009) by the Tandon committee, and so they are not off the hook like the Table I deemed universities.]BTW Table I deemed universities (list) has some famous educational institutions like?IISc. Bangalore,?TIFR Mumbai,?TISS Mumbai?and?BITS Pilani.-----------------------------Further update:This March 2010 article, "Deemed universities: ---", ?, gives a lot of data and some views about the uproar from the blacklisted by the Tandon committee 44 deemed universities in early 2010 itself. Some notes from the article:On Jan 18th 2010 HRD ministry proposed to Supreme Court withdrawal of deemed university status of these 44 universities based on the Tandon committee report.Violent protests erupted from studentsOn Jan. 25th 2010 Supreme court ordered HRD ministry to "cease and desist" staying the order until the deemed universities (and its students) presented their arguments to the Supreme court.[BTW the Tandon committee had some very eminent academics: Prof. Tandon a prof. emeritus of neuro-surgery at AIIMS, Prof. Goverdhan Mehta a former director of IISc., Prof. Anandakrishnan a former vice-chancellor of Anna University and now chairman of IITK and Prof. Mrinal Miri former vice-chancellor of North Eastern Hill University, Shillong. The fifth member (convener) was senior bureaucrat from Dept. of Higher Education, MHRD.]The blacklisted universities case, the article states then, was expected to question the process of derecognition. It seems that the decision was taken based on a questionairre response from the varsities and a 10 minute presentation! The committee did not visit the campuses of the varsities to check the supposed poor infrastructure and/or poor academic teaching & research standards!?[Ravi: I know that some decisions of some Indian academic administrators and regulators are rather arbitrary and dictatorial. But I am shocked by this reported lack of due process for as drastic a step as derecognition of a university. One form and 10 minute presentation! I mean, are we living in 21st century India or some 19th century British Raj!?Did MHRD think that the 44 deemed universities would quietly accept their 'firman' (diktat) to close down their university setup and affiliate their campuses to other universities? Of course, they would go to court to challenge the decision.]India has 127 deemed universities of which 90 were conferred the deemed university status in the period from 1999-2009.But a UGC committee gave these very same 44 blacklisted deemed universities a clean chit! The UGC committee made visits to these universities for their review (unlike the Tandon committee).Some doubts (political influence?, corruption?) seem to have been raised about the UGC review committee due to which (it seems) MHRD formed the Tandon committee.HRD minister ordered a freeze on new deemed universities. 225 proposals were under consideration then.[Ravi: I think the HRD ministry may have taken a calculated gamble by constituting the Tandon committee and then proposing withdrawal of deemed university status to these 44 universities. They would have known that this would get challenged in court. But MHRD would have made their point about not accepting the UGC review committee's views and putting deemed universities on notice about their academic performance. (While I understand that MHRD funds UGC, the latter has been created by an act of Parliament and so may be in a position to chart a different course from what MHRD desires. Also there may be different political influences in UGC and MHRD.)Further, MHRD was able to freeze new deemed universities. Otherwise by now India may have had an additional 100 or so deemed universities with at least some of them having poor academic setup.]Sunday, May 4, 2014Private Deemed Universities - A model for excellence in Indian technical education? But what about its high costs to students, and so, social impact?Net url: updated on May 13th 2014Please note that the Creative Commons Attribution, CC-BY, license does NOT apply to this post.I was stunned to see what seems to me as a close-to-the-truth report in 2010 from the US diplomat(s) stationed in India about the Tandon committee report on deemed universities in India situation. Here's the US report,? here are some extracts and comments of mine on them:*) "Summary: ?India's Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister, Kapil Sibal, is embarking upon an effort to reform higher education in India. ?One of his major endeavors is a crack-down on "deemed universities," which is an attempt to end various corrupt practices in Indian higher education. ?The deemed university crackdown will punish poorly run "sham" institutions, but also restrains South India's robust private education sector, and strengthens the inadequately equipped state-run universities. ?This issue is particularly relevant in South India, where Tamil Nadu had the lion's share of the "blacklisted universities" with 16, and Karnataka had the second most with six. ?End Summary."[Ravi: South India's robust private education sector as against inadequately equipped state-run universities! The US diplomat(s) seem to have got it spot-on!]*) "While some of these "deemed" institutions did not deserve to be given university status, many in South India flourished post-1990s as job-oriented educational programs free from the state-run universities' bureaucratic red tape and archaic mandatory curriculums. ".?[Ravi: Terrific analysis! Students and parents want job-oriented education and some South Indian deemed universities due to their freedom in curriculum design and other matters, were able to deliver it, at a price which some students and parents could afford. And so they flourished. Typical market driven scenario.]*) "The Tandon task force based its recommendations for withdrawal of "deemed status" on a list of criteria that included: whether the university was a sham, or purely for commercial profit, it was run as a family fiefdom, it lacked academic rigor (no quality research), or it was beyond capacity (lack of infrastructure, too many students with too few faculty.) ?Whereas some of these institutions undoubtedly deserved to have their status withdrawn, several institutions with very good reputations were also thrown into the mix. ?For example, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) and SRM University both located in Tamil Nadu, have consistently received high rankings and have a well-established reputation as top universities, but were placed "on watch" by the HRD. ?Furthermore, the Committee put some of these institutions on the "black list" because they were run by family members or politicians instead of qualified academics, an issue that could have easily been resolved with a little notice. ?Many of our contacts noted that the problem with this reform is that while it is well intentioned, it was done in haste and many qualified institutions and forward-leaning programs will be cut because of this."[Ravi: That seems to be it! Why could not a higher education reporter of, say The Hindu, who would have had a somewhat similar assessment of the matter, I presume, write an article on it in The Hindu? Is it because the media (or at least, mainstream media) has a hands-off policy when it comes to probity and transparency in administration of higher education in India? Anyway, many thanks to the US diplomat(s) in India who did the analysis and filed the report, and to Wikileaks for making it available to the public.]*) ... who said that he would like to eventually do away with all "deemed universities" and have all the bodies of education under one single source, with one regulator, the state government. ?In doing so, however, none of the issues brought up by the Tandon Committee would be addressed and there might be no real reform of higher education. ?These institutions would be returned to government control, and politicians ... would have increased power, including patronage and influence over hiring and firing of faculty.[Ravi: Hmm. A lot of food for thought here, for me at least.]*) "We met with Professor ..., and a member of the Tandon task force appointed to suggest reforms in higher education, particularly regarding the "deemed universities." ?... explained that India's education system is second only to politics as the nation's most corrupt system. ?He told us of enormous "under the table" entrance fees (known as "capitation fees" in local parlance), including charges of between $100,000 and $200,000 USD just for a seat at a post-graduate medical college, paid up front and in cash. ?(Comment: Our locally employed staff corroborate this story and have personal contacts who have paid large sums as "capitation fees" for seats in medical schools. ?This fee is separate from the annual tuition. ?End comment.) ?... also told us of an instance when an IAS officer served as a vice-chancellor despite lacking any qualifications to do so. ?He also cited one example of a doctoral program which had 110 faculty members (of which only 18 had PhDs) to support 1200 PhD students."*)?[Ravi: The comment below is part of the concluding comment.]"The issue at stake with de-recognizing the "deemed universities" is that in throwing out some of these "bottom of the barrel" institutions, many very good institutions will also be placed at risk. ?Not only will thousands students suffer because of an association with a "blacklisted" university, but future progress in higher education in India is at stake. ?By forcing these private institutions to revert back to mandatory state-controlled curriculum, the forward-leaning programs that had been developed in South India as an alternative in order to offer students an opportunity to succeed in fast-growing sectors, such as information technology, will no longer be available. ?Programs that were developed to get around the outdated state-run curriculum to offer more modern programs in medical and engineering schools will be cut."[Ravi: I think that is a very fair comment.]--- end extracts and comments from/on US diplomat(s) 2010 report related to India's deemed universities ---Ravi: I came across this interesting Income Tax case in 2010 against Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT),?, one of the "institutions with very good reputations" mentioned in the above US diplomat(s) report, which provides quite some background info. related to the financials of this private deemed university (some of the other flourishing private deemed universities may have a similar financial background). The document is full of Income Tax legalese and a long one. Here's the doc:?. The Chennai Income Tax assessing officer tried to make a case that since VIT has been making huge surpluses and collecting donations forcibly extracted from students (For assessment year 2001-02, the Trust earned a surplus of Rs. 6,80,23,196/- (68 million Rupees; 1 US Dollar is around 60 Rupees now) and had received corpus donations of Rs. 1,26,50,000/-, (12 million Rupees)), VIT must not be treated as a charitable trust but as a business, and so its surplus and donation must be taxed. The Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) (CITA) disagreed with the assessing officer's views as he/she said there was no evidence to prove that donations were forcibly taken from students. This view of the CITA was disputed by the assessing officer and so raised in the income tax appelate tribunal. To roughly summarize (there may some slight legalese inaccuracies) the bench agreed with the view of the CITA and ruled that no (proper) evidence has been placed before it that VIT has taken capitation fee (or that donations have been forcibly extracted from students) and so VIT has to be treated as a charitable trust and its donations and surpluses should not be taxed.The ruling/judgement of the tribunal had some references to the Supreme court views, govt. notifications and this tribunal bench's views about the sensitive topic of education being run as a business, which I have given below with my comments:9. In its decisions the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India has made it clear that education cannot be run as a business and that the concept of teaching shops is contrary to the constitutional scheme and is wholly abhorrent to the Indian culture and heritage. When the appellant runs an educational institution by collecting capitation fees the same cannot therefore be held to be a charitable institution u/s 2(15) of the I.T. Act and the appellant is not eligible for exemption u/s 11.[Ravi: Seems to make a lot of sense to me. And I think now I understand where the phrase 'teaching shops' is coming from. The honourable supreme court seems to be using it to refer to educational institutions that forcibly collect donations/capitation fee for admission to its in-demand degree courses from students. I don't know whether the honourable supreme court would extend the meaning of the term to educational institutions that charge high fees from students. While I still feel the phrase is somewhat unfair to the teaching profession (a 21st century teacher typically can't be expected to lead a frugal, simple and inexpensive life; he/she needs a decent salary; a decent salary for the teacher has to come from somewhere), I guess it is a phrase that seems to have entered the Indian academic administration lexicon.]...We find from page 36 of statement of facts that the Government Notification prescribing fees for unaided self financing engineering colleges prescribes 3 different scales of fees with the nomenclatures of(a) Free seat category(b) Payment seat category(c) Non resident Indian students[Ravi: During my college days (late 70s & early 80s) there used to be two types of seats: govt. seat (which is referred here as free seat - it is not free as will be shown later) which would have low tuition fee and management seat/quota which would have donation/capitation fee (perhaps the capitation fee was unofficial, but it was well known to students & parents/guardians) and/or higher tuition fee. Now a Non Resident Indian (NRI) student category has got added to tap the well-off parts of the Indian diaspora.]We find that there is a significant difference in the scale of fees for each category of students. Obviously, this is because the Government, in its wisdom, recognizes that unaided self financing educational institutions cannot be run by charging the lower fees charged by aided financial institutions. Therefore, the Government has permitted them to charge higher fees for the different categories. We find from the admission regulations and other documents submitted that 5% of the seats sanctioned by the University of Madras can be given to NRI students who are required to pay the highest scale of fees of Rs. 39200/- + 1000 Dollars. Out of the remaining seats 50% is under the "Free seats category" for which the fee prescribed is only Rs. 12800/-, the remaining 50% falls under "Payment seat category" which attracted a much higher fee of Rs. 47200/-. The reason for narrating the above facts is to appreciate the bigger picture in the field of education in our country. Traditionally education and health were considered the exclusive obligations of the State and was expected to be provided free of cost; subsidized rates or, at cost, to the different segments of the society, depending on their need for support from the State. However, over a period of difficult financial times, and population explosion, when the State was unable to find the necessary resources to discharge its traditional or constitutional obligations, the State found new ways of catering to its citizens in the fields of education and health.[Ravi: The socialist/welfare-state model of the state providing free or very low cost education and health has been a rather dismal failure in India over the past few decades that I have known/experienced these sectors, as the quality of these free services are usually not so great. They are typically availed of by only those who cannot afford the private sector education and health services.]One of the ways is what is popularly called as "Public private partnership" in which the State's function is outsourced to the private sector. While doing this, the Government had to take into account the fact that, while its ability to raise resources by tax and borrowings was unlimited, at least in theory, the resources of the private sector were limited. The State had faced one more difference between the motivation for investments by the State and the Private Sector; ie. - while the State can look at the aforesaid services as a mere "Cost Centre" the "Private Sector" neither can, nor be expected, to look at these functions as a cost centre. Hence, the Government devised ways by which the revenues of such private sector unaided educational institutions could be augmented so as to provide adequate revenues to recoup the investment, provide reasonable return on investment and to provide adequate surpluses to facilitate expansion and modernization. The three tier fee structure prescribed by the Government for different categories of students is a means to achieve the above objective.[Ravi: Seems quite sensible to me. I mean, the state just does not have the money and/or management skill/structure to deliver the quality of services needed by the people. It may be able to do some service for some sections of the populace but simply is not in a position to cater to all the sections wanting such services. So public private partnership seems to be a possible way out of the problem.]14. The reason for presenting and analyzing the macro view on the subject is to appreciate the point that the Government, in its wisdom, has consciously permitted charging higher fees from some students in the case of unaided colleges to achieve its aforesaid objectives. This policy is nothing but a "Cross subsidy" by the affluent students to the needy students, as the State, which was traditionally/constitutionally bound to provide these services, could not do so. Hence, the charging of higher fees from a certain percentage of students will not be detrimental to the "Charitable" nature of the institutions as this charging of higher fees from the affluent students is done only to subsidise the cost of education of the needy students especially when this scheme of "Public private partnership" is an instrument of State policy. We find support for our above view from CIT vs Pulikkal Medical Foundation Private Limited, 210 ITR 299 (Ker) and Breach Candy Hospital Trust vs Chief CIT 322 ITR 246 (Bom). A careful appreciation of the aforesaid macro view can only lead to the irresistible conclusion that charging of higher fees from affluent students or raising funds for the laudable object of education, which is traditionally a State function, through donations, by an unaided self financing educational institutions cannot deter the "charitable" nature of the activity and in any view make such activity "Commercial" in nature.[Ravi: Voluntary donations clearly is not an issue. It is when the donations become forced that the law and income-tax seems to frown at it, provided there is evidence to establish that the donations were forced.]--- end extracts and comments of Income Tax tribunal bench ruling ---Ravi: This article, dated March 24th 2012, reports that G. Viswanthan, Chancellor, VIT, stated that private higher educational institutions "were forced to ask students for capitation fee", . An additional extract from it:"The HRD ministry has introduced the Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical Educational Institutions, Medical Educational Institutions and Universities Bill in Parliament. The bill provides for a penalty of up to Rs 1 crore on an institution charging capitation fee."[Ravi: 1 crore is 10 million]Ravi: I later came across an article dated Sept. 2013 where the (Indian) Supreme Court has deemed capitation fee as unethical and illegal! Here's the article, , and a small extract and comment:Private technical and medical colleges demanding capitation fee from students is illegal and unethical, the Supreme Court has said and asked the Centre to make laws to put an end to such practices which deny admission to meritorious financially poor students in those institutions.[Ravi: That settles it for me! I guess all it needs now is Parliament enacting laws (if they are not enacted already) and then capitation fee will become clearly illegal in India with an associated significant punishment (monetary fine and/or imprisonment as well). That should scare the management/executive seat quota guys from asking for donation money in exchange for a seat. Will such law(s) also prohibit private deemed universities from charging high fees? That remains to be seen (no such law seems to be in place now).]--- end article extract and comment ---Ravi: In 2014 the situation is that, over the past few years (maybe in 2010 itself), the deemed universities at risk got together and challenged the Tandon committee report in the Supreme Court. The lack of due procedure in the Tandon committee report seems to have got highlighted and that seems to have blocked the execution of the report's recommendations (removing deemed university status for 44 deemed universities (now it is 41 universities), and putting some others 'on watch').The latest on the matter as reported in The Hindu seems to be this article dated April 28th 2014 reporting on events in the Supreme Court hearing on the matter, UGC wants fresh inspection of 41 deemed varsities,?'s a recent article dated May 1st 2014, which shows how much in demand among students and parents, one of the South Indian deemed universities which was put 'on watch' is: Vizag student tops VIT entrance exam,?. Some extracts and comments:... secured the first rank in the VIT Engineering Entrance Examination (VITEEE) 2014, conducted by VIT University, Vellore, last month for admission to 3,500 seats in 13 B.Tech. programmes on its Vellore campus and 500 seats in five B.Tech. programmes on the Chennai campus.According to a VIT release, 1,84,483 candidates took the test across 112 Indian cities and in Dubai from April 9 to 20.[Ravi: So the deemed (engineering/technical) university, Vellore Institute of Technology, VIT, , put 'on watch' by the Tandon committee (in 2010) had over one hundred and eighty four thousand students across over a hundred Indian cities vying for admission to just four thousand seats! And they have their own entrance examination with a proper-looking website/weblinks associated with it:?. Surely, VIT must be doing a decent job of teaching engineering/technology and also helping passed out students to get decent jobs, for its seats to have so much demand. There must be/may be other factors due to which the Tandon committee put it on the watch list.]...“Our admission is merit-based, being based on the marks secured by the candidates in the entrance examination which we conduct,” he (G. Viswanathan, VIT Chancellor) said.--- end extracts and comments on VIT entrance exam article ---VIT has been ranked the no.1 private university in India in 2014 by Careers360, ?(the first list is the public universities list followed by private universites list). [Careers360 says it is "India's Largest Student Community and Career Counselling Platform", .] The universities of India are typically/officially categorized as central, state, deemed and private universities, . For the above mentioned rankings careers360 has a simpler categorization of public and private depending on whether the institution is fully funded by the government or not. Central and state universities, I presume, are categorized as public, and private universities as private. But deemed universities, , it seems to me, are categorized (in the above mentioned rankings) as public or private based on whether they are fully funded by the government or not.After the rankings table, the careers360 article above states, "What is interesting about the Private Universities in India is that amongst the Top 10 institutions, nine belong to the Deemed Varsity category and four are venerated Engineering colleges. In other words, the autonomy these institutions have gained on account of their status has done wonders to their performance, a fact highlighted by Dr. G. Vishwanathan, Chancellor of the VIT University, this year’s Top Private University in India."Ravi: I looked up VIT's fee structure and compared it with govt. quota fee structure. VIT fees are quite a bit (see? 1.55 lakh (1 lakh is one hundred thousand) per annum for B.Tech., and also see 2.47 lakh per annum for MBA, 1.74 lakh p.a. for MS Software Engg., 2.84 lakh p.a. for M.Tech. - CSE, M.Tech. - IT) as compared to state engg. universities (, affiliated to Anna University, - (for govt. quota seats) 45,000 (per annum I presume) for B.Tech., 30,000 for MBA, 45,000 for M.E. - CSE). Hostel fees are not included in this. VIT's hostel fee structure is available here:??(minimum charge seems to be Rs. 60,000 for the room per semester and Rs. 40,000 for food per annum; that comes to a minimum charge of Rs 1,60,000 per annum for room and food - I hope my calc. is correct). The other college (govt. quota one) has a hostel related web page but that does not list the charges, . Also, I could not find fee structure details for management quota seats in this college website.A B.Tech. student in VIT then would pay Rs. 1.55 lakh (tuition and related fees) + Rs. 1.6 lakh (hostel fees) per annum i.e. over Rs. 3 lakhs (300,000) p.a., which makes it over Rs. 12 lakhs over the minimum 4 year period to finish the degree program. That is a very expensive, almost unaffordable, figure for lower middle-class Indians let alone poor Indians. Such charges could be borne only by upper middle-class and rich Indians. Though I don't know how student loans from banks comes into this picture. Maybe such loans, given the excellent campus job placement record of VIT (which would make loan repayment not so much of a hassle), makes it possible for lower middle-class Indians to take up VIT's engg. degree programs.I must say that such high costs for engineering/technical degrees in India cause me a lot of unease. I understand the economics part of it and that you need to pay well to get good quality in most fields, so why get upset if the same gets applied to technical/engineering (and medical) higher education? I don't have a good and well thought out answer to that question, right now.So VIT's fees (excluding significant minimum hostel fees) are roughly 3 to 6 times the fees (excluding hostel fees) of govt. quota seats in the other college mentioned above. I think the govt. quota fees are fixed by the state government and so would be the same for govt. quota seats in other engineering colleges (maybe there is some variation between urban and rural colleges in the state (Tamil Nadu) as rural students may have lesser paying capacity).A point to note is that VIT's fee structure page simply does not mention govt. quota seats at all! So, perhaps this private deemed university not only enjoys significant freedom in designing its syllabus and degree program offerings but also seems to have full freedom for fixing the tuition and hostel fees for all its students! That makes it a complete free-market model for technical higher education! In India!!! Hmm. This is really some food for thought for me.I think this high cost aspect of education in some deemed (technical and medical) universities, notwithstanding their excellent teaching standards/reputations, must be causing a lot of unease in some top higher education planning and administration folks as well as the political leadership in the country. What if such a model starts dominating technical (and medical) higher education all over India? That may have lots of social, and so, political implications due to the majority of Indian higher education students (from poor and lower middle classes) feeling that they been excluded from such higher educational institutions by its high costs.---------------------------------------------------Update on May 5th 2014:I thought that I must mention in the conclusion part that I am very happy to see the apparent excellence in technical education private deemed universities like VIT have achieved. So, it can be done in India (private sector technical education excellence without any government funds). However, its high costs to students, is a serious concern for replication of the model on a large scale. Can there be a variation of the model which provides technical education of good quality, even if it is not excellent quality, but at an affordable price for the poor and lower middle class Indians in both urban and rural India? I think it is an option worth exploring, especially in conjunction with new education technology like MOOC's.-----------------------------------------------------The Hindu on May 12th 2014, carried a rather distressing article, Medical education set to become costlier (in private colleges in Andhra Pradesh), numbers from it:In govt. colleges tuition fee is Rs. 16,000 p.a.Current fee structure in private colleges is split into four categories:Category A for 50% seats: Rs. 60,000 p.a.Category B for 10% seats: Rs. 2,40,000 p.a.Category C (Management Quota) for 25% seats: Rs. 5,50,000 p.a.Category D (NRI Quota) for 15% seats: Not specified (i.e. they can charge any amount!).The private colleges are demanding a uniform fee of Rs. 10,00,000 (10 Lakh) p.a. for all students doing away with the above categories. [40 Lakhs for 4 years just tuition fee for all doctor-students!!!] [1 Lakh is one hundred thousand.]The author of the article presumes that the govt. authorities, if they accept the private colleges demand of doing away with categories, may settle for a fee of Rs 3.5 to Rs 5 Lakhs p.a. for all students.Assuming a 4 year MBBS degree and middling figure of Rs. 4 Lakhs p.a. for all students, the tuition fee over a period of 4 years becomes Rs. 16 Lakhs for all students. (Hostel fees, cost of books etc. have to be added to this.) [Internship after the degree, for a year perhaps, would involve stipend being paid, even if it is a low stipend, to the freshly passed doctor.]Compare that with Rs. 64,000 tuition fee over 4 years in a govt. college! No comparison at all! My God! If the youngster cannot bag a government college medical seat then putting a youngster through private medical college, under the assumed fee structure above would be a huge financial challenge for lower middle class families, and just about impossible for poor families.I don't think the state governments in the new states of Telangana and (residual) Andhra Pradesh would want to give such a shock to poor and middle class medical student-aspirants and their parents who cannot get govt. college seats. In all probability, they may continue with the current fee structure for private medical colleges, perhaps marginally raising fees in the various categories.Two comments on the article are very telling/informative:1) One says it is an open secret that some private medical colleges are asking for a capitation (donation) fee of Rs. 60 to 70 Lakhs, in addition to tuition fees.2) The other raises serious concerns that medical fees increase will ultimately result in medical expenses for the public, which are already very high, to become even higher. It says, in Hindi, that the common man will die filling the pockets of such doctors!?[Ravi: I think these words should be pondered on seriously. If a student becomes a doctor by his/her family paying tens of lakhs of Rupees to the private medical college, will he/she not have a single-minded focus of recouping this investment, and then some more, by charging patients very heavily either directly as an individual medical practitioner/proprietor of a small hospital, or indirectly as a very well paid doctor in a 'corporate' hospital? [In India, corporate hospitals, are very expensive but excellent quality hospitals. They are probably known as corporate hospitals because their major clientele may be the well-off employees and directors of the Indian corporate sector.]]2 comments:Ravi S. Iyer, June 27, 2014 at 9:12 PMInteresting info.:?(Andhra Pradesh) Engineering colleges seek reduction in fee structure.Specific fee details fixed by Admission and Fee Regulation Committee (per annum tuition fee, I presume):258 engg. colleges - Rs. 35,000176 colleges - > Rs. 35,000; Topmost fee fixed was Rs. 1,13,300 but only a few colleges crossed the Rs. 1,00,000 figure.The really strange thing is that due to uncertainty over state govt. fee reimbursement for economically disadvantaged students, many colleges that were fixed a higher fee in the range of Rs. 55,000 to Rs. 75,000, now fear that seats may go empty at that rate, and so want to charge the lowest amount of Rs. 35,000. But they seem to need permission/restructuring of fee from the Admission and Fee Regulation Committee which is unwilling to do so! What a typical bureaucratic quandary! However, they have been advised to go to the government, which I am quite sure can easily fix things by some special order.Ravi S. Iyer, June 27, 2014 at 9:18 PMMedical seats of private colleges in AP and Telangana go to highest bidderPrice of MBBS seat is said to be Rs. 60 Lakh in Telangana and Rs. 70 Lakh in Andhra Pradesh!Tuesday, December 31, 2013USA Higher Education Bubble? What about Indian Higher Education Bubble?Net url: updated on January 3rd 2014The word bubble is a strong word. Is it proper to associate the word with Higher Education? A few days ago, I was not sure. But I recently came across some articles from reputed media organizations and a set of videos from a conference of scholars which makes me wonder whether it actually may be proper and correct, to use the word, bubble, to describe some, student-numbers-wise,?significant parts of higher education.Please note that towards the bottom of this post, the views of US university faculty and some US and European university presidents and research directors are given which argue against one of the suggestions of at least one US education researcher mentioned earlier in the post [separation of teaching and research duties (and so, faculty)], to improve the situation in higher education. The first comment to the post is also an interesting one (this paragraph is an update to the post).Here's an August 2012 article from the Economist that uses the phrase 'higher education bubble', The college-cost calamity,?'s a September 2013 article on , Three Reasons Why College Bubble Will Burst, was also quite surprised to note that Wikipedia has a page on Higher education bubble, . An extract from it: "The higher education bubble is a hypothesis that there is a speculative boom and bust phenomenon in the field of higher education, particularly in the United States, and that there is the risk of an economic bubble in higher education that could have repercussions in the broader economy. President Obama nearly doubled the federal Pell Grant Program, from $19 billion in 2009 to $36 billion for 2013. Enrollment at more than 40 percent of private colleges and universities declined last year, forcing the institutions to offer steep tuition discounts to fill seats.According to the theory, while college tuition payments are rising, the rate of return of a college degree is decreasing, and the soundness of the student loan industry may be threatened by increasing default rates. College students who fail to find employment at the level needed to pay back their loans in a reasonable amount of time have been compared to the debtors under sub-prime mortgages whose homes are worth less than what is owed to the bank."A few days ago, I came across a very interesting set of videos about a session in the (USA) National Association of Scholars (NAS) 2013 Conference on (USA) Higher Education Bubble.[NAS stands for National Association of Scholars,?. From , "NAS is a network of scholars and citizens united by our commitment to academic freedom, disinterested scholarship, and excellence in American higher education." From its wiki,?, 'The National Association of Scholars (NAS) is a non-profit organization in the United States that opposes multiculturalism and affirmative action and seeks to counter what it considers a "liberal bias" in academia. The NAS describes itself as "an independent membership association of academics working to foster intellectual freedom and to sustain the tradition of reasoned scholarship and civil debate in America’s colleges and universities." The NAS is generally viewed as politically conservative advocacy group, although it rejects the label.']BTW I am quite sure Indian higher education also has at least some of these problems, and some more problems of its own. Studying such issues that USA higher education seems to have may allow us to understand problems of Indian higher education and explore ways to improve it. That is the intent of this post.The first talk: Andrew Gillen, Session 3: The Higher Education Bubble, NAS 2013 Conference, , 15 min. 38 sec, published April 26th 2013.[From?, "Andrew Gillen is a senior researcher with Education Sector at American Institutes for Research. Gillen has a wealth of experience in researching and writing about higher education, focusing mostly on college costs and financial aid, accreditation, and the economics of higher education."]The youtube page above has my lengthy notes from the talk (picked up from the transcript and edited) as a comment under my name, dated December 29th 2013. The notes may be convenient to quickly browse through or perhaps even study.The notes cover Gillen's views about USA Higher Education. He mentions that the defining characteristic of a bubble is unsustainable growth and that there are two bubbles in USA Higher Ed. - the enrollment bubble and the cost bubble. He provides some startling data for the enrollment bubble like:Only 25% of high school students are prepared for college but 68% enroll.1/3rd of college students have to enroll in remedial courses. [Ravi: From the wiki, , "Remedial education (also known as developmental education, basic skills education, compensatory education, preparatory education, and academic upgrading) are course sequences designed to bring underprepared students to expected skill competency levels."]Only 58% of college students graduate from 4 yr colleges. Only 30% graduate from 2 yr (community) colleges.Between 40% to 48% of college graduates have jobs that do not require a college degree."When you combine (data what you get is) that for every 100 students who begin at a four year college only 58 manage to graduate within six years; four years later only 35 have managed to find jobs that required a degree. So in other words only about one-third of college entrants are able to complete and make use of their college education within 10 years of first enrollment. This immediately raises the question over whether the resources that are being spent on other two thirds could possibly be spent more wisely someplace else."Students and parents and families are starting to realize that college isn't the safe investment that it once was. Wages for recent college graduates have been falling; a lot of them are struggling to find jobs and yet tuition keeps increasing.Main threat to traditional college education from the cost front is MOOCs.Proper and widely agreed measure of outcomes of colleges is not available; It is not clear what constitutes a high quality college. So colleges compete on reputation instead of value which is essentially quality divided by price; To boost reputation colleges indulge in flashy things unrelated to actual education of students.Determining how students are learning is important to improve students' education. Measures like CLA - ?, outside certification exams like CPA for accountants, bar exam for lawyers etc. may help in creating a measure of learning for college rmation about labor market outcomes could be useful for students to decide which degree to study.--------------------------------------------------------------The next talk in the session conveys a very ruthless view of USA Higher Ed. So if you tend to get upset reading such views I think it would be best to skip the rest of the part of this post that covers this talk. The reason I am covering it in this post is that while some of the views may be rather strong, some views seem to have the ring of truth.George Leef, Session 3: The Higher Education Bubble, NAS 2013 Conference, , 19 min. 50 sec, published April 26th 2013.?George Leef is director of research for the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy,? made a sort-of transcript of some parts of the talk and added it to the above youtube page as a comment (dated December 29th 2013). I have given below a summary of that notes-comment.Bubbles are based on misperceptions of value that start to feed on themselves. People come to believe that some good or service is really more valuable than it actually is.?Higher Ed. has people believing that a college degree is extraordinarily valuable and that it will add a million dollars to more to lifetime earnings as compared to people who do not have a college degree. [While the million dollars figure may be true as an average figure it does not apply to all streams and that aspect is not disclosed by Higher Ed. people.]He talks about the Bennett hypothesis. [Ravi: New York Times Nov. 2013 interview with Bennet, "Catching Up on the Bennett Hypothesis", , New York Times op-ed by Bennet in 1987 when he was US Secretary of Education -?. Andrew Gillen's paper on it, "Introducing Bennett Hypothesis 2.0", .]Problem of credential inflation: As labor market is full of people with college credentials employers prefer to hire people with college credentials (even though that may not be necessary for the job in question).Strong parallels between housing bubble and higher education bubble. Govt. policy was making housing artificially cheap and encouraging people to buy houses as a national good. The same is being done with higher education by making it artificially cheap with government financing (student aid loans) and the argument that college degree was very good for the individual and the country.Some consequences of the Higher Ed. bubble - many young people with an education only in name, many young people not getting jobs commensurate with their supposed education, enormous misallocation of resources, credential inflation resulting in good job paths being closed to (capable) people with high school education (or community college education).People are realizing that the value perception about college (million dollars more if you have any college degree) is mistaken.The college degree credential system is going to be replaced (in future) by a system where what people have learned and what they can do will be looked at (instead of only the college degree credential).--------------------------------------------------------The third talk of the session, Michael Poliakoff, Session 3: The Higher Education Bubble, NAS 2013 Conference,?, 21 min 29 sec, published April 26, 2013, is from a senior person from ACTA, American Council of Trustees and Alumni. Here's Poliakoff's page on the ACTA website,? there is the Q&A, Session 3: The Higher Education Bubble, NAS 2013 Conference, , 27 min 59 sec, published April 25th 2013.I found the last question to be very interesting and have put the edited transcript of the question and answers from all three speakers as a comment on the above youtube page. I have tried to summarize this Q&A below:Q: So, what is the post bubble world (post Higher Education bubble burst world) likely to look like?George Leef's view is that unbundling of education will be the big change. Students will shop around for courses (across educational institutions), pick a course here and a course there. They will go for what is good and what satisfies their needs.Michael Poliakoff's view is that good quality online courses (some of which is already available) will democratize high-quality higher education (will save cost and provide high-quality education).Andrew Gillen thinks that the universities will have to unbundle research and teaching duties and other things done by universities to be competitive with others who offer only the teaching aspect. Big endowment institutions like Harvard will not be affected. Tuition driven higher-ed. institutions will see a big change. From student's perspective the unbundling process will allow them to go for (courses offering) very specific skillsets especially in rapidly-changing fields.-------------------------------------------------------Can some sectors of Indian Higher Education also be said to be facing a bubble problem?Let me first look at Andhra Pradesh, the state where I live.Here's an NDTV (national TV media) article dated September 19th 2013, No takers for engineering courses: Andhra Pradesh's problem of plenty,?. Some points from the article:After first phase of admissions this year (2013) over one hundred thousand (one lakh) seats in Andhra Pradesh (AP) engineering colleges are vacant (out of a total of two hundred and thirty five thousand seats). [Political unrest in the state may have had some effect for this situation.]75% of passed out graduates from AP engineering colleges have reported that they have not got jobs!Experts view is that technical jobs are available but these graduates are not knowledgeable enough and do not have requisite social skills to bag these jobs.Here's a Times of India (mainstream national newspaper) article dated August 31st 2013 on similar lines, Engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh facing bleak future, 's a Hindu Business Line (mainstream national business newspaper) article dated September 2011 by the Director, Centre for Telecom Management & Studies (for more about the technical credentials of the article author see?), which gives his harsh view of many of these "degree shop" Andhra Pradesh engineering colleges, "Farce of an education in engineering",? let me move to neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu.Here's an article from Times of India, dated April 12th 2013, Engineering colleges up 'for sale' in Tamil Nadu,?, which gives a bleak picture. It quotes a leading former academic administrator that at least 100 colleges of engineering and other disciplines are up for sale.Here's an article again from the Times of India, dated July 27th 2013, More than 80,000 engineering seats remain vacant in Tamil Nadu,? the above articles, it seems to me that at least in some parts of Higher Education in India, not only has there been a bubble (some of the articles above show the growth in student seats over the past few years) but the bubble has even burst (in some parts, I repeat).Therefore it may be very valuable for Indian higher education policy makers and administrators to study the article and video links this post has provided about USA higher education bubble.I felt it appropriate to repeat some of the suggestions to deal with this bubble problem and some predictions from the USA conference session:Proper and widely agreed measure of outcomes of colleges is not available; It is not clear what constitutes a high quality college. So colleges compete on reputation instead of value which is essentially quality divided by price; To boost reputation colleges indulge in flashy things unrelated to actual education of students.Determining how students are learning is important to improve students' education. Measures like CLA - ?, outside certification exams like CPA for accountants, bar exam for lawyers etc. may help in creating a measure of learning for college rmation about labor market outcomes could be useful for students to decide which degree to study....The college degree credential system is going to be replaced (in future) by a system where what people have learned and what they can do will be looked at (instead of only the college degree credential)....Andrew Gillen thinks that the universities will have to unbundle research and teaching duties and other things done by universities to be competitive with others who offer only the teaching aspect. Big endowment institutions like Harvard will not be affected. Tuition driven higher-ed. institutions will see a big change. From student's perspective the unbundling process will allow them to go for (courses offering) very specific skillsets especially in rapidly-changing fields.--------------------------------------------------------------I feel it is appropriate to also share the view of related matters from USA university professors. Some of these views (on teaching-only appointments) are related to the topic of unbundling teaching and research duties and are quite opposed to it. This is a document, dated October 2009 (draft version), which gives the American Assocation of University Professors' view on Tenure and Teaching-Intensive Appointments,? 3 and 4 of this document state that in 1969, among full-time faculty, the ratio of teaching-intensive faculty (nine or more hours of teaching per week) to research-intensive faculty (six or fewer hours of teaching per week) in US academia was 1.5:1. But by 1998 the ratio had become 2:1 largely due to "teaching-only" appointments. It refers to data from Jack H. Schuster and Martin J. Finkelstein, The American Faculty: The Restructuring of Academic Work and Careers (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006).The article states that the majority of teaching-intensive positions have been shunted out of the tenure system and that 'has in most cases meant a dramatic shift from “teaching-intensive” appointments to “teaching- only” appointments, featuring a faculty with attenuated relationships to campus and disciplinary peers. This seismic shift from “teaching-intensive” faculty within the big tent of tenure to “teaching-only” faculty outside of it has had severe consequences for students as well as faculty themselves, producing lower levels of campus engagement across the board and a rising service burden for the shrinking core of tenurable faculty.'[From?(academic), "Tenure is a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause." Ravi: In other words, tenure gives a permanent and protected position.]Here is a very interesting European Molecular Biology Organization interview, dated September 2007 of leading research and administrative lights of academia and industry on the topic, "The future of research universities. Is the model of research-intensive universities still valid at the beginning of the twenty-first century?",? . The interviewees include presidents/chancellor of universities, and present/former directors of research departments/institutions of US & Europe, and a Japanese professor emeritus.Some significant points from the interview.*) Advanced nations need scientific research and a trained workforce for the knowledge-based economy they are deeply involved with.*) New pressures on universities to produce trained workforce (graduates) as well as generate new knowledge (research).*) One interviewee mentions that private sector research labs. were at the forefront of research some decades earlier which heavily contributed to today's knowledge economy. But now the private sector research labs. play a much smaller role with (in the case of the US) long-range research (basic research) responsibility shifting to US research universities, and their work may drive a big part of tomorrow's (US and perhaps other countries') knowledge economy.*) A specific question is asked of these leading lights, "ER: Do you see a trend away from universities in which both teaching and research are combined, towards universities specializing in one or the other—and is this desirable?" Some of the interviewees do see such a trend (in one case, notes a reversal of the trend) and almost all of them specifically say that it is undesirable.---------- end interview points ------------The above material quite strongly argues against separating teaching and research in universities.Please note that the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license does?not?apply to this post.3 comments:Ravi S. Iyer, January 2, 2014 at 8:27 AMA veteran Indian Computer Science academic and industry researcher who has had long stints in Western academia had the following to say on the separation of teaching and research duties in universities part of the blog post (towards the bottom of the post):This is a hard one. There are some outstanding researchers who make really lousy teachers and some (like Richard Feynman) who have inspired scores of students through their classes. There are outstanding teachers who have few research aspirations and are wonderful in their teaching.Universities make a mistake when they separate teachers and researchers and treat one as inferior to the other. Teachers will not land massive research grants, which is what a university wants most, and will not win Nobel prizes. Yet, but for them, students will not be prepared well for their degrees and fewer will have the background and knowledge to aspire for research. Departments make a mistake when they dismiss 'teaching fellows' (or whatever they call them) as of little consequence. Yes, good research does need the time and opportunity to work at length on a topic and a heavy teaching load can make that very difficult. Moreover, it's hard to teach well if your attention is focussed on the research problem that's keeping you awake at night. Some researchers are loners and some are gregarious and need the company of many others to push them to be more productive.Finally, it is not the job of a university to train anyone for anything. Training means providing skills to perform some task efficiently: a university's role is to educate minds in a way that no company can ever do. Training is also a short term measure, providing skills that will soon become outdated. Education lasts a lifetime. Companies start talking about training in universities because they feel that they use public money and this should be directed for what they consider to be public good (such as improving productivity). They say that far less about private universities like Stanford and Harvard.Consider how JC Bose, SN Bose, Meghnad Saha and CV Raman all worked with no government support at all and yet produced science of the highest quality (the Higgs boson is one of many bosons described by Bose-Einstein statistics). [Ravi-edited sentence: Post-independence Indian science does not seem to have anything comparable, despite the enormous financial support from the government.] There must be a lesson there.Ravi S. Iyer, January 3, 2014 at 5:10 PMHere's an Oct. 2013 article by George Leef,?A Tale of Two Bubbles -- Housing and College. I added the following comment to the page:Thank you for this very thought-provoking article. I think it is vital that students and parents know the truth about academia today. I live in India and I think some of the issues you raise for the US educational system apply to the Indian educational system too. In my opinion, the Indian educational system in general (there are notable exceptions), suffers from low teaching standards, grade inflation and credential inflation. The net result is that society has a lot of concern about the knowledge and skills that graduates and post-graduates passing out of most Indian educational institutions have.I think the solution lies in making students earn their university degrees by hard work and proving that they have acquired requisite knowledge. External learning assessment exams both in general areas and domain specific areas as a measure of student learning outcome may be very useful in ensuring that the students do so and that their teachers focus on students achieving appropriate learning outcomes.--- end comment ---And here's a more recent, Nov. 2013, article by George Leef again,?The College Bubble is Popping, ....Ravi S. Iyer, January 11, 2014 at 11:13 PMA friend provided the following comments in the Indian context (slightly edited mostly to provide background info.):1. The bottom of the pyramid is really wide in Indian student community. These are the youth who go for highly subsidized (often free) education in governmental colleges and universities. They are majorly from rural areas. They join these because they have nothing to lose, nothing else to do, get accommodation in hostels, can involve in politics, hang around with friends ;), and keep trying for jobs. Many do multiple degrees just to bid time.2. Most of the above category aim exclusively for government jobs, motivated majorly by reservations. So, demand for courses is based on the mass recruitment policies of Public Service Commissions, District service commissions etc. For instance this year, there were no takers for BEd (Bachelor of Education) courses in AP (Andhra Pradesh - an Indian state), whereas there is heavy demand for DEd (Diploma in Education) courses. Its because government released vacancies for primary level teachers in government schools and higher school vacancies are frozen.3. The upper layers of the pyramid consists of merit students without reservations, majorly urban students. They study to work in non governmental industries including IT. Current trend in AP is exclusive degree colleges which in parallel train students for CA or Civil Services. Engineering and MBA are passe, unless it is an IIT or BITS.4. Huge demand for NET (National Entrance Test for PhD and Asst. Prof. positions) and SLET (State Level Entrance Test for PhD and Asst. Prof. positions) which give them opportunity for PhD courses with stipend, though not many do it seriously.5. Teaching jobs were always a motivation for doing higher studies. But now this sector is saturated. Some private engineering colleges are not able pay salaries to the staff, due to fall in intake!6. Tip of the pyramid are those affluent classes who do higher education only to be eligible to go abroad, what with social compulsions and peer pressure to do so. They are ready to pay high fees and join premier private institutions who prepare them for this.To sum up, unlike US higher education bubble which is linked with funding/fees/economy, India higher education has three layers: The large solid bottom layer of highly subsidised low quality education in government universities and colleges who aim to join government jobs, the sizable fluid middle layer from the great Indian middle class who flow with the trends in public services and MNCs, and the small stratified top layer who look for high quality education that sends them abroad. As usual, it is the great Indian middle class...that is the middle layer...which creates and busts bubbles. But they are never known to rock the boat! And of course, there are no foreign students...only domestic consumers...so government can always step in to save the day.Saturday, December 28, 20132013 Milken Institute Panel Discussion - The Future of Higher Education in AmericaNet url: updated on January 4th 2014This youtube video, "The Future of Higher Education in America", , 1 hr, 16 min, 19 sec, has a panel discussion on the subject-title and seems to have been done sometime in early 2013. So this panel discussion gives a fairly current picture of USA higher education.The panel discussion was hosted by Milken Institute. From its wiki, , "The Milken Institute is an independent economic think tank based in Santa Monica, California that publishes research and hosts conferences that apply market-based principles and financial innovations to a variety of societal issues in the US and internationally."The youtube page description has the following:Student debt surpassed the $1 trillion mark in 2012 and now is the second-largest category of household debt behind mortgages. Default rates exceed those of credit cards, and college tuition and fees have been rising even faster than health care costs. At the same time, employers are seeing a mismatch between their needs and the qualifications of those in the labor pool. This incongruity threatens to derail productivity and economic growth, raising serious questions about national competitiveness. Given this backdrop, how can the American higher education model fulfill the learning, affordability and job-preparation needs of students? What role can colleges and universities, online technology and government play in setting higher education on the best possible course?----The moderator of the panel is John Nelson, Managing Director, Public Finance Group, Moody's Investors Service [He has a background in economic analysis of educational institutions.]The speakers/panelists are:William Bennett, Former U.S. Secretary of Education; Author, "Is College Worth It?",?. From his wiki, "William John "Bill" Bennett (born July 31, 1943) is an American conservative pundit, politician, and political theorist. He served as United States Secretary of Education from 1985 to 1988. He also held the post of Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under George H. W. Bush. In 2000, he co-founded K12, a for-profit online education corporation which is publicly traded."Steven Knapp, President, The George Washington University, . From GWU wiki, , "The George Washington University (GW, GWU, or George Washington) is a comprehensive private, coeducational research university located in the United States' capital, Washington, D.C."Daphne Koller, Co-Founder, Coursera Inc.,?. From her wiki, "Daphne Koller (born 27 August, 1968) is an Israeli-American Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University and a MacArthur Fellowship recipient. She's also one of the founders of Coursera, an online education platform. Her general research area is artificial intelligence and its applications in the biomedical sciences.". From the Coursera wiki,?, "Coursera is a for-profit educational technology company offering massive open online courses (MOOCs) founded by computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller from Stanford University. Coursera works with universities to make some of their courses available online, and offers courses in engineering, humanities, medicine, biology, social sciences, mathematics, business, computer science, and other areas."Patricia McWade, Dean of Student Financial Services, Georgetown University, . From its wiki, , "Georgetown University is a private research university in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Jesuit and Catholic university in the United States."Anthony Miller, Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer, U.S. Department of Education. From his wiki,?, "Anthony Wilder "Tony" Miller is the United States Deputy Secretary of Education, confirmed on July 24, 2009 to replace Raymond Simon, who resigned from this Office on January 20, 2009." [BTW the current Secretary of Education of the US is Arne Duncan,?]---This seems to be quite an appropriate and high-profile group (in US higher education field) who seem to have good knowledge of the current situation and challenges in US higher education.I have put down, usually in brief, some of the points touched by this panel discussion as a comment on?the youtube page?under my name. The comment was made today, 28th December 2013. I think it would be useful for readers interested in this topic to view these points/notes (posted as a comment).Thursday, December 26, 2013Decline in USA Higher Education - PBS Documentary dated 2005; What about Indian Higher Education?Net url: few days ago I saw a very informative, comprehensive and thought-provoking Public Broadcasting Service (PBS),?, documentary video, "DECLINING BY DEGREES: HIGHER EDUCATION AT RISK", about USA higher education which is dated 2005. The corresponding DVD sales item entry on?, "Declining by Degrees blows higher education's cover, showing that the multi-billion dollar enterprise of higher education has gone astray."I am quite sure that Indian higher education (academia) would also be having some of the problems that are shown in this documentary about US higher education. Therefore, in my humble opinion, viewing the documentary and/or reading the transcript of the documentary may be of immense benefit to Indian higher education (academic) policy makers and administrators.The documentary is available on youtube here:?, 1 hr, 56 min, 02 sec. A good transcript of the documentary is available here: ?(53 pages). The time markers given below are with respect to the youtube video mentioned earlier and the transcript page markers are with respect to the just mentioned *good* transcript.Some of the higher education institutions that figure in the documentary are Western Kentucky University -?, University of Arizona -?, Amherst College (Massachusetts) -? Community College of Denver -. There are discussions with students as well as their parents. And discussions with faculty, university presidents and other university/academic leaders.I have given below a few notes I made from the transcript (these are selective based on my concerns about Indian higher education/academia). These notes comprise of short description/summary of certain parts of the transcript and a few short extracts in quotes.?[Please note that the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY license) does?not?apply to this post.]?It also has a few comments from me within square brackets prefixed with Ravi.John Merrow is the interviewer & narrator and is the education correspondent with PBS. He has a doctorate in Education and Social Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education -.[Video - Around 00:03:45, Transcript - Page 2]"68 PERCENT OF TODAY’S COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE WORKING AT LEAST 15 HOURS A WEEK. 20 PERCENT HOLD DOWN FULL TIME JOBS WHILE TRYING TO BE FULL TIME STUDENTS"?[Ravi: This is reflective of the high cost of higher education in the USA. I think, at least some sections of, Indian higher education seem to be on a similar path of high cost.]...[Video - Around 00:04:49, Transcript - Page 3]Lara Couturier from the Futures Project, Brown University -?, talks about reports from business leaders asking for better skills to be imparted by higher education.Richard Hersh, a former president of Hobart and William Smith Colleges -? Trinity College -?, mentions that it (lesser skills) impacts defense, economics, people becoming taxpayers etc.Kay McClenney from the Community College Leadership Program, University of Texas at Austin -, talks about the American public not having much information about what happens in higher education and so not having concerns about it, besides its cost. Lara Couturier has a similar opinion.[Ravi: I think the above part is true of the Indian situation as well. "From the standpoint of student learning", most Indians don't really have any information about what really happens in Indian academia.]...[Video - , Transcript - Page 5]The transcript mentions that Grade Inflation (giving good grades more easily than appropriate) is not a new problem.[Video - Around 00:10:56, Transcript - Page 5]Richard Hersh confirms that there is a "huge amount of grade inflation"....[Video - Around 00:11:33, Transcript - Page 6]William Pritchard who teaches English literature at Amherst College, Massachusetts -, tells John Merrow about leniency in giving grades....[Video - Around 00:12:08, Transcript - Page 7]John Merrow discusses the need for retaining students with Prof. Strow who teaches Economics at Western Kentucky University, and Gary Ransdell, president of Western Kentucky University -....[Video - Around 00:15:36, Transcript - Page 8]Huge classes with 150 to 200 people makes economic sense says Peter Likins, President of University of Arizona -?, but students and experts are not happy with it....[Video - Around 00:19:15, Transcript - Page 10]A student is unhappy with large classes of 150 people and with instructors being more interested in research and felt that she was not being challenged. She later takes an introductory course in planetary science where she gets to interact individually with a professor who was team leader of a NASA mission, and gets inspired by him. The student finishes her graduation and goes on to graduate school at UCLA to study space and planetary physics....The documentary then deals with attitude issues of students - partying, not spending enough time studying, working/beating the academic system (passing, sometimes with decent grades, without proper study - sleep walking through college), some students not being worried about poor grades/GPA, students not doing reading work assigned to them before coming to class etc....[Video - Around 00:34:37, Transcript - Page 17]John Merrow plays the devil's advocate and tells Paulette Kurzer, a professor of Political Science at the University of Arizona, that professors are boring and don't bring classes to life due to which students do not get interested. Kurzer deftly handles it and talks about challenges in handling a class with 230 students; about not being able to check frequently whether students have understood the lecture....[Video - Around 00:41:39, Transcript - Page 19]Tom Fleming, an Associate Astronomer and Senior Lecturer at the University of Arizona, talks about facing the fact that he has 135 students some of whom may not have learned/studied well in high school, and that he cannot change history. Instead he tells them that he will them their money's worth.[Ravi: I think such teachers should be role models for higher education.]...[Video - Around 00:44:03, Transcript - Page 20]Lee Shulman from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, comments positively on Tom Fleming's way of making classes interesting using technological and teaching resources....[Video - Around 00:44:41, Transcript - Page 21]Tom Fleming talks about how he taught during his initial years as a teacher which had students being more passive. He states that he and all his colleagues in the astronomy department were trained to be researchers and not teachers. Later he got a week of teacher training from the University Teaching Center of the University of Arizona. He also got a laptop on which he could experiment with teaching techniques.The staff at the University Teaching Center mentions that some academics have told her that they would like to attend the teacher training workshops there but as the rewards are on the research side, they have to work on researchTom Fleming's teaching skill is recognized by the university and he is paid to teach others his teaching techniques but he is not on the tenure track![Ravi: I find it truly shocking that excellence in teaching has less reward in US academia (no tenure) whereas excellence in research is very well rewarded (with tenure). Is it any wonder why teaching excellence has become unimportant in US higher education institutions? Very, very unfortunately I think Indian higher education is going down the same road - perhaps has already gone down that same road in some educational institutions. The people who suffer are the students and their parents as they do not get teachers who are focused on teaching them very well, and society at large as it does not get well skilled graduates and post-graduates from such higher education institutions.]The scene shifts to Western Kentucky when Brian Strow wants tenure and raises, and for that his quality of teaching is not what matters but the research articles he publishes.[Ravi: As simple as that! I thank Brian Strow for his honesty and courage to speak the truth.]...[Video - Around 00:49:33, Transcript - Page 23]Lara Couturier says, "We need to elevate the status of teaching." And reward faculty for being good teachers instead of driving them to focus on publishing research papers.[Ravi: There's the solution. But is US higher education exploring this solution? It seems that it is not. Why should Indian higher education fall into (or perhaps has already fallen into, in some places) the same trap as US higher education by focusing on research and making teaching an effectively unimportant part of an academic's career? (There don't seem to be any clear measures of teaching quality/effectiveness used by Indian academia - so the Indian academic would typically get a good rating on the teaching so long as there are limited student failures in the subjects he/she teaches)]...The documentary then covers the 'Living Learning Community' where students study together and have a better learning experience by doing so....[Video - Around 00:56:33, Transcript - Page 27]A student is shown struggling to do a full-time job (at a factory) and her studies. She talks about how she got into credit card debt to pay her study costs.The documentary states that 65 percent of US college students go into debt for their studies. It states that things were different 60 years ago when the GI bill became law.The GI bill's (introduced to help veterans of World War II) positive and transformative effect in opening up higher education to "ordinary Americans" is covered. Higher Education was supported by Federal and State funds and "BECAME THE HIGHWAY TO THE MIDDLE CLASS". America too prospered from millions receiving higher education.But in the 80s the government funding to higher education reduced and low interest loans took their place. Rather than the earlier "social contract" where higher education being made available to many at mainly government cost, the individual was expected to pay for his/her higher education (with support via low interest loans).[Ravi: This segment of the video and/or transcript seems to be an excellent overview of the economics side of US higher education right from the end of World War II. I think India too faces the individual student/parent paying vs. government-funded/government-subsidized higher education question including the vital social contract aspect of it.]...[Video - Around 01:04:32, Transcript - Page 30]Amherst college, an elite college with a billion dollar endowment and only 1600 students, is covered. The detailed coverage includes small class sizes, dedicated and talented teachers/professors, limited teaching load of professors, good salary of professors, college giving financial aid to some less privileged (poor) students thereby having a mix of privileged and less privileged students etc.[Ravi: The elite universities & colleges in the USA seem to be very, very well funded with huge endowments. They perhaps can excel in both teaching and research. It is the commoner universities and colleges which do not have billion dollar endowments who have to struggle with the problems covered in this documentary. But it is the latter who cater to the majority of (commoner) students. I think we have a similar situation in India where there are elite educational institutions who are very well funded (more by the government than by private donors, I believe) and who perhaps are well positioned to excel both in teaching and research. But the commoner/non-elite higher education institutions of India which cater to the majority of the tens of millions of higher education students in the country would perhaps be facing similar problems that the US commoner/non-elite higher education institutions face (as covered in this documentary).]...The scene shifts to Denver and a student who qualified to join NYU (New York University) but did not do so as she felt it unfair to burden her family with the high tuition costs of NYU (40,000 US $ a year for four years). She enrolled instead at her two year community college where tuition is only 2500 $ a year. From wikipedia, , "In the United States, community colleges (once commonly called junior colleges) are primarily two-year public institutions of higher education. After graduating from a community college, some students transfer to a university or liberal arts college for two to three years to complete a bachelor's degree, while others enter the workforce." Another student is also covered. Community colleges are discussed....[Video - Around 01:17:36, Transcript - Page 36]President Christine Johnson of the Community College of Denver (CCD) -?, faces challenges as the state has reduced funding but enrollment has gone up. That results in cuts which are hard to make as it impacts individuals.Other university presidents talk about the the state's financial support is eroding and how important fund raising has become for them. The tight funds situation leads to professors, even full professors, not being well paid is such universities and that is a source of "great discontent" to academics....The documentary covers a part-time instructor (who in the past was a full time college professor) who teaches at three educational institutions (as I guess he needs the part-time salary from three places). Administrators talk about concerns related to using part-time instructors.[Video - Around 01:24:06, Transcript - Page 39]"NATIONALLY, NEARLY HALF OF ALL COLLEGE FACULTY ARE PART-TIMERS, UP FROM ONLY 22% IN 1970."...[Video - Around 01:25:39, Transcript - Page 40]Western Kentucky also has a significant percentage of faculty as part-timers (42%). Western Kentucky's financial situation is covered where it becomes clear that the university has to generate significant revenue from sources other than state funding. Such stress results in tuition going up - 62% in four years at Western Kentucky.Lara Couturier: "We're moving toward a system where the only people who will have access to a college education are those who can pay for it."[Ravi: Numbers force facts into the open and then the facts cannot be swept under the carpet. The above numbers tell a compelling story of the decline in affordable and good/decent quality higher education in the USA. The vital question for Indian higher education policy makers and academic administrators may be - what can we do in India to avoid such a decline in affordable and good/decent quality higher education?]Western Kentucky University staff/students are shown making calls to prospective students - marketing....[Video - Around 01:27:45, Transcript - Page 41]Higher education has become very competitive. Universities compete with each other to get paying customers (students). That means spending money on facilities that attract students. University presidents speak frankly about this very business-like competition.[Ravi: One thing I really admire about some Americans is their ability to honestly state things as they are. These university presidents are talking like business CEOs! Perhaps that's what a US university president has to be nowadays. Will the equivalent for Indian higher education, the vice-chancellors, also have to become like business CEOs (or have some already become like business CEOs)?]...[Video - Around 01:32:12, Transcript - Page 42]This section deals with rankings - UN News & World Report College Guide. There are various factors for ranking colleges but there is no measure of student learning. The speakers indicate that there has been no measure of student learning for 200 years of higher education and that it is "sort of the holy grail of higher education and accountability".The rankings are said to be driving US higher education.?[Ravi: That's the power of these university/college rankings?& gradings (India has NAAC grading for institutions of higher education,?, and perhaps some other grading/accreditation organization(s) too). Academic administrators have no choice but to treat them very seriously and make academic administrative decisions to help improve their ranking (or retain their good ranking).]For getting good rankings universities need to attract bright students. So top high school performers are given "Merit Aid" by universities to attract them. One such student even says she is "making a profit off of coming" to university!These "Merit Aid"/brilliant students also get special teaching and dorm facilities....[Video - Around 01:38:24, Transcript - Page 45]There is some discussion on whether "Merit Aid" is helping those who may not really need it and leaving behind those who need financial help....[Video - Around 01:47:18, Transcript - Page 50]Prior to this section there is coverage of lucrative sports (Basketball) contracts that University of Arizona gets due to its superb university basketball team and coach.A significant portion of the budget of the University of Arizona is from outside contracts....[Video - Around 01:50:59, Transcript - Page 51]Before this section there is coverage of poor students who struggle to earn and study, and some of them drop out in the process.There is talk of the social contract (in higher education) being brokenA graduation day ceremony with joyful students is shown....[Video - Around 01:52:48, Transcript - Page 52]Some troubling statistics are given. About half of those who start college don't graduate. And many of those who graduate become heavily indebted.Then the following questions are raised:DID THEY GET THE EDUCATION THEY PAID FOR?HOW CAN WE MAKE SURE THEY DO?HOW DO WE OPEN THE DOORS FOR HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS WHO’VE BEEN LEFT OUT? AND HELP THOSE WHO ARE STRUGGLING TO STAY IN?HOW DO WE REWARD GOOD TEACHING?AND HOW MUCH TIME DO WE HAVE?[Ravi: All the questions above (five of them), in my humble opinion, are very, very relevant for Indian higher education today.]Speakers say that the higher education system is at great risk."STANDUP: WE SPENT TWO YEARS ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES AND WHAT WE SAW IS DISTURBING. THE FUTURE DOES NOT LOOK BRIGHT. THE COUNTRY NEEDS A RENEWED SOCIAL CONTRACT SO THAT ANYONE WITH TALENT AND DETERMINATION CAN GO TO COLLEGE AND COLLEGES NEED TO PAY MORE ATTENTION TO TEACHING AND LEARNING. WE DON’T HAVE MUCH TIME. BECAUSE WHILE AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION IS DECLINING MUCH OF THE INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD IS MOVING UP, FAST."[Ravi: "COLLEGES NEED TO PAY MORE ATTENTION TO TEACHING AND LEARNING" - I think that is totally, totally valid for Indian higher education. The obsession for research in some Indian higher education institutions (perhaps driven by the way university rankings/grading are done and the way research grant money is distributed by the government/UGC/other grant agencies to Indian universities) may be seriously dampening the motivation among Indian academics to be good teachers, and so Indian higher education institutions may well suffer/be already suffering the same fate as most of the US higher education institutions covered in this documentary.]1 comment:Ravi S. Iyer, December 27, 2013 at 4:05 PMI sent a mail with content similar to the above to appropriate (Indian) central government ministry persons and central academic regulatory authorities on Dec. 25th 2013.Thursday, January 23, 2014Think India Education Debate on Indian National English TV ChannelNet url: saw a debate on education on CNN-IBN, a National English language News TV channel of India, around 10 days ago. It was hosted by Think India, a think tank. An earlier blog post, Suggestions to Improve CS & IT Education in India sent to Think India - A Public Policy Advocacy Think-Tank, has more info. about Think India and my mails to them.The topics covered in the discussion were on the lines of the action points listed on its web page for education,?. Interestingly the debate is available on Think India's youtube channel. Here's the debate link, , 39 min. 09 sec., published on Jan. 11, 2014.I felt it worthwhile to make an edited transcript of parts of the debate that interested me and post it as a comment on the above youtube page (under my name - Ravi S. Iyer). Some readers may find it convenient to quickly browse through this part-transcript.The initial part of my comment is, "I am very happy to see Network 18 host such a debate on the vital topic of education on national TV. Hopefully such shows will lead to more Indians getting involved with understanding the rather opaque education administration and policy making systems in India, and ensuring that adequate and suitable education reform happens."The background of the speakers/panelists are as follows:The moderator of this show, "Raghav Bahl is an Indian businessman best known for his ownership of several television channels, including TV18 India. He is founding/Controlling Shareholder & Managing Director of Network18 group.",?."Dr. Madhav Chavan is a co-founder and CEO-President of Pratham, an organization that reaches 3 million primary school age children in India every year.",? Sabharwal is an entrepreneur and co-founder of TeamLease, India's largest temporary employment company.?Here's a Forbes India August 2013 article by Manish Sabharwal,?Why the God of Jobs Doesn't Smile on India."Ashish Dhawan is the Founder and CEO of Central Square Foundation (CSF)." "Ashish is an MBA with distinction from Harvard University and a dual bachelor's (BS/BA) holder with Magna Cum Laude honours from Yale University. He is on the India Advisory Board of Harvard and a member of Yale's Development Council.",?. Vision of CSF: "All children in India, regardless of their social and economic status, will get a high quality school education that prepares them to be responsible and productive citizens.", Srivastava was with the Prime Minister's Office and the Planning Commission and now is COO of Center for Civil Society, a prominent think tank,? CEO of Think India, "Dhiraj Nayyar trained as an economist at the Universities of Delhi, Oxford and Cambridge.",? also thought I should summarize the edited part-transcript in this blog post and have given it below.For-profit institutions at all levels of educationThe view of most speakers was that many educational institutions are already for-profit but done in a back-door way as for-profit education is not legal (in India). This back-door situation makes it difficult for genuine education entrepreneurs including teachers to start their own educational institutions. Getting capital for this capital intensive area is also another challenge for entrepreneurs due to the current laws. Making for-profit legal would open up the field for education entrepreneurs and investors. Consumer protection laws should apply for these for-profit institutions. Also, taxes should be paid by them.India has seen liberalization in the past 22 years in many fields (leading to those fields reforming). But the education sector has not had any reform yet. Education still lives in the license-raj era.Need for standardized assessments (measuring learning outcomes)A speaker said that 60 countries in the world including almost every OECD country uses standardized assessments. Why not India? The emphasis in education in India has been on inputs like buildings and hiring teachers but very little emphasis is on learning outcomes. Learning outcome should become front and centre in the education system.Higher education - single higher education regulatorWe should have a single consistent higher education regulator like we have one single regulator for stocks across the country - SEBI (). Currently different states of India have different regulations for education. Futher there are various professions like medicine and law with their councils which are under separate acts of parliament. The next prime minister should get together all these (stakeholders) and create a single consistent higher education regulator. Different fields like technical and medicine can be managed by different sections of this single body.UGC (the key higher education regulator) both funds and regulates universities. This mixing of funding and regulation should be avoided.Higher education - complete deregulation of distance and online educationCurrent laws in India make it very difficult for online education providers operating across various states of the country. To meet the goal of college enrollment going up to 30%, online education and distance education are vital. So these fields should be completely deregulated. Having such open education systems will help the deprived more than the others.Higher education - allowing foreign universities to set up campuses in IndiaWe should incentivize Indian companies to invest in universities. And we should also allow foreign universities to set up campuses in India. That will help in Indian students paying (investing) the money in the Indian campuses of foreign universities instead of paying that money abroad. Foreign university campuses will be few as compared to the total university campuses in India and these foreign university campuses will act as lighthouses for quality/be a benchmark for others.Higher education - raise fees of government-funded universitiesMany universities in India get only 3% of their budget from student fees. This (causes) a drain on govt. coffers and there is an issue of student accountability. If the student pays larger fees he/she will demand better service. Need-based scholarship and student loans should be provided.Vocational TrainingYoung people are very concerned about employability of the education they undergo. There is a large gap globally, but especially so in India, between what students study and what employers want. There are strong differences between higher education system and skills (education/training) system. National Vocational Qualification Framework (NVQF) is caught up between two ministries - labour and HRD (which handles education). NVQF should be passed. Associate degrees - 2 year programs - should be introduced "which are not normal degrees on a diet but vocational training on streroids".ApprenticeshipIndia has only 3 lakh (3 hundred thousand) apprentices, whereas Germany has 3 million, Japan 10 million and China 20 million. The 1961 Apprenticeship act should be rebooted. It will be easy to do. We could have 10 million apprentices in 18 months time and thereby have a lot of young people in productive jobs.--- end summary ---Some days ago I had added the following comment to the Think India web page on education, , (under my name):My specific interest area in this context is Indian Computer Science and Information Technology Higher Education. Perhaps some of my suggestions may hold good for other technical education areas as well. The crux of the problem, as I see it, is that, usually, the teachers are not practitioners. In other words a CS or IT academic, usually, does not design or develop software, and unfortunately UGC rules do not provide specific incentives for the academics to be good practitioners. Instead the incentives are heavily tilted towards research publications.If the medical profession expects its teachers to be medical practitioners, why can't the software development teachers be software development practitioners? Why doesn't UGC and AICTE create career growth incentives for Indian CS & IT academics to be software development practitioners as well as teachers. Sure, they can be researchers as well but not at the cost of lack of knowledge about the practice of software development.--- end comment ----There is another web page on discussion,?, which (currently) deals with the question, "Should foreign universities be allowed to set up campuses in India?" A few days ago I had added the following comment there:I think they should allow foreign universities to set up campuses in India. Nothing like competition from foreign organizations to stir up Indian organizations to excellence. Just look at how competitive and efficient Indian banks became once they had to compete with foreign banks. But some foreign higher education institutions are good and some bad. The attorney general of California, USA, has filed a lawsuit in October 2013 against a for-profit higher education US company with over 100 campuses in North America alleging misrepresentation of job placement rates, false advertising etc.! So Indian HRD ministry and higher education regulators like UGC and AICTE should permit only good foreign higher ed. institutions to enter the country and further keep them under observation to ensure that they do not indulge in any unhealthy practices.--- end comment ----1 comment:Ravi S. Iyer, January 27, 2014 at 6:45 PMTo know about the downside of for-profit schools, please see the post?Some Serious Dangers of For-Profit Education Schools (Colleges) For Poor and Naive Students.Tuesday, January 7, 2014For-profit college in California, USA, faces lawsuit from Attorney General for Systematic Deception of StudentsNet url: am quite impressed by US governments' mechanisms and efforts to catch and punish higher education institutions engaged in fraud. Here's an October 2013 report of California Attorney General suing a for-profit college company for deceptive practices, "Major For-Profit College Chain Systematically Deceived Students: Attorney General", small extracts and notes from the article:'California's attorney general filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing a for-profit college company of misrepresenting job placement rates, false advertising and other deceptive practices to lure low-income residents to take out student loans to attend its schools.'...The article quoted Kamala Harris, Attorney General, of California, USA, saying,?"Corinthian College was serving not as an educator but as a predator of some of the most vulnerable people in our community"....The college company which is reported to operate over 100 campuses in North America as well as a few online programs, disputes the charges of the Attorney General.--- end extracts and notes ---I have not heard of any lawsuits of this sort at all, in India. I think fake colleges in India can get away with anything, even offer fake PhD degrees, without anybody really punishing them. At the most, the college owners will close down the college (and perhaps open another one with a different name).Who is there to protect Indian students and their parents from getting trapped by similar fake colleges in India? Not only do they lose money and precious years of youth - just imagine the shock and disappointment the young student will have when he/she realises that his/her education is almost worthless. Perhaps some youth may never recover from such a horrific psychological blow. [BTW there are many good educational institutions in India, and, of course, USA has world class educational institutions. But there are some fakes too - that seems to be the inescapable reality of higher education today.]India should have similar laws/mechanisms to punish fake colleges, which are rigorously implemented.Monday, January 27, 2014Some Serious Dangers of For-Profit Education Schools (Colleges) For Poor and Naive StudentsNet url: US based academic sent me the following recent article link, “I feel like I was set up to fail”: Inside a for-profit college nightmare, think the article highlights some serious dangers that for-profit education schools/colleges/systems have, especially for poor and naive students. While I am not saying that for-profit education systems should not be considered at all in India, I would like to humbly suggest to those who deal with education policy making to please go through the article (unless they have already done so) and put in appropriate safeguards in education policy to prevent such nightmarish scenarios for students in any for-profit education system in India.Here are some points about the article:The student (Jaqueta Cherry) seems to have been targeted and lured by the for-profit college by a promise of landing "a professional job working in computers".She dropped out of the courses and now is saddled with thousands of dollars of federal student loan debt."For-profit schools use a business model that feasts on federal student aid." [Note: In the US, the term schools is many times used to refer to higher education colleges and universities too, which seems to be the case here.]Leads i.e. info. about prospective students are sold by some firms specializing in "lead generation" which uses?sophisticated techniques and algorithms to identify prospects from digital footprints on the Internet.Very significant component of revenue of most for-profit schools come from US government aid.California Attorney General Kamala Harris has filed a lawsuit against Corinthian Colleges Inc. (parent company of the university Jacqueta had enrolled in). From?, (a 37 page document):"CCI is selling these expensive programs to students throughout California, many of whom head single parent families and have annual incomes that are near the federal poverty line ($19,530 for a three-person household). CCI targets this demographic, which it describes in internal company documents as composed of "isolated," "impatient," individuals with ''low selfesteem," who have "few people in their lives who care about them" and who are "stuck" and "unable to see and plan well for future," through aggressive and persistent internet and telemarketing campaigns and through television ads on daytime shows like Jerry Springer and Maury Povich."The lawsuit attempts to hold "CCI accountable for violating California law by misrepresenting job placement rates to students, misrepresenting job placement rates to investors, advertising for programs that it does not offer, ...".A previous blog post,?For-profit college in California, USA, faces lawsuit from Attorney General for Systematic Deception of Students, is related to this topic.?Tuesday, November 27, 2012How Online Education challenge is shaking up US academiaNet url: updated on November 28th 2012I think there is tremendous pressure on top US university managements on this online education stuff. University of Virginia (UVA) top administrator, President Teresa Sullivan, was fired and then re-hired amidst a lot of UVA community protests and tremendous media coverage in June 2012. It seems her lack of big initiative for online education was one of the main reasons behind her being fired.NYTimes article, 'Anatomy of a campus coup', , is an absolutely fascinating article on Teresa Sullivan's ouster and then reinstatement. The article touches upon many things including:Funds crunch for UVA as state government reduced funding. Alumni network helped by contributing to endowment. UVA has a $ 2.5 Billion budget [At Rs. 55 for 1 US $ that comes to Rs. 13,750 Crores].UVA Board seats are allotted by State government/Governor.UVA Board head, Helen Dragas, a real estate developer, was strongly influenced by Harvard Professor, Clayton M. Christensen's book, "The Innovative University", . [From?: “The Innovative University” shows how online technology makes a college or university vastly more attractive to a wide subset of students. It gives many people a second chance at learning – i.e. those who cannot afford a traditional college education, those who do not have the flexibility to take part in a full plate of coursework, and late bloomers or dropouts who have fallen behind and now have the chance to catch up.]Dragas said, “Higher education is one of the last sectors of the economy to undergo this kind of systemic restructuring". [I presume she meant systemic restructuring being forced by embrace of disruptive new technologies like online education]UVA Board fires President Teresa Sullivan (though it is couched in different language). Helen Dragas who headed the UVA board justified decision of ouster specifically mentioning that UVA was falling behind in development of online courses, "a potentially transformative innovation". [The email dated June 10th 2012 from Helen Dragas and another person announcing President Sullivan's stepping down: ]Message from Teresa Sullivan to the Board of Visitors on stepping down dated June 18th 2012:? . A telling extract from the above message about her views of online education: "There is room for carefully implemented online learning in selected fields, but online instruction is no panacea. It is surprisingly expensive, has limited revenue potential, and unless carefully managed, can undermine the quality of instruction."Message from Teresa Sullivan after being reinstated due to outcry in campus and media leading to state Governor stepping into the matter, dated June 26th 2012: her reinstatement Teresa Sullivan announced a partnership with Coursera but used cautious words about its future.This set of article and messages involving the President of one of the top public universities in the USA and one which is within the first 25 top national universities of the USA, , clearly shows that online education is a very hyped-up buzzword. Teresa Sullivan's views on online education seem to be solidly sensible especially for a public school with fund constraints (as against an MIT or Harvard with massive endowment I believe). But her Board wanted more from her! I think it truly has been a great victory for academic sensibility that she was reinstated due to public outcry.A couple of relevant videos which shows the humans behind the drama as well as the human aspects of it:U.Va. Board of Visitors reinstates Teresa Sullivan as President, June 26th 2012, , 26 min, 11 sec.President Sullivan Addresses Supporters on the Lawn (after the above reinstatement meeting),?, 15 min, 58 sec.A video which shows her supporters at the time she stepped down as President:?Teresa Sullivan Addresses Rally Crowd after stepping down as President on June 18th 2012,?, 2 min, 33 sec.?I must also mention that I believe online education is rapidly coming of age. I mean, it may be a matter of just a few years before it reaches stability in terms of large percentage of enrolled students completing courses, getting credit/certification and even degrees, market giving feedback on knowledge level of such students and how employable they are, and revenue stream for online education providers.Some further thoughts on this matter.I had a mail exchange on this matter with a friend that made me drill a little deeper into the matter. Thought I can share that on this post.In the Board of Visitors meeting on June 26th 2012 (video link given earlier) a senior person of the board specifically apologizes for due process not having been followed in the decision to ask Sullivan to resign. He also states something to the effect that if due process had been followed for her removal then such issues would not have cropped up in the first placeHere's the?UVA Board of Visitors (BOV) web page?and here's the?UVA BOV manual. From the UVA BOV manual, Page 49-50, "The board shall be charged with the care and preservation of all property belonging to the University. They shall appoint a president, with such duties as may be prescribed by the board, and who shall have supreme administrative direction under the authority of the board over all the schools, colleges and branches of the University wherever located, and they shall appoint as many professors as they deem proper, and, with the assent of two-thirds of the whole number of visitors, may remove such president or any professor."So where the rector, Helen Dragas, committed a "due process" mistake was to not convene a meeting of the board, raise the issue of asking the President to resign due to clearly specified reasons, put it to vote and get two-thirds of BOV support for it. Not all BOV members supported Dragas as could be seen from the BOV meeting video mentioned earlier, and it seems that such a motion would have had vigorous debate with the possibility of Sullivan being given a fair chance to present her side to the Board of Visitors. Instead it was, as the NYT article put it, a "campus coup" by the rector in getting the President to resign.?Regarding Dragas and others' concern about UVA falling behind other top USA universities in the area of online education, it seems that clear directives were not given to the President about online education efforts by the Board of Visitors. Teresa Sullivan's messages clearly show her side of the story (far more eloquently than the NYT article). No wonder she was able to get so much support from the UVA community and the media which led to her reinstatement.Indian SituationIn India autonomy of academia is a very important matter which limits government and funding agencies power to manipulate academic processes (including selection of teaching staff) of large public universities (small private universities are a different matter).It is quite decent in terms of official procedure, I think. A Vice-Chancellor (VC) is the top executive officer of a university and gets appointed for a term (typically 3 to 5 years). For large public universities the government is typically involved in selection & appointment of the VC. The paper, "Appointment of Vice-Chancellors: Rules, Procedures and Intentions", , gives an interesting bird's eye view picture.Removal of a VC of a big university is a major issue affecting the public of the area in which the university is based. So, it seems to me, due process is important. If a VC is dismissed the VC may be able to approach the High Court to question his/her dismissal and even get it reversed if due process has not been followed.Please note that the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY) does *not* apply to this post.Friday, November 16, 2012Napster, mp3 music industry disruption and MOOCNet url: a fascinating analysis of higher education challenges and opportunities.?I would like to preface my comments below by saying that some of what I have written below as possibilities for the future may already be happening in the USA but, as far as I know, have not yet happened on a significant scale in India.I found the mp3+Napster disruption of music industry example and similar possibility being considered in higher education fascinating. The mp3 compression format, Napster and fantastic devices like the iPod allowed music of so many genres to be enjoyed by so many people worldwide, even if the quality of the playback was not as good as uncompressed CDs. It was a revolution in bringing music to the masses worldwide.In my humble analysis of Indian Computer Science and Information Technology academia I have found that teaching quality has become less important as the academic career growth path is more on the research side,?. With Internet based learning/MOOCs the emphasis on good teaching is bound to increase. The competition in higher education will be just a mouse-click away!Prof. Sebastain Thrun talked about how teaching in elite colleges involves having 'weeder' classes and how his online class forced him to change his style to accommodate less brighter or less knowledgeable students too. Very importantly, the Internet teaching medium gave him the opportunity to do so. Prof. Thrun's talk can be viewed here:?. In case you don't have the time to view the video, you might want to read a blog post of mine on it,? based learning certainly seems to have the potential to bring a knowledge delivery revolution just like the mp3+ipod music delivery revolution. It will be an awesome utopian-dream-come-true scenario if knowledge delivery to the masses worldwide in the not-so-distant future becomes like how music is delivered today to the masses worldwide.Certification of whether knowledge has been acquired adequately can be delinked from teaching/learning (different from smaller tests/quizzes which are conducted during the teaching of a course). That may really free up the student. S/he can choose the Internet teacher(s) for her/his courses and prove to herself/himself and others that they have picked up the knowledge by clearing examination(s) of her/his choice and acquire the appropriate certificates.Employers will be able to give market feedback on the knowledge level of graduates with different certifications. That should filter out certifications/examinations that do not test students appropriately.Monday, September 17, 2012Tough Times for US Academia; Lessons for India?Net url: read some articles and saw a youtube video that has startled me. While I knew that US academia had its challenges I had no idea it was so bad.Read on only if you have the stomach for some pretty depressing stuff about US academia. But please note that the articles referenced below may be biased, so please take them with a few pinches of salt.The closing of American academia, article above claims that 2/3rds of US university faculty are part-time and on contract which is not guaranteed for renewal each semester (adjunct faculty)! That seems to indicate that most of such contract faculty receive no benefits or health care.The author writes, "In May 2012, I received my PhD, but I still do not know what to do with it.". She wonders about her job opportunities as an anthropologist in US academia and whether her education is a way into poverty instead of being a way out of it!---A brutal video on Humanities academia in the US, So You Want to Get a PhD in the Humanities: Nine Years Later,??(4 min, 21 sec).---The Ph.D. Now Comes With Food Stamps,?, is an eye-popping account of how some Ph.D. qualified persons in the US are on welfare!The article mentions a lady with a PhD in medieval history who is an adjunct professor and who is a 43 year old single mother relying on food stamps and Medicaid. She says, "I find it horrifying that someone who stands in front of college classes and teaches is on welfare,".The article mentions a 51-year old father of two who teaches two courses each semester in the English department in a US university. He is a graduate but not yet a Ph.D who has taught for 14 years in three colleges. "He says he has taught more than two dozen courses in communications, performing arts, and the humanities and he has watched academic positions in these fields nearly disappear with budget cuts."He is grateful for the dole as without it, his family would be homeless and destitute! The article mentions that he feels he perhaps made a mistake by learning a practical skill that was elitist instead of learning a skill that the economy supports.---I think the education system in the US is going through a heart-rending period of change which may make it more job-oriented and cost-effective for students. Perhaps countries like India should carefully study what is happening in the US and learn appropriate lessons from it to avoid similar pain in future.1 comment:Ravi S. Iyer, September 19, 2012 at 3:30 PM'Life of the Mind' and the hard reality today of the Humanities PhD poverty-trap. A must-read for would-be PhD scholars of all streams even if some streams like Science & Engineering may be somewhat better off:?The Big Lie About the 'Life of the Mind', By Thomas H. Benton, Feb. 2010A PhD scholar student thanks Thomas H. Benton for his articles including the above article:?PhD Job Hell: An Open Letter to Thomas H. Benton A.K.A. William A. Pannapacker: How “Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go” Destroyed My PhD and Saved My Life, Nov. 2010A humanities teacher having 23 years experience as a Professor and who seems to be a very ethical and good human being, gives advise:?Stop Admitting Ph.D. Students, By Monica J. Harris, Aug. 2010Saturday, May 11, 2013Nature News, April 2011, Articles on PhD System ChallengesNet url: updated on May 13th, 2013Nature seems to have focused on PhD system challenges in April 2011 as it has quite a few articles on this topic in Nature News then.[Please note that the CC-BY, Creative Commons Attribution license does?not?apply to this post.]"Reform the PhD system or close it down" by Mark C. Taylor, Head of department of Religion at Columbia university, writes that the PhD system in USA and many other countries is broken! He writes, "One reason that many doctoral programmes do not adequately serve students is that they are overly specialized, with curricula fragmented and increasingly irrelevant to the world beyond academia." He argues for reform of PhD in "almost every field"."Education: Rethinking PhDs" by Alison McCook, a freelance writer, gives examples of science PhDs being done differently in terms of skills imparted and type of students admitted. It mentions that US science PhD degrees often need a first-author paper publication and take 7 years or more to complete! In UK it rarely exceeds 4 years and a paper publication is not mandatory in some institutions. It covers some other rethinking options as well like interdisciplinary approaches, providing skills as needed in industry (research) jobs, doing the PhD online or skipping the PhD."Fix the PhD" advises caution for unlimited growth of PhDs as it may dilute the quality of PhDs. It mentions that research grants from government agencies drives the research system in universities but not enough thought is given about the job market being able to employ those emerging from the research system of the universities. One suggestion it makes is "to better match educational supply with occupational demand" in science research."Education: The PhD factory" gives numbers for the rise in science doctorates, and examines the science doctorates picture in Japan (crisis), China ("Quantity outweighs quality?"), US (oversupply), India ("PhDs wanted") and a few other countries."Developing world: Educating India" states that India has experienced "an eight-fold increase in science and engineering enrolment at India's colleges and universities over the past decade, with most of the growth occurring in engineering and technology - fields in which jobs are especially plentiful". Between 2003 and 2009, the number of foreign companies establishing R&D facilities in India went up from 100 to 750! The rapid expansion of the higher education system has resulted in serious challenges about maintaining good quality. The paper also quotes a student (or two) giving details about corruption (money corruption) in his (her) institution - I feel quite ashamed about such matters related to India appearing in Nature. But I guess that's the truth and we Indians have to face up to it. Once we face up to it perhaps we can try to improve matters.Friday, December 20, 2013USA: The Student Loan Debt Disaster! Update: Income Based Repayment Plan Seems to be a Superb SolutionNet url: significant update on 17th February 2014Minor title update on 20th June 2014Update: From??: "If a student's loan debt is high but their income is modest, they may qualify for the Income-Based Repayment Plan (IBR). Most major types of federal student loans—except for PLUS loans for parents—are eligible for IBR.[25] Income-based plans provide for payment of 15% of disposable income for up to 25 years, then the loan is forgiven."The videos given below did not talk about Income Based Repayment Plan - maybe that has been introduced later. IBR does seem to provide significant safeguards to the debt crushing somebody's life. So it does not seem so bad now, to me.Now there seems to be a new law making the burden even lighter (for students borrowing from 2014) - limiting payments to 10% of (disposable) income (so a reduction from 15% to 10%) and debt being forgiven after 20 years (10 years if person is in public service) if they are making the monthly payments properly. Source:?. I think this makes it even better - so now it seems to be quite OK, unless I am missing something. I mean, even if one does not get a good paying job but gets some job - one pays only 10% of disposable income. That seems really decent.---- End Update ----The student loan debt problem is horrendous! Here are two youtube videos having people tell their own story about student loan debt in the USA:Dr. Noelle, -$213,000 student loan debt,?, 13 min. 26 secs, published in May 2013. She is a PhD in Psychology and is now an Assistant Professor, who is saddled with debt and is staring at a very tough life! She is very articulate and tells her story very well.I Owe CitiBank $105,000,?, 10 min. 31 secs, published in Apr. 2011. This is a very sorry tale of an American?social work student, who seems to be of Chinese ethnic background, and his US based family.Today I visited a local bank (in Puttaparthi, India) for some work. As the concerned officer was not at his seat I was looking around at the notices and posters in the branch. There was a big education loan poster and if I recall correctly the maximum amount mentioned was Rs. 30 lakhs! [30 lakhs is 3 million; at the current exchange rate of around Rs. 62 to a US Dollar, Rs. 3 million comes to slightly over 48,000 US $.] ?I don't know how much of India is getting into this same problem that is plaguing America. But maybe most university educated people, as of now, get jobs in India and so are able to repay the loan.I think there must be some strong laws, I repeat strong laws, that ensure that youngsters are made fully aware of the huge dangers of student loans, before they take on a loan. Financial institutions that "sell" loans to students without explaining the dangers involved should be penalized by having the entire loan money written off. You may think I am being a little extreme - but see these videos and see what a horrible situation these chaps have landed into. They would have been far, far better off not having gone to university at all and taken some job after high school! These poor chaps will lead the best part of their lives with debt hanging over their heads - my God! What a pathetic state of affairs!I thank God that I dropped out of my Physics masters in 1984 in Bombay/Mumbai due to financial problems and looked for a job, instead of (seriously) looking at some financial institution that would loan me money for my Physics Masters (and any further education). Otherwise I would have suffered a similar fate as the poor chaps above, at least for a few years.1 comment:Ravi S. Iyer, December 31, 2013 at 11:59 PMA few quotes from?Scholarslip: A documentary about the student debt crisis, 23 min 41 sec, published Dec. 30, 2012:* Education may have freed my mind but my student loan debt has shackled me for life.* In 2011, two-thirds of college seniors graduated with student loan debt with an average of almost $27,000 per borrower.* College graduates are more likely to be employed as waiters and bartenders than as engineers, physicists, chemists and mathematicians combined.* 75% of Americans say that college in the United States is too expensive to afford.Online Higher Education; MOOCsMy Viewpoints/ArticlesAffordable Subject-Wise Certification from Govt. Recognized Academia, December 2011Discussion/Informative Posts Involving Others' Articles/Views, Media reports and Some Comments from meNPTEL - IIT Madras - offers online course and certification in Programming, Data Structures & Algorithms, June 2014Georgia Tech, Udacity and AT&T offer Online MS degree in CS under $7000, May 2013CS & IT: Internet Based Learning, October 2011Wall Street Journal article on "Higher Education's Online Revolution", July 2012NYT article on Massively Open Online Courses, July 2012Prof. Sebastain Thrun's experience of teaching 160,000 students AI for free!, July 2012A Princeton Sociology Professor's Online Teaching Experience, November 2012CS & IT Academia: Use Stanford Engineering Everywhere to Teach Programming, October 2011Online Programming Courses: Use MIT's OCW or IIT's NPTEL or Stanford's SEE, October 2011The Brains Behind Aakash, the Rs. 3000 (aka $35) Tablet, February 2012Sunday, December 25, 2011Affordable Subject-Wise Certification from Govt. Recognized AcademiaNet url: updated on June 8th 2013US President Obama meets US university presidents to address/discuss their challenges: article talks of the problems of rising costs in an age of austerity, more courses & more research students than there is money for and interestingly, Ivy league envy. "Ivy League envy leads to an obsession with research.", it states. This results in professors who are focused on research and don't do their job of teaching students well enough, and even causes teaching dysfunction at lower-level universities!I think the last problem is the case with lots of Indian universities too.The article then goes on to giving examples where technology is helping to ease the burden.A fascinating news item is about MIT planning to offer online subject-wise certifications leveraging its OCW but starting only in 2012 spring:? launches online learning initiative:? What is MITx?:? think affordable individual subject-wise certifications from recognized universities (academia as against non-govt-recognized private "training" institutes) done online or at physical university could be a game-changer in CS/IT education. It will be interesting to see how this pans out.A concern raised about subject-wise certifications is that it could water down universities into training schools.Well, what I feel is that ultimately universities should cater to what its students choose & need. And students' choice will typically be dictated by job market demand (industry jobs as well as academic jobs; programming/design jobs & research & teaching jobs) and students' interests.If a university wants to focus on higher quality work/higher complexity work then it can clearly define itself as that kind of university. Only elite students will join it and they will typically have the capability to do higher quality work. Perhaps MIT is the example of an elite tech. university. Their courses as seen in OCW seem to reflect that.In India, the IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology) are clearly defined as the elite tech. schools e.g.?. Their entrance exam (joint entrance exam for all IITs) is the toughest tech. university entrance exam in India ().IITs don't have to worry about funding as the government provides them excellent support. Their campus is usually fabulous. The salary structure for their teachers is the best in Indian academia. The facilities are excellent. So they get the elite students.The IIT courses reflect the elitist nature of the institution. E.g. They don't seem to teach programming languages in particular. They expect the students to pick up particular programming languages. They seem to teach only algorithms, data structures, general programming constructs - a language independent way of teaching programming. And, of course, they have courses on Artificial Intelligence, Compiler Design, Design & Analysis of Algorithms, High Performance Computer architecture etc. which their elite students can perhaps not only handle but excel at.I feel universities should clearly identify the student population category they are aiming at. If all universities look up to elite universities like an MIT and try to emulate them with students who are not elite quality you get into a messy situation.In my considered opinion there is nothing shameful about a university focusing on non-elite/commoner students and delivering them courses that gives them the skill set they desire so that they get the job they want. If they should not be called universities and should be called "training schools" - that is fine. But the "training school" should be government recognized and be able to offer a degree in IT or even CSE.To my mind it is like there being nothing shameful about being an average competence General Practitioner doctor handling common diseases in comparison to a very skilled Cardiac surgeon who focuses only on open heart surgery. Both serve very important needs of society.In India there is a thriving "private" but expensive IT training school industry which seems to be doing a far better job of teaching programming skills than government recognised CS/IT academia. But the "private" IT training schools cannot award a graduate degree; they can award only diploma certificates. So many well-to-do students in urban areas of India do a non-tech. graduate degree from govt. recognized academia like B.Sc. (Chemistry) [Pure science as against tech.; cheaper to do and easier to pass as exam standards are "watered down" in most Indian "science" universities] and simultaneously attend the "private" IT training school to learn programming and get a well paid IT job placement.Here is the most famous IT training school of India, NIIT:?. The home page runs an Ad. which says, "College made me a graduate; NIIT's diploma programmes made me job-ready"! That says something about the Indian government agency(ies) regulated education system.In other words the market has stepped in to fill the job-oriented skill set teaching void left by government recognized academia. But the poor students have to do both (and parents have to pay for both) - govt. recognized academia for the govt. recognized graduate degree and the private training school for the job-oriented skill set. This seems to me to be a terrible failure of the Indian education system for commoner students. And this has been the situation for decades!And since the private IT training school industry gets ZERO government funding it is too expensive for the urban poor and the rural poor & middle class students. All the taxpayer money for education goes to government recognized academia which fails to deliver on job-oriented skill set for commoner students.1 comment:Ravi S. Iyer, June 20, 2014 at 2:29 PMThis post dated June 2014,?NPTEL - IIT Madras - offers online course and certification in Programming, Data Structures & Algorithms, covers an NPTEL course delivering what the above post is about! The first such course started in March 2014 with the certification exams scheduled to be in early July 2014.Tuesday, June 10, 2014NPTEL - IIT Madras - offers online course and certification in Programming, Data Structures & AlgorithmsNet url: updated on 11th June 2014Course details in a nutshellDuration - 10 weeks, 2 to 3 hours lectures per week + assignmentsCertificate exam at the end of the course is an in-person proctored exam (supervised exam to ensure academic integrity)Expected charges: online teaching (+ assignment evaluation, I presume) - FREE, certification exam - Rs. 2000 (less than 34 US Dollars as per current rate of around Rs. 60 for 1 US Dollar), so total expected charges (from online educator - NPTEL) is less than 34 US Dollars (computer/laptop & Internet charges have to be managed/borne by the student).FREE teaching service of NPTEL is made possible by funding from Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.I was overjoyed to visit this link today,?, and also see the embedded video. The around 5 minute video has experts/leaders from industry and academia talk about the online course followed by certification, in Programming, Data Structures and Algorithms, conducted by NPTEL.Some points from my going through the above link:The online course is free for all and the certification exam has a nominal fee (maybe around Rs. 2000 (currently 1 US Dollar is around Rs. 60. So Rs. 2000 currently is less than 34 US Dollars).?[Ravi: That is very, very affordable. Fantastic!]The Programming, Data Structures and Algorithms online course is aimed at undergraduate college students of any engg. or science stream in their 2nd year or above, but it is open to everyone (as per my understanding of the FAQ).?[Ravi: Terrific! So even commerce and arts students who are willing to go the extra mile to pick up any math needed for the course, can do the course and get the certification. I am really overjoyed to know about this.]The online courses certification portal, onlinecourses.nptel.ac.in, is powered by Google who is partnering NPTEL for this effort. NASSCOM members like TCS and CTS have participated in syllabus and content creation.?[Ravi: In the embedded video a NASSCOM leader (executive director) talks about job opportunities (employment facilitator, job ready ...) opened up by these certificates. I find that very exciting. I mean, now any graduate or under graduate student who wants to acquire a NASSCOM recognized certificate in this software development foundation course, has a very affordable means to do so, provided he/she has the requisite aptitude and is willing to do the hard work necessary to finish the assignments and clear the certification exam. Software companies may start recognizing this certificate as a key statement of software development foundation skills having been acquired by the certificate-holder, if the assignments and certification exam are good in testing and validating the skills of the student. As it is an academia-industry collaborative effort any lapses, especially in the initial course executions, can be fixed via suitable feedback. Industry run in-house training courses for freshers in the mid 80s had, and it probably continues to have today, a strong feedback mechanism to ensure that suitable skills needed by industry are imparted to students.?(I underwent training for COBOL programming and Systems Analysis for 4 to 6 months - 5th and 6th month being more on-the-job training type?(in 1984), and then was a trainer in COBOL programming for a fresher batch (in?1985) in my first company, Datamatics Consultants in SEEPZ, Mumbai, and so have direct experience of industry training in programming for freshers).]Course duration: 10 weeks; 2-3 hours of lecture per week; involves online assessment & programming assignments; has in-person proctored examination?(supervised exam to ensure academic integrity)?with certification.?[Ravi: 2 to 3 hours lecture time per week should not be a problem for any interested (and Internet connected) student. The first weeding out test will be the programming assignments. Only those who are able to follow the lectures, have the aptitude and make the time & effort to finish the assignments will be able to continue on in the course.]A sample certificate is shown in the above link.?[Ravi: The certificate mentions the course name, "Programming, Data Structures & Algorithms", and has the names of IIT Madras, NASSCOM, MHRD and NPTEL! That makes it a pretty impressive certificate, IMHO.]From the dates info. provided on the site, it seems that the first batch of students doing this certification course will appear for the certification exam in July 2014. Hopefully, NPTEL will share statistics of how many students enrolled, how many continued through the course and took the certification exam, and how many passed the certification. Even if the first time numbers are small this effort MUST be continued as I think it has tremendous potential for giving vital certified software development foundation skills to any interested Indian (and non Indian too perhaps), college student or non-college-student.I heartily applaud and congratulate MHRD (govt. ministry funding NPTEL and providing top level policy directives, I guess), NPTEL, IIT Madras, and NPTEL's partners like Google and NASSCOM (members like TCS, CTS ...), for this wonderful initiative, and pray to Almighty God to shower His Grace on these efforts.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Update on 11th June 2014As I thought about it more and discussed it with some locals in Puttaparthi, I find that my enthusiasm and excitement over the course has not ebbed. Puttaparthi locals face a lot of problems in terms of availability of affordable higher education facilities (the free Sathya Sai educational institutions have limited seats for which there is a lot of competition from all over Andhra Pradesh state and also other parts of the country). Now Puttaparthi locals can consider a combo. of an affordable science (or commerce but with some additional Math learning on their own) degree programme in a govt. funded college and combine it with this certificate course in Programming, Data Structures & Algorithms from IIT-Madras, to give them a decent chance at competing for a software job or even a non-software job which might involve some programming.For the computer/laptop and Internet facility, I wonder whether the many Internet cafes in Puttaparthi can offer a special package where they make the computer and Internet facility available for a few hours (at less busy times) some days of the week at affordable cost to local students. Elsewhere in small-town-India (and similar other countries) the situation may be similar.Overall, I think these kind of very affordable (virtually free from higher education provider but with computer & Internet costs to be borne by student/parents), certified courses from top-notch higher education brands like IIT-Madras in collaboration with industry (e.g. NASSCOM) are going to be an awesome game-changer that will democratize the job-oriented skills teaching part of the higher education field (i.e. make it accessible to lower middle class and even some of the poor people of the country).Thursday, May 30, 2013Georgia Tech, Udacity and AT&T offer Online MS degree in CS under $7000Net url: updated on June 14th 2013I think this is the first degree in CS being offered online using MOOC and a well below on-campus-degree-price by a well known US tech. university. Here is the official news announcement from Georgia Tech, dated May 14th 2013,? key points:The degree is known as Online Master of Science degree in Computer Science abbreviated as OMS CS.All OMS CS content will be delivered via MOOC.Price is expected to be below US $ 7,000, well below equivalent on-campus degree (which is reported to be slightly over US $ 25,000 for out-of-state students,)All OMS CS courses will be available free of charge on Udacity site but without Georgia Tech. credit & degree. However students who complete the free OMS CS courses on Udacity site may receive a separate certificate at significantly lower cost than OMS CS degree.Sebastian Thrun calls the announcement an unforgettable moment of his life, . He writes, "With Georgia Tech, we have a partner whose computer science program is among the best in the world! And equally importantly, with AT&T, we partner with a Fortune-500 company which is relentlessly innovating in the space of digital access to information. This triumvirate of industry and academia is now teaming up to use 21st Century MOOC technology to level the playing field in computer science education. And while the degree rightfully comes with a tuition fee -- after all, to achieve the very best in online education we will provide support services -- the bare content will be available free of charge, available for anyone eager to learn. We are also launching non-credit certificates at a much reduced price point, to give a path to those who don't care about Georgia Tech credit or degrees, but still want their learning results certified."I was surprised to see AT&T's involvement. I think that bodes real good for the MOOC movement as AT&T can lend tremendous technological and financial muscle to this particular MOOC degree offering. Other technology giants may follow AT&T to provide competing MOOC degree offerings. Wow! These may be real interesting times for education. AT&T chairman and CEO, Randall Stephenson is reported to have said, "We believe that high-quality and 100 percent online degrees can be on par with degrees received in traditional on-campus settings, and that this program could be a blueprint for helping the United States address the shortage of people with STEM degrees, as well as exponentially expand access to computer science education for students around the world."Here's a 2 minute video where Sebastian answers some questions about this new degree, a mail I sent out to readers with the above content I had written (slightly edited):IMHO, this (Georgia Tech's OMS CS announcement) may turn out to be a watershed moment in the history of CS education worldwide (and later, other fields of higher education too).A question was raised whether the OMS CS will lower quality of CS education. I thought I should share my response to that question, below:As I have not gone through any Udacity course I cannot form any opinion as of now about the future OMS CS quality. I presume that Georgia Tech will ensure some decent teaching and evaluation standards as it is lending its well-known name to it. In the initial years, even if the teaching and evaluation standards are, say, around 60 % that of on-campus MS CS of Georgia Tech, I think the OMS CS will be better than many on-campus MS CS offerings from various parts of the world including India.So, in a sense, it may be a poor man's MS CS (at least, in the initial years till things stabilize). But, IMHO, even that could have a significant good effect in CS education for non-elite CS education.I think how Georgia Tech is able to control quality of evaluation/grading may be critical to this new OMS CS. If they are able to ensure 75 % or higher evaluation rigor of its on-campus MS degree for its OMS CS evaluation/grading with the $ 7000 that they charge then they may have a real winner. But will $ 7000 be enough to meet expenses required for ensuring such evaluation/grading rigour? Further, will Georgia Tech. have the political and business will to fail large numbers of students not meeting 75 % evaluation/grading rigour? We will have to wait and watch.Udacity, especially Sebastian Thrun, seems to have made a name for itself/himself as a great MOOC teacher. But I get the impression that Udacity has not been been able to make a name for itself in terms of evaluation rigour. It is the Georgia Tech. name that makes this offering a potential game-changer in my humble view. To put it in a different way, I think many well off/middle class Indian parents may seriously consider paying 7000$ for their children to earn a Georgia Tech., USA, OMS in CS degree if such a degree is recognized by Indian government and industry for jobs. If it were Udacity alone they would have shied away. They would even shy away from edX and Coursera (as 'formal education' for their children) as I believe they do not offer a proper degree, as of now.--- end response ---Another correspondent who is US based and spends many times more than OMS CS expected fees on his son's education mentioned that this may be an "incredible" option for self-motivated or parent supervised students to study at home and get an MS at low cost.My response was:Or who band into small groups and study the online MS together. That would resolve the social and psychological issues involved in studying alone at home.---I think the OMS CS degree may open up business/service opportunities for facilitators who provide a study center like ambiance but rely on OMS CS for teaching, evaluation and grant of degree, and have a small charge for such services. Such a study center would be like a private tuition class and so easy to setup - I mean higher education regulator/government clearance would not be needed, I guess. Students may find the atmosphere a decent enough substitute for the non-elite college atmosphere, and parents may be happy to send their children there if the study center managers provide security and wholesome atmosphere for student interaction and study.In India, large and hugely successful private software training institutes have been around for decades who mainly provide (or used to provide) private 'certificate' level training (not recognized as a graduate degree by government/industry) for students e.g. NIIT, ; Aptech,?. [BTW it seems that these private institutes also offer some recognized graduate degrees now but I don't think they are well known.] These institutes already have all the facilities and franchise mechanism infrastructure across the country (I think they may have an international presence too). They may just have to float a new 'facilitator only' offering for a Georgia Tech., USA, OMS CS!Other countries may have similar private computer training institutes who could also consider a similar 'facilitator only' offering.1 comment:Ravi S. Iyer, July 11, 2013 at 11:45 AMI received a mail from Udacity recently with the following input:Here is the expected timeline for the program:*) January 2014: OMS CS degree program launches for pilot group and courses open for the public on Udacity*) Spring/Summer 2014:Georgia Tech accepts OMS CS degree applications from the general public*) Fall 2014: Students accepted into OMS CS degree program--- end Udacity mail extract ----Recently a friend informed me of his son having secured admission for B.E./B.Tech. in Electronics and Communication Engg. (If I recall correctly), at a well known technology institute in South India (not IIT or IIIT). I checked about the fees bit - he said it was an all-inclusive thing (hostel + tuition) and that he had chosen a two-bed room (i.e. two students sharing a room) with AC option (as it gets pretty hot there it seems) and so it came to Rs. 2.5 Lakhs per year! That makes it Rs. 10 Lakhs for the 4 year degree. At Rs. 60/- to a US dollar Rs. 10 Lakhs equivalent comes to US $ 16,667 (rounded).But the OMS CS would be a 2 year degree I presume (instead of the 4 year engg. degree) so we can divide it by 2 which gives us US $ 8,334 (rounded). [The OMS CS is expected to cost less than US $ 7,000.]Yes, hostel expenses are included in the South Indian tech. institute costs but for the Indian family the youngster staying at home (or going to a study center which provides a group and small college like atmosphere for a slight charge) will not be seen as adding very significantly to their family expenses.And the degree is from a top-ten tech. university from the US! The South Indian tech. institute would be relatively unknown in the world as compared to Georgia Tech!Tuesday, October 4, 2011CS & IT: Internet Based LearningNet url: from a mail exchange with a friend on Internet Based Learning are given below.Friend wrote: There are many arguments in favor of internet learning (hardly any new to you, I assume, but please humor me anyway):Like you said, we should separate the means from the ends. A degree should be given to anybody who has a certain amount of knowledge, irrespective of how he learned.It gives everyone access to the best teachers (and I use the word loosely, as in people who teach). A million people can watch a tech talk, but a million students can't attend a physical class. The average teacher I've encountered throughout my formal education is mediocre, almost by definition :)Internet education solves the debt problem, as you pointed out. It's expensive even in India. One lakh rupees per year for engineering is pretty common, and my cousin may go abroad because it's not much more expensive than in Bangalore (5-8 lakhs for engineering IIRC).It gives socially or economically disadvantaged people a way out, at least to some extent, when it becomes far cheaper to get educated. My car driver's son needn't drive a car.It gets rid of the regimented, industrial model of education. There's probably no better way to kill interest than in saying, "No, it's 10:00, so you have to stop this interesting class and attend this other class". We are not emotionless robots. The best time to learn is when you're motivated, which could happen on the weekend, in the evening, etc. And when you're motivated, the last thing you want to do is interrupt your flow. Ever since my 10th class, I'd sneak a peek around the class once in a while, and I'd see many more uninterested, bored or even slightly angry faces than rapturous ones. That has been my experience, too. Computers would be far less interesting if I learnt only in class. See this insightful talk:? can pick and choose the best of various sources, whether universities, or google tech talks, or what ever else. In the physical model, I have to pick one university.You can learn at whatever pace you find comfortable -- you don't get bored if the lecture is too slow for you, or unable to keep up if it's too fast.People won't find fault with you for asking too many questions :)You can dive as deep into a topic you want, at any time. In computer terms, you can choose between breadth-first and depth-first.You get to skip courses that are not practical (automata theory, as an example) or that you already learnt informally. And you can learn stuff you'd like to (Lisp and Smalltalk, in my case). When you have lifelong learning (and you have no other option in our industry), you can learn things when needed; no need to learn everything ahead of time just in case it's needed later. You forget, anyway.Shorter education periods, when you put all the above together. This wastes fewer years of people's precious lives, lets them contribute financially to their families if there's a need (like in my case), or just enjoy life. Any of these is more valuable than sitting in a dismal classroom. You can tell how much I hate formal education :)More interesting projects than today. Perhaps work on an open-source project when you're in college. This ties to our earlier discussion -- you should know how things work in the real world before taking an advanced course.All this assumes motivated students, of course. Colleges can still exist for the mediocre students, but I'm more interested in freeing good students from the system.Eklavya Sai responded: Your articulation of arguments in favour of internet based learning is excellent! Thank you so much for sharing these crisp & clear points.While your focus has been on "good students", I think most of your points may be relevant for "mediocre students" as well.Further, I feel that internet based education empowers the entire student community with more options for learning. And if teachers adapt then they may find internet based knowledge sources to be a vital teaching aid in improving their effectiveness as a teacher.6 comments:Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 4, 2011 at 8:49 PMHow wonderful it would be if AICTE/UGC embrace it by giving students the option of learning either by attending physical classes or by themselves on the net - and then having common exams like GATE exams for certifying knowledge of the graduating student.Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 4, 2011 at 8:54 PMFriend responded (edited slightly):Yes, that would be nirvana!I have a couple more points:- Let people finish courses in whatever order they want. I started learning C in 8th class, and I'd have loved to put aside everything else till I finish BTech-level CS. And maybe even get a job straight away. After all, does Google care if I know what a deciduous forest is? Do I?Who is to decide what's important? Some paternalistic bureaucrats/administrators in New Delhi? I don't see how I benefitted from so many dreary hours of history, geography, civics, etc. Even if you believe that knowledge of these subjects is important, dreary classroom lectures are an unproductive way of imparting this knowledge. Most students just daydream or are alienated by the system or, at any rate, forget the allegedly important stuff by the time they graduate.So, unbundle degrees, and award people certificates for tenth class math or B.Tech. CS. After all, isn't it strange for a software company to demand that their employees know what savannah is, or what the Counter-Reformation was? This is what happens today, when you have a company saying that they require a certain degree from prospective employees. Instead, companies can just ask for qualifications that actually matter for their work. And students, or their parents, can decide that certain subjects are important even if companies don't care. Or they can learn later in life if and when they see the importance of something. You can't force an uninterested student to learn, anyway. This system takes nothing away, and gives flexibility.And it forces each subject to prove its merit, rather than shoving it down students' throats. It provides an inbuilt safety value for quality — if a subject, or the way its taught, is not useful, students will stop learning them.So, get rid of the notion of a tenth class or a BTech degree, and award certifications for each subject, and let people choose what's useful.- Even if you don't agree with the preceding point — that all subjects should be optional — a weaker version of it is still valuable: let students complete courses in whatever order they want. A high-school student should be able to finish BTech CS courses, and then come back to 10th class geography, say. In addition to the fact that the best time to learn anything is when you're motivated, rather than forcing everything down into artificial categories that destroy interest, can you imagine the self-confidence and feeling of achievement and pride in himself a 12th class student would get if he's already at BTech level in his chosen field? The current system delivers the opposite feelings — lack of purpose, disempowerment and alienation.Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 4, 2011 at 9:02 PMSubject-wise certifications is a great idea. I think the Internet education possibilities can make such ideas feasible. But reform will be needed.I am a great fan of "on demand" learning. As I myself have followed it extensively and benefited very well, I think.History in school was boring - exams to be passed. History when read after I had some experience in life was extremely useful to know. You get an idea of how things have evolved. Helps in even understanding current affairs.The wiki has been very useful to me in the last few years itself as I have learnt so much about a variety of topics using its free knowledge base.Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 4, 2011 at 9:03 PMFriend responded:Glad to hear that. wikipedia has been a great boon to me, too.Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 15, 2011 at 1:22 PMHere's a great article dated May 2011 on?How the Internet is Revolutionizing Education. In the first paragraph, it quotes the great self-taught thinker-scientist of the 20th century, Albert Einstein, “Learning is not a product of schooling but the lifelong attempt to acquire it.”It has a wide sweep touching upon Internet Based Education initiatives of MIT, UC Berkeley, Yale, Stanford, Harvard, "some of the most selective universities in India" (presumably a reference to NPTEL), Open Culture, Khan Academy, Academic Earth, P2PU, Skillshare, Scitable, Skype etc. and concludes with views of journalists, education innovators & academics.Eklavya Sai Maalik, November 14, 2011 at 4:45 PMFascinating article on how online education is seen as a threat by many teachers, and a Harvard academic's opinion on how teaching can become a "much more interesting profession" with online education. Clayton Christensen: Why online education is ready for disruption, nowSunday, July 22, 2012Wall Street Journal article on "Higher Education's Online Revolution"Net url: few weeks ago, I read this Wall Street Journal article, "Higher Education's Online Revolution"? by?Mr. John E. Chubb, Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover institution and member of its K-12 education task force, and?Mr. Terry M. Moe, Professor of political science at Stanford and a senior Fellow at Hoover. BTW both Mr. Chubb and Mr. Moe have a PhD in Political Science (wonder why Wall Street Journal does not prefix Dr. against their name?).I feel this is a vital article on online education (dated May 30th 2012) as it appears in a leading and very respected media outlet and is written by people with very strong education/academic credentials and associated with one of the well known technology and education innovation universities in the world, Stanford University. I have given some comments of mine as points below. They may make better sense when read in conjunction with the Wall Street Journal article. A few phrases and sentences from the article are quoted below.Initially when I viewed the?edX announcement video?my feeling was are they overdoing it? Yes, it was Presidents of MIT and Harvard, and top-notch Profs from MIT and Harvard on the panel with, IFIRC, Anant Agarwal referring to the printing-press (and others not rebutting it). But still, "biggest change in education since the printing press"? That's saying one heck of a lot. I mean I recall OCW made quite a splash a decade ago in the newspapers (I was in industry then but still came to know of it as it got so much publicity). But it did not really 'revolutionize' higher education. But as I thought about it and factored in what I have read (and shared some over email) about Stanford's AI class I felt that new factors like high-cost of higher education, student-debt-trap, powerful collaboration tools (students among themselves, students with Prof./teacher and/or Teaching Assistants etc.), *massive* affordable Internet penetration worldwide now as against a decade ago (in Puttaparthi, AP, India - a remote/rural town - where I live, a decade ago we did not not even have broadband access to Internet!), video medium teaching techniques having evolved (Sal Khan Style Videos - ksv's are what edX's Anant Agarwal said edX was using as a model for some aspects of these teaching techniques as Khan Academy of Sal Khan has become the poster-child of this new avatar of online education), grading and assessment (OCW may not have had that) and, last but certainly not the least, certification. MIT & Harvard are talking of great educational research possibilities from the data they will be collecting on the courses they run. So, maybe this time around, this new avatar of online education may really be a 'revolutionary' game-changer of education. I learned a new term, 'flipped classroom' from the edX site - I had read about this approach but did not know the jargon of 'flipped classroom'. I think education seems to be in for quite some 'flipping' in the coming years.How will they make money to sustain themselves if they give everything away for free? That's the big question on everybody's minds, I think."One Nobel laureate can literally teach a million students, and for a very reasonable tuition price." That's some line.I guess that's what IT did to lot of industries (substitution of technology for labor). I have seen it happen in India and the world, while in industry for nearly two decades, from a pretty 'insider' kind of view, and, later in India, while out of industry but as a user of services in a rural Indian town (banking, railway reservation, post etc.) for nearly a decade.Having been involved in academic classroom/lab. teaching for nearly a decade and fair amount of software industry classroom/lab. teaching/training before that, I find these points (about advantages of online education technology) to be very impressive advantages over traditional classroom teaching model.I think this ("elite-caliber education to the masses") is the real winner point due to which institutions like MIT, Harvard, Stanford with backing from grant-giving foundations and perhaps political support from the US government may be pushing online education even if this is going to bring lot of disruption in the education system. Orders of magnitude more students benefit - so the pain of disruption/change is worth going through, perhaps. Another point is that in the competitive, meritocratic, capitalistic USA if MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Princeton etc. don't then Udacity (for-profit company providing only online education and funded by venture capital) will. And Udacity may then get so ahead of the race that it may become the Google of higher education! Perhaps therefore MIT, Harvard, Stanford etc. don't have a choice if they want to retain their leadership in higher education. This is one of the fantastic benefits of the competitive market-driven model as against a bureaucratic government-regulated model like Indian academia which may choose or even be forced (due to community/political pressure) to just kill any disruptive change as it will be treated as a 'disturbance to existing system'.Interesting about skeptics worrying about "college experience" being destroyed by online learning and how the authors disagree with the skeptics. 'Flipped classroom' seems to be what they are talking about."College X" mixing online courses with local Professor taught courses is a cool idea!That's a significant business number (doubling their share)! Hmmm. Seems to be making a strong case for for-profit education models "embracing technology" aggressively and profiting from it. I plan to read about the University of Phoenix foray into this area.Apple or Microsoft can do 'wonders' with such content if made available to them!!! The world has seen and experienced what they can do! Of course, the big concern will be whether they will lock away this content into some 'walled garden' that only they can profit from and, worse, only they can deliver.So humbly and clearly said ("The MITs and Harvards still don't really know what they are doing"). That's what even the edX announcement video conveys. One of the news reports talks of Anant Agarwal mentioning this area as a 'Wild West' area. I really appreciate this candour.I think the last paragraph of the article, quoted below, is worthy of real hard consideration by education policy makers, education administrators and educators. Perhaps they tell us of what is in store in this area in the coming years, worldwide - that's what the Internet is - a global phenomenon, and coming years not coming decades. "But like countless industries before it, higher education will be transformed by technology—and for the better. Elite players and upstarts, not-for-profits and for-profits, will compete for students, government funds and investment in pursuit of the future blend of service that works for their respective institutions and for the students each aims to serve."Sunday, July 22, 2012NYT article on Massively Open Online CoursesNet url: a very interesting article from the New York Times News Service, printed, a few days back, in?The Hindu on Massively Open Online Courses. Some points from it, including some quoted phrase(s), are given below.It gives a current-state picture of?Coursera?as growing in university partners as well as courses offered with over 100 MOOC courses to be offered this fall.It states that MOOCs were unknown till last year, but now are "likely to be a game-changer, opening higher education to hundreds of millions of people."Revenue stream does not seem to be an immediate concern.A Prof. was thrilled with thousands of downloads of his videos.Online cheating and quality of peer-to-peer grading are concerns. Paid examinations conducted by global education companies may help.Concern that MOOCs may be a danger to universities - however, one Prof. thinks that MOOCs will provide diplomas (informal type of certifications) with in-class universities provide degrees.Some additional thoughts of mineProfs. happiness with large downloads of their teaching videos is a fascinating human aspect of online learning. I mean, the Profs. are the main guys. They need to be interested. The thrill of teaching orders of magnitude more students seems to be almost an irresistible draw. The 'altruistic' teacher sharing his knowledge with the world-community - fascinating human aspect of online learning for me.There are some serious concerns. A high-dropout rate has been reported by some sources - but even if 10% of 160,000 passed out, it is still a great number!Rampant cheating is reported by one source. I am not surprised by that. However I feel that once exam services like what Udacity is reported to have tied up with Pearson Education comes into play, then it may work out. Those students who cheat with assignments during the course will know that their ignorance will make them trip up on the paid exam - so they will make the effort to learn.Eventually they will have to find a revenue stream. But I think the Internet has lots of time-proven business models where the customer gets his service for free but his usage of the service is converted to some gain. E.g. gmail usage resulting in advertising money for Google. The impression that I am getting is that venture capital is pushing this model first into respectable delivery. Once that is done, they will find a way to make money from it. Due to the scale, like for iPhone/iPod Touch apps, the price can be really affordable. I mean, I have bought iPod Touch apps. for 1$, 2$, 10$ equivalent - unthinkable for PC business model. Once the online education guys want to monetize they may make huge money from millions of Indians, Chinese etc. besides Western market students who may be very willing to shell out, say, 20$ equivalent per course/subject.??I think there is tremendous potential for new education providers who provide a college experience but use mainly MOOC teaching and combine it with good examination services like what Pearson is supposed to have got into. Such education providers will save costs of most faculty - they may need some administrative kind of faculty - and pass on the saved cost to students. These education providers may get accredited by international academic accreditation agencies and also tie-up with professional certification organizations like the?IEEE CSDP. That would make for a pretty strong software development professional education provider.Of course, elite education may still mainly be done in residential education environments. Face to face interaction with inspired & knowledgeable faculty along with shoulder to shoulder interaction with sharp peers is usually vital for excellent learning. But for those who are not that elite or have money problems or geographical location problems, I feel MOOCs based education providers may be a very attractive education solution which could also become quite scalable.It is less than a year since I read about Stanford's AI class offering. In such a short period of time so much change in higher education circles in the US is amazing. I would not have believed it if somebody had told me that all this is going to happen in so short a time, a year ago.Of course, it is still a 'Wild West' area. But, IMHO, surely something substantial will emerge once things settle down - the exact "settled down" form or forms it will take are not clear now but that is not so big an issue. The main thing is the movement. I remember the free email wave when I came to know of it - hotmail was the first IFIRC - but I got onto the yahoo bandwagon. It was unbelievable then. After gmail it has become almost a part of modern life, a given.Is MOOC going to become a given like free email?1 comment:Ravi S. Iyer, March 22, 2013 at 3:33 PMThe Professors Who Make the MOOCs, dated March 18th 2013, has an interesting survey of over 100 professors who have taught a MOOC.Sunday, July 22, 2012Prof. Sebastain Thrun's experience of teaching 160,000 students AI for free!Net url: [Extracted from June 2012 mails, so a little dated.]In Jan. this year, Prof. Sebastain Thrun, Stanford professor (may have left Stanford by now, I think) gave a talk on his "profound" experiences with a wildly popular internet medium teaching course on AI that he taught late last year, and how he feels that it will revolutionize education. There seems to be some amount of marketing hype in the talk. Free Internet medium teaching for higher education in the form of video lectures has been around for long now (MIT OCW, Indian IITs NPTEL etc.). But perhaps the way the internet was used for this course was far more effective. It somehow managed to engage stupendous amount of students worldwide by bringing in some amount of interactivity (online quiz), forcing the students to think, and having a regular assignment/exam pattern that made students work hard if they wanted to continue with the course.I am a great fan of on-demand learning as that is what I have followed quite successfully in my software industry career. However my knowledge is not certified. It did not matter for me while I was in the software industry as the industry has the means of assessing knowledge and capability of persons. But for Indian academia and Indian government type of organizations my international industry experience is almost non-existent! For aspiring students of today, no matter what age or what country, certified free higher education from top notch Professors like Prof. Thrun would be like manna from heaven, especially given the debt trap that many students fall into while pursuing higher education not only in developed countries but even in developing countries like India.Prof. Thrun and other initiatives like MITx seem to be making on-demand higher education with certification of some kind a reality TODAY or in the very near future (MITx perhaps is behind Prof. Thrun's Udacity as of now). Here's the youtube video link of?Prof. Thrun's Jan. 2012 DLD talk. While all of us may not agree with all of Prof. Thrun's views I feel we may benefit by knowing about his experience of moving from a Stanford classroom of 200 students to the Internet medium classroom of 160,000 students. I am awaiting permission before I put the partial transcript of the talk on this blog post. Meanwhile I am putting down some comments from me below. The comments will make sense only on reading it after viewing the video/along with viewing of the video.-----start comments ----Prof. Thrun got inspired by listening to a TED talk by Mr. Salman Khan of Khan Academy. At that time Prof. Thrun was a tenured Professor at Stanford University....Prof. Thrun mentions that students would get a certificate at the end.[Ravi: I think what separates Prof. Thrun's AI class from MIT OCW and IIT&IISc NPTEL is the exams and certification. Further the exams were the same that the Stanford classroom students would take! That would have made it as close to a Stanford course as possible. Perhaps that's what drew the 160,000 students. I mean, which student interested in learning software would want to miss up on attending a Stanford course for free from the convenience of an Internet connection anywhere in the world and the chance of receiving a certificate on successful completion.]...Thrun shares his amazement when 160,000 students sign up![Ravi: The POWER of the Internet is mind-boggling! I think it can be such a fantastic force for good if wielded properly.]...They use just a camera, a pen and a napkin for course recording![Ravi: As simple as that, huh! I think one just needs the will and the knowledge for Internet based offerings. The budget is not really an issue.]...He talks of far more engagement with students in this medium.[Ravi: From my industry and academic teaching experience I know that interactive sessions for teaching software technology go a long way in better learning of students. So I agree with Prof. Thrun's technique here to be more effective in teaching a wide group of students. Perhaps if one is having an elite (knowledge-elite) group of listeners the one-way lecture style is better.]...Paying, in-class students prefer to watch him on video![Ravi: That is a very telling experience. Students who have paid money prefer to use his free internet teaching ways than his classroom!]...He shares the Afghanistan student experience.[Ravi: Higher education for all no matter which country you come from, which economic class you come from, which religion you profess - and for free. Wow!!! I think that's the way it should be. Education should ideally be "universally" accessible. And the vastly accessible and cheap medium of the Internet world wide is a fantastic carrier. It can even penetrate a war zone!]....He shares the experience of a student who is a lady with a teething infant and facing significant life-problems.[Ravi: This melts one's heart. I mean, the lady has all the odds stacked against her. But she wants to fight her way to get out of her problems. And free higher education is giving her a chance to come out of it. Even if the AI course did not land her a secure job, if it gave her a sense of accomplishment I think Prof. Thrun and team would have done a fantastic good Samaritan job here.]...He talks of Stanford having weeder classes but that this medium can do it differently.[Ravi: I think we have an elite vs. commoner education system issue here. The elite education setup weeds out the guys who can't come up to the expected elite levels. Perhaps that's necessary in an elitist setup like a Stanford, an MIT or India's IITs and IISc. But "universal" education has to cater to both the elite and the commoner. A "universal" education model cannot have weeder classes as then it will fail to be "universal" and become an "elite" education model.]...He mentioned that students felt more connected with him even though it was an internet video medium course![Ravi: This feedback was quite a surprise to me initially. But as I think about it, having seen a lot of youtube and other videos over the past few years, I find that I too develop quite some intimacy with the characters in the video. I have replayed some videos which really impressed me (like this one) and so have noted so many aspects of the main speaker/characters in the video like their facial gestures, their voice inflections, their accents, their 'mistakes' etc. In a regular classroom I am a back-bencher by choice and so would never have observed the lecturer/instructor that carefully.Of course, the human contact aspect especially the vital eye contact aspect between the instructor and the student is not available in this Internet classroom. Further, the student cannot raise his/her hand and ask a question directly to the instructor during the course of a class, at least. Asking the question in some forum may result in a 'wrong' response - the forum is not as 'authoritative' a knowledge source as Prof. Thrun.]...He states that Profs teach the same way as it was done a 1000 years ago.[Ravi: I think that's quite unfair. I have used PowerPoint slides and demonstrations of programs projected on screen in my over 9 years of teaching in a deemed university in a rural area of India.]...He says universities are rather slow in innovation and that people should reconsider this new medium.[Ravi: Perhaps there is some truth in this part. Having taught both in the Indian software industry and in Indian academia I must say that I feel Indian software industry teaching techniques and practices (pedagogy) for software technology topics are far superior to Indian academia. But then Indian software industry did not have to worry about funds for teaching equipment. Indian academia has to deal with massive funding issues and all streams like Literature, Commerce, Pure sciences etc. have to be treated largely on par with sunrise fields like Computer Science or Information Technology. Indian software industry teaching/training departments don't have to worry about such problems.]...He talks about launching Udacity on that day.[Ravi: He was charged in this talk, no doubt. I guess it is such guys who start off revolutionary movements. But will it stand the test of time? I wonder how Udacity's other courses fared in the first half of this year. They did not seem to make the waves that Prof. Thrun's AI course did. I think then he had the Stanford brand name. Now the name is Udacity. That's very, very different for students worldwide, I guess.]...He talks of a course which will teach a student with zero programming background to build a Google in seven weeks![Ravi: Building a search engine in seven weeks with zero programming background - That itself is a real tall claim. But, Okay, I am willing to take that. Maybe they are fantastic teachers and are going to teach just the bare minimum needed to know in programming to do a small search engine.But building a Google in seven weeks with zero programming background - this will convey a completely wrong impression to many naive students that in seven weeks they can have their own search engine which can kind-of compete with Google. I feel, this statement is way, way over the top.]...[Ravi: I agree with Prof. Thrun that "programming is really important around the world right now in this time and age."]...He ends the talk asking support for Udacity.[Ravi: Overall, I think this is a wonderful development. I hope Udacity is able to succeed in its endeavour to provide free higher education in the software field. Its success, even if partial, may result in big guns like MIT and India's IITs to try to modify their free higher education offerings to this perhaps more effective and popular model.]--- end comments ---Some remarks I made in June to an academic[slightly edited as it is not appropriate for me to share that academic's private views - I have stated and modified only my response to be readable standalone].Students need to put in sustained effort. Perhaps by giving the "same" exams that were given to the Stanford classroom students, Prof. Thrun ensured that students put in sustained effort. One of my past students, who now works in the computer department of a super speciality hospital, took the course. He was pretty squeezed for time and found doing the assignments/exams to be quite demanding. Like the 'daughter' who dropped out of the course due to the level of Statistics (Probability, I guess) knowledge needed, my ex student had to struggle a bit on it. But as he has a Maths background he could refresh his knowledge and pick up whatever additional knowledge that was required to be able to handle the Statistics part of the AI course.So the impression I have is that students did have to put in sustained effort even in this Internet classroom AI course....I agree that there seems to be a lot of hype ("star turn") to this AI class - especially the 160,000 number and world wide spread of students. So maybe there are quite a few drawbacks with their first such effort. But I believe for this particular course, perhaps due to the marketing hype, the support forums played the role that TAs perhaps play in regular classroom courses.Were the internet forum support groups as good as TAs? Did they even misguide which would be a terrible thing for a student? Don't know for sure. But it seems it was not as if the students did not get any support at all besides the instructors' lectures....I would say face-to-face teaching is preferable instead of essential. For those guys who are not in a position to avail of such a facility, these kind of courses will be very attractive.I think it is a fairly simple issue of supply and demand, and ever rising costs of brick-and-mortar education. Perhaps we will have both models, brick-and-mortar and Internet-based co-existing, with students making a choice based on how much money they have, the quality of education they are willing to settle with, geographical and linguistic issues etc.Maybe it will be like Proprietary and priced software, and free and open source software. Both models co-exist today.Some input (edited) from a friend whose kin took Prof. Thrun's AI (Free on internet) courseAgree -- from personal experience (that students had to put in sustained effort for the course). Also, there was a fair amount of gap between the lecture & the assignments/test; much akin to the class room mode. So, yes. The class was definitely not spoon-feeding. I can vouch for the fact that the class needed a fair amount of thinking & hard work -- IMO, the class is worth the effort....The support fora (for student queries) were not really general fora. They are like discussion boards for the class (need to be registered for the course), much akin to the current day scenario in the US universities. Lot of times, every live class has an online discussion board where students ask questions regarding the class, lectures, assignments & tests. TAs/professors handle some questions on the fora, and some others that need more involved discussion in the class.While the online classes from Udacity did not really address the latter part completely, the professors held virtual 'office hours' where they fielded some of the harder questions from the forums. Not exactly like in the universities, but they did make a fair attempt to bridge most gaps....As I had predicted in an earlier email,?Udacity now offers accreditation for a fee.?Even at a public school like --- where I work, the annual fee for foreign students is about 56,000 USD. This model of free online courses with (hopefully) a small fee is perfect for us. Who knows, in these tough economic times, perhaps some tech savvy parents might encourage their (hopefully dedicated) kids to take a stab at online education & accreditation for a much, much, much smaller fee that 56,000 USD! (even for citizens from within the state, the fee is about 30,000 USD). Perhaps the cost of community college at the quality of Stanford/Harvard/MIT. Thats a bold dream -- one that seems perfectly poised to come true very soon....An aside: I suppose you are aware that not all the 160,000 students completed the (AI) course; just about 23,000 did, IIRC. But still, even that is overwhelming -- when compared to the largest classes I have heard of -- about 200 students tops....I suppose you are aware that MITx is now called?edX?-- a joint venture with Harvard!!?[Ravi: I did not know it then as I had switched off these topics for a few months. Thanks to the friend I visited the site and saw the edX announcement video.]Thursday, November 22, 2012A Princeton Sociology Professor's Online Teaching ExperienceNet url: the fascinating experience of a Princeton Sociology professor with online teaching. He had taught the "Introduction to Sociology" course 30 times before and recently moved it to a free online course. I find it so nice to see humanities courses go online.The article covers many interesting points:The professor wondering where to focus his gaze while teaching?The prof. thinking about how to handle a worldwide student audience without a real idea of what their backgrounds are?How crowd-sourcing technology helped the prof. focus on important feedback from the thousands of feedback messages and how he responded to them in his later lectures.The key problem of grading so many students being tackled by students themselves using grading criteria designed by the professor.The huge feedback gives the professor more feedback on his sociological ideas than he has had in his entire teaching career so far!Mid-term and final exams were hand graded. There was plagiarism detected in the mid-term. The prof. detailed rules to avoid plagiarism before final exam and that seemed to have worked.Less than 5% of enrolled students completed the course. 40,000 odd students enrolled, 2,200 did the mid-term exam, 1,283 did the final exam.But Princeton does not give certificate of completion and that may have not given some students enough reason to take the exam.Thursday, October 13, 2011CS & IT Academia: Use Stanford Engineering Everywhere to Teach ProgrammingNet url: Engineering Everywhere (SEE) seems to be a very interesting experiment in Internet Based CS teaching.It is currently offering 12 of Stanford's engineering courses free to students, educators (and professionals) anywhere & everywhere. And its site states: "A Creative Commons license allows for free and open use, reuse, adaptation and redistribution of Stanford Engineering Everywhere material.":? of the courses it offers is, "Introduction to Computer Science | Programming Methodology". It provides Lectures (videos & transcripts), Syllabus, Handouts, Assignments, Exams and Software (Downloads)!! The course uses Java as the programming language. That is a pretty complete Free Internet Based Course from one of the top CS educational institutions in the world! What it may lack is a certification that one has passed the course and associated grading. Here's the course home page:? above course would be relevant for IT Academia as well. The course home page states, "This course is the largest of the introductory programming courses and is one of the largest courses at Stanford." and "The course is explicitly designed to appeal to humanists and social scientists as well as hard-core techies. In fact, most Programming Methodology graduates end up majoring outside of the School of Engineering." So this seems to be aimed at anybody in any science, arts, commerce or engineering stream, who is interested in programming. The prerequisite mentioned is important to note: "The course requires no previous background in programming, but does require considerable dedication and hard work.". There is no easy way to learn programming (for most mortals); you have to sweat it out.Another course offered is "Introduction to Computer Science | Programming Abstractions" which has a pre-requisite of "Solid performance in Programming Methodology and readiness to move on to advanced programming topics". This course teaches OOP, stacks, queues, sets, recursion, linked lists, trees, graphs, and introduces time & space complexity analysis. And, it is done in C++. It also has Lectures, Syllabus, Handouts, Assignments & Exams. Here is the course link: another introductory CS course is, "Introduction to Computer Science | Programming Paradigms" which covers advanced memory management features of C & C++, concurrent programming using C & C++, functional paradigm (using LISP), and also has a brief survey of other modern languages like Python, Objective C & C#. The prerequisite is rather elaborate - to me it seems that a person who has "solidly performed" in the Programming Methodology and Programming Abstractions courses will fit the prerequisites. Here is the course link: three are the Introduction to CS courses offered at SEE, currently. Nine other courses in areas of Artificial Intelligence, Linear Systems & Optimization and a misc category (iPhone App. prog., Massively parallel processors programming) are also offered. Here are the courses on offer:? teaching CS programming, the Introduction to CS courses mentioned above can be a fantastic boon to AICTE/UGC governed university CS departments. They can base their introductory programming courses on the above and can even advertise that these courses are based on world-famous Stanford University CS dept. courses. As educators are free to adapt and redistribute the material (for non-commercial use) CS department teachers can tweak the material as per their needs. Ideally, of course, they should offer their tweaked material back to the Internet community under an appropriate Creative Commons license.The challenges may be that the teachers are not well versed in programming to understand these Stanford courses. I mean, the teachers will need to understand it to be able to help students with their doubts. If that is the case, AICTE/UGC CS/IT policy makers should create policies encouraging software industry experts knowledgeable in these areas to step in as teachers for these courses. And AICTE/UGC CS/IT policies should reward teachers who master such programming knowledge as against rewarding only those teachers who publish research papers.The other challenge may be lack of time for students to finish all the assignments and perform well at the exams. If so, then the cause may be that the CS curriculum is skewed towards theory with little importance being given to practical work. A solution will be to remove some theory courses so that students have enough time to complete the Stanford CS programming courses. If they are not willing to do that then students will continue to suffer with an overload of theory knowledge but weak programming skills.MIT's Open Courseware has 2000 courses!! Its CS & EE dept. courses available for everybody seems to be in the range of a hundred! See:?. But its programming courses seem to aimed at elite students. It seems they, like the elite IITs in India, treat programming in a generic way not focusing on any particular programming language. Here are the lecture titles for its "Introduction to Computer Science & Programming" course:?. As a kind-of special case they have what seems to be short-term programming courses like this one on C++: in India has free courses in CSE (Computer Science & Engineering) from IITs mainly, here:?. I feel it has the same elitist approach that MIT's Open Courseware has. The "Introduction to Problem Solving & Programming" course(s) do not seem to be based on a particular programming language.I think IITs & MIT can afford to have the elitist approach. But most CS departments in AICTE/UGC governed universities/colleges in India simply cannot take such an elitist approach. For them the Stanford Engineering Everywhere courses seem to be a fantastic boon. I know I am repeating it, but I think it is worth repeating :).2 comments:Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 14, 2011 at 10:41 PMA mail exchange on this post with a friend is posted here:?Online Programming Courses: Use MIT's OCW or IIT's NPTEL or Stanford's SEEEklavya Sai Maalik, October 18, 2011 at 4:19 PMStanford Open ClassroomHas some interesting courses including a Web Applications course.Friday, October 14, 2011Online Programming Courses: Use MIT's OCW or IIT's NPTEL or Stanford's SEENet url: exchange (slightly edited) with friend on MIT's OCW (& IIT's NPTEL) vs. Stanford's SEE. This exchange is related to the post:?CS & IT Academia: Use Stanford Engineering Everywhere to Teach Programming.Friend wrote: Why is this (Stanford's SEE) a boon in particular? MIT's Open Course Ware () has been around for a really, really long time. And they have had similar courses too.Eklavya Sai wrote: As I wrote in the post, MIT's course is more like IIT approach - teach algorithms & problem solving - leave the language to the student. I find Stanford's course to be a lot more suitable for non-elite CS/IT departments.Friend wrote:?I have to disagree:? NOT talk even a little bit about algorithms - it teaches programming with Python.Eklavya Sai wrote: This is a 3 week short course and not a regular course. In fact, like I mentioned in the post, they have a short course on C++ too, 4 weeks this time instead of 3.It is almost like, hey, you don't really need to be taught a language - you should learn it on your own. But in case you can't do it, here is a short-term course for you. And, I think that may be perfect for the smart kids that MIT & IITs attract.But the majority of students studying in CS & IT depts in India cannot handle that. I mean, having a language independent Intro to CS & Prog. course and then teaching C++ in 4 weeks will be just not acceptable to most students. But maybe I am wrong. Maybe it will be acceptable. However changing the programming course system from language dependent to language independent is a HUGE EFFORT. I mean, you need to experience how much EFFORT is required to change such things in the system, then only you know.The Stanford course content seems to fit in far more to most Indian CS & IT dept. needs and current language dependent programming courses system.Friend wrote:But yes, I personally still find value in teaching programming as against programming in a specific language. Teaching programming will help him learn ANY language. Teaching a specific language will make it difficult for him to program in a different syntax even if underlying concepts are the same. And this is the approach an alternative MIT course takes:? is one classic book that teaches one to think about programs rather than programming.Eklavya Sai responded: That is your personal choice and that's wonderful. You can handle it. Good for you.But that may not be the choice of most other CS & IT students in India.Friend wrote: MIT is catering to both requirements.Eklavya Sai responded: I have already given some comments on this earlier. In short, my take is that MIT primarily caters to elite students and the Stanford programming courses are more suitable to non-elite Indian CS & IT students. So, I guess we will have to agree to disagree here.Please note I am talking only about programming courses and not courses like Machine Learning or Image Processing.Friend wrote: Stanford is only just getting started in this game, and are doing a ton of recent propaganda - not saying that SEE is bad, just new.If the universities were interested, they could have as well used those (and quite a few do so; in fact, a few people in (a CS department) use these lectures to enhance/advance their classes).Eklavya Sai responded: I do not know of anybody (in non-elite Indian CS & IT departments) using NPTEL or MIT's stuff for the basic programming courses (C/C++/Java) - Don't know whether anybody has used it for Introductory Data Structures and Algorithms. BTW my initial focus is on teaching programming.Friend wrote:?Also, our very own IITs (which are more likely to offer something that Indian students may more easily follow) have their own project on the lines of OCW:? Sai responded: Did you see IIT's Intro. to CS & Problem solving course?? I find Stanford's course content to be far more appropriate for non-elite CS depts.Friend wrote:?Sorry, but I find that SEE being a new novelty that the University system?will?(as opposed to could) benefit from is not interesting to me at allEklavya Sai responded: That's OK. We agree to disagree :)Friend wrote: If the University system did not benefit from course material from places like OCW that have existed so long, I find it difficult to believe that they will, on their own volition, suddenly wake up to SEE. As long as they wake up, that should be good.Eklavya Sai responded: I feel, for the first few programming courses, Stanford's offering is better suited to Indian needs and so may be more acceptable than OCW or NPTEL. Let's see what happens.Friend wrote: And, again, I am not disputing the benefit of SEE or suggesting that it is in anyway inferior to MIT's OCW; just that it is not a new novelty. Infact, I respect it quite a lot. And, whats different here is this: with SEE, some courses are actually evaluated.?ai-?for example,db-?for example,?ml-. These are courses that are currently offered by the profs at Stanford. They give assignments, tests, quizes and grades. For non-stanford students,?ai-?will be sending out letters of completion from the professors (one of who is Peter Norvig, the Director of Engg. at Google!!). All for FREE!Eklavya Sai responded: I had gone through the ai-class one earlier as (a friend) has also enrolled for it. I did find it to be very well organized as an online course offering (far better than MIT or NPTEL). (The friend) said a huge number of students had enrolled. I have asked him to give me feedback after he completes the course.My interest in this is from an Internet Based Education example point of view. I am not interested in ai or machine learning.And yes, I noted the top notch professional-professors teaching the course. I went through the intro. video. I mean, the whole thing is very well organized like a commercial offering - but it is FREE. Amazing!! Noted that the same venture capitalist company () that was an important funding source for Google is involved in SEE too. Maybe that's the reason it looks so professional as compared to MIT & NPTEL.Friend wrote: One way a live class in India could use this is: if syllabus is similar, tests and quizzes could be the result of the evaluation of the online exams only!Eklavya Sai responded: If I were a teacher of ai/machine learning I would just jump at the possibility of running my course on these videos, and using the tests, quizzes and exams. But then perhaps my boss may question me why do I need you? I feel the teacher is still needed to adapt the material to local needs, and to answer doubts & queries of students. And this way students will learn more effectively.But I come from an industry teaching background (besides industry development experience) and the game is very different in AICTE/UGC governed academic teaching environments (for teaching programming).Friend wrote: And (friend's wife) is currently enrolled with?ai-. It may not be as much benefit as a live class, but better than just listening to the lectures offline since these are evaluated!Eklavya Sai responded: All the best to (friend's wife) for her ai course!Sunday, October 16, 2011The Brains Behind Aakash, the Rs. 3000 (aka $35) TabletNet url: Update - 8th Feb. 2012A friend passed on the link below around the end of 2011. It certainly raises some questions about IIT Jodhpur's contribution to the Aakash project. But it may be a one-sided view.Claimed back story behind the Aakash tablet stating that DataWind already had a design almost identical to Aakash specs. put out by Indian government: view is that the article seems quite believable. But IIT Jodhpur's supposed design effort is not mentioned at all (B.Tech. project report ...). Maybe the specs. of the tender came from the B.Tech. project report + IIT Jodhpur/Rajasthan Profs.Here is a Jan 2012 report raising questions about Aakash project continuing. It also has an old (video) review which is quite a telling one. Worth seeing (less than 5 min. IFIRC). early Feb. 2012 report states that MHRD is keen on continuing Aakash. It is involving more IITs into the project and trying to indigenise its production as far as possible: will have to wait and see how it pans out. Maybe we need a year or two to see how things will pan out! That's a long time in this super-fast market. A game-changer product from some US/Korean/Taiwanese ... company could challenge the indigenised Aakash.Last Updated on December 20th 2011I find this article on Aakash,?, fascinating.Professor Prem Kumar Kalra, director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur, Rajasthan seems to be one of the key technical & vision moving forces behind Aakash. The B.Tech. thesis of his son, a student at IIT Jodhpur, apparently was the foundation of the Aakash project!!! I am stunned and extremely happy if even 50% of this is accurate. I mean, an Indian educational institute B.Tech. student's project thesis resulting in a tablet whose launch was noted worldwide - Wow!!! [Perhaps the son had some ideas & help from his father & his Profs - but still, a B.Tech. thesis!!]I salute the technical-expertise-cum-entrepreneurial-efforts of IIT Jodhpur in having brought Aakash to this stage. I pray to God to give them the strength and inspiration to make Aakash a decent product. I mean, at a price point of Rs. 3000/- you cannot expect an iPad like device.And they are doing field tests - the article has a review from a student-user.This seems like the real stuff. Not just a news item which promises much and then dies away without a whimper. Maybe it really is going to be the Tata Nano of the tablet market!!Prof. Kalra was in IIT Kanpur, Electrical Engineering department before becoming director of IIT Jodhpur. IIT Jodhpur got set up in 2008. He seems to have a focus on "revolutionizing education" and the Aakash project seems to be one expression of his efforts. This man seems to be a man with a mission. Here is a short talk by him at Indian Semiconductor Association (ISA) Vision Summit 2011, where he comes across as a very entrepreneurial? academic:?. Here is the summit website: is iitj (Jodhpur) with Aakash launch pics holding center-stage (no surprise there): is Prof. Kalra's home page:? did not realize that iitj is so deeply involved in Aakash. The article talks about a 170 member team of IIT Profs. & students working on it. Another Prof. of iitj says that they are designing an indigenous motherboard which if it works out (in 12 to 15 months), hardware part of Aakash will also be fully Indian!!! Wow - I am truly impressed by the way they seem to be going about their stuff.BTW I did not know that we had an IIT, Jodhpur, Rajasthan. What a way to announce a technical university to the world!!!5 comments:Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 18, 2011 at 4:13 PMA friend mailed a critical review of Akaash:? views on the article above:I think it is a fair review. But it is aimed at well-off readers. If you are well-off it is far smarter to buy an iPad.But for the cash-strapped people in the developing world I think the problems listed in the article are OK. It is like buying a cheap Chinese made phone instead of Nokia at half the price. And by saying cheap Chinese made phone by no means am I looking down on it - in fact, I salute the Chinese for manufacturing stuff so cheaply that besides Chinese, lots of cash-strapped Indians and other cash-strapped folks around the world are able to enjoy their products.I had bought a JXD 951 Chinese made PMP for less than Rs. 5000/- 3 years ago. It certainly gave me decent value for money.The article mentions the failure of the Simputer.Simputer did not have DataWind. I think it is DataWind that will provide the crucial working-technology. But due to IITJ's work perhaps and more importantly due to the size of the order that MHRD is placing, DataWind seems to essentially be doing the technology transfer to India. Maybe DataWind will be for the cheap tablet like what Suzuki was for the then cheap car (Maruti).Problem of battery life of 3 hours is not too bad for a school kid in village India. Not a really big problem. For the village school kid it will be a great boon to have a device like that at all.Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 18, 2011 at 4:16 PMA friend sent this:?The Post-PC era will be a multi-platform eraSome quotes from the above article:"Compared with Android which is activating half a million devices per day". Wow!!! That's an awesome number."App production is a cottage industry not something entrusted to only a few experts or those who can raise venture capital." So well put."The result is an explosion of apps: well over half a million new apps have been built in three years on three platforms that did not exist three years ago. " What a statistic!!! Mind-boggling to an old techie like me - I mean this is truly an explosion of apps.Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 18, 2011 at 4:17 PMA friend mentioned "almost native app-quality web apps". I found that to be a very interesting phrase. He shared some more on it below:"Let me save you a few days' worth of time by saying: install and use the Terminology app on your iTouch. This app is built using a framework called Appcelerator Titanium, in HTML/CSS/JS and distributed as a native app. There are, of course, other frameworks, like PhoneGap (open-source). Most apps built using these frameworks are not native-quality, but one or two are, and that means it's technically possible to build native-quality web apps."I plan to check out Terminology app. when I get the time.Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 18, 2011 at 4:22 PMFascinating analysis of the business motive behind Android dated Jan. 2011 (sent by a friend):Android Isn’t About Building a Mobile PlatformEklavya Sai Maalik, October 26, 2011 at 9:23 PMA friend sent a quite positive review of Aakash from Venturebeat: PhD Club & Bureaucratic POWER structureMy Viewpoints/ArticlesCS & IT Academia: The PhD Glass Ceiling, October 2011CS & IT Academia: A Bureaucratic POWER structure, October 2011The very strange case of 20th century era Department(s) of Mathematics and Computer Science in Indian academia in today's early 21st century world, April 2014Discussion/Informative Posts Involving Others' Articles/Views, Media reports and Some Comments from meMainstream Indian newspaper article on Delhi University's Academic Council - "Everyone is terrified ...", July 2014Delhi University Four Year Degree Program Mess! Do Indian university administration mechanisms promote dictatorial tendencies? June 2014Dictatorial Powers of VC in Indian Central Universities, December 2012UGC scraps Research-linked appraisal for appointments!, April 2013Supreme Court rules that AICTE can only advise but not impose sanctions on universities/colleges, May 2013Saturday, October 8, 2011CS & IT Academia: The PhD Glass CeilingNet url: I moved to Academia, after 18 odd years of international software design & development experience to offer Free Service (Seva) in the area of teaching Lab. courses in academia, I was in for a lot of 'learning' about CS/IT academic system.One of the first things I learned is that Academia is essentially a PhD club. I mean, if you do not have a PhD,?you are automatically considered to be a less intelligent form of life and there is a glass ceiling, or rather glass partition much lower than the ceiling, which you cannot cross if you do not have a PhD.As I had come with the intention of Serving Society as a form of God, I felt I should be humble and take such attitudes in my stride. As I was an M.Sc. (Physics) drop-out, i.e. only a B.Sc., it was as if I should be thankful to have been offered a chance to teach. My 18 odd years of international software experience did not matter all that much except that it permitted me to be a teacher of 'Lab' courses only and also to help M.Tech. project students with their programming problems. I later learned that this attitude stems from AICTE/UGC norms for appointing CS/IT university teachers. So I understood this to be an academic administrative issue and did not hold anything against CS/IT academia. I was happy to share my knowledge, for free, with students and that was an excellent arrangement both for me, and I guess or hope, the students :).I think the PhD glass ceiling is a systemic issue - I mean, the AICTE/UGC governed system expects you to prove your intellectual calibre by doing a PhD. Once you have crossed that bar - then you are into the academic club for life. If you hang around in academia without doing a PhD the AICTE/UGC governed system presumes that you are not good enough to do higher things in academia - you can hang around as a junior teacher (Asst. Prof. provided you clear NET/SET/SLET or just T.A. otherwise) but really don't deserve to go up the ladder. How good a teacher you are does not really matter!!! For the system, what matters is whether you have a PhD. That's it.And this then naturally shapes the mind-set of academicians. Students who go through the system - Bachelor's degree, Master's degree(s), PhD - grow in theory & research knowledge but without really having any real practical experience of CS/IT! And, once they get the PhD they become Dr-name-members of the academic club! That gives immense recognition in the academic system.To acquire a CS/IT PhD you have no need to be exposed to CS/IT industry world. So most of the academic CS/IT PhD club guys have no idea about academic qualifications of Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg and how it is their on-the-job study and work that allowed them to create great software products that have had such a significant impact on the world. Many would not even have heard of Mark Zuckerberg (though they would surely know about Facebook).And most of the CS PhD guys generally are not that great in programming & design! Surprised and Shocked, are you? Well, that's the reality. For research you need to break your head studying research papers and coming up with innovative approaches to your research problem. Of course you need an algorithm/programs to test your innovative approach to your research problem and get publishable results. But what matters is the result. How you get the results is not so important. You could use MATLAB scripts. You could write badly designed and unreadable C code but which somehow works and gets some results. That is perfectly fine. The paper that the PhD scholar sends to a journal does not include source code. Nobody who matters, cares about your source code - that is just menial-code - they care about the results that your code produced. That's it.So the system has ABSOLUTELY NO INCENTIVE for a CS PhD guy to do design & programming part of his PhD work well. And then this is the guy who after getting his PhD, according to AICTE/UGC norms, is fit to be a teacher of design & programming as well as any other CS/IT subject under the sun to CS & IT students!Okay, that's fine - that is the AICTE/UGC system. What can you do? They are the bosses who lay down the rules and academia has to follow them. Period.But in the narrow world of CS/IT academia, some of these PhD qualified guys truly believe they know more than any of the CS/IT industry guys. They look down at industry as doing 'menial labour/coding' jobs. They use Google for their research, gmail for their mail, Microsoft Word for their documents and iPod/iPhone products as well but still look down at industry!!! And the poor industry experienced guy who does not have a PhD who tries to argue with them on teaching CS/IT stuff is treated with either disdain or with "he does not know academic issues" attitude. The knowledge level does not matter, what matters is whether you have a PhD - AICTE/UGC norms rule!I would like to repeat that this PhD club mind-set problem among CS/IT academicians is not universal. But some, if not most, CS/IT academicians certainly have it in good measure.I would like to clarify that what I have written above does not mean that I do not respect researchers! I certainly respect their endeavour to push the boundaries of knowledge in their chosen fields. Their life their choice. However CS/IT research does not appeal to me. What appeals to me is applying established technology to provide working software solutions that help society - a technologist's view perhaps as against a researcher's view. My life my choice. Both technologists and researchers are needed in society.I respect researchers and I think it would be fair if researchers & academicians respect me and technologists like me, and don't look down at us because we don't have or are not bothered about acquiring a PhD! But if they don't respect me and other technologists - that's fine - it is a free world - they have the freedom to be arrogant - and I have the freedom to ignore them and steer clear from them. If, on the other hand, they respect technologists, I and other technologists, I am quite sure, would be happy to work with them so that we have some Research & Development (R&D) happening instead of only Research publications being produced from their work.Unfortunately AICTE/UGC CS/IT policy makers are extremely pro-research & pro-PhD but do not provide enough encouragement for the technologist's view. That perhaps is the reason why we don't have any significant software to tackle country's problems being produced from CS/IT academia in the country. I mean CS/IT academia produces research publications - that really is it - and maybe there is some talk about some software but nothing really materializes and reaches the public.Saturday, October 8, 2011CS & IT Academia: A Bureaucratic POWER structureNet url: POWER structure in CS & IT Academia is very different from the POWER structure in international software consultancy companies.Academia has an essentially bureaucratic power structure. I think that must be flowing down from the Union Ministry of Human Resources & Development as they are the ultimate power centre for academia. They give out the Grant money that flows down to universities and they control government recognition via AICTE/UGC (& status/reputation via NAAC).For an academician, the HOD is the KEY POWER CENTRE. Massive amount of power is concentrated in him/her. Of course, academia gives a lot of room for academicians to explore their varied interests. And most HODs having come from the academic setup do give that freedom to members working under them. But if, for some reason, one gets into a direct conflict with the HOD, life can become very tough. You have to either get an amicable resolution to your conflict with the HOD OR you have to quit and join CS department of another college/university! I mean, if one were a PhD in CS, one cannot shift from a CS department to Physics or Management, for a paid academician post (Free Service is different as there may be some common/related courses). And to join CS department of another university, there has to be a vacancy there! Universities & colleges are far fewer than software companies! And the university/college with a vacancy could be in a different city/region and so, if you were married with children, the whole family will have to consider moving to another place!So most academicians are very reluctant to CROSS PATHS with the HOD. If the HOD blocks something, it stays blocked. Efforts in the department which do not have the blessing of the HOD will typically wither away and die.There is no HR manager to go to for listing out your litany of woes, who, if you are a good performer, will do his utmost to resolve the problem. That is a key function of the HR manager in industry - the company does not want to lose good people to the competition. In academia, you can find some Sympathetic Listener (Agony Aunt type) and unburden yourself - that is the nice thing about academia - generally the teachers are nice people, so they will listen to you and give you some peaceful and gentle advise - and wish you well. But they cannot change the system - you should not have a serious conflict with the HOD - if you do, you will suffer. Fact of Academic Life. Period.In tremendous contrast, the software industry is really cool on that front. If you are good and you get fed up with one manager, you look around and shift to another group in the same company (using HR manager's services at times) or get another job. Jobs are no problem for good guys - yes, the pay may differ here and there and working environment may be different. But at least you can get another job and earn enough to run your household. And in the same city, or same suburb or even same building - no kidding - I was working with a company on the 3rd floor of a building in SEEPZ, Mumbai, the original "IT park" of India - moved out of SEEPZ to try freelance training instructor work - came back after a few months to SEEPZ by joining a company on the 2nd floor of the same building as a 'consultant'! (For more on SEEPZ see footnotes).So if you are an industry guy and if you have a rosy, rosy picture of academia and have visions of, at some point in your life, sharing your knowledge with young students in academia and, perhaps, becoming a respected & revered CS/IT Professor, be aware that there are many thorns too. I am not saying that CS/IT Academia is all bad - no, not at all - One of the great joys of being in Academia is the joy of imparting knowledge to eager, and many times, grateful young students. That is a very satisfying experience - Industry may not be able to provide much opportunities for such kind of joy. The fellow teachers are also usually a very nice & friendly lot. There is a lot of respect from society, too. And one works in a far more relaxed environment as compared to the typical industry environment. But academia certainly has its bureaucratic power structure and you have to fit into that very-different-from-software-industry power structure.Notes:Here are a couple of links on SEEPZ, Mumbai:? For most of my software industry career, from 1984 to 2002, I was based in SEEPZ - 4 different companies but all in SEEPZ. During the initial years of the software export boom, SEEPZ, Mumbai was where a lot of the ACTION was happening.A wiki page states:India's IT Services industry was born in Mumbai in 1967 with the establishment of Tata Group in partnership with Burroughs. The first software export zone SEEPZ was set up here way back in 1973, the old avatar of the modern day IT park. More than 80 percent of the country's software exports happened out of SEEPZ, Mumbai in 80s. Source:? comment:Ravi S. Iyer, December 30, 2012 at 2:14 PMHere's an interesting article about vast difference between Western universities & Indian ones, Comparing Harvard apples with JNU oranges.A point which fits in very well with my experience of Indian CS academia is the following: "In fact, anything new is looked at sceptically, and often succumbs to the tyranny of age. Age-related hierarchy is perhaps the worst in the Indian university system and the least-debated sacred cow."Monday, April 21, 2014The very strange case of 20th century era Department(s) of Mathematics and Computer Science in Indian academia in today's early 21st century worldNet url: think the importance of computers in today's early 21st century world is unquestioned by any realistic individuals anywhere in the world. However it is very strange that some Indian academic Computer Science departments (at least one that I am aware of) continue to live in a 20th century era. Specifically:a) They combine Mathematics and Computer Science as a single department - Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. Surely, in the early 21st century computer and Internet age, Indian universities should have a separate Computer Science department instead of combining it with Mathematics! I know of one such combined CS and Mathematics department case for sure. I do not know whether that is an exception with no other Indian university today having a combined Mathematics and Computer Science department.b) They do not offer undergraduate and immediate post-graduate degrees in Computer Science or Computer Science & Engineering. Instead students who are interested to acquire a computer science qualification from that university have to, in the normal case, first do B.Sc. (Mathematics), a 3 year programme (done after 12th grade), followed by M.Sc. (Mathematics), a 2 year programme, and then take up M.Tech. (Computer Science), a 2 year programme (a total of 7 years after 12th grade to get the CS qualification)! [The exception case is doing undergraduate Computer Science degree elsewhere and then trying to join the M.Tech. (CS) programme in this university after clearing their entrance exam & interview.] In today's age where students are ambitious, most students who want (or are constrained in some way like financially) to do Computer Science in a science, commerce and arts (UGC) university (as against an engineering or technology university) will pursue B.Sc. (Computer Science), a 3 year programme, I presume like other science degree programmes, immediately after 12th grade, and optionally follow it up with M.Sc. (Computer Science), a 2 year programme. [In engineering/technology (AICTE) universities such students will pursue B.Tech. (Computer Science & Engineering) or B.E. (Computer Science & Engineering), a 4 year programme (done after 12th grade), followed optionally by M.Tech. (Computer Science & Engineering) or M.E. (Computer Science & Engineering), a 2 year programme.]Please note that I am discussing only Computer Science and Computer Science & Engineering branches in this post and not Information Technology or Computer Applications branches.Thursday, July 31, 2014Mainstream Indian newspaper article on Delhi University's Academic Council - "Everyone is terrified ..."Net url: updated on September 1st 2014Some notes from, Everyone is terrified: Why Delhi University's Academic Council may have allowed the FYUP debacle, dated July 25th 2014, to unnamed Delhi University (DU) faculty:* Retirement benefits. leave, promotion, approval of funds for recruitment, maintenance, seminars - all are under control of DU administration* Very few HODs are willing to go against view of DU administration* FYUP (Four Year Undergraduate program) was pushed through using threat, incentive and humiliation.?[Ravi: DU earlier had a three year UG program for science, arts and commerce streams, which was made four year, and then rolled back this year to the earlier three year program under pressure from the newly elected union government and the regulator UGC (the main academic regulatory agency of India).]* Unprecedented coercion including threats of legal action.* "Everyone is terrified, says a teacher, "That's how they got things passed in the AC."--- end notes ---Ravi: I am not at all surprised at the above reports due to my personal experience as a "Visiting Faculty" in a deemed private university in 2011-12. I must say though that I had initially thought that deemed private universities are notorious for arbitrary management practices but that public universities (govt. funded) like Delhi University would be better managed. However, over the course of the past two or three years as I read up on the Indian academic setup, I was very disappointed to note that many public universities of India have a lot of nasty stuff going on in their administration setup.In my case at this deemed private university, a senior administrator X, instead of standing up for academic integrity, supported another administrator Y who, IMHO, had become power-crazy and dictatorial in opposing a project related to online school education, of the main body which funds the university, and which (project) had been heavily supported by the founder-chancellor. The senior administrator X told me that as I am a visiting faculty I should do whatever administrator Y tells me! Now this administrator Y was an electrical engineering and electronics industry (or some field like that) man who later on in his career moved into the Computer Science field. While he certainly may have some credentials in some Computer Science research areas he, in my considered opinion, was rather ignorant about the practice of software development. That was an area where my knowledge level was far superior to his (please excuse me blowing my own bugle). But the senior administrator X, instead of getting a feel of the academic truth regarding the matter, ordered me to do whatever the administrator Y says! Administrator Y was dead against the project even though students, some other faculty besides me and key people in the main body funding the university all were interested in the project and felt it to be a good thing to do.I was shocked to hear such a directive from the senior administrator X. But that was a traumatic period for all of us (around July/August 2011) in the university, including the senior administrator X who must have been under tremendous strain then, as we were struggling with the recent huge loss of the founder-chancellor of the university. In the interest of keeping things peaceful and not rocking the deeply traumatized university setup then, I did not argue, swallowed my outrage and quietly listened to the senior administrator X's dictatorial directive and some pretty harsh words. I mean, I was the trouble-maker for him and his approach to solve the problem was to cut me down to size even if it meant that I left the university.Over the next week I went through an emotionally draining and very stressful period of trying to understand what I should do next. I came to the conclusion that my considered view was that the senior administrator X and the administrator Y had failed to do their academic duty properly. But I recognized that others may have a different view. However I needed to go by my considered view, and so I felt that the right thing for me to do was to withdraw from the institution. After all, no matter what my level of knowledge about the practice of software development and my contribution to software lab. courses and M.Tech. and M.Sc. software projects in this deemed university over eight and a half years then, my designation was "Visiting Faculty" and so I was in no position to challenge this senior administrator X and the administrator Y. As I was acting as a technical consultant to an M.Tech. project student I decided to limit my activities to only providing support to him (otherwise the poor student would suffer), to which activity administrator Y had no objection. That required me to visit the deemed university, on the average, for only an hour a week (with some work being done via email separately).Then I wondered what would I have done if I was receiving salary/fees from this deemed university for my services (my somewhat spartan spiritual lifestyle permitted me to offer free service) and was dependent on that salary/fees. I may have had no choice but to follow the dictatorial senior administrator X and administrator Y's instructions even if these instructions went against academic integrity. In other words I would have had to compromise my academic integrity due to the dictatorial senior administrator X and administrator Y's instructions. The above article shows that many people in Delhi University Academic Council had to face similar situations. As most of them would be dependent on salary and/or benefits which are controlled or influenced in some way by Delhi university administration, they had to compromise their academic integrity and simply toe the line of the dictatorial Delhi university administration.In my case, the M.Tech. student project consultant activity came to a close in Feb. end or early March 2012. By that time I had learned a lot more about academic rules and procedures, the power that UGC & MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Development which is the key Indian government agency providing funding to Indian academic institutions through regulators and funding agencies like UGC) have over deemed universities and how one, including visiting faculty, can approach authorities like the Chief Vigilance Officer of MHRD as well as UGC secretaries to complain about such matters. I spotted two key mistakes made by the academic administration authorities, one of which was showing me with an incorrect (very junior) designation in some reports sent to UGC. [My designations during my free service stint of 9 years in this deemed university, as given in the signed identity cards issued by the principal of the campus I was associated with, were Honorary Staff/Honorary Faculty/Visiting Faculty.]The other mistake was that administrator Y had committed a breach of academic procedure (in July/August 2011) by sending me an email copied to the senior administrator X and another administrator Z, revoking permission I had been given to interact with the external software company which was involved with the software development part of the online school education project. The permission had been granted by administrator Z in a letter to me, and it was administrator Z (or his boss, senior administrator X) who had the authority to revoke the permission, not administrator Y. The proper procedure would have been for administrator Y to write to the senior administrator X and/or administrator Z and have administrator Z send me the letter revoking the previously granted permission. The senior administrator X and administrator Z had raised no objections to this clear breach of academic procedure by administrator Y. At the time it happened I was quite blissfully unaware of such academic procedural matters, and this mistake came to my notice some months later as I was learning about academic procedures related to such matters and discussing them with some senior academics.By end Feb./early March 2012, I had heard a lot more of such crazy dictatorial happenings in this deemed university with a very respected senior faculty whom the founder-chancellor had given a lot of importance to, being severely ill-treated by the administration. After the passing away of the founder-chancellor it seemed that there was no check on the dictatorial actions of some administrators! I decided that, by the Grace of God, as I was financially independent, I was in a position to push back on these people. I slammed the administration over email on these two mistakes they had made. That resulted in some ridiculous behaviour from administrator Z which I do not want to waste my words on, but which was the final step in me formally terminating my relationship with the deemed university.I have mentioned all the things above to show how really bad academic administration can become in some universities in India. Given the Delhi University case, which is a leading public university of India, where the skeletons are now tumbling out of the cupboard, I think this serious malaise would have affected many universities in the country. The urgent need of the hour is reforming Indian academic administration first and then worrying about improving teaching and research standards in Indian academia! If the top itself is rotten any efforts done to improve activities at lower levels will have minimal or no impact. Expecting academic administrators themselves to improve the situation will not work, IMHO. We need the funding agencies (UGC) and the government (MHRD), who have the power over these academic administrators, to put pressure on academic administrators to bring in transparency and accountability in their academic administration mechanisms, and also have grievance redressal mechanisms for matters related to top academic administration, where complaints against it are handled quickly and effectively with anonymity and protection from unethical disciplinary action being provided to the complainants.Wednesday, June 4, 2014Delhi University Four Year Degree Program Mess! Do Indian university administration mechanisms promote dictatorial tendencies?Net url: updated on June 27th 2014A further update:DU Vice-Chancellor scraps FYUP "in line with the directive of the UGC"What seemed inevitable, given the huge amount of opposition from most students and teachers and so, the HRD minister, has happened. The FYUP has been rolled back by the DU Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dinesh Singh himself. Notes from? University (DU) vice-chancellor Prof. Dinesh Singh issued the following statement:"The University of Delhi recognises the need of the hour. It is of paramount importance to protect the interests of the students by ensuring the start of the admission process. In line with the directive of the UGC the University has decided to roll back the FYUP. Consequently the admission process shall be conducted under the scheme of courses that were in force in the academic session 2012-13 in all the colleges ofthe University of Delhi".--- end notes ---HRD minister tweeted:My statement re DU- I respect autonomy of Institutions however institutions were created to serve people of the Nation. (1/2)within ambit of law this is the time for statesmenship which leads to resolution.don't sacrifice interest of students at altar of prestige.[]--- end HRD minister tweets ----Ravi: My view is that Prof. Dinesh Singh should have realized that as scrapping the FYUP was part of the BJP election manifesto itself, that once BJP came to power, it is going to put pressure on him. If majority of students and teachers had supported him then UGC (under instructions/guidance perhaps from HRD minister) would not have issued these directives.It is very, very sad that this matter got resolved in this shotgun fashion. But I am glad that the VC himself, in the interest of students caught up in this mess, took the decision to roll back FYUP (in line with UGC directive). That avoids further delay and legal battles giving more tension to the reported 2.7 lakh (270,000) student-applicants and parents. Prof. Dinesh Singh must be commended for this statement.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Here's an update:UGC shows Delhi University Vice Chancellor who is the boss; A victory for majority of students & faculty of DUSee UGC Gives Ultimatum to Delhi University over Four-Year Programme, . A small extract: "Officials said disobeying the UGC direction could spell trouble for Delhi University as it could stand to lose grants and degrees offered by the varsity could be de-recognised." Ravi: That's it. They can cut the funds supply after which DU may struggle to run the show! The VC will have no choice but to step down from his high horse and get down to mother earth.I had thought then itself (around June 4th) that it was just a matter of time before the HRD minister used her powers (via bodies like UGC) to force Delhi University to roll back its 4 year degree program. How could a Vice-Chancellor of a government funded university like Delhi University think that he could get away with imposing his vision of a 4 year degree program despite strong opposition from students and faculty bodies? Having had some very unfortunate experiences of power crazy administrators in Indian academia (in a deemed university) and then done some reading up on it, I am afraid I have to say that this Stalin and Hitler type of power craze and power abuse is not uncommon in Indian academic administrators.I should also say that I don't know enough about the 4 year degree program to say whether it is a good or bad idea. Maybe the 4 year degree program is a good idea. But then the DU top bosses needed to educate and win over its students and faculty about the 4 year degree program. Not force the program down their throats! That does not work in 21st century Indian democracy!I am so happy to see that the key stakeholders in Delhi university namely the students and the teachers have shown Delhi University Vice-Chancellor that Delhi University is not his kingdom to run as he wants.In today's Indian academic environment I think it is essential for top academic administrators like vice-chancellor, deans and heads of department of not only government funded universities but even private universities including deemed universities, to involve key stakeholders like students and teachers in high impact decisions that affect them deeply. Broad consensus achieved through informative and educative discussion and debate is the way forward, instead of such high impact decisions being imposed on all students, faculty and non-teaching staff by a few supposedly wise people at the top.The damage inflicted by bad decisions and faulty vision imposed on a university by a few dictator-academic-administrators in power, especially in the case of private and deemed universities which have very limited scope for dissenting voices to be heard, can take years, perhaps decades, to recover from and to reverse.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Here's a disturbing article about Delhi University academic administration mess, Students, teachers urge HRD minister Smriti Irani to scrap DU’s 4-year degree course, notes and comments:* Two teachers unions/associations met HRD minister Smt. Smriti Irani to press for rolling back the four-year degree programme introduced last year in the face of strong opposition.[Ravi: The fact that HRD minister held meetings with these two teacher groups is a clear indication of her willingness to look into the matter, IMHO.]* A students union group burnt effigies of vice chancellor Dinesh Singh in DU campus.[Ravi: My God! VC (vice chancellor) effigies were burnt! This is scary stuff! I mean, during the pro and anti Andhra Pradesh bifurcation movements lots of effigies were burnt but that was a mega-impact issue affecting people of the whole state. This is an academic issue - do things have to go so far to protest academic programme issues? I find this quite disturbing.]* Teachers and students opposing the four-degree program say that the negatives are an additional year spent and additional financial burden on the students. A students union leader alleges that the vice chancellor was "very autocratic in introducing this programme and has not bothered to consult elected student bodies".[Ravi: I have watched Prof. Dinesh Singh on an NDTV debate on higher education some months ago where the panel included then Minister of State for HRD, Dr. Shashi Tharoor. Prof. Singh was articulate and came across as very knowledgeable about higher education administration from a pan India perspective. He also is a big shot in NAAC, the key assessment and accreditation organization for UGC regulated educational institutions (NBA does it for AICTE regulated institutions, I believe).But I must say that I find this furore somewhat disappointing. Can one hold Prof. Singh to blame? Has he become a dictator who is trying to impose his vision on Delhi university? His being made VC for a second term was met with furious opposition and allegations of foul play, . Now we have the teacher unions trying to drag HRD minister into DU matters, even though DU is an autonomous university.Why is it that academic administration creates such furores every now and then? Is it a lack of transparency and a lack of accountability? Are academics prone to becoming dictators when put in positions of power like Vice-Chancellor? Are there not checks and balances in academic?administration?mechanisms that prevent a VC from becoming a dictator and imposing his/her vision on the entire?university?]3 comments:Srinivasan Ramani, June 8, 2014 at 4:25 PMThe country is facing a big challenge. Do its university degrees measure up to the world standard? We need to approach this question with more intelligence than passion. Do we want our degrees to be truly worthy of recognition, or do we merely want to use our political muscle to have them accepted as equal? I believe that true equality would be the only goal worth pursuing. Having a four year degree, in which students who have done well in the three year degree do an extra year as an option to qualify for an Hons degree is one good step towards higher standards. Along with mandatory accreditation, this can offer a flexible step towards higher quality. Huge affiliating universities may be the wrong ones to try this route first. Smaller universities should try it first.Srinivasan RamaniRavi S. Iyer, June 10, 2014 at 5:26 PMThanks for your, IMHO, very sensible and moderate view. In this context, incremental change by giving students the option for 3-year or 4-year degree, seems to be a better approach, though I do not know how feasible such incremental change options are.Ravi S. Iyer, June 20, 2014 at 2:42 PMA correspondent mentioned that he believed that the Delhi university scheme did provide an option of doing a 3-year or 4-year degree.I browsed around a bit and went through this doc. the face of it, it seems quite straight-forward. If you exit after 3 years you get a Bachelors degree - so that becomes the 3 year option. If you finish the 4 year degree, you get a Bachelors with Honours degree - that is the 4 year option.However, there may be, I repeat may be, a situation here where the final year (fourth year) has the really serious and important stuff which makes one a complete graduate. So, on paper, one may be a graduate after 3 years, but the knowledge level may not be comparable to a graduate from a 3 year graduate degree university. i.e. the student going out with (only) Bachelors degree from DU may be looked down upon as an incomplete kind of graduate.Now, I don't know what the exact picture is. For that, one needs to know real curriculum details as implemented (or planned to be implemented) in DU. I don't think that would be available publicly, at least on authorised public sites like DU website. But the teachers would know. And they have been reacting to this strongly - perhaps they have some genuine concerns. In any case, IMHO, VC of DU needs to publicly address concerns raised by his own teachers' associations. Specifically see this short extract from? idea was to promote an interdisciplinary approach to education, but agitating teachers and students argue that the country's 10+2 school education system already allows students to choose subjects specific to their discipline, and common foundation courses in degree programmes waste a critical year besides increasing students' financial burden.--- end extract ---This suggests that the exit after 3 years is not being considered as a serious option by teachers. They perhaps know that the real situation on the ground is that the student has to finish the 4 year course to become a proper graduate from a knowledge point of view.Saturday, December 1, 2012Dictatorial Powers of VC in Indian Central UniversitiesNet url: 's an interesting article by faculty from the University of Delhi () about the role of Vice Chancellors (VC) in Indian universities today,?. It contends that the typical Indian VC is one of or seen as "1) the CEO of an academic corporation; 2) an academic or bureaucrat with political connections; 3) a person selected by accident, error or compromise; and 4) an intellectual leader" and that the reality is that "these options are arranged in order of their importance in Indian higher education today".It goes on to cover dictatorial powers of VCs of central universities, , and how exercise of such power by VCs who are impatient to bring about reform, results in a war like situation in the universities.I presume the situation will be quite similar in state universities in India, . The other type of universities are private universities and deemed universities which may be receiving limited amount of funding from the state or central government or no funding at all. I presume that the VCs of such universities may typically not have dictatorial powers as the board of management/trustees/visitors of the universities may have direct control over the VC (limited autonomy).Please note that the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY) does *not* apply to this post.Wednesday, April 10, 2013UGC scraps Research-linked appraisal for appointments!Net url: is an article, dated Feb. 2013, "Research-linked appraisal for appointments is scrapped", , and given below are some points from the article and my comments."India’s University Grants Commission (UGC) has done away with a mandatory requirement for universities to select and promote academics based solely on a performance index that includes scores for research publications and attracting research grants. The decision will affect more than a million university and college lecturers."[Ravi: So UGC clearly was putting pressure on academics not only for research publications but also for attracting research grants.]The article mentions that a UGC spokesperson talked about variation in teaching quality and infrastructure across Indian universities which may have made it difficult for the API (Academic Performance Index) proposed to have succeeded....The article has an Associate Professor from New Delhi complaining that UGC does not have provision for teachers to take up limited teaching loads thereby giving teachers time to do research.[Ravi: I entirely agree with the point above. By loading academics with 4 courses per semester, lots of administrative & other work, and then denying them promotion because they do not have research publication output or have not procured research grants, IMHO, academic administrators are being extremely unfair, and perhaps even exploitative. Let them lay down the rule that maximum teaching load per academic will be two courses per semester and have a small limit for administrative and other work, make it mandatory for administrators to provide facilities for research, then UGC can make such appointment and promotion rules based on research output. If UGC cannot impose such limits then, IMHO, they have no business to exploit poor academics by denying them promotion or suitable appointment due to lack of research output.]...In the article, another associate professor, from Pune, complained about lack of facilities like (easily available, I presume) Internet connected computers in several colleges in Pune, and that it was difficult to do research in such environments.[Ravi: Is the UGC listening? First make facilities and time for research mandatory. Otherwise UGC has no right to impose such draconian and unfair rules.]...The article has a professor suggesting that addressing anomalies in the appraisal system would have been better than scrapping it and going back to the earlier system which rarely considered merit for promotions.[Ravi: Seems a fair point. Promotions should be merit based. But, IMHO, first priority should be given to teaching quality. I don't know whether serious efforts are made to measure teaching quality like efforts made to measure research contribution. As far as I know, measures adopted by corporate training setups like participant/student feedback, are not used in UGC/AICTE academia, in general. In fact, I would not be surprised if the only way teaching quality is measured in most educational institutions in India is by the exam performance of the students. If many students fail something is wrong with the teacher. Otherwise the teacher is good. It really may be as primitive and simplistic as that.]...The article mentioned that the (scrapped) API had certain number of points for refereed journal publications and lesser points for non-refereed journal. It also had points for books published and research grants acquired.[Ravi: IMHO, ideally there should be two tracks - a teaching intensive track where appointment and promotion are possible with good teaching performance but even with zero research; and a research intensive track where research contribution can be given a lot of importance.]Tuesday, May 7, 2013Supreme Court rules that AICTE can only advise but not impose sanctions on universities/collegesNet url: is common knowledge that the state of technical education in India in UGC/AICTE regulated higher education institutions is, to put it politely, not so great. I thought that AICTE must take some blame for this as they are the key technical education regulator.But some petitioners challenged AICTE's ability to enforce sanctions (punishment) on educational institutions whose academic standards are not up to AICTE's expectations, in the Indian Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court bench ruled that AICTE can only play an advisory role but not enforce sanctions! So AICTE has essentially been made a toothless tiger. IMHO, in India, toothless tigers can only serve as a butt of ridicule. UGC alone seems to have the ability to enforce sanctions on educational institutions. AICTE may have to write to UGC complaining about standards in some educational institutions and leave it to UGC whether to act by imposing sanctions. The Supreme Court ruling must be based on the acts passed in Indian Parliament related to UGC and AICTE.Different news articles seem to give slightly different views and with different level of detail.This one gives just the basic picture, "Varsity affiliated colleges need not take AICTE approval to run MBA, MCA",?, for international readers, MBA is Master of Business Administration (I think that is common internationally), and MCA is Master of Computer Applications (which I think is not so common internationally).This one gives some more details, "Apex court allows pvt colleges to offer MBA, MCA sans AICTE nod",?.? Specifically it mentions that the AICTE chairman, Prof. Mantha, is planning to file a review petition in the Supreme Court against the order/ruling. Prof. Mantha seems to be stating that without AICTE having the power to regulate (punish) management education institutions (around 4000 of them in India) and educational institutions offering MCA (around 1600 of them), "unfair trade practices will start proliferating". I take that to mean that the standard of higher education in these places will become even lower than what it is now! Oh Lord!!!This one does not pull any punches, "AICTE’s Newtonian downfall",? . It is a detailed article authored by a Dean in an Indian university and ends with a desperate appeal to the Union (Federal) Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to come to the aid of Indian engineering education!!!Perhaps MHRD can pass suitable amendments to UGC and/or AICTE acts in Parliament which will give AICTE the teeth to impose sanctions (punishment) on technical higher education institutions which do not meet its academic standards.2 comments:Ravi S. Iyer, August 19, 2013 at 1:18 PMMHRD seems to be trying to give teeth to AICTE by amending the AICTE act according to this article in The Hindu, dated August 17th 2013,?Endorse AICTE-approved technical colleges. But, the article states, MHRD's move got stalled by Cabinet Secretariat queries. An ordinance may be moved after Parliament session concludes.Meanwhile UGC seems to have given go-ahead to universities for approving (granting affiliation to) institutions offering courses (degrees) in technical education that have been approved by AICTE for 2013-14.Ravi S. Iyer, December 27, 2013 at 8:35 PMAn informative article in The Hindu,?For a new avatar of the AICTE, by vice-chancellor of SASTRA university about AICTE history and current travails, dated December 27th 2013.Indian Engineering Colleges: General Info. and Graduate EmployabilityDiscussion/Informative Posts Involving Others' Articles/Views, Media reports and Some Comments from mePrivate study claims: Less than 9% of Indian engineering students have required programming and algorithm skills for IT product company jobs, July 2014GATE and UGC NET CS & IT exams can be employability measures if they include practical knowledge assessment, June 2014The Hindu's higher education student guidebook - thenxt.step 2013 - CS & IT picture, April 20142014 National (India) Employability report - Poor Employability of Andhra Pradesh Engineering Graduates, February 2014Andhra Pradesh (India) Engineering Colleges - Half Empty!, December 2012An "educated guess" analysis of Large no. of Seats in Andhra Pradesh (India) Engg. Colleges Going Empty, December 2012Wednesday, July 16, 2014Private study claims: Less than 9% of Indian engineering students have required programming and algorithm skills for IT product company jobsNet url: is a now-normal, but still depressing, article in The Hindu,?dated July 16th 2014,?Less than 20 per cent engineers are employable for software jobs: survey, is based on the Aspiring Minds, National Employability Report for Engineers - 2014, which can be downloaded (after providing contact info.) from here:??(the link is towards the bottom right on the page and has the title, NER - Engineers Annual Report 2014).Two small extracts from this (NERE-2014) report:Page 9:"The report is based on a sample of more than 1,20,000 engineering students from 520+ engineering colleges across multiple Indian states. All these candidates graduated in 2013."Page 12:"The employability of engineers in IT product companies is exceptionally low, to the order of 3.21%. This is because jobs in IT product companies require a strong understanding of computer programming and algorithms. The study found that the candidates strongly lacked the required skills: around 91.82% of graduating engineers do not have the required programming and algorithm skills required for IT product companies, whereas 76.23% show lack of soft-skills and cognitive skills."--- end extracts ---Ravi: This report which says it is based on an extensive sample, tests programming and algorithm skills, and less than 9 % of engineering-student-candidates (presumably final year students) got the grades/marks considered suitable for IT product company jobs! I think AICTE (India's top technical education regulator) and NPTEL/IIT-Madras (leading educational institutions) should have a similar computer programming and algorithm skills exam as a stand-alone exam which any final year engineering/science student/graduate can take. Then we will have two sources for such skill level figures with one coming from the top agencies/institutions associated with technical education in the country.Now, pundits may dismiss this dismal less than 9% qualifying figure as being private survey results and question its methodology. If AICTE and NPTEL/IIT-Madras is involved in this testing then they cannot dismiss it so easily.Further, students and parents should have access to the results of such exams for each educational institution. That will give them some idea of the teaching quality of computer programming and algorithms in these educational institutions.TRANSPARENCY - that is what is desperately needed in Indian CS & IT academia. However, until Indian CS & IT departments of academic institutions are forced to share such information with the public, most will refuse to do so. So AICTE must take the lead and force such transparency on these departments/institutions.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------A correspondent responded (Nasscom is the premier Indian software industry organization):Despite what the Hindu article says, according to Nasscom around 300,000 of the million or so fresh engineering graduates do get jobs in the software industry. Of course, these jobs can range from mainstream developers to people working in the BPO industry.Nasscom's figures are credible because if you add the number of new recruits claimed by the big 3-4 software companies you easily get to 100,000+. The other 200,000 could well find slots somewhere else in the industry.However, standards are indeed dropping and the big companies have to run 3-6 month training programmes (read this as remedial training) before the new recruits can be moved to project teams. Even so, these companies have between 15-30% of their staff 'on the bench', or unbilled, which is an enormous cost.--- end correspondent response ---My response, slightly edited, was as follows:Copy-pasted from Page 11 of the report:ROLE ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?EMPLOYABILITYIT ROLESSoftware Engineer – IT Product ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?3.21%Software Engineer – IT Services ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 18.43%ENGINEERING ROLESAssociate – ITeS Operations (Hardware and Networking ) 35.37%--- end copy-paste ---So there is a differentiation between IT Product and IT Services. 18.43 % of 1 million would be 184,300 jobs. And 35.37 % would be 353,700 jobsConsidering that the NASSCOM figures included the BPO jobs, we have to apply the ITeS Operations figure of 35.37 % - so the figures do not diverge very much.BTW the report claimed that 600,000 engineers graduate every year. But for the percentage figures, given that the sample size was over 100,000, it does not matter whether the total size is 600,000 or 1,000,000....I guess the "employable" criteria of this assessment would be such that a person who qualifies does not need remedial training.I guess the Indian IT services industry realized long ago that most CS & IT graduates, let alone graduates from non-CS&IT streams, would need remedial training given the poor standards of teaching of programming & algorithms in Indian CS & IT academia, and so took that burden on itself.However, many IT product company types are now an important and excellent-salary employer of CS & IT graduates, especially in Bangalore & Chennai (going by what my past students tell me). They do not have any scope (or interest perhaps) for organizing remedial training and so graduates who are taught programming & algorithms better in colleges itself, get a break in these companies. And those graduates & post-graduates (like M.Tech. (CS)) who are poor in programming & algorithms fail to make it, even if they have published some conference research paper as part of their M.Tech. work. I mean, the bottom line for many of these product company types is programming & algorithms; research is extra.[In contrast there are companies who seem to be looking for research assistant types and are happy to employ M.Tech. (CS) chaps as research assistants with some fancy designation. But, without a Ph.D., most of these chaps will surely hit a glass ceiling and get stuck doing lower-quality research work rather than great research work in these firms, IMHO. I mean, if you want to pursue research as a career a Ph.D. OR enough research publications to be counted as equivalent to Ph.D., is an absolute must.]Sunday, June 29, 2014GATE and UGC NET CS & IT exams can be employability measures if they include practical knowledge assessmentNet url: made the following comment (slightly edited) to a recent post, How well does a college teach its students?,?, by Srinivasan Ramani,? views. More transparency in Indian academic system in general will do wonders in giving students and parents some reasonable picture of the teaching and research quality of Indian academic institutions. As of now, most Indian academic institution websites do not carry significant information on course material related to courses taught by its faculty, though many carry the academic's research publication list. I think if the course material for courses taught by academics is put up on their website, students, parents and even employers will be able to get some idea of what is really taught in those courses. In great contrast to Indian academia, many US academic websites have detailed course material - Indian academia should follow their lead in this regard, IMHO.Regarding standard exams that assess how well a college teaches its students, for engineering in India, we have the GATE exam, which is quite widely accepted by academia (for further education like M.Tech.) as well as government employers as the key measurement criteria for knowledge level of engineering graduates. Perhaps it would be a great idea to have its results available in the public domain but there may be moral and legal issues related to protection of privacy rights of students who got poor scores. The wiki page states, "The score cards are issued to only the qualified candidates."As somebody who is interested in improving the practice of software development in Indian CS & IT academia, one issue I have with examinations like GATE, , is that they, I believe, focus on the theory part of the knowledge of the candidate, as that may be easier to assess. Even the National Eligibility Test for Lecturers (Asst. Professors) for UGC/AICTE regulated colleges, . for the CS & IT field does not seem to have a practical component for the test! What is badly needed by youth in colleges nowadays is employability, and employability needs the right blend of theory and practical knowledge. Once our national examinations including GATE and UGC NET improve their assessment techniques to properly assess practical knowledge then they may become an important measure of the employability of engineering college graduates.Sunday, April 20, 2014The Hindu's higher education student guidebook - thenxt.step 2013 - CS & IT pictureNet url: few days ago I saw an ad. in The Hindu newspaper about a sort-of student guidebook on higher education from The Hindu, thenxt.step, and decided to check with my town (Puttaparthi) Hindu vendor whether he had it. He did and gave it to me (for Rs. 250/-) but it turned out to be last year's issue! I decided to return it but later changed the decision as I felt I might learn something related to higher education in Computer Science and Information Technology (CS & IT) from the 2013 issue itself (which, I believe, happens to be the first issue of this sort-of student guidebook on higher education from The Hindu). My changed decision turned out to be the correct one.I have learned a lot about Tamil Nadu higher education sector in the areas of Computer Science and Information Technology from thenxt.step 2013,?. [Tamil Nadu is a southern state of India with Chennai (Madras) as its capital, .] I have tried to put down some points from that learning below:Page 3 has a full page advertisement of Vellore Institute of Technology,?, which, I understand, is one of the leading private deemed universities of South India with its Computer Science and Engineering programmes being accredited by ABET Inc., USA. This ad. lists the following programmes in CS & IT at its Vellore campus:School of Computer Sciences and Engineering (SCSE)B.Tech. Computer Science and EngineeringB.Sc. Computer ScienceM.Tech. Computer Science and EngineeringM.Sc. Computer ScienceSchool of Information Technology and Engineering (SITE)B.Tech. Information TechnologyB.C.A. (Bachelor of Computer Applications)B.Sc. (Multimedia and Animation)M.Tech. Information Technology - NetworkingM.Tech. Software TechnologyM.Tech. Software development and Management (for employees of Cognizant Technology Solutions)M.C.A. (Master of Computer Applications)M.S. Software Engineering (5 year Integrated Programme)M.S. Information Technology (for employees of WIPRO Technologies)---- end advertisement info ----Well, that's quite an array of CS & IT undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The programmes meant for a particular software company are quite noteworthy even if there may be strong arguments against having such programmes in a regular academic institution (as against an industry dedicated training institute which, however, may not be empowered to award bachelor or master degrees - at least during my programming learning days in the mid-80s they were not allowed to do so; they could simply provide some diploma certificates which were probably not recognized by the government then)....In an article by Dr. Hanifa Ghosh, principal CTTE College for Women, Chennai on Page 10 she warns parents against forcing children, who are not interested and/or do not have the aptitude for engineering, to take up engineering in colleges with poor or uncertain reputation due to availability of seats there. She writes that they may end up doing poorly paying jobs unrelated to their engineering degree. Opportunities provided by Arts and Science colleges may be more appropriate for such students, she writes....Jayaprakash Gandhi, a career consultant and analyst, writes in his article on Page 14 about it being better to choose a primary field (like mechanical engineering) instead of a secondary field (like automobile engineering) as the latter narrows down future career options at the intial stages itself. Further, he says, GATE exam (for entrance to IITs) are for primary fields and not secondary fields. Higher studies in India and abroad also may be easier to pursue for those who have studied primary fields.[IITs are the elite technical education institutions of India with substantial, if not total, government funding,?. "The Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an all-India examination that primarily tests the comprehensive understanding of various undergraduate subjects in engineering and science.", .]Ravi: Perhaps the same primary field and secondary field argument applies to CS & IT fields. The Computer Science & Engineering field is a primary field with all the benefits of primary field mentioned above. In my browsing I have not come across definitive explanation of the Information Technology field in Indian academia and its difference from the Computer Science & Engineering field. Some years ago I had asked this question of a senior Indian academic who then was the head of the Information Technology department of an engineering college in South India. He told me that the subjects covered were almost the same (perhaps he actually said they were the same) as the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department of his college (they seemed to have that department too). The actual reason for having two programmes was related to some regulations which limited the no. of seats in one programme - having two separate programmes in CSE and IT was a workaround!The B.C.A. and M.C.A. programmes being computer application programmes would probably be viewed as a secondary field with all the disadvantages mentioned above for secondary fields. However, the advantage of these programmes may be that they are less rigorous since they aim at imparting applications level skills rather than fundamental computer science skills, and so some students who cannot handle CSE programmes may be able to handle the computer applications programmes. And, very importantly, there may be industry demand for such computer applications skills which ensures jobs for BCA and MCA passed out students....Pages 34, 36 & 37 carry a superb article titled, "Admissions demystified", by Prof. V. Rhymend Uthariaraj, secretary TNEA and professor and director of Ramanujan Computing Centre, Anna University, Chennai, which explains the single-window counselling (admission) process for the government seats of engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu. I strongly recommend that this article by read by anybody interested in understanding the engineering admission counselling process in India (other progressive Indian states would be following a somewhat similar procedure, I guess). A small extract to give a feel of the scale, "Tamil Nadu Engineering Admission (TNEA) is the process through which more than 1.5 lakh engineering aspirants get themselves enrolled into engineering colleges of Tamil Nadu." [One lakh is one hundred thousand.]The concluding part of the article is interesting and idealistic sort-of advise in general but not necessarily perfect and verified-to-be-fully-truthful advise especially to youth desperately seeking higher education that will deliver them good paying jobs, IMHO, "Society and especially parents should not force preconceived career objectives that put pressure on their ward's natural interests. This societal obsession towards engineering and laying stress on their wards (Ravi: to pursue engineering) is a big hindrance to intrinsically-motivated learning. Society should advocate for excellence and not for (a) particular profession. Excellence is Lucrative."...Pages 38 & 40 carry an excellent article titled, "New age varsities", by Dr. G. Viswanathan, founder and chancellor of Vellore Institute of Technology (the same educational institution whose advertisement on Page 3 is mentioned earlier),?. While the entire article is a kind-of must read for those interested in improving technical education in India ?(or knowing about it), I have given below three extracts from this article:[Ravi: A deemed university in India is, as per my understanding, an autonomous educational institution recognized by the key national higher education regulators (UGC and/or AICTE) which may have a few campuses. Usually these deemed universities are privately owned and so have to manage their own finances with some limited project grant money from govt. agencies. This is in contrast to government universities which are, I believe, wholly funded by the government. I believe that some of the well recognized deemed universities like Vellore Institute of Technology whose founder is the author of this article, charge substantial amount of fees and other charges (e.g. air-conditioned student hostel rooms with premium charges) from its students. It must also be said that some deemed universities in India have earned a lot of disrepute due to very poor standards of education as well as alleged malpractices.]"There are four options for the students seeking admission to engineering education. A small percentage get the chance to join the IITs. Others await the Anna University counselling [Ravi: TNEA counselling mentioned earlier conducted by Anna University, which seems to be the dominant and large technical university of Tamil Nadu, ] where their options are plenty. The main campus admission is the prime target, where a candidate will get into main campus or not [Ravi: perhaps it should have been, where it will be known whether a candidate can get into main campus or not]. In the absence of that the candidate has to choose between the other colleges affiliated to Government University or choose to study in a Deemed University. It will not be an exaggeration if I say that more than 97 per cent of the students have to choose between the third and fourth option. In this context the facts given below will help a student to choose the right destination.Syllabus in SyncUnlike most of the colleges, the Deemed Universities have academic advantages. The first and foremost advantage is the freedom to modify the syllabi and curriculum to suit the industry requirements, that too at frequent intervals, which is a far fetched dream in a government controlled setup. In areas such as computing sciences and electronics the industry needs are changing at rapid speed. That requires change in syllabi every semester, which could be possible only in Deemed Universities."...Practical KnowledgeThe industry expects the students to be employable graduates. This could be made possible only if the students are exposed to the practical aspects of their theoretical knowledge. This requires well-equipped embedded labs for all the theory subjects, wherein students could learn by doing experiments. Freedom to have embedded labs in all the theory (Ravi: subjects/classes) and making all the students spend quality time in the labs than in classrooms, prepares students to be industry-ready. In addition to this, the continuous assessment methodology can also be altered and learning be made more effective. It may be observed that new, innovative industry-oriented programmes are being offered mostly in deemed universities. Funding for developmental activities also takes a backseat at the Government run universities due to the prevailing red tapism which is not a constraint for a deemed university."...[Ravi: Concluding paragraph of article:] "Does this mean that a student can blindly join any Deemed University? Are all the Deemed Universities good and worthy of praise and adoration? The answer is, "No.". There are spoilt ones in this apple-cart too. One has to be careful in selection. Best advice will be as follows, "Deemed Universities have the right platform to provide quality education needed for this 21st century. A candidate has to visit the university, check for the details, talk to the outgoing / passed out students and ascertain the quality before joining."...Pages 41 & 42 have an interesting practical advise article, "Choose right", by Dr. Brijesh Nair, Professor and Programme Chair (Civil Engineering) at Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore, ?. He starts the article by mentioning that many engineering seats remain vacant in South India every year. So if a student wants to pursue engineering no matter what the reputation of the college, getting one of these vacant seats will be possible. But then he raises the job factor. He goes on to make a rather sweeping statement that if one is looking for just "any job" then any engineering programme in a college with 95 % (or more) campus placement track record should be fine. He also mentions that most students do not have a preference for any branch of engineering but simply want to get a job that pays them well. He writes that the trend observed in campus placements is that students from civil engineering or mechanical engineering (or other fields unrelated to software development) take up software company jobs.Tuesday, February 4, 20142014 National (India) Employability report - Poor Employability of Andhra Pradesh Engineering GraduatesNet url: few days ago, The Hindu had this article, A.P. fares poorly in employability of engineers, sent the following comment to the letters email of The Hindu (for the print edition):I am very happy to see the persistent work done by Aspiring Minds to draw attention to the pathetic employability situation for engineering graduates from Indian, especially South Indian, colleges and universities.I think its CEO, Himanshu Aggarwal, captures the situation perfectly when he says, “States like A.P. and Tamil Nadu, which have the highest number of engineering colleges, continue to have lowest employability. States need to be conscious towards better education quality rather than building more capacity”.Hopefully the higher education policy makers/regulators and administrators will be able to step in and ensure that suitable career growth incentives are provided to academics who provide good education to students instead of such career growth incentives being focused only on research publications and research projects (with large amount of tax payer grant money). I am not against academic research but the way most academic administrators and regulators seem to focus on research and ignore educating students to become employable is deeply shocking to me. In my humble opinion, the first and foremost duty of an academic should be to teach and teach well - research should be secondary, no matter how much grant money or fame is involved.--- end comment ---The above comment did not get accepted for publication in the print edition of The Hindu. However, a shorter version of the above comment (due to the limitation of web page comment size to 1000 characters) on the web page of the article (link given above) was accepted by the moderator and is now shown on it (under my name - Ravi S. Iyer).Yesterday the "Education Plus" supplement of The Hindu carried an article on similar lines,?Engg. graduates lack domain skills,?. I found the following extract in it to be quite significant:“It is a fact that majority (of) colleges have totally neglected teaching quality. Some blame shortage of good teachers while others genuinely want to hire good teachers but fail to do so due to their non-availability,” agrees N.V. Ramana Rao, Registrar, JNTU Hyderabad.--- end extract ---The Registrar of JNTU Hyderabad (an important technical university of Andhra Pradesh) openly acknowledging that majority of (engineering) colleges have?totally?neglected?teaching quality is a vital acknowledgement of a serious teaching crisis in engineering colleges of Andhra Pradesh. Now who can fix the problem? I don't claim to have all the answers for this tough problem. But a no-brainer suggestion to help solve the problem would be to provide career-growth incentive to those academics who are good teachers instead of focusing only on providing career-growth to those who acquire significant project grant money and publish research papers. For this, the UGC/AICTE regulations for promotion of academics must be changed to introduce some measures of teaching quality, even if they are not perfect, and provide career-growth incentive for those academics who achieve appropriate measure of teaching quality even if they do not have research publications. Let us face it, there is a conflict of interest between teaching and research in Indian academia today, and the poor students face the negative effect of this conflict of interest.Saturday, December 1, 2012Andhra Pradesh (India) Engineering Colleges - Half Empty!Net url: seems to be a serious crisis in engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh (AP), India according to this recent media article, "No new engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh from next year".Some specifics:In 2004-05, AP engg. college students intake was 82,225 in 238 colleges.?Now, AP engg. college students intake has been 3,44,986 in 717 colleges. [Another news media report given later on in this post, mentions AP no. of engg. seats as around 3,50,000. So I think this news media article's word 'intake' may be incorrect.]?In 2010-11, 30 % AP engg. college seats were vacant.In 2012-13, 40 to 50 % AP engg. college seats are vacant.Here's a recent media article which speaks about colleges closing down degree programs (referred to as 'course' in the article), "JNTUH flooded with requests for closure of nearly 350 courses".?Some specifics:"Out of the 17,317 seats only 4,983 students opted for the B.Tech (IT) course leaving 12,334 seats vacant.""... 21,776 seats out of the 67,518 seats going vacant in MBA and 15,224 seats out of the 23,532 remaining vacant in the MCA stream""The MCA courses suffered the worst with not a single student joining in 159 colleges while MBA was better with zero admissions in 29 colleges."A slightly dated media report, 10th June 2012, "Slowdown hinders campus placements" states that companies have postponed campus placements indefinitely citing “tough global economic conditions”.Some specifics:Every year the number of engineering college graduates produced are:Andhra Pradesh - 2,00,000?Tamil Nadu - 1,80,000Karnataka - 80,000Maharashtra - 80,000Country wide, 12,00,000 B.Tech. seats are available, of which AP has 3,50,000.?Here's another news article, which seems to be very recent, though the article does not show a date,??(the content on this page may be transient as it is labeled an update), giving some additional input on the AP engg. college situation.Some specifics:AP government has introduced a cap in intake of number of students per college (420 or 540) to ensure that city based colleges do not take up most of the students thereby threatening closure of rural and semi-urban colleges!Many AP private engg. colleges are facing closure due to few students joining them and so they are working out deals to shift students between them!In Tamil Nadu (TN), 50 new engg. colleges get added every year. Available seats were around 1,20,000 in 2011-12 and went up to around 1,49,000 in 2012-13. In 2012-13, around 1,04,000 seats were allotted and around 45,000 seats fell vacant.Please note that the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY) does *not* apply to this post.??Monday, December 3, 2012An "educated guess" analysis of Large no. of Seats in Andhra Pradesh (India) Engg. Colleges Going EmptyNet url: updated on December 5th 2012Please note that the data for this analysis has been taken from media (news) articles. There is a possibility of some inaccuracies but even if there are inaccuracies I think the data may not be far off from the real situation on the ground. Further this analysis is in the realm of an "educated guess". It could be proved wrong or in need of alteration in the face of more data, especially from reliable sources.This "educated guess" analysis is presented roughly in the form of a time-line.Union finance minister announces several incentives to provide education loans via nationalized banks in 2004-05, Source:?Banks feel the heat of Bad Study loans. From 2005 education loans sector has grown significantly in nationalized banks. As of March 2012, the four South Indian states of Andhra Pradesh (AP), Tamil Nadu (TN), Karnataka and Kerala account for more than 50% of the these education loans provided in the country by nationalized banks, Source:?Southern states lead in providing education loans. As per the same source, total education loan disbursed in the country by nationalized banks (public sector banks) as of March 2012 is Rs. 49,069 crore (at Rs. 55 for 1 US $ it is $8.9 billion).As money becomes available to students from nationalized banks, new engineering colleges in states like Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Tamil Nadu (TN) started cropping up at a furious rate. AP's engineering colleges grew from 238 colleges in 2004-05 to 717 colleges now (2012-13) i.e. three fold growth in a span of eight years, Source:?No new engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh from next year. As per the same source, the number of engineering seats in AP grew from 82,225 in 2004-05 to 3,44,986 now (2012-13) i.e. over four fold growth in a span of eight years. Most of the new engineering colleges in AP seem to be private (as against central government or state government owned/managed) and possibly created more with a motive of education for profit rather than education as a public service.The quality of education offered in the newly created engineering colleges seems to have been not so great. So graduates from these colleges were finding it difficult to land good paying jobs.In Andhra Pradesh, a scheme to provide fee reimbursement to marginalized sections of society (Backward Class communities and later extended to Economically Backward Classes) was introduced by the state government in 2008, Source:?YSR's fee reimbursement scheme hangs in limbo in Andhra Pradesh. It included engineering, MBA and MCA degree courses/programs. Engineering colleges in rural AP seemed to have benefited from this scheme as they could induct students from these marginalized sections of society and claim fee reimbursement from the government. This seems to have contributed to furious growth of engineering colleges in AP. In 2012-13, the AP state government seems to be struggling to handle the financial burden of this fee reimbursement scheme and seems to have not reimbursed fees to some colleges thereby putting such colleges under financial strain.?[This issue was pointed out by a friend.]The global financial crisis of 2008, in its aftermath, reduced the number of jobs available for fresh graduates (of all types of educational institutions not just engineering colleges), Source:?Banks feel the heat of Bad Study loans. This would have made the situation particularly bad for graduates from those of the newly created engineering colleges which were not imparting good quality education.Indian banks started reporting problems of bad study loans! Some graduates (including management college graduates/post-graduates) were getting stuck with a study loan to repay but not getting a decent job with which to pay back the loan, Source:?Banks feel the heat of Bad Study loans.By 2012-13 academic year, students and parents probably got wise to the situation and became very choosy about which engineering college to join. So now around 50 % of the 3,44,986 seats in AP engineering colleges have gone empty, Source:?No new engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh from next year! Perhaps students and parents have seen some bad study loan cases and are a lot more careful about taking a study loan. Perhaps banks too have become reluctant to lend to students joining some engineering colleges. So engineering colleges which have not earned a good reputation are perhaps being 'weeded out' by students, parents and the banks (the market).Rural and semi-urban engineering colleges in AP are facing the heat of students and parents avoiding them and so lobbied the AP state government to introduce a cap in intake of number of students per college (420 or 540) to ensure that city based colleges (which probably have earned a good reputation for the education they impart) do not take up most of the students thereby threatening closure of rural and semi-urban colleges in AP, Source:?Rural colleges welcome cap on engineering seats, urban colleges question the move.The key regulatory authority to maintain standards of education in these new (and mostly private, it seems) engineering colleges, namely AICTE, a country-wide authority (as against an AP state only authority), seems to have been completely ineffective in its role of maintaining standards of education.A similar scenario may be getting played out in other states of the country especially other south Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.Please note that the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY) does *not* apply to this post.??1 comment:Ravi S. Iyer, June 27, 2014 at 9:12 PMInteresting info.:?(Andhra Pradesh) Engineering colleges seek reduction in fee structure.Specific fee details fixed by Admission and Fee Regulation Committee (per annum tuition fee, I presume):258 engg. colleges - Rs. 35,000176 colleges - > Rs. 35,000; Topmost fee fixed was Rs. 1,13,300 but only a few colleges crossed the Rs. 1,00,000 figure.The really strange thing is that due to uncertainty over state govt. fee reimbursement for economically disadvantaged students, many colleges that were fixed a higher fee in the range of Rs. 55,000 to Rs. 75,000, now fear that seats may go empty at that rate, and so want to charge the lowest amount of Rs. 35,000. But they seem to need permission/restructuring of fee from the Admission and Fee Regulation Committee which is unwilling to do so! What a typical bureaucratic quandary! However, they have been advised to go to the government, which I am quite sure can easily fix things by some special order.How to Teach Programming?My Viewpoints/Articles (includes detailed comments on mine on a paper by Prof. Stroustrup)Programming: Practical Solution Mindset vs. Scientific Mindset, January 2013Does a Teacher of Programming Need to Know Turing Machine?, October 2011Comments on Stroustrup's paper, "Software Development for Infrastructure" in IEEE Computer, Jan. 2012; post last updated in April 2012??Discussion/Informative Posts Involving Others' Articles/Views, Media reports and Some Comments from meTexas A&M University's Approach to Teaching Programming in (US) CS Academia, January 2012CS & IT Academia: How to Teach Programming?, September 2011CS & IT Academia: Some Comments on Teaching Programming, October 2011?US CS & IT Academia: Usually TAs/RAs Teach Programming, November 2011?CS & IT Academia: Should 'Customize' Instead of 'Build' be Taught?, December 2011?Monday, October 24, 2011Programming: Practical Solution Mindset vs. Scientific MindsetNet url: updated on January 6th 2013Note: At the time I wrote the original version of this post I was not well versed with efforts of persons like?Prof. David Parnas?to bring a professional engineering approach to the teaching and practice of software design & development, and name that as "software engineering". So I casually used the term "engineering mindset" in the original version of the post when I wanted to refer to a practical solution approach. I have now (Jan. 5th 2013) changed the post to use "practical solution mindset" instead of "engineering mindset".I presume that, say, with the civil engineering approach in the Western world I will get a level of guarantee of the design & construction of a building by a certified & licensed civil engineer. The engineer would have used standard principles for the design & construction which can be verified by other competent authorities. In India, I believe it is quite similar, except for the absence of licensing. So when one uses the term "engineering approach" or "engineering mindset" in the context of software, a knowledgeable about engineering reader will presume a similar application of well defined & well understood design principles and a level of guarantee of the solution.I am a technologist/technology solution provider as against a 'computer scientist'. So I use a "practical solution mindset" as against a "scientific mindset". What do I mean by these terms? Well, in my terminology, a "practical solution mindset" applied to software focuses on how to provide a software solution which:a) Satisfies the users in terms of functionality, efficiency and user interface quality. Note that the efficiency may not be the best possible efficiency but what is acceptable to the user.b) Gets done with optimal resources in terms of manpower, time and money. This will typically involve use of existing software components with or without modifications. Why reinvent the wheel?c) Provides acceptable standard of design & documentation for maintenance and enhancement of the software solution over time.There are some more factors too like reasonable protection against technology obsolescence but the above are the critical ones.For the "practical solution mindset" person "need to know" is an important principle. So a programmer/designer may not need to know about implementation details of, say, a collection class like vector. He simply needs to know the programming interface and the pros & cons of the vector class. He "need not know" anything whatsoever about the inner workings of the vector class. But if he does know, it may be of "insightful" help.To explain this "practical solution mindset" to students that I taught component-based-development type of programming courses (e.g. Open Source Web Technology using Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Joomla, Moodle, Al Fresco etc.), I would use the example of driving a car. You "need to know" how the user interface (driver-interface rather) of the car operates the car. The ignition, steering, accelerator, brake & gears (if manually operated gears are used) is what you "need to know". What is under the hood is "not necessary to know". But if you know how the stuff under the hood operates then you may be a better driver and if the car breaks down you may be in a position to fix it. Whereas the driver who knows nothing about what's under the hood is completely dependent on somebody else, say a mechanic, to fix the car in case of a breakdown.But if you have limited amount of time to learn, it makes sense to first learn what you "need to know" like the driver-interface of the car. Then, if time permits and you have the inclination, you can learn the "under the hood" stuff.The "scientific mindset" person, on the other hand, focuses on the Whys and inner-working-Hows as well as the outer-Hows. He wants to know why a vector class operates the way it does as well as its innermost working. He is quite uncomfortable with a "you don't need to know" attitude or answer. He wants a "building block by building block" learning experience. He wants to be able to answer any questions no matter what the level of detail about any software solution he provides.I feel that such a "scientific mindset" can be a serious problem for a component-based-development software solution approach. The problem really is the available time for learning or for providing a solution. It is like the time involved to learn driving can be orders of magnitude more than it is now if a student insists on knowing everything about what's under the hood of a car before he learns how to operate the user-interface of the car.But such a "scientific mindset" may be essential for developing the core building blocks of software like an Operating System or a Compiler or defining a new computer language or writing a systems library of components. The person working on such software would need to write, say, a new vector class from scratch with as close to best-possible-efficiency as feasible. Of course, at some point he still will not know the details. I mean, he will operate at a lower level of abstraction as against a component-based-developer. But nonetheless he too may have a "need to know" approach for lower levels of abstraction like Computer Language or Operating System Services for memory allocation or how the processor's instruction set executes the services that he requests. And it goes on & on, processor's microcode, the electronics on the processor, NAND gates, the transistor ...However, IMHO, the lower levels of abstraction like a computer language or operating system services are very well defined and stable as compared to higher levels of abstraction like Joomla components. And so the "scientific mindset" student/software developer struggles to come to terms with developing software solutions using fast-changing and not-so-well-defined components like Joomla components (fast-changing meaning rapid new versions with older versions changing only for bug-fixes). He feels that he has just put some stuff together and even if works and satisfies users, he cannot explain all its "inner" workings and feels that it is not a "scientifically" done job.But the real world is driven by how society's needs are satisfied quickly and at acceptable cost. The "practical solution mindset" is what delivers tremendous value-for-time-and-money to a wide range of non-mission-critical software needs of society. Component-Based-Development delivers solutions quickly and at far lower cost than reinventing-the-wheel solutions. Yes, there may be a few bugs and crashes, but since the software is not-mission-critical, users are willing to put up with a certain amount of inconvenience. [If the inconvenience becomes too much they tend to switch to some other solution]. So component-based-development model thrives and, in turn, "need to know" practical solution mindset software professionals & solution providers thrive.The "scientific mindset" software professional has his niche mission-critical and systems software development areas where he thrives. But that is a much smaller part of the worldwide software "action".6 comments:Rajendra S. Chittar, October 27, 2011 at 6:41 PMI think it is not fair to break programming into any categories. The analogy of the car does not hold. I may not know how my car works - but driving it safely without harming anyone is completely my responsibility. The ultimate aim in programming is to know the answer to the following questions: If my software works, I know why - if it doesn't, I know why. That guarantees delivery of bug-free software optimally - within budget and without an orgy of testing. All you need is discipline and to be able to give the answers mentioned above - at every statement that is written in a program. And so, step by single step - the whole program gets done elegantly.Any good theory - and that of programming is certainly one - is eminently practical.Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 27, 2011 at 10:36 PM"Guarantees delivery of bug-free software optimally" - I think it is too idealistic and impractical a goal for most application level programming work being done today. The cost and time involved will be unacceptably high.As I understand, for bug-free software delivery we will have to look at "Formal Verification".For mission-critical software work, formal verification could be made mandatory. As the wiki page on Formal verification,?, states, "At present, formal verification is used by most or all leading hardware companies, but its use in the software industry is still languishing." It further states, "Formal verification techniques prove out to be highly useful in the area of Medical science where life of a human being is at stake and accuracy of the algorithm used, for example for operating on a patient, is the most important and with in the area of aviation industry where errors are not acceptable. As of 2011, several operating systems have been formally verified: NICTA's Secure Embedded L4 microkernel, sold commercially as seL4 by OK Labs; Green Hills Software's Integrity operating system; and SYSGO's PikeOS."It seems that Windows, Linux, iOS, Android etc. all are not formally verified. When the OS and the compilers/interpreters are not formally verified how can software written on top of them "guarantee delivery of bug-free software"?In application software world, including the fast growing phone and tablet app. market, guaranteed bug-free software approach for all the applications may be just way too impractical.?I think the choice should be given to the users. Let developers who have developed "guaranteed bug-free software" apply that label to their software and let them have no "use at your own risk" warranty, which is what we all say Yes to when installing all kinds of software including the Operating System on our PCs or smart phones or tablets. Other developers can develop software like it is done now and have a "use at your own risk" warranty. Let the users choose what they want.?BTW the count for iOS and Android apps, according to a research report published on Oct. 24th 2011, is 800,000!!!! See?Android Market App Downloads Jump Over iOS: ABI. I would be surprised if even one of these 800,000 apps is "guaranteed bug-free".Rajendra S. Chittar, October 28, 2011 at 7:35 AMA question: Take a compiler in any language - say the simplest of languages "C". How does the compiler writer verify that it compiles correctly for every C program? BY correctly - I mean - if the program has a syntax error then it correctly points out the error - if the program has no syntax error then it correctly translates it to the assembly level (i.e. faithfully reproduces its intent in the lower level language).Is this task ever possible? How long would it take?There is a level of formal development called "Design by Contract" that is not overly formalistic but something that works at the level of "Function Prototypes" in a C-like language. And writing correct software can be done within budget and time - and has been. It is eminently practical.Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 28, 2011 at 1:09 PMI think a compiler is very different from application software as the compiler is a 'fundamental' tool used by applications developers to create their applications. It would be wonderful if all compilers are guaranteed bug-free. However, I am not sure how many compilers meet that standard. I don't think any of the heavily used 'C' compilers like gcc are guaranteed bug-free. It would be wonderful if it approaches "guaranteed bug-free" standard as close as it practically can.Here is an interesting article on compiler correctness:?The Future of Compiler Correctness (dated Aug. 2010). Some interesting excerpts from it:"Verified compilation is the gold standard. It sets a very high bar, requiring a mathematical description of the source language, a mathematical description of the target language, and a machine-checkable proof that all programs in the source language are correctly translated into object code.""Although high-road (verified compilation) topics have been studied by the research community for many years, only one verified compiler has ever been produced that I would call useful: CompCert, from INRIA.""Although vendors test compilers before releasing them, the kind of testing that matters most is testing through usage: does the compiler, during a multi-year development cycle, show itself to be free of crashes and to reliably produce correct object code? Of course, the important thing is not to have a correct compiler — these do not exist — but rather to have a good idea of the situations in which it is wrong.""To summarize: we are creating life-critical systems using tools that demonstrably contain silent wrong code bugs. We are comfortable doing so because we test these systems heavily, because this methodology has worked in the past, and because we don’t have a better alternative."-- end excerpts --The entire article is about compilers used for safety-critical or otherwise-critical systems (mostly embedded, it seems). And here too, as of last year, the article states that verified compilers are not used.So, it is no surprise that for non-mission-critical applications development "verified software" or "guaranteed bug free software" is, as of now, quite unknown.Read up?Wiki Design By Contract. Sounds interesting. But seems to be limited to contract details for methods of classes. Proof of correctness of the code that goes into the method does not seem to be covered.You wrote, "And writing correct software can be done within budget and time - and has been. It is eminently practical." I have almost zero exposure to the area of "Proven Correct Software Development". But if what you have written is true, why do we not see "proven correct software" being provided, at least, by software majors like GNU, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM etc.? If the majors are not able to do it there must be some practical issues as mentioned in "The Future of Compiler Correctness" blog post. Can you provide examples of "correct software" which is widely used and is being offered by major software companies?If somebody comes up with some breakthroughs in future that enables everybody to easily develop "guaranteed bug free software" within acceptable time that would be truly wonderful.Rajendra S. Chittar, October 28, 2011 at 1:31 PMThe work we did when we put our patent to use in TechM - 2 projects - a highly optimising compiler for C, and autoconversion of Pro*Pascal to Pro*C. This was a project for a Defense application and the concerned department (one of the most stringent in the world) took our compiler on a 4-month test ride at their cost but found no bugs. In the Pro* conversion - one million lines of auto-converted code passed the most stringent tests within 2 weeks. Our strategy - as per our patent - was to build up a language from its building blocks which are handfully finite. And then each is specified and written according to design-by-contract. Once these are verified to be true - then any programming constructs which is a composition of these blocks, is correct by design. Unfortunately, being patent-protected and also protected by strong NDA - as both were mission-critical - these details could not be published. You will have to take them on trust - or leave it there.The practical issues for me are excuses. One need not go the whole-hog of formal methods - even rigourous arguments in favour of program construction will do. Design-by-Contract is what we have used - and used it practically to great results for quite a while now.Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 28, 2011 at 10:44 PMIt is very good that you have direct experience of using Design-By-Contract to construct verifiable software. Wonderful!I browsed a little to see whether it is popular.?Design-By-Contract by Google (Sep. 2011). The article states,"Design by Contract received a lot of attention when it was initially released, but it has never become a significant approach in most languages (the most obvious exception is Eiffel, which was built around Design by Contract).Several libraries have been introduced for using DbC in Java, but none ever gained mass acceptance. However, a new library called Contracts for Java has been introduced by Google. With Google's weight behind it, perhaps this implementation will finally bring Design by Contract to the attention of the general Java community. "Apparently it did not really get adopted by significant number of developers - perhaps there are some issues with it - or maybe developers just don't like it. You cannot force things down developers' throats - these features have to be sold to them.Maybe Google's "Contracts for Java" will do the trick of attracting developers. Let's Wait and Watch.Microsoft's support for DbC (article date July 2011). So MS is also providing it. Question once again is whether developers will want to use it.I am reminded of usage of Assertions in VC++ projects a decade ago -?Wiki Assertion. MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes) code used it quite heavily. Developers could use it if they wanted. But it was not extensively used in any of the VC++ projects that I was involved in. Note that some of these projects had code written by pretty capable guys from the West. Why was it not used? I really don't know - Maybe it was too much of a hassle to have so many assertions all over the code. And you could have a bug if your Assertion itself is incorrect.As I am not into DbC I do not want to hazard any guesses as to why it has not clicked with most developers so far.Monday, October 24, 2011Does a Teacher of Programming Need to Know Turing Machine?Net url: learnt COBOL programming through a few months of in-house training in Datamatics Consultants, a software consultancy company in Mumbai in 1984. I moved on to other programming languages, notably Wang VS Assembler (close to IBM 360/370 Assembler)1?& 'C', through self-learning with some input, at times, from short company sponsored training programs. "The C Programming Language" by K&R book was perhaps my most important teacher of programming.I don't know Turing Machine, NP-hard, NP-complete and a host of such Computer Science/Mathematics concepts. I have not read the influential computer-science text Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, by Abelson, Sussman, and Sussman: . But I have read hosts of other books on Programming (specific computer language like C++, Java oriented), Unix, OOAD, Design Patterns, Databases, Networks, Operating Systems, ... besides countless manuals on processor instruction sets, computer hardware architecture, software design, OS and Programming references & guides ...?So I am clearly not a Computer Science guy :). But I consider myself to be a strong computer software technologist with many, many years of international design and programming experience in areas like process control software, networking (mail gateway, LAN OS, Videotex, Internet profiling etc.), windowing, database oriented business apps etc. Over time my main technical expertise was in Object Oriented Analysis & Design and C++ programming. Of course, it may, in all probability, have helped me do a better job if I were a master of Design & Analysis of Algorithms & Computational Complexity etc. But I managed to get by without knowing these Computer Science subjects and, if you will allow me to blow my own bugle, my software work gave a lot of satisfaction and happiness to my managers & customers/users.I am not saying that a software professional should not be a master of Computer Science. It will be great if he is. But there are lots of very capable software professionals who are not Computer Science masters.With that background, let me pop a couple of questions on the need for a teacher of programming to know Computer Science theory:Does a teacher of programming need to know Turing Machine?Does he also need to know NP-hard & NP-complete concepts?My view is that the answer for both the questions is NO. It will help if he knows them but it is "not necessary for him to know".But if the person has to be a teacher of Computer Science courses on Design & Analysis of Algorithms, Computational Complexity, High Performance Computing etc. then, IMHO, he may have to know such Computer Science theory topics well. [I cannot say he definitely will need to know as I am quite blissfully ignorant about Computational Complexity and High Peformance Computing, and have introductory knowledge of Design & Analysis of Algorithms.]I also need to mention that I am given to understand that in many elite tech. universities like IITs they don't have 'programming' courses. So they have no notion of a 'teacher of programming' at all. But in many commoner tech. universities they certainly have programming courses e.g. C, C++, Java, Web programming etc. and so have 'teachers of programming'.Notes"VS Assembler is very much like IBM mainframe macroassembler, with sophisticated macro features. It is virtually identical to IBM 360/370 assembler, and mainframe programmers make the transition quite easily." Source: Wang VS Languages, , March 31, 2012Comments on Stroustrup's paper, "Software Development for Infrastructure" in IEEE Computer, Jan. 2012Net url: Updated on April 16th 2012This post has my comments on an academic paper (article), "Software Development for Infrastructure" in IEEE Computer, Jan. 2012, by?Prof. Bjarne Stroustrup, Inventor of C++, Distinguished Professor & holder of College of Engineering Chair in Computer Science at Texas A&M University, ACM fellow as well as an IEEE fellow.The comments are provided as separate bullets. For copyright reasons I cannot use too many quotes from the paper and so have tried to provide minimal context by paraphrasing. Reading the comments without reading the paper side-by-side may make it a rather "disconnected reading experience" :).This paper starts with some serious concerns about how "Our lives are directly affected by software correctness and efficiency". It argues for the urgent need for improving the reliability levels of "Infrastructure Software".I entirely agree that infrastructure software has far higher correctness, reliability, efficiency and maintainability requirements that non infrastructure apps. I further agree that education curricula for infrastructure developers should be different from that of application developers. I also very much like the term infrastructure developer (development).It was quite a revelation to me that Google used over 2 million MW power in 2010 ro run its servers. My God! That's a huge amount of power.The fact that industrialized society worldwide is heavily dependent on systems which can hurt people physically or economically has been well expressed. It seems to be so very true and so very SCARY.There is a huge amount of non infrastructure software (apps) where the tolerance for bugs is far higher. This high tolerance for bugs gives more room for creative software developers who are strong in creativity and ideas and who may not necessarily need very high levels of engineering discipline."I call software where failure can cause serious injury or serious economic disruption infrastructure software." I very much like the simplicity of this definition. The guy-on-the-street can understand this definition."One of my inspirations for quality infrastructure software is the requirement AT&T placed on switches in its telecommunication system backbone: no more than two hours of downtime in 40 years" Ravi: I am lost in ADMIRATION! Hats Off! No wonder AT&T achieved such a FANTASTIC QUALITY reputation.I agree that infrastructure software developers should be very serious about reliability. But will the market economic realities accept this argument? Or do we need some regulators like banking regulators to enforce this?I felt the author stretched it a little too far when he wrote that but for computerized systems, most of us (industrialized world is what he meant, I guess) would starve. To me, this is quite a statement. Is it really TRUE? Now, I have lived for nearly a decade in a very rural (outback) town but which is an international spiritual centre in India. So our small town is surrounded by pretty rustic villages. Initially I thought our setup is geared to manage life without computers or internet. But then I had a second thought :). I use internet banking to avoid spending time queuing up in the local bank. The local bank itself is HEAVILY COMPUTERISED and network dependent - I mean it uses online systems with centralized databases. The railway reservation counter is also similar. So, I guess, even in my small town a catastrophic internet/network failure will bring banking and railway reservation systems down (railway is the lifeline of lower middle class & the poor in India i.e. the vast majority). Maybe we will not starve as the villages around grow food. But we certainly will take a hit in the MATERIAL QUALITY of LIFE.An update on my comments: I would like to withdraw the comment about me feeling that the author had stretched it a little too far when he wrote that but for computerized systems, most of us would starve. In a private mail exchange with one of the leading lights of the software world who seems to have deeply analyzed the extent of computerization in almost every aspect of modern life, he put out a strong case justifying the above 'starve' comment. As I am kind-of out of touch with modern heavily industrialized life I realize that I am not in a position to really comment on the 'starve' point. I think the accurate and truthful thing for me to say is that I am not knowledgeable enough about the extent of computerization in modern life to comment. Prof. Stroustrup may be right. But let me additionally add a prayer to Almighty God that we software chaps succeed in putting our "infrastructure software" house in professional engineering order so that such calamities do not happen.I did not realize the relation between software efficiency and energy conservation. Fascinating point given the nearly desperate state of affairs in the energy sector hurting both developed and developing countries. And who knows how long the oil is going to last! After Fukushima, even in rural India, nobody wants a nuclear power station in their backyard ().As a former systems programmer (but not a computer language designer/creator) I find the suggestion of using a systematic and structured programming approach involving type-rich programming, for infrastructure code, sensible. It is more cumbersome perhaps for the programmer but pays back in terms of the type-checking and type-safety that the compiler does for him and thereby reduces bugs. I think it would be a fair decision if one imposed such type-rich programming language & programming conventions/style for infrastructure code.I buy the argument of designing for compactness and predictable access patterns for infrastructure code. I don't buy it for apps. code that run on a smart phone. Yes, it will drain more power but does that get offset by the benefit it provides to the smartphone user? Perhaps it does. Perhaps one can take a proper call on it only if one knows about the extent of power hit due to a particular app. that is not designed for compactness and predictable access patterns.I had not thought through or realized that class objects being allocated in dynamic memory results in an efficiency downside due to non-compact representation. But I did have the general impression that efficiency is typically better for C/C++ programs as compared to Java (or Python).For me a "design error" for systems programing (e.g. an automation tool controller software) would be more in the realm of the Object Oriented Analysis & Design of the system, but also possible in the area of code, of course. Though I may refer to it (in code) more as an algorithm flaw rather than a design flaw.I feel that if the program did deal heavily with heights and widths of rectangle objects it would be fine to have a Rectangle(Point(100,200), Height 100, Width 50)); constructor too with Height and Width typedef'ed to int (or unsigned int).For infrastructure code, usage of static type-safety features must be mandatory as it can eliminate quite a few errors. And it is far simpler than designing for compactness and predictable access patterns.I have found C++ especially with its fantastic STL to be far superior to 'C' for writing (more) efficient and robust (reliable) code. My own string 'C' functions will typically not match STL string class functions easily let alone functions of STL vector or map classes. However I have not done any comparative measures of efficiency as that was not required in my work environment. It was easy to convince a knowledgeable senior techie about it and did not need an efficiency comparison metric. I would also like to state here that when I had to teach C++, around maybe 5 to 6 years ago, I changed the course from its earlier structure to ensure that STL classes like string, vector etc. get taught well before we come to creating our own classes. I introduced one assignment where I asked the students (who had learned 'C' in an earlier course) to do a word collection building (from file) program first in 'C' and then in C++ using string and vector. This assignment very successfully drove home to the students how much more easier it was to program in C++ using string and vector and how much more reliable and efficient it was as compared to their 'C' program solution. I taught this course for around 3 years and then this same course structure is being used by the teacher who took over from me and is currently teaching it.But the impression that I have is that for very heavily used code like OS Kernel code writing it in 'C' allows for easier and more visible control of overhead costs of function calls (inline does it but sometimes a programmer misses its significance). And avoids RTTI and virtual function call costs. So, even though I am not a kernel programmer or even a serious student of kernel programming, I am not surprised by Linux kernel developers choosing to stick to 'C'.I fully agree that "duck typing" should be avoided in infrastructure code.The obscure reporting of template errors puts off C++ students in a big way. I had to take very special care to give students the courage to not get thrown into confusion by string template compilation errors that they would see when they were writing their first C++ programs using the string (template) class. I think this may be a reason why, I would not be surprised if, even today, in many colleges and universities in India, C++ is taught with the STL part being a kind of optional add on at the end of the course. The teachers themselves may be finding templates tough to handle due to the really scarily long and completely obscure compilation error messages.In my exposure to education of or selection of systems programmers I too have found that the system does not actively encourage teaching of or spotting the ability to deliver general, elegant and simple solutions.I am not so sure about too many managers and too many programmers encouraging complicated solutions assumed to be efficient. At least, in my experience of the system software world (late 80's & 90s), especially where there was a system of design and code reviews, general, elegant and simple solutions were given appropriate appreciation. However, not enough was done to ensure that all or most programmers would do general, elegant and simple solutions. I mean, it was not enforced.Enjoyed the Alan Perlis lollipop quote :). Ha, ha!Code generation tools or systems driven by huge amount of option settings are almost magical! I had some exposure to this in a mini-project oriented course I taught nearly a year back where I got exposure to Joomla, Moodle, Al Fresco etc. The "exactly how it works" level certainly goes down. But from a "mix and match customizer" kind-of app. developer viewpoint I found it is okay. I mean, it is like how I use gmail and the Internet facility from my small rural outback town in India. Sometimes it is not accessible and I live with it. To protect myself from my gmail a/c data getting lost (due to hacking, say) I have my Outlook Express backup of mails. This works out decently. Similar is the case of my blogs (blogger & wordpress). Settings all over the place. Sometimes I can't get my blog show my posts the exact way I want it. But I live with what I can manage. And it has satisfied my needs overall, very, very well. So for the App space a Joomla type of development environment which heavily uses option settings and, more importantly, a bewildering array of components (many being user supplied), seems to be quite acceptable to its more tolerant of errors & outages user community.Fully agree that for "infrastructure code" it is vital to clean up our code.Absolutely agree that an education/training for applications cannot create a reliable infrastructure component developer. It can be a disaster if such inappropriately trained persons are used for infrastructure component tasks! But some persons can be very capable but "self-taught" infrastructure component developers too. Self-taught "infrastructure developer aspirants" should prove their mettle via appropriate tests. We should not exclude the self-taught community as experience has taught us that many very capable and productive "infrastructure developers" are self-taught. But, I repeat, they should prove their mettle/knowledge of infrastructure software development techniques via appropriate tests/proven credentials (e.g. software developed by them which is assessed by experts whether it proves them to be good enough infrastructure developers).It is VITAL to specialize our computer science, software engineering and IT curricula. In fact, I will argue for separate curricula for "infrastructure developer" and "app. developer". There may be some limited overlap but they should be two separate curricula.I am not sure about the mathematical basis of all infrastructure developers needing to be strengthened. Of course, a strong mathematical basis may be ESSENTIAL for infrastructure developers who FOCUS on efficiency. But a lot of infrastructure work could be done which is reliable as well as efficient using efficiency measuring techniques & tools which have been well defined by others (the ones who FOCUS on efficiency). I think I got by doing a lot of fairly decent systems software work without having a STRONG mathematical or statistical basis. But then I only used STL - I did not have to design an STL class like vector and prove its efficiency.I agree entirely that algorithms, data structures ... must remain core subjects for infrastructure developer (systems software) education. In fact, in my self-taught journey into systems software these were the topics that I had to study rather well. Though I must also state here that I did not have to get into in-depth Design and Analysis of Algorithms as I did not have to write libraries like STL. If I had to do that I am sure I would have studied and tried to master an Aho-Ullman or similar book on Algorithms.----------Some frank comments from a TOP LEVEL MANAGEMENT/ADMINISTRATION view. The paper started off with a very top level view of the need to improve software infrastructure code and the dangers if we don't. Then it delved into language details - which is important, for sure. But then this is just an academic paper. Some people may read it and change somewhat; some may continue with their old ways but most "infrastructure developers" may not even know of the paper's existence.WHAT WE NEED IS AN "INFRASTRUCTURE SOFTWARE REGULATOR". USA is THE leader in infrastructure software. Top iconic figures of US software academia and industry should suggest an infrastructure regulator organization which lays down guidelines for infrastructure software development companies, and then conducts "infrastructure quality audits" which, if passed, grants an "infrastructure quality" stamp for the software. That may not solve all problems right away but will be a great way to start doing something about bringing a mature engineering discipline to the "infrastructure software" industry similar to, say, the civil engineering industry. If such a suggestion comes from top iconic figures then people in powerful decision making bodies may sit up and take notice.Wednesday, January 18, 2012Texas A&M University's Approach to Teaching Programming in (US) CS AcademiaNet url: the paper, "Programming in an undergraduate CS curriculum" by Bjarne Stroustrup, WCCCE ’09 May 1-2, 2009, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada:?, the author makes a case for a strong "software curriculum" in undergraduate CS curriculum so that "software professionals" get produced by CS academia. The paper also presents the largely positive results from Texas A&M University (TAMU), USA adopting this strong "software curriculum". So it is not just a proposal but a "software curriculum" that is proven in practice. I have been informed that this "software curriculum" is considered a success and is being used even now at TAMU.Prof. Bjarne Stroustrup is a world-famous Computer Science industry-and-academic-researcher, technologist and Distinguished Professor & holder of College of Engineering Chair in Computer Science at Texas A&M University. He is known throughout the software world for the creation and the development of the widely used C++ programming language. He is an ACM fellow as well as an IEEE fellow. For more details, see:?, the outset I would like to say that such an approach may OR may not be appropriate for Indian CS / IT departments. I am simply sharing it as an outstanding programming expert's point of view and details of the experience of teaching programming in that fashion in CS academia.The paper starts with an analysis of the problems in the way programming is taught/learned in CS academia.Now for a quote from the paper. But first, here is the copyright notice of the paper."Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.WCCCE ’09 May 1-2, 2009, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Copyright 2009 ACM ...$5.00"?Now the actual quote, "That way, you can (and often do) see students with high grades in algorithms, data structures, and software engineering hack solutions in an operating systems course with total disregard for data structures and algorithms, resulting in a poorly performing unmaintainable mess."It then moves on to stating that "software professionals" should be produced by CS academia. This article has a focus on teaching programming while acknowledging clearly, of course, that Computer Science has many other areas to be taught as well.The "software curriculum" part of Texas A&M University CS curriculum is then described (4 courses: Introductory programming (using C++), Data structures & algorithms, programming languages (besides C++) & a primarily project-based Design Studio course).What should be the first programming language (Java ?) is considered. Interesting that this question haunts many CS departments :). The Introductory programming course teaches C++ based on Stroustrup's book, "Programming - Principles & Practice using C++". It is not 'C' (subset of C++) followed by C++ as is the case in many Indian CS departments, I believe. The course is explained in quite some detail.The author frankly shares the problems with "execution" of the course (e.g. some students want 'C' part first). Grading approach and TAs handling of students is also mentioned. Comments on how Professors should teach the course is also given quite frankly.A concluding section named Etc. has comments on some topics including approach of increasing level of professionalism rather than pandering to demands for "better trained" students (from industry), "easier and more exciting courses" (from students), "things done the way we are used to" (from teachers) ...I think this paper is a MUST-READ for CS / IT academia programming course teachers/policy-makers/decision-makers. The reader need not agree with Stroustrup's views & approach but, IMHO, the reader will benefit by knowing how Stroustrup & team handled the task of teaching programming in a CS department.However, there is a high degree of inertia & even resistance in Indian CS & IT academia to accept a practical "software curriculum" aimed at producing "software professionals". Prof. Stroustrup & team at Texas A&M University, USA, have to be congratulated on bringing about this change in their undergraduate CS curriculum thereby, I am quite sure, benefiting students, parents & employers. Indian CS & IT academia should carefully study this wonderful "software curriculum" and, if required, adapt it appropriately for its needs so that Indian CS & IT academia can also produce "software professionals" and make students, parents & employers happy.Saturday, September 24, 2011CS & IT Academia: How to Teach Programming?Net url: : This post is a continuation of post-comment:?CS & IT Academia: Serious Systemic Problems?-ChittarComment?Thank you so much for your valuable comments, Chittar.I am out of touch with industry picture nowadays but even when I was in the industry around a decade back there were Application Software (IT) jobs where a mix of domain knowledge of application and simpler programming skills were needed. Pointers, recursion, linked list manipulation etc. in languages like C & C++ were not needed for these kind of jobs. And Application Software (IT) was the biggest part of programming work in India.I guess nowadays it must be similar with web/mobile programming (, Java, PHP etc. with databases like Oracle, SQL Server, mySQL) and Component Based Development using tools like Joomla, Drupal etc. being an important chunk of the application software business market.But I think we also have significant amount of System Software (CS) jobs - even more than we had a decade back. And for these jobs far more solid programming knowledge is needed like pointers, recursion, linked list manipulation etc. in languages like C & C++. Of course other areas of knowledge like OOAD, databases etc. may also be vital depending on the work area.I agree with you when you say, "I feel it is perfectly possible to maintain a balance between both theory and practice - after all - what one practices is better if it is based on solid theory." In the ideal case, both system and application software programmers should have a solid theoretical base - though this theoretical base would be different for system software and application software programmers.While I was teaching in academia I was focusing on teaching programming courses only (Lab. courses) [my lack of appropriate academic qualifications did not permit me to teach theory courses and I was very happy with that as I enjoy teaching practical programming courses and am relieved that I did not have to teach theory courses :-)].As you know, I learnt programming on the job. I started programming by learning and programming in COBOL in 1984. My first and most important system software programming language teacher, a year and a half or so later, was K&R 'The C programming language'. I read and re-read and re-read ... it over a period of years in parallel to me doing industry system software programming in C. I did read other books on algorithms, operating systems, computer architecture, object oriented analysis & design, databases etc. some of which, I found when I moved to Academia after 18+ years of industry experience, were still being used as textbooks for Computer Science theory courses.But I have to thank the K&R C book for being the one that broke me into "solid systems programming" along with the superb programming style that it illustrated. By solid systems programming I do not mean writing production-quality OS kernels or a compiler or a TCP/IP protocol stack - availability of such work is pretty limited to few companies and an elite few work on it? - I refer to possibly simpler but still systems programming stuff like writing production-quality SMTP gateways or process control simulators.I have a statement to make [I don't think it is a confession but some CS puritans may feel that it should be one :-)]. I still don't know about Turing machines! I mean, I can learn about it if I want. But I have never felt the need to do so for my system software programming work. And, I think I was a decent programmer. With the huge amount of stuff that I had to learn to stay abreast in the ever-changing software field I generally followed a "need to know" basis about what I needed to study to get my job done decently. That policy gave me spare time to do other things in life as well.Perhaps, even today, there are many software guys like me. They may be as good a programmer or even a better one as compared to a CS graduate who may be steeped in theory but lacks practical knowledge depth. The software companies choose whoever they feel are good enough to do the job and that's what matters, isn't it? If they choose wrongly they pay with poorer software solutions and may get creamed by the competition.Okay, having mentioned my background, let me get on to what I think are the challenges for Academic CS & IT departments (in India) in terms of teaching programming. Design is also important but let me focus on programming - let's look at this MASSIVE challenge one step at a time :-).Now I am not considering the elite technical institutions like IITs. They get the cream and so they can teach algorithms & data structures and allow the students to choose their own programming language and not teach programming languages. The students are very smart and so can, in all probability, pick up a lot of stuff on their own.AICTE/UGC have the HUGE responsibility for setting guidelines/norms for vast number of mostly non-elite engg. & science universities & colleges in the country. I think it must be a very, very difficult task to come up with norms for a wide variety in terms of quality of students and teachers. Most CS departments of engg. & science universities in the country simply cannot take the elite techie universities like IIT approach and expect students to pick up computer languages on their own. I think it is very sensible for most CS depts in most universities in the country to teach a programming language course at the beginning of the curriculum.'C' programming is taught by many CS departments as the first programming course at under graduate level. Many of the students are quite raw. I mean they have to be taught what is a memory location, a variable, program statement etc. They also need time to get familiar with using an OS like Linux (assuming C is taught on that). BTW many colleges still use TURBO 'C' to teach 'C' programming! [If you don't believe me, see the initial posts in this forum:]'C' is taught for 2 semesters. BUT typically a student may have to do many courses per semester - don't know the exact figure but could be five minimum. [I have taught programming courses primarily at M.Sc. & M.Tech. level and so am not exposed to UG - B.E./B.Tech./B.C.A./B.Sc. - curriculum so much.] 'C' programming will be a 'lab' course and other courses will typically be theory courses. Typically there are theory courses like Introductory Algorithms & Data Structures course taught at the same semester/year that 'C' programming is taught. These courses complement the 'C' programming course. However please note that students write 'paper exams' to pass the Introductory Algorithms & Data Structures course as it is a 'theory' course.While I think the importance of this first programming course is recognised quite well by CS academia, the problem is that it is just one of so many courses. So time available for the course is not much even though it is a 2 semester course typically (e.g. 'C' & 'Advanced C'). And usually students are given liberal marks in 'Lab' courses and so some tend to take it easy. But they have to be scared about theory courses as they have to write many paper examinations on it. Can't really blame the students - in the student mindset, passing examinations are the key goals to be achieved - that earns parental approval - how much they really learn about 'C' programming does not matter so much, and, in fact, is even quite irrelevant as they get a decent grade in 'C' programming anyway, in terms of the overall academic evaluation system and, therefore, parental approval. You may be shocked but that's the way the CS/IT academic system in most engg. & science universities in the country ics like Pointers and recursion are certainly covered but I think most students do not do enough assignments on them. So their knowledge is quite sketchy and unsure about such topics.?Students think that such 'C' knowledge is enough and tend to concentrate on theory subjects (as tough exams have to be cleared there). Teachers may like to teach more but where is the time? Sometimes teachers themselves may not be really strong on complex topics like pointers & recursion. Anyway 'C' programming etc. is taught by junior teachers as CS professors have to focus on teaching theory subjects and research publications output and can't be bothered by trivial subjects like programming!So students move through the system to the next year with assumptions being made that enough time has been spent on teaching them 'C' as well as introductory algorithms & data structures. Now they have to be taught other things in programming like an object oriented language, say, C++. The C++ teacher has to focus on features of C++ that are not available in 'C' and cannot spend much time on problem-solving or algorithm implementation aspects of programming - there is not enough time and that is supposed to have already been done in the 'C' programming 2 semester course and other theory courses like the introductory algorithms & data structures course, and so it is not the C++ teacher's job to focus on them!Eventually the students may do a multi-threaded programming course and learn stuff like pthread prog. library and mutexes and condition variables. But they may still not be able to do K&R C programming problems involving intricate aspects of 'C' like pointers and recursion! That explains what you mentioned in your response. That is the unfortunate reality.Is there any solution? I feel that lack of importance to Design & Code in CS & IT academia is the root problem. If Design & Code skills in CS & IT academicians is rewarded appropriately then we may have academicians themselves changing the system so that students learn programming better. The change has to come from within - UGC/AICTE policy makers have to facilitate that change happening by altering the REWARD/RECOGNITION system for CS/IT academicians. If the mindset changes then many possibilities can came into play - for example:a) University CS teachers mastering 'C' and problem solving with 'C' language.b) Senior university CS teachers teaching 'C' programmingc) If academia has shortage of teachers skilled in 'C' programming then AICTE/UGC norms being changed for CS/IT to allow non-research-oriented industry experts to become university teachers.d) Time allotted for 'C' programming doubling so that students have ample time for learning and solving many complex programming assignments/problems. The additional time could be made available by dropping two theory courses.e) Evaluation of 'C' programming courses becoming strict. Students may stop thinking that just 'traveling through' the course is enough to get a decent grade! If they are not upto the mark they could even be failed.With these measures I think chances of students becoming quite proficient in 'C' programming and problem solving with it is quite high. Instead of 'C', the first programming language could be some other one but the issues raised & solution proposed would roughly be the same. I do not have any exposure to IT academia but perhaps they may prefer Java or maybe even HTML/PHP/JavaScript as the first programming language/language-set to teach.Once the first programming language and problem solving with that language has been reasonably mastered then the student is truly ready for Advanced Algorithms (Design & Analysis of Algorithms), Operating Systems, Parallel Programming etc. theory courses. He can understand concepts of such courses more easily and he can read & write code to check out the concepts. Whereas if he does not have the programming language grasp, he understands the concepts of these kind of theory subjects at a much more superficial level and fails to translate the superficial knowledge of these concepts into understanding code or writing code - which is a terrible, terrible failure of the CS academic system. I am quite sure the IT academic system will have similar failures.Now I must clarify that I am not against theory courses neither am I against research. I think theory is very important. But there has to be a balance between theory and practise - currently the CS/IT academic system is skewed heavily towards theory - this has to be corrected.You wrote, "Defect-free programming by Design rather than by testing - and also do solid research in parallel, commercialise it and patent it. This for me is the proof of the pudding of balance. "Very well put. But that is your view in your position in industry. Academia may have a different view.IMHO, research is vital for society. Academic researchers and Industry researchers make tremendous contributions to society. But an academician's research interests or research goals should not come in the way of his duty as a teacher. Naive students should not be coaxed to do research as part of their CS/IT Bachelor's or Master's projects just because it will help the image of the academic institution that they are studying in. The students should be given complete freedom to choose to pursue a technology implementer/software engineering interest or a research interest. And some students may want to have both.So, out of free choice, CS/IT Bachelor and Master degree students should get into two main groups categorised by their objective, namely:a) "Defect-free programming by Design rather than by testing" with no research interestb) "Defect-free programming by Design rather than by testing" as well as research interestAnd for both groups. theory subjects (theoretical) knowledge is VITAL.Some may say "Original Research" only with no or limited design/programming should be a third group. I feel that may be acceptable for a Ph.D. (or M.Phil. perhaps - I don't know much about M.Phil.). But, to me, a Master's CS/IT student doing "original research with limited design/programming" in academia would result in the student's exposure to "Defect-free programming by design rather than by testing" to be pretty low, which is highly undesirable.I also feel that excellence in design & programming may be extremely helpful in CS/IT research. Just like vocabulary proficiency helps in fluent expression of ideas in a human language, research ideas in CS/IT can be fluently expressed into software with results to show, if the researcher is proficient in design & programming. But then that is my non-Ph.D, non-researcher view of the matter. A researcher may choose to dismiss my view as I do not belong to his Ph.D./researcher club :-).?7 comments:Rajendra S. Chittar, September 24, 2011 at 4:37 PMGreat to hear your views. I guess we do not have much differences there. Just wanted to mention a few things:1) Having done almost all kinds of software development - applications, systems, backend, gui, analytics etc - I feel that the core element of all is simply PROGRAMMING - which subsumes analysis and design. 2) It is not necessary to know Turing machines or any similar theory to do excellent programming - defect free by design and computationally efficient. 3) But knowing Turing machines (Theory of Computation) brings a better understanding of what is possible and what is not - and ties algorithms down to their foundations - where one does not then worry about C or C++ or Java and whether any of them is superior to another or not. 4) The theory of Computational Complexity is a must for getting provably demonstrable efficiencies in execution - a context in which I can declare whether my program is efficient or not. 5) Extending the theory of Computation - one can understand and appreciate the genesis of loops or recursion in different models of computation and how they are equivalent to each other - and their strengths and limitations. For instance - though C is an outcome of the Turing machine model - it supports recursion which is borrowed from the Lambda calculus model and which does not come naturally on a Turing machine. Similarly, Loops of any kind are not possible in the Lambda model - and on which recursion comes naturally. Advait, my elder son, is now in the first year of BE - and they begin programming in C. I have purchased K&R for him and told him to immerse himself in it. But apparently his lecturers view C - and programming - rather superficially. I hope I am able to guide him to understand and appreciate the beauty of this subject of Computation - theory and/or practical - and put it to use in his career.I too belong to a non-PhD background - not even an engineer - just an ordinary BSc. And I have chosen to strive for the balance - irrespective of whether academia or industry approve of it or not. I love the theory of Computation in all its aspects - and I love taking it further to solve practical problems of the industry.Eklavya Sai Maalik, September 24, 2011 at 11:05 PMInteresting comments about Theory of Computation and Theory of Computational Complexity. As of now I don't think I need to know them. This does not mean that knowing them will not help me - it is just a time vs. benefit issue for me. If I get the time and the inclination I surely will look them up. Of course, students in a CS course MUST study these subjects and also learn programming well.About Advait's lecturers apparently viewing C and programming rather superficially - I think that is the impact of the serious systemic problem in CS/IT academia that I am writing about in these blog posts. I hope he does not become very strong in Theory of Computation but at the expense of being weak in C programming! The ideal situation would be a balanced strength in both Theory of Computation and 'C' programming.Eklavya Sai Maalik, September 25, 2011 at 6:53 PMFriend1 wrote (edited version):@Rajendra, your explanation of how Turing machines and in general models of computation matter was insightful. Thanks.I'm with Ekalavya Sai that design is far more widely used and therefore important to teach than algorithms.Programming Languages are equally important, too, because you want a powerful medium to express your ideas in. I disagree with the conventional wisdom that it doesn't matter what language you use. Paul Graham has an insightful essay on this: personal experience at work (and college projects), I'd much rather program in Java or Objective C than C++. After all, C is more productive a language than assembly, C++ perhaps more than C, and Java more than C++, so why would you think it stops there? To me an ideal CS curriculum would include one language per semester: start with Scheme (everything is a list), then Smalltalk (perhaps the most powerful and purest OO language), then Erlang (parallelism and fault tolerance), perhaps Haskell (lazy evaluation), Joy [(programming_language)] (why do functions need arguments?) and Forth [(programming_language)] (the stack is all you need). --- snip ---Extremely important stuff to know, if you're laying the foundation for a career and preparing students for more than a code monkey kind of job. Not that every student must learn this stuff, but some should. The split between IT and CS matters here.Advanced languages should be taught in college -- students are not going to go and learn them, because they are most likely not going to use them once they graduate.As for AICTE/UGC setting norms, why don't they leave it to the universities? --- snip ---I found your comment insightful -- the one about students neglecting C because profs go easy, are junior, or it's looked down upon compared to the more academic-sounding, stuff, etc. Eklavys Sai' responded:@Friend1: Scheme, smalltalk, Erlang ... I think you are a very intelligent person and so your views reflect a very elitist mind-set. I think that established mainstream languages like Java, C & C++ is what the non-elite CS/IT teaching institutions are comfortable with and can teach the average student. Can these institutions take up languages that you mentioned and throw out Java/C/C++??? I have serious doubts. Campus recruitment, I believe, is vital for most such institutions. Java,C, C++ skill set is acceptable, I think, to most 'bulk recruiters' like software consultancy companies. Besides, CS/IT academia worldwide use these languages extensively.But elite tech. institutions may find your views interesting and may be able to follow them. I don't know enough about these languages or of the elite tech. institutions teaching environment and student capabilities to be able to comment any further.Eklavya Sai Maalik, September 25, 2011 at 6:58 PMFriend1 wrote:I didn't know you were trying to drive policy change in a practical sense, with your blog.Eklavya Sai responded: I think my efforts to get influential CS/IT academic policy makers and ---snip --- to read the views on this blog post make me very careful about respecting POWER. Don't know whether I will succeed in academic policy makers viewing these blog posts. BTW I had anonymously (eklavyasai@) mailed AICTE, UGC, NASSCOM, TCS & Infosys as well as Prof. Stroustrup the link of the first CS/IT post in this blog - no comments then - but I did not receive any response.Now there is more relevant material on the blog with views from a few quarters - and there is some variance in the views too (tech. elitist, tech. commoner (or should I say, less elitist) educational institution etc.). At an appropriate time I intend to try again with Prof. Stroustrup (I have had an interesting mail exchange with him on his ACM article, in and around January 2010) and maybe a few others like Mr. Narayan Murthy/ Mr. Nandan Nilekani. If the latter do view the posts and agree with some of the views, then they may be in a position to put in a word to the AICTE/UGC bigwigs. Once again, I must mention that I really don't know whether I will succeed in getting Mr. Narayan Murthy/ Mr. Nandan Nilekani to read these posts.Eklavya Sai Maalik, September 25, 2011 at 6:59 PMFriend1 wrote:As for being elitist, yes, I was referring to IITs and the top tier of academic institutions (Stanford, MIT, etc). I wasn't saying that the average student be taught Smalltalk.When I said that a CS curriculum should include Smalltalk, Scheme, etc, I was referring to a world where 95% of students would do IT and go on to take jobs at Infosys, etc, whereas 5% would take CS and work at Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, etc. But whether we want to call it CS or IT is not important (you can use whatever term you like :)). My core idea was that the best students should get a better education, to get a solid intellectual foundation for a career.If anything they'll be in a better position jobs-wise, since a person who deeply understands Smalltalk, Scheme, Haskell and Erlang will easily learn Java in a couple of weeks at most, and probably have a deeper understanding of the language, too. Because these languages are the conceptual and intellectual peaks, and C++ and Java are just a watered-down Smalltalk, as I understand (I don't know Smalltalk, but do a bit of Ruby and Objective C, which are perhaps closer to smalltalk than java).I didn't mean to say that C++/Java are useless in a practical sense. I agree that these are the appropriate languages to use 9 times out of 10, in industry, for reasons we both know. I was just referring to laying an intellectual foundation for brilliant students to build a career on top of, and my point is that Smalltalk better serves that purpose than Java.Peter Norvig wrote this insightful review of a top-tier Scheme book: It's only a page long, so I'd encourage you to read it. It captures better what I have in mind.Eklavya Sai responded:Could not squeeze the time to read the Scheme review link. Also, as mentioned earlier I do not know Smalltalk, Scheme, Haskell and Erlang. But I think you have put forward a pretty good case for brilliant students learning them instead of Java/C/C++. And maybe that would be around 5% of students. And so, it may make real sense for elite techie institutions to look at these suggestions.But my suggestions are for the non-elite techie institutions! I think that is a crucial point. This is where AICTE/UGC norms are VITAL. In an earlier comment you had asked, "As for AICTE/UGC setting norms, why don't they leave it to the universities? ". My understanding is that AICTE/UGC have the HUGE, DIFFICULT and VERY UNENVIABLE task of improving the quality of teaching in the vast number of engg. & science universities & affiliated colleges in the country.If universities were given unbridled freedom or just loose rules, given the great money maker that university education has become, the vast market of students, and the Indian penchant for bending the rules, you can well imagine the havoc that can occur in the country at large. I mean, degrees could get sold for money with everything else getting 'fixed'. That is the reality of our country.So I think the system is that AICTE/UGC fix tough norms that universities have to follow to have AICTE/UGC (govt.) recognition. That's probably the only reasonable way for a hugely populated country like ours.And AICTE/UGC policy makers have to worry about the 95 % of CS/IT students that you are not bothered with. And you cannot limit CS course to only 5 % brilliant students!My posts and comments are about the 95% of students. I am not really interested in what should be taught to the 5 % elite students [and most of the elite students/elite techies may not be interested in my views either :-)]. There are others who cater to them like the IITs with MASSIVE government funding.I guess you are an elitist techie and I am a commoner techie :-)Eklavya Sai Maalik, January 19, 2012 at 3:04 PMThis post refers to a fantastic paper by Bjarne Stroustrup on teaching programming in academia: Texas A&M University's Approach to Teaching Programming in (US) CS Academia.Ravi S. Iyer, April 21, 2013 at 5:04 PMI was passed on a very interesting article,?Teaching Programming to a Highly Motivated Beginner by a correspondent. The article is a fascinating one about an experienced teacher of programming teaching programming to an entrepreneur with experience in marketing, sales etc. but no computer programming experience.Some points I particularly noted (and largely agree with based on my experience as a teacher/mentor of programming):1. Approach of making Brian a pragmatic amateur programmer than an erudite computer science scholar.2. Project-based learning being immensely effective as Brian cared deeply about his own fledgling creation.3. The best way to internalize knowledge is first struggling for hours and becoming emotionally distraught and only then being helped by a mentor.4. The mentor knowing that he has succeeded when his student realizes that he no longer needs the mentor as a tutor.Wednesday, October 26, 2011CS & IT Academia: Some Comments on Teaching ProgrammingNet url: friend shared his views over email, a month back, on some of the posts related to teaching programming in CS & IT Academia.?Friend wrote:I tend to agree a lot with Chittar (comment here) on this issue: a balance (between theory & practice) is needed; and it is most definitely possible. And here are my reasons, thoughts & comments:Importance of theory: in my (extremely limited life in this field), I have seen that if you can think abstract, you tend to think more general, more clear and usually results in better design. Yes, to reach the level of abstraction, the starting point is concrete examples, but yes, one can move up to abstractions quite easily if one applies oneself.?Here is where theory can really help. Decades of?rigorous study had created some well tested abstractions (lists, pointers, heaps and so on, to name a few basic ones). For example, not just in the classroom, but often at work, I could prove that something was not possible for the simple reason that it was NP-hard. Or that it was equivalent to the halting problem and so we have to rephrase the question or relax some restrictions to make it work. Things like Turing machines are the way everyday concepts like Regular expressions work. I mean, it may be enough to know how to write regular expressions. But if you know why they work or how they are implemented, that is a non-functional bonus.Eklavya Sai: Sure I can appreciate that knowledge of concepts like Turing machines and NP-hard makes one a more capable programmer. But my point is that it is not necessary for all programmers to know Turing machine or NP-hard concepts. If a programmer feels the need to know them he can always study them on-demand.Look at OOP, for example. The word abstraction is part of the native vocabulary. The abstractions here are basically 'generalizations'. It is not difficult to see that cat & dog are in general, animals; but it takes a keen mind to 'realize/see' more real-world (Goodbye, poor Car extends Vehicle object-orientation tutorial:?).?For that, you need experience and training would definitely help - better so at the student phase, with limited to no pressure, than in Industry where mistakes could be fatally expensive.I have to say that there are enough system/low level jobs these days. At major-cell-phone-company, I worked mostly on MW and at major-search-engine-company, spent a fair amount of time on their proprietary RTML compiler. Not to say that Application jobs are few: I did spend a good amount of time at?major-search-engine-company?doing application level work. However, to do application level work, you mostly need to know the framework - and you can generally use it well, once you get to know it.Eklavya Sai: Perhaps we can call the Application work - IT work.But to do system/MW work, it definitely helps to know a good amount of pure CS: lists, pointers, efficiency of algorithms, more efficient algorithms. Even for application level jobs, this knowledge definitely helps - I have seen a bit of such examples at work at both the above mentioned companies. It was trivial to prove that my implementation was better than other's simply because I could figure out the running time complexity of both the implementations and then it was simply a matter of stating the obvious - and this is no story - I actually did this a couple of times at work (major-cell-phone-company).Eklavya Sai: Sure, I agree that efficiency of algorithms, mastery of design & analysis of algorithms etc. may be useful even in IT (applications) work. But my point again is that it is not a pre-requisite or an absolutely necessary skill. And further, it can be picked up on-demand if & when ing to the issue of student, teacher & parent responsibility: yes, in India, there is a focus on the importance of passing students?(...in the student mindset, passing examinations are the key goals to be achieved - that earns parental approval...). In my 6 months at an-American-University, I have seen that the mindset is so very different here in the US: the onus is on the student and teachers/professors generally don't mind failing a student.Eklavya Sai: I think that is a vital, vital point. I wonder what the statistics are for failures in 'Lab' programming courses in AICTE/UGC universities in India. I have not heard of any student failing in a 'Lab' programming course.Perhaps?the prohibitively expensive nature of schooling, even at public schools like?an-American-University, ensures that mostly serious students come in.Eklavya Sai: I think that is the great benefit of a market-driven system as against a state-subsidized system. As the schooling is expensive in the US mostly serious students enroll. And they would demand to be taught well. The market goes by value-for-money and accountability.But the bottom line is this: a mindset change.I tend to consider myself a polyglot (I heavily read Paul Graham). Not that I don't care what language I program in, but precisely because I care. Not saying that one language is better than the other. But I think after a point, you should be able to program in ANY language, independent of personal prejudices towards languages. And I am stating this simply to emphasize that I agree with Chittar on the fact that he believes in teaching programming independent of language. Infact, this is what the timeless book on programming (SICP:?) does. It teaches you Scheme in the first few pages - it is practically possible - and you learn to think about programs, rather than think about programs in C/C++/Java/Python or whatever.Eklavya Sai: My considered view is that whether programming is taught in a language independent way or a language dependent way should be a collective choice of the teachers & students of an educational institution. Some like the elite tech. universities may choose the former but the majority may choose the latter. One particular way should not be imposed on all educational institutions and all CS/IT students.I also have to agree with Friend1 (comment here) on this: you should introduce (as opposed to necessarily teach) as many languages as possible. The roster he has listed would sound like what I would like too and for similar reasons. How many people even know about these languages to even casually mention them for one of their merits?Eklavya Sai: I think it is a question of available time and comfort-level of students. Expecting that all CS/IT students of all educational institutions should be introduced/taught Scheme, Smalltalk, Erlang, Haskell, Joy, Forth etc. seems quite impractical to me. Give the students the choice, I say. If students of some elite educational institutions want to be taught this way and the teacher agrees - wonderful. But if the majority of CS/IT students want to be taught C/C++, Java, PHP etc. then let the teacher teach them those languages. Later, if time permits, he can introduce students to Scheme, Smalltalk, ... But given the crunch for time that C/C++, Java courses itself have, I am doubtful whether there will be time for other languages introduction as part of the 'Lab' programming courses.Bottomline: people who teach should also upgrade themselves, by personal motivation.Eklavya Sai: Interesting point. I personally do not have the time nor the inclination to learn?Scheme, Smalltalk, Erlang, Haskell, Joy, Forth etc. I am willing to teach languages that I know like Java/C/C++ and also pick up languages like PHP on-demand (if students have to be taught those languages). So I do my new programming language learning on a strictly on-demand basis as I prefer to focus on my non-CS/IT interests in my "free time".Therefore I do not fit into your criterion. And so, should I stop teaching programming? I don't mind as I have a lot of non-CS/IT interests I can work on. Except that there is a great shortage in Indian CS & IT Academia of teachers who are knowledgeable and capable of teaching Java/C/C++. So I feel I should continue to teach programming if students want to learn Java/C/C++.But I personally enjoy programming in C/C++ simply because it is more challenging. Programming with C/C++ allows you to go to the guts of the algorithm. Yes, for app development, they may not be what you want to do and Java would be a better option, but C/C++ also have a ton to teach - especially wrt what Chittar noted: they have direct proof of application of seemingly esoteric theoretic concepts.WRT limitations of time in teaching in the classroom: X taught us C++ and integrated design into his classes. Personally, my first job is totally attributed to his classes. I had less than 6 hours to prepare for the interview at?major-cell-phone-company. And just the line of thinking and reasoning with objects and classes, the assignments that he gave us on C++ topics like overloading, overriding, inheritance and so on got me through a 4 hour interview. Trust me, all we discussed was C++ (about 45 minutes) and OOP design (~ 3 hours). I am not saying X is the authority on teaching C++ nor am I saying that mine was a one-off chance in the interview. I was interviewed, I later found out, by one of the best respected architects atmajor-cell-phone-company. After he said yes, even though I did not really do well with my manager, I got the job with a great offer for a fresher at?major-cell-phone-company. So, to summarize, it is definitely possible. But yes, the student's interest also plays a key role - it is symbiotic.Eklavya Sai: I think you were very fortunate to be taught C++ by a dedicated and gifted teacher. The interesting point to me here is that you did not do too badly :) even though you were taught programming in a language-dependent way!!! You may have, on your own, studied language-independent books on programming and learned many other programming languages thereby becoming a more accomplished software professional. That's wonderful. So you may have used an on-demand self-learning method to gain the benefits of language-independent programming. The majority of students who learn CS/IT programming in a language-dependent way are free to do something similar to you to gain the benefits of language-independent programming.WRT priorities of universities: in the US, there are two kinds: teaching and research. Yes, the teaching universities (that are not allowed to award PhDs), aim to become research universities. But they also focus on high-quality undergrad & masters programs. Here, people expect you to pick up programming on your own, after they introduce you to a language. This is not so much the case in India. If not taught, students usually throw a 'not-taught' tantrum!!Eklavya Sai: I feel that it is unfair to blame CS/IT students in India without delving deeper. My impression is that most US university CS/IT departments have a far better balance of theory and practice than in India. Their lab. facilities would also be far better typically - as students pay through their noses for it. I think Indian CS/IT students would, in general, be as good as US CS/IT students. IMHO, it is the systemic problems in Indian CS/IT academia that needs to be addressed.Testing is another thing that should be integrally taught with programming - atleast the Unit-test part of testing. And that should be graded. Strictly. I recently started using a performance library that measures kernel parameters. The author provided a fix for something and said that he 'extensively tested it'. My question was how can I believe him? I looked up the source code, found & read the tests and it was trivial to answer my question. And here is the best part - the author is a researcher at -a-US-university. So, it is possible AND necessary to teach testing by default. Yes, this is different from Chittar's exposition, but without exposure to basics, I think Chittar's recommendation is difficult - but if inculcated, would be an incredible tool in any CS/IT persons' arsenal.Eklavya Sai: In an ideal scenario teaching programming and unit-testing together will be wonderful. And the unit-test-plan and unit-test-report would also be graded. Given the time available for 'Lab' programming courses and many other realities on the ground, I feel it will be quite impractical, as of now, for most CS/IT departments to teach and grade testing integrally with programming.It pains me to state this: but most people who come into programming from non CS/IT backgrounds these days have this skill: 'Programming by copy-pasting'. I have seen people with over 6 years experience at?major-cell-phone-company?who copy-pasted stuff and it was out right wrong. They wrote test cases to make it pass, but I caught it at review. He did not understand simple OR vs AND. This may sound like a pathological case, but yes, that is the gist of not having theoretical & practical training.Eklavya Sai: Oh! I have seen copy-paste programming being done by CS/IT graduates as well. But I agree that programmers who neither have a CS/IT background nor an IT-Finishing-School/Private-IT-training background may be more prone to copy-paste programming. I also have seen countless programmers who have ZERO CS/IT formal academic background but were far superior programmers as compared to many CS/IT graduates.You have good programmers and bad programmers irrespective of whether they have formal CS/IT academic background or not. It is a company's responsibility to assess potential software developer employees properly before they are given software development jobs. If they somehow got through the assessment mechanism, once they are found to be incompetent, irrespective of whether they are CS/IT graduates or not, they should be asked to relocate to some other activity or become competent by undergoing appropriate study & training.Let me conclude with some general thoughts: Education/schooling is a time where one can learn from example to a great extent (unless you do some research kind of problem). The cost of making mistakes while learning in the class is quite less compared to that of doing so in real projects. While students may not have the wisdom to understand this, instructors should have the wisdom and courage to take necessary action. One can learn a lot by studying works of others: not everyone is a prodigy. Even whom/what you copy is a reflection on your taste/preferences. One can learn a good deal about how/why an algorithm works by studying it in all its theoretical abstraction aided by?good?working examples running in parallel. Algorithm design for example, is a very little taught discipline, but is very essential for great progress. It could mean the difference between Top-US-Product-Development-Companies and Indian-Software-Consultancy-Companies; no, I don't mean to belittle the latter companies, but what they do and are capable of doing is very, very fundamentally different from that of?Top-US-Product-Development-Companies.Eklavya Sai: My focus in this blog is on teaching programming in general as against teaching sophisticated algorithm design & analysis. "Programming-in-general" would include basic algorithms for searching, sorting involving data structures like arrays, vectors, linked lists, hash tables, maps etc. But it would not delve into deep analysis of these algorithms and their efficiencies. Of course,?Top-US-Product-Development-Companies would want CS/IT graduates who are very good at design and analysis of algorithms besides being good at programming in general. My understanding of most CS/IT academia in the country is that Design & Analysis of Algorithms is taught as a separate 'theory' course. I do not want to comment on that course as it is outside the scope of my 'Lab' programming courses interests.Tuesday, November 8, 2011US CS & IT Academia: Usually TAs/RAs Teach ProgrammingNet url: post captures a slightly edited email exchange with a friend on the?"CS & IT Academia: Inform Students About Software Contribution Record of Faculty"?post.Friend wrote: I too felt exactly the same way as --- that while it seems to be reasonable to ask this of faculty, it would not pan out. Most people don't have such background (to the tune of ~90% or more; most prof/faculty dont write software, their students do). And, most top universities here in the US call themselves 'Research Univ', including MIT, Stanford etc. For them, R&D is distinctly different from producing software - they realize that writing production code is very hard - and so as long as they can prove conclusively what they propose, that is enough.Eklavya Sai responded: Thanks for the input, especially your numbers take. The Profs. may not like it but they cannot dictate terms to society. If students, parents & employers who are the key customers/stakeholders of the educational system feel that this performance parameter of faculty must be shared with them, the academic administrative authorities should impose it. Those profs. who have no software contribution record can omit it, but those who would like to have one can create their software contribution record and possibly enjoy more student enrollment & career growth benefits from it.Friend wrote: And in India, I doubt if there is any significant % of faculty that can actually write even basic programs.Eklavya Sai responded: In India it is absolutely vital that this changes.Friend wrote: Even in the US, labs classes are handled by TAs/RAs (Teaching Assistants/Research Assistants) and not by professors/faculty.Eklavya Sai responded: So sad, isn't it? Imagine a surgeon-professor never demonstrating surgery to his/her students and delegating it to interns!!! And then further imagine a surgeon-professor who has never even done surgery!!! Terrible state of affairs man.Friend responded: I don't think it is sad that Profs don't teach lab courses. Infact, I'd rather they NOT teach lab courses. Reason? Simple - TAs USUALLY have a lot more experience with programming than most professors have. So, students are better off learning programming from the better experienced of the two in this particular case.In my opinion, at least here at (a US university), most TAs/RAs have at least interned over summers at companies. Also, they are the people who routinely write software (even if not production quality code) as part of their research -- so they have a fair amount of experience with code.Eklavya Sai responded: It is good that in (a US university) students get the benefit of teaching assistants with good programming experience. ... It is very good that most TAs/RAs at (a US university) are far better skilled at programming than most junior teachers in Indian engg. colleges.....I should also add that I understand possible management/economic realities of US universities (or Indian universities for that matter) which cannot allow them to have highly paid Professors handling all work. Division of labour is required and the natural division is perhaps to delegate programming lab. work to less expensive TAs/RAs. That's acceptable, I guess.??But that should not result in professors not knowing programming or becoming completely distant from it. That will be like a surgery-teacher focusing only on biological detail in the classroom and staying away from practical surgery. IMHO, students learning from such a surgery-teacher may not become safe and competent surgeons.Tuesday, November 8, 2011CS & IT Academia: Should 'Customize' Instead of 'Build' be Taught?Net url: Updated On December 28th 2011This post captures a slightly edited email exchange with a friend on the?"CS & IT Academia: Inform Students About Software Contribution Record of Faculty"?post.Friend wrote: I am not sure if I understood the problem definition and therefore the solution. But let me put it in my words and if it is not what you meant, then please ignore my email ...This is what I think is the problem that you are describing:1) Teachers in universities don't have enough expertise in software development and thus can't teach students well enough.Eklavya Sai responded: They can't teach software development well enough but can teach theory & research oriented stuff in their area of expertise very well.Friend wrote:2) Students can't appreciate and learn software development skills no matter which university they approach.Eklavya Sai responded: That's the case with most universities in India though not all.Friend wrote:3) Employers don't get to recruit skilled people.Eklavya Sai responded: The employers that are looking for software development soldiers don't get to recruit the right people and so have to educate them by having in-house fresher training.Friend wrote:4) Result - we are all a bunch of losers!Eklavya Sai responded: Students (& their parents) who want to learn software development skills by doing a CS / IT degree are losers. Students (& their parents) who want to become theory and research Generals are winners. Employers don't invest time & money like students and parents, and so they cannot complain about being losers. Though overall as a country we lose out as the educational system is a pipeline which feeds skilled manpower into the industrial economy.Friend wrote: As I said before, if what I am saying does not correctly capture what you said, please ignore my email. But if it does say what you are thinking, then I have a slightly different take on software development needs of today's world - at least the business world as most of the software development that employers do is focused on achieving competitive advantage.?Let me tell you a very short true story. Recently a retailer was facing tough competition in the market (and continues to do so today). It was closing store after store. One particular store was in the red for a few months and was facing the possibility of being shut down. But just ten days before the month ended, they went live with a supply chain initiative that enabled the store to fulfill parcel shipments and came out a winner. Essentially, it got business that it could not have got otherwise. Such was the power of the supply chain improvement.?Now that supply chain improvement initiative involved customizing a packaged solution and not building a software from scratch. The reason why I am emphasizing this is because the people who were required to or asked to "build" the software were mainly required to be able to "configure" the software rather than build it. Along the way they were required to be able to "figure" out what custom code needs to be built and build just that little code here and little code there. Employers prefer solutions to be built to deploy today rather than designed with zero defect for tomorrow.Eklavya Sai responded: I think this has been the reality of the business app. world for at least a decade. Maybe it has become more prevalent now.Academia has Component Based Development courses which I feel should handle such 'customize' solutions rather than reinvent the wheel, and live with 'acceptable quality' today rather than 'perfect quality' tomorrow. I recently taught an Open Source Web Development course using Joomla, Moodle, Al Fresco, MySQL, Apache ... and a software developed by a major IT firm of India using these tools.Most students loved the power of component based development which allows you to produce solutions at unbelievable speed.So what I am saying is that 'customize' as against 'build from scratch' can also be taught in a university.Friend wrote: One can question such practices but businesses are run for customers of today who can walk out on you if they find solutions elsewhere even if those solutions have defects. Loss of customer can imply going out of business to employers. A software consultant who ignores such business priorities will get thrown out of business. So essentially, employers are looking for software consultants who understand their pains and provide pills for now rather than later.Eklavya Sai responded: And students have to be trained with skill sets that match the needs of employers. As most students desire such job-oriented skill sets.Friend wrote: Universities can teach algorithms and languages and even business processes. But real-world exposure has no substitute.?Eklavya Sai responded: Sure, real-world exposure has no substitute. But universities can prepare students for the real-world to the extent they can.Friend wrote: One may be very good in algorithms but have no desire to understand the business priorities and you might find school drop-outs who have an unusually good understanding of the market as a whole and can drive the solution the market needs.?Eklavya Sai responded: Sure. But why can't a university IT graduate also excel at understanding business priorities? Of course he can. He simply has to be taught properly in university.Friend wrote: My point is that businesses demand clear deliverables from software companies. Software companies in turn rationalize this into the 80-20 rule and hire people who can deliver the goods (an acceptable quality software). ......Friend wrote: We might then think that perhaps it is not the business world that students should concentrate on. But is it [business world] really that bad? Innovations normally lead commercialization. But once you champion the commerce part of it, it fuels further innovation. Logistics at one time was thought to be an integral part of the army. But now it has taken a whole new dimension and not only new business models have come up but also it is being outsourced from army to businesses. If space exploration is to be left only to academic oriented organizations, innovative and cheaper solutions for space flight would not be available as some of the businesses are trying to achieve. If CROs had not rolled up their sleeves, drug discovery would continue to be indefinitely slow to achieve by universities and hospitals.Eklavya Sai responded: I feel IT students can certainly concentrate on the "business world" software solutions....?Friend wrote: Have fun with what you do!Eklavya Sai responded: What I am learning is that even "peaceful & amicable activism" can generate a lot of unwanted heat. I mean there is always resistance to change - and I am questioning the big Profs - they don't like such questions. So this is not really a 'fun' thing :(. But I feel I must do it as I have seen so many students & parents suffer from this mostly dysfunctional CS & IT academic teaching system in India.Research vs. TeachingMy Viewpoints/ArticlesImproving Indian Academic Research and Teaching: Have Separate Research-Intensive Universities and Teaching-Intensive Universities, February 2014Is Academic Research Grant Money Corrupting Academic Teaching Ideals?, April 2013CS & IT Academia: Is Teaching Excellence Important?, January 2012?Is a PhD in CS/IT Necessarily a Good Teacher?, October 2011?Discussion/Informative Posts Involving Others' Articles/Views, Media reports and Some Comments from meSuggestion of Separate University Rankings for Research Excellence and Teaching Excellence, December 2013CS & IT Academia: Research vs. Teaching, September 2011?A Defense of The CS/IT PhD Teacher, October 2011?Nature and Science 2011 Articles on Lack of Importance Given to Teaching Nowadays, April 2013Suggestion of Separate Tracks for Teaching and Research by US Academics, October 2012India (and Other Emerging/Developing Countries) Should Not Obsess about Higher Education Rankings, April 2013Friday, February 7, 2014Improving Indian Academic Research and Teaching: Have Separate Research-Intensive Universities and Teaching-Intensive UniversitiesNet url: updated on 8th February 2014Today's The Hindu has an article titled, Paralysis in science policies, . Its lead paragraph states, "Neglect of research in higher education has led to very low research intensity. Ninety per cent of our universities end up as teaching institutes where research is given a low priority for lack of funds"A few days ago, The Hindu carried an article about the poor employability of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu engineering graduates,?. I think the article clearly shows that there is a serious teaching, and so graduate employability, crisis in engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. I believe this crisis, to some extent, extends to other streams of education besides engineering, and to other states in India too.What should universities do now - focus on improving teaching/learning outcomes and so improve employability of graduates and post-graduates (students doing masters' degrees) or focus on improving research? I think there is a conflict between teaching and research in many parts of Indian academia today.One solution to this conflict/dilemma may be to have separate research-intensive universities and teaching-intensive universities. The teaching and non-research workload of academics in research-intensive universities must be low so that they get enough time to focus on research. The UGC/AICTE regulations for appointment and promotion of such academics must give high weightage to research output of such academics. [Please note that I am excluding the elite higher education institutions like IITs and IISc (and also medical education institutions).] Usually such research-intensive universities would be far more expensive to run than teaching-intensive universities.The teaching-intensive universities would have high workload of teaching for its academics with some (less) time made available for research too. The UGC/AICTE regulations for appointment and promotion of such academics must give high weightage to learning outcomes for and employability of students taught by such academics. These kind of universities would be less expensive to run.Of course, there should be migration paths for academics to move from one type of university to the other.Today, I believe, we have only one set of UGC/AICTE regulations for appointment and promotion of academics of any type of university (research-intensive or teaching-intensive). That leads to situations where academics are denied promotion due to lack of suitable research publication output. Loading an academic with three to four courses of teaching load per semester and additional non-research work, and then upbraiding him/her for lack of good impact factor research publication output, and thereby denying him/her promotion, is not just being unfair, but being exploitative of the poor academic.It also, unfortunately, in some institutions at least, creates an unhealthy environment for Masters students where they are expected/induced to choose project work that contributes to the academic's/department's research work even when UGC/AICTE regulations, I believe, permit a Masters student to do non-research project work. As an example, a software development project of suitable complexity and size is, I believe, permitted by AICTE regulations/norms (written/unwritten) to be considered as an M.Tech. Computer Science or Information Technology final year project. [Please note that many M.Tech. Computer Science or Information Technology students come from a different stream previous degree background like Production Engg., Electrical Engg., Physics or Mathematics.] Such work would enhance software industry employability prospects of the student. But a research publication output obsession among academics may result in students being advised against doing such software development projects as their M.Tech. project and instead encouraged to do a research project that fits in the area of research done by academics in the department. The latter would contribute to academic research but may not necessarily be what the student needs and/or wants.Having separate teaching-intensive and research-intensive universities who clearly inform students about their focus may help students choose the right type of university based on their needs and interests and their economic status. The lead paragraph of The Hindu article (Paralysis in science policies) looks down upon universities that "end up as teaching institutes". However, students, especially from poor rural and semi-urban areas, who are desperate for education that makes them employable may find such teaching-intensive universities to be a great blessing, and also find the tuition fees of such less-expensive-to-run universities more affordable. The academic research needs of the country can be primarily met by research-intensive universities who may be given the lion's share of tax payer money for academic research and who may then also be expected to deliver suitable results.2 comments:Ravi S. Iyer, February 7, 2014 at 6:09 PMNow The Hindu article (Paralysis in Science Policies) web page shows the following comment of mine (from: Ravi S. Iyer, Posted on: Feb 7, 2014 at 17:18 IST):A few days ago, The Hindu carried an article about the poor employability of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu engineering graduates. I think that article clearly shows that there is a serious teaching, and so graduate employability, crisis in engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. I believe this crisis, to some extent, extends to other streams of education besides engineering, and to other states in India too.?What should universities do now - focus on improving teaching/learning outcomes and so improve employability of graduates and post-graduates (students doing masters' degrees) or focus on improving research? I think there is a conflict between teaching and research in many parts of Indian academia today.?One solution to this conflict/dilemma may be to have separate research-intensive universities and teaching-intensive universities with separate UGC/AICTE regulations for appointment and promotion of its academics.Ravi S. Iyer, February 22, 2014 at 11:30 AMHere's a provacative article:?Cut Off Harvard to Save America?by Richard Vedder. From : "Richard K. Vedder is an American economist, historian, author, columnist, and currently distinguished professor of economics emeritus at Ohio University."The article mentions that top Ivy league US universities have large endowment funds. It goes on further to say, "Before endowments were large, professors sometimes had to earn their salaries by collecting tuition fees from students. When endowments provided professors a guaranteed salary, the incentive of offering high-quality instruction to paying students largely disappeared."and"A student graduating from Yale or Princeton, with their roughly $2 million endowments per student, has a ticket to a well-paying job, while one graduating from the College of St. Joseph in Vermont, with its $29,000 endowment per student, does not. Only 12 percent of the Yale and Princeton students have Pells, compared with 71 percent at St. Joseph." [Ravi: Pells refer to US Federal govt. Pell Grants. From?: "Pell Grant is a post-secondary educational Federal grant sponsored by the U.S Department of Education. Enacted to help undergraduates of low-income families in receiving financial aid." The difference between elite and non-elite/commoner colleges in the USA seems to be stark. Perhaps if somebody does (or has done) a similar comparison in India, the difference found between elite and non-elite/commoner college education would be similar.]Some additional info.Richard Vedder is the director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, USA.?Its mission statement here?says, "Founded in 2006, The Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) is dedicated to researching the rising costs and stagnant efficiency in higher education, with special emphasis on the United States. CCAP seeks to facilitate a broader dialogue on the issues and problems facing the institutions of higher education with the public, policy makers, and the higher education community. ..."Wednesday, April 10, 2013Is Academic Research Grant Money Corrupting Academic Teaching Ideals?Net url: think that is the case in many parts of Indian academia. However I do not have "hard data", as of now at least, to backup my view. Money or riches in some form has been an extremely powerful and even corrupting force since time immemorial. But money is also needed to run any show. The way money is spread in a system, slowly but surely, in a vast majority of cases, dictates how the people involved in the system and so the system, will behave over time. The parts of the system that are well funded will attract people and grow, and the parts that are starved of funds will repel people and decay. Academic research grant money has become a great magnet in academia while teaching seems to have become a poor cousin with very little or no grant money going to it. Naturally, most academics gravitate towards research grant money and look down upon "mere" teaching as a menial job.This article on , written by a US medical science academic gives insight into research grant money influence in US medical science academia. It does not mention anything about a possible impact on teaching though,? notes on it:2nd point of article: It mentions that some research universities assume that research project grants will cover some percentage of faculty salaries.[Ravi: My God! Faculty salaries being paid, even partially, by research funding seems to be a pretty scary thing to me. Naturally the focus will shift to getting research funding rather than excel in teaching, but then maybe teaching is not a big deal in a research university.]3rd point of the article: It mentions that research staff, fellows, editorial assistants etc. have to be paid from research grants. Once the grant is gone, all such staff are gone; the expertise is gone.[Ravi: This is horrifying. It is like running a business. I have experienced the stress of being a top manager in a start-up software company and worry about lack of business impacting ability to pay salaries of staff. But that I thought was part of start-up manager challenges. I did not realize that a tenured Professor could be having similar challenges that a start-up manager has. BTW both the tenured Prof. and the typical start-up manager would be capable fellows who can get another decent job but the staff working for them may find it difficult to get other decent jobs quickly, and that brings enormous emotional stress to the startup-manager (it had really stressed me out and affected my health with some effects being permanent) and, I guess, the tenured Prof.]4th point of the article: It mentions that administrators garner some decent percentage of research grant money for indirect costs.[Ravi: Oh Lord! So the administration chaps will use the extra money for their stuff (which may be very much needed for the institution). No wonder, university administrators, even in India, put immense pressure on faculty to do research. It is the money that research projects bring in, not only to a particular Lab. but also to the university administration that matters. Hmm. IMHO, there is a great danger of teaching ideals in universities being pushed somewhere to the corner by the pressure and power of research grant money. I have not heard of Indian government/UGC/AICTE giving teaching grant money - only research grant money. No wonder academics nowadays seem to be bothered mainly about research. I mean, if I were a regular/paid academic in a typical "research-intensive" academic institution that is what I would have to do too - focus on research grant projects and somehow manage the teaching stuff ensuring that there are not too many complaints.]--end notes on article--In India, NAAC accreditation,?, of universities & colleges has become a big thing, at least in the last decade or so, I think. Perhaps it is the only official way to differentiate between various UGC/AICTE universities in the country. I was surprised when I was informed some months ago by a recently passed out MBA student from a UGC/AICTE univeristy, that its higher NAAC grading resulted in MBA recruits from that university being put in a higher pay bracket by some large company! So the HR guys of companies may be using NAAC ratings to decide fresher pay. I had also recently read a report of a state education minister using NAAC grading to differentiate between good and poor universities/colleges.From what I understand of NAAC examination visits, the NAAC committee examiners focus on high impact factor journal publications. They are disdainful of conference publications! Of course, they look at various other criteria too. But high-impact factor publications is what really impresses them. I got the impression that they don't really give that much importance to quality of teaching - perhaps the problem there may be lack of availability of a standard, objective & official measure for quality of teaching like an impact factor for a research journal. But does that mean that a higher education official assessment and accreditation council can simply ignore teaching quality?!!! Perhaps Indian academia and NAAC can learn something from corporate training companies in India who focus only on teaching and, at least in the case of some famous software training institutes, have been an astonishing success over decades. They use student/participant feedback as one vital measure of teaching quality as viewed by the customer/student. As far as I know, such student feedback collection in Indian academia is quite rare, as of now.I think NAAC introduces a fear factor for universities to engage in high-quality research that produces high-impact factor publications. Or else the university will not get a great NAAC rating/grade. So academic administrators desirous of having a good NAAC rating/grade have to push faculty to do high-quality research.Another aspect of academic research is the "marketing hype" associated with large financial size research grant. Academics talk about the size of the research grant like how in the software consultancy industry, the financial size of an order is talked about. Larger the size, more the prestige and a large research grant is seen as a stamp of quality. I think the view is that bagging a large research grant is a reflection of the capability of the academics involved, as if they were not capable enough they would not have been given a large grant. I had checked with one or more international CS academics a few years ago, and they had concurred that large size of research grant is viewed as a kind of stamp of quality even abroad.So senior faculty are actively "encouraged" to apply for research project grants. Getting a grant is celebrated like how bagging a project order is celebrated in industry! In very sad and marked contrast, teaching excellence is almost ignored! As teaching excellence does not bring in any large teaching grant money! That, I think, clearly shows the power of money to influence a system.Okay, so what can be done to give teaching excellence its rightful share in Indian academia? IMHO, there should be substantial teaching grant money and further there should be an appropriate balance between teaching grant money and research grant money, given the type of educational institution involved (teaching-intensive or research-intensive). NAAC assessment/rating also should have a similar balance between measures of teaching quality and research quality.2 comments:Ravi S. Iyer, April 16, 2013 at 12:43 PMI can empathize with the anonymous gunning as well as petty vendettas in academia mentioned in point 1 of the article by David Kroll from some personal experiences that I have had on the suffering side of the anonymous gun and vendetta :).Ravi S. Iyer, April 17, 2013 at 12:44 PMI thought some readers may want to know that I mailed out the contents of the above blog post to appropriate Indian government ministers, top academic administrators, some NAAC executive committee members etc., on April 12th 2013. I have also included below the preamble I had in the mail.I write this mail to you esteemed gentlemen out of concern about lack of importance given to teaching quality in UGC/AICTE regulated higher educational institutions in India, which are the vast majority of higher educational institutions in the country. The elitist IITs, IISc etc. are a special group which is very well funded by the Government of India - I am not referring to them at all in this mail. My concern is about the "commoner" higher educational institutions in the country. I must also add that my focus is on teaching quality in higher education which, in my humble opinion, is very different from quality of academic research in general (teaching/pedagogy research and related areas are an exception).The views expressed in the mail below may be rather unusual. But they are the views that I have formed over a period of nearly a decade of free service of teaching software lab. courses and acting as a technical consultant for project work of M.Tech. (Computer Science) students in a deemed university in India, and also an Internet based study of the higher education world over the past two years or so. I am a software consultant and so an (ex) industry man - not an academic. My views are that of an outsider who has observed the system closely for around a decade. However, I may be wrong. So I welcome rebuttals and criticisms of this mail which may help me to correct my views, if they are wrong.Some comments below (copy-pasted from a blog post of mine) have an informal language suitable for a blog post. Informal language sometimes helps in broaching sensitive matters without ruffling too many feathers. I request you esteemed gentlemen to please tolerate the informal language, at times.--- Followed by above blog post contents ---So far I have not received a substantive response from any of the addressees mentioned above.Sunday, January 22, 2012CS & IT Academia: Is Teaching Excellence Important?Net url: Updated On January 24th 2012At the outset I would like to say that I am not against CS/IT research. Without CS/IT industry & academic research, wonderful inventions of computer Operating Systems, computer Languages, Databases, the great & revolutionary force of the Internet etc. would not have happened. What I am against is teaching excellence in CS/IT academia suffering due to an unbridled enthusiasm for research.In my considered opinion, "Teaching Excellence" seems to be not so important in Indian CS & IT academia. What really matters is "Research Excellence". The pressure to publish research papers and bag research projects of sizeable monetary value may be resulting in many teachers having no option but to dilute teaching ideals - they are also human and have to accomplish so many things in limited time. Of course, students have to be taught reasonably so that they do well at the exams but going beyond that to achieve excellence in teaching may be very challenging due to research pressure. Career advancement wise, there is no significant reward or recognition for "Teaching Excellence". "Research Excellence" gains recognition, even fame at times, and career advancement.Why is that the case? An academic CS/IT department should focus on teaching, isn't it? Well, one look at UGC norms () (I presume AICTE norms will be similar) for appointment & promotion of academics, including CS/IT academics, gives the clear answer. "Teaching excellence" is not really a promotion criteria.For appointment as Assistant Professor a NET/SLET/SET qualified Masters' degree holder with 55 % marks is acceptable. But a PhD degree holder who is not NET/SLET/SET qualified can also be appointed as Assistant Professor.For promotion to Associate Professor, at least 3 publications for stage 4 Associate Professor, and 5 publications for stage 5 Associate Professor are needed (PhD is mandatory for direct appointment as Associate Professor).For promotion to full Professor, the norms are PhD + post-doctoral research output of high standard, patents & IPR, additional research degrees like D.Sc., D.Litt. Number of years of teaching experience also matter in the promotion to Associate Professor & Professor but it really is just the number of years.How well the person taught seems to be covered under Academic Performance Indicators - Category I: Teaching, Learning and Evaluation related activities, but they are based on the teacher's self-assessment! So, I guess, it will just be a formality with all teachers scoring well in it, irrespective of the reality :).In other words, the unfortunate situation seems to be that, from UGC/AICTE norms point of view, Teaching Quality does not matter for career advancement, so long as students perform reasonably in paper based examinations. Very shockingly, for a practice oriented field like CS/IT, Teaching Quality for the practice oriented lab. courses also do not really matter and the unfortunate reality in most CS/IT departments in the country is that the lab. courses are notorious for being graded liberally so that almost everybody scores well!Given the UGC norms for career advancement, most Indian CS/IT academics will focus on research instead of teaching. The CS/IT academic will, of course, try to do a decent job in teaching but it does not make sense for him to waste time trying to excel at teaching. He will get far better career rewards by being an excellent researcher who is a reasonable but not excellent teacher. Yes, of course, there will be CS/IT academics who excel at both teaching and research. The cream of the CS/IT academic field excel at both research and teaching. But I think, given the workload pressure, a significant number of CS/IT teachers would find it very difficult to excel both at teaching and research. You may also want to read another post of mine, "Is a PhD in CS/IT Necessarily a Good Teacher?".Some conscientious academics may choose to excel at teaching giving them lesser time for research and thereby not do well as a researcher. Their career growth gets stifled though they get the emotional reward of a clean conscience and earn the love and respect of students for being a good teacher.Those teachers who choose to focus only on teaching and stay away from research will almost inevitably get into trouble with academic administrators. One cannot blame the administrators as they are bound by UGC/AICTE norms which, I guess, expect them to "encourage" research :).? They also have to deal with the general expectation the leaders in government & industry have from academia to excel in research.Such non-research oriented teachers may even be treated as liabilities even if they are excellent teachers as they, due to their disinterest in research, may not have a PhD. It may be as if the teacher is lowering the image of the department/college/university! Such persons tend to get fed up of Indian CS/IT academia and move into CS/IT software development industry (but not industry research) where their CS/IT knowledge/expertise is given a red carpet welcome. This is a sad state of affairs! In practice oriented streams like CS & IT such attitudes hurt rather than help. Who does it hurt? The poor students who lose the opportunity to gain from an excellent teacher who is disinterested in research.Perhaps these UGC/AICTE norms work well for areas like Physics, Maths, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering etc. But for practice oriented CS/IT field I think they are very inappropriate. UGC/AICTE should treat CS/IT separately and come up with different norms where promotion is possible for excellent CS/IT teachers who are disinterested in research. Please note that UGC has separate norms for the practice oriented disciplines of Music & Dance, Drama and Visual (Fine) Arts. The CS/IT discipline has exploded into almost all facets of life all over the world in the past two or three decades with self-taught experts like Bill Gates (Microsoft), Steve Jobs (Apple) & Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) becoming world famous icons. These three icons are/were technologists and not researchers. The fact that such self-taught experts have risen to very high stature in CS/IT industry seems to me to be good enough reason for UGC/AICTE to treat CS/IT differently.I need to clarify that I am not making these remarks for the benefit of myself. By God's Grace, I retired from commercial international software industry over a decade ago. God's will/destiny led me to offer free service, mainly as a "visiting faculty", to Indian CS academia for teaching lab courses and being a consultant for project work for 9 years now. Given the strong practical know-how I have from over 18 years in the international software industry and the fact that I am offering free service, I have a plethora of opportunities for service of which teaching in CS/IT academia is just one possibility.I am making these remarks in the context of regular (paid) CS/IT academics for whom the academic job is a livelihood. Imagine a CS/IT non-PhD but, say M.C.A. (Master of Computer Applications), qualified teacher who is also NET/SLET/SET qualified and who excels as a teacher but is disinterested in research. He will be a great boon to students. But, over time, as he sees that promotions are not coming his way he will get dispirited and disinterested. Further, academia has a PhD club mentality and so he will be treated as a second-class citizen in academia. Either he will also see the "academic light" and start focusing on research relegating teaching excellence to the background OR he will quit academia.Leaders from the Indian government and sometimes even from Indian industry talk about improving research in Indian universities. While that seems to be a very laudable goal, I think they should also talk about improving teaching standards in universities & colleges. In my opinion, a university/college is a portal first and foremost for teaching/learning (education) and then for research. But I am not really an "academic" and so maybe I am getting it wrong. I think I am an old school guy who feels that the FIRST and FOREMOST DUTY of a TEACHER is to TEACH and TEACH WELL.Friday, September 30, 2011Is a PhD in CS/IT Necessarily a Good Teacher?Net url: Last Updated On 28th October 2011AICTE/UGC norms clearly imply that. And they are laying down guidelines for the entire country's higher education!!In my non-researcher, non-PhD humble but quite logical thinker opinion there are broadly four possibilities:a) PhD qualified + Good teacher of CS/IT graduate/post-graduate studentsb) PhD qualified + Poor teacher of CS/IT graduate/post-graduate studentsc) Not PhD qualified + Good teacher of CS/IT graduate/post-graduate studentsd) Not PhD qualified + Poor teacher of CS/IT graduate/post-graduate studentsAICTE/UGC CS/IT policy makers may say: How can that be? How can a PhD in CS/IT not be good at teaching CS/IT? That is impossible.Further they might say, how can a non PhD be a good CS/IT teacher? That is not possible.Well, I would not be surprised by such views from AICTE/UGC CS/IT policy makers. After all, they are the important members of the academic PhD club and have to protect the status & exclusivity of the academic PhD club.But I think such views are FALSE. Doesn't matter if tons of CS/IT Professors think so. The TRUTH is not swayed by PhD arrogance. [Now, I am not saying all CS/IT PhDs are arrogant, but certainly some academic CS/IT PhD administrators are.]Any CS/IT professional who has many years of experience under his belt knows the depth vs. breadth issue in software. Some guys may be focused on a narrow area and become in-depth in that area - like somebody who has worked for a decade only on compilers. Such a guy may be a veritable authority on compilers. But he may not know much about socket programming or n-tier architecture for E-commerce web applications - and he may be the first to state that it is not his area of expertise and that he does not know anything about it.On the other hand some guys, especially software consultancy professionals, jump from technical area to area as they move from one customer project to another. So they may have an astounding breadth of expertise acquired over many years, say, in networking software products (gateways, LAN OS, browsers), E-commerce, mobile apps, Insurance software, Banking software, secure international financial transactions software, Object Oriented Analysis & Design, UML modeling, Design Patterns etc. This breadth enables them to take up software work in a variety of areas. However they may not be considered to be a veritable authority in any one area as they cannot match the expertise of a similar professional who has worked for the same number of years but in just one area.The software industry needs both depth and breadth guys. In general, one could say that product development software companies need more depth expertise whereas software consultancy companies need breadth expertise. Of course, this is a sweeping generalization which will not hold true in all cases. But it may be valid for a significant number of professionals in both type of software companies.The PhD in CS/IT is a very in-depth guy. Not only is he in-depth but is far more narrowly in-depth than a software industry in-depth guy typically. Further the PhD guy has an out-and-out research paper publication focus and not a software development focus. For the PhD researcher guy it is Publish or Perish.But when the PhD has to teach CS/IT graduate/post-graduate students he has to be more like a software industry breadth guy. He may have to teach 3 to 4 courses ranging from Introductory Algorithms, Database Management, Compiler Construction to Object Oriented Analysis & Design! He could offer one course related to his research area - though there also he has to teach introductory or slightly advanced stuff and not his advanced research work. But he cannot limit his teaching to only his area of expertise - he has to teach other courses too.So for the other courses, typically, he simply reads from the book, understands it and teaches it. Yes, many times he himself may have studied the course as a student. But then, as a student, you don't need to know the subject that well even to get good grades. When you teach you have to answer questions from students! There is no escape in the classroom/lab.! So he tries to master the book, or at least that part of it which he has to teach. It is book knowledge that is imparted to the students. What else can he do? He cannot do another PhD in the area which he is supposed to teach! Note that for the course he teaches where he has done research he will be very knowledgeable typically - I am talking about other courses here.IMHO, such book knowledge teaching is nowhere close to the teaching of an industry professional who has practical expertise in that area. I repeat, nowhere close. And, just in case, readers are not aware, there is a lot of in-house teaching that happens in the software industry where knowledgeable seniors impart knowledge to juniors and peers in an informal or semi-formal teaching environment.And then there is the communication skills issue. Research typically needs solitude and an individualistic approach. The researcher communicates on his research work with experts in his field. He can choose to, and many times, has to be very elitist in his communication - people who are not of the field may not understand him at all - which is OK as they are not from the field. In fact, a UK academician said part-jokingly but part-seriously that if others can easily understand your research work/talk then they think your research work is not that great! So only a few should understand, for your research work to be considered noteworthy :-).However teaching requires very good communication skills and a non-elitist approach. What you teach should be understood by at least, say, 80 % of your class. You have to come down to the level of the students. Otherwise you may be a great researcher and very knowledgeable but a poor teacher. You may be a good research-guide as then you can be elitist but you may be a disaster as a teacher if you have an elitist approach in the classroom. By elitist here I mean that you speak in a way that only knowledgeable people of your field can understand you.So while some PhDs may be good CS/IT graduate/post-graduate students' teachers, some may be poor teachers too.And then you have non-PhD guys who are technologists and so know many tech. areas in reasonable depth but not in-depth. However the syllabus of most graduate/post-graduate CS/IT programs are not so in-depth. I mean, most of the text books followed are referred to by many industry guys as well. For example, Andrew Tanenbaum is famous for computer networks over decades in industry as well as academia. So many non-research but strong technologists from industry could easily teach many CS/IT courses in academia. Further they have practical on-the-job experience and so their teaching will be of a far higher-grade than a book-knowledge teacher. And most industry jobs require extensive team-work - so one's oral and written communication skills become quite strong. Further many teach short-term courses in industry.So a non PhD can also be a good CS/IT graduate/post-graduate students' teacher. But being a non PhD he cannot contribute easily to any research efforts - further he could be a technologist who is utterly disinterested in research. And all non PhD software industry professionals are NOT good teachers - but some certainly are.So, if AICTE/UGC policy makers think that insisting on PhD and research publications output is the way to improve quality of teaching CS/IT in academia I think they are making a TERRIBLE mistake. And, the tragedy is that these policies may help the academicians PhD club to prosper but make life miserable for the poor defenceless students & parents of students who think that a CS/IT degree is a passport to an industry job.But then they might say, who will do CS/IT research? How will the country progress in CS/IT research? Well, besides industry research, we can have academic research CS/IT deparments - with degrees like M.S. by research. It becomes clear to students and parents that joining such degrees puts students on a research track. They will not expect to be trained to do software industry design & development jobs.And these research CS/IT departments can be as elitist, as PhD clubbish as they want to be. Everybody will understand as they are research-centric. Such departments can be measured by the quality and quantity of research publications output (which seems to be the AICTE/UGC norm).But most students and parents are not interested in research! They just want students to be trained to get a CS/IT job. So let there be academic teaching CS/IT departments which are teaching-centric and NOT research-centric. They should focus on providing a balance between theory and practical skills to students. When the student graduates he should be skilled enough to land a job on her/his own, without the help of campus interviews. That should be the acid test of whether an academic CS/IT teaching department is recognised by the Government (via AICTE/UGC) and NOT how many quality (impact factor based) research publications the department produced and how many PhDs the department produced.Students at such teaching CS/IT departments may be given some limited exposure to research so that those who are intellectually capable and inclined (and do not have to immediately earn money from a job to get settled/help family or repay their student educational loans) can move into research in a research CS/IT department.In India there is a huge amount of trust that innocent students and parents put on teaching institutions. Teaching institutions should be faithful to this trust by clearly informing students and parents right at the outset whether they are research-centric OR teaching-centric. Educational institutions should not attract students on the pretext of giving them job oriented skill sets but actually making them "theory & research oriented Generals" who struggle to get a "software development soldier" job (and don't get any "research General" job either).CS/IT plays a vital part in the Indian economy now. It probably is the only area where India is recognised globally to be ahead of the relentlessly growing economic might of China. As of now Indian CS/IT professionals produced by AICTE/UGC goverened academia are mainly 'theory & research generals' and some rare 'software development soldiers'. I do not know how Chinese CS/IT academia is. But given the Chinese penchant for being very practical and hands-on they perhaps produce CS/IT professionals with the right balance of 'theory & software development' skills besides a separate breed of PhD researchers. While US CS/IT academia certainly seems to have some similar problems (See?What Should We Teach New Software Developers? Why? by Bjarne Stroustrup), it seems to give far more importance to code than Indian CS/IT academia. In the economic competition for software development business market share, it does not need a PhD to figure out that India will be left behind unless some corrective measures are introduced by AICTE/UGC CS/IT policy makers.I am of the firm opinion that these AICTE/UGC CS/IT policies should not be left only to the academicians PhD club. Software industry experts must play a vital role in CS/IT academic policy making. After all, these issues are not of 'mere academic interest', the future of a key part of the Indian economy and the future of huge number of Indian youth are at stake.1 comment:Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 15, 2011 at 12:42 AMA mail exchange on this post with a friend is posted here:?A Defense of The CS/IT PhD Teacher.Monday, December 9, 2013Suggestion of Separate University Rankings for Research Excellence and Teaching ExcellenceNet url: updated on December 13th, 2013I sent an email to Mr. Phil Baty of Times Higher Education Rankings, , with similar content to what is given below.?The mail was copied to the editor of the Hindu.I read your interview in The Hindu today, "Indian varsities lag behind in research", I believe the Times Higher Education Rankings may take into account teaching excellence in some way, in this interview you said, "The single best indicator in the rankings is the research impact, and here Peking performs pretty well — one of the strongest performances of any university."In my humble opinion, such rankings as that of your esteemed institution, may result in academic administrators and the academics who are administered by them, giving less importance to teaching and more to research.The summary of a January 2011 article of Science magazine, "Changing the Culture of Science Education at Research Universities",? , has 13 authors from 11 different USA universities including MIT, Harvard and Yale, stating that "teaching load" is viewed as a derogatory label in STEM disciplines in many research universities, that "reward systems at research universities heavily weight efforts of many professors toward research at the expense of teaching" and that some institutions even reward research accomplishments and "raising outside research funds" by giving the concerned professors “teaching release”!Please note that the above article is by 13 authors (academics presumably) affiliated to 11 different USA universities including MIT, Harvard and Yale.Given this situation, I wonder whether your esteemed rankings institution can consider having two separate university rankings, one for research excellence and one for teaching excellence.The teaching excellence ranking may be of great utility to the majority of students (and their parents) worldwide who go to (send their children to) universities primarily for an education and not necessarily research. BTW I have great appreciation for university research and am not against it in any way. But teaching should also be given its rightful place in a university.--- end mail similar-content ---I also forwarded the above mentioned mail to appropriate persons in Indian higher education.--------------------------------------------------------------Here's a short video, "Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2013-2014 results", , 6 min. 37 secs, giving a good overview of the importance and impact of these rankings. In the later part of the video the presenter,?Mishal Husain (BBC news presenter), speaks to Phil Baty.Some highlights of the video from my perspective (picked up using the transcript):*) 2013-14 is the tenth year of these rankings.*) Global research industry is bigger than ever; 7 million people doing academic research and 1000 billion US dollars spent on this research work.*) The rankings are used by academics to decide on partnerships and career decisions; industry and philanthropists for investment decisions; 170 million people in higher education; students may be using it to choose where to study.*) Top universities in these rankings are US and UK based with universities from European countries like Germany and Netherlands coming after them.*) Asian universities from China, Singapore and South Korea are marching up the ranks.*) Phil Baty says the reason for these Asian universities rising up is "pretty basic, I think it's about money".*) These countries (East Asian) have recognized the power of universities to drive the knowledge economy and so are investing money "at incredible levels" in their universities.*) In the West austerity has hit the universities and the effect of these austerities are seen in the rankings.*) The rankings have emerged as a geopolitical indicator. Success in the rankings is important to governments of some countries like India, Japan and Russia.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Update made on December 13th, 2013I received the following mail response from Phil Baty of Times Higher Education Rankings:Thanks for your suggestions – believe me that developing new and additional teaching indicators is high on our agenda.I welcome your thoughts and your contribution to the discussions.--- end mail response extract ---I have given below relevant extracts of my response to him:Thank you so much for your response.It is very heartening for me to note that "developing new and additional teaching indicators is high" on your esteemed organization's agenda. I am also very encouraged by your acknowledging and responding to my mail.In this context you may find the following two blog posts of mine to be of some interest:a) Concrete Suggestions for Measuring Teaching Quality in Practice-Oriented Computer Science/Information Technology streams b) Discussion on Concrete Suggestions for Measuring Teaching Quality …Thanks again and I wish Times Higher Education Rankings all the very best in its efforts to improve measurement of teaching excellence in its rankings.--- end mail extracts ---I would also like to mention that Phil Baty was fine with his response being shared/put up on this blog.1 comment:Ravi S. Iyer, December 11, 2013 at 3:56 PMA distinguished US academic to whom I had sent a mail with content similar to the post above, sent me this link,?Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system.I was stunned to read the article. I mean, a Nobel prize winner in science saying that he wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system was just mind-blowing.But, as I think about it, I guess the fundamental science work that he has done would need a very different environment from a paper-churning and somewhat noisy collaborative research environment which seems to the norm for academic research environments today. [I really don't know much about his work but with my Physics graduate background I can get some idea of what an intellectual and perhaps imaginative feat it would have been to propose existence of a new elementary particle, which eventually got confirmed by experiments.]I admire the honesty of Prof. Higgs that is clearly seen from this article. I find this honesty and truthfulness of leading scientists to be kind-of liberating. It is a privilege to read such honest words.Thursday, September 22, 2011CS & IT Academia: Research vs. TeachingNet url: : This post is from a mail exchange related to the post+comments, CS & IT Academia: Serious Systemic Problems? Friend? wrote:I agree that teaching should be an important goal by itself, for academia.I think you want only those people in teaching positions who actually know something first-hand. But that doesn't have to mean research. It could mean broad industry experience (you are an example here). I think the same bias we talked about earlier applies here, too. People who work in industry are considered to be less than researchers, so why would you want to dilute the department by letting them in? Hence you have the IITs saying that you need to have a PhD to be a prof, and you have to keep doing research. In fact, the IIT-Bombay CS dept promises profs that they have only one class to teach per semester so that they can concentrate on their research.I (Eklavya Sai) responded:Well, I just want at least some of the university CS & IT teachers to pursue excellence in design & coding and be rewarded for it even if they do no research.Research will be the HOLY GRAIL of academicians including CS & IT academicians. But it should not be ONLY Research with NO DESIGN and little or NO coding.About industry experience guys getting into academia - I think UGC/AICTE rules do allow for it provided the guy has a master's degree in that line (CS or IT). But perhaps at a lesser position than a 'researcher'. Not great, but at least they allow them to be teachers. My case is a real exception :-). B.Sc. (Phy.) [M.Sc. drop-out] teaching in a CS dept. as a regular university teacher?? No way. And I can understand that. The only exception allowed in such cases by AICTE/UGC rules is if the guy is an "eminent" person. So, I guess AICTE/UGC will not mind if some Indian university hires Bill Gates as a Professor, though they may crib if Mark Zuckerberg is hired even as an Assistant Professor - as they may not have heard of him :-).I can be considered only as a "Visiting Faculty", which is exactly my status now. Suits me perfectly as I just am interested in Free Seva where I share my knowledge with students and am utterly disinterested in a regular 'academic' career.IIT Profs. focusing on Research is somehow expected by policy makers, I think. I mean they expect IITs to figure in some top list of universities worldwide and I think these lists are driven primarily by research profile of the university. Must be quite a dilemma for an IIT CS Prof. - focus on country's technology problems using existing ideas or improvements on them OR do 'original' research that will be acclaimed internationally?Friend wrote:So, when universities say that profs should do or should have done research, I think the goal really is to weed out people who don't have any kind of original contribution or knowledge or experience and who just read aloud from the textbook. I think the goal is good, but it has been reinterpreted to mean research, which is bad. It's perhaps obvious when you think about it that the same bias that drives profs to concentrate on publishing papers also makes sure only those people get in the door to begin with.Eklavya Sai had written in an earlier response: I have heard academicians being referred to as 'he has published 400 papers', which is supposed to mean that he is a great academic.Friend wrote in response: That's actually scary.Eklavya Sai had written in an earlier response: And this career growth measure naturally is a MASSIVE influence on the academic community. I mean, they are also human and would want more money and status.Friend wrote in response: Agreed. And penalizing people financially for choosing to go into academia rather than industry is bad, if teaching is a primary goal of profs. If they are just publishing papers, fine, I don't really care whether they are paid less or more, but if they are teaching, and if our country has a bad shortage of talent that's holding back economic growth, then you shouldn't penalize people trying to fix this.Eklavya Sai had written in an earlier response: A further, perhaps, very radical view is that some academic teachers should be given the option to be only teachers and not researchers.Friend wrote in response: Agreed. I can imagine a university that lets people in with proven industry accomplishments, does not require them to have a PhD, and lets them focus 100% on teaching. Those people already have learnt a lot, and so are in a good position to teach others.Eklavya Sai responded:I am not primarily referring to industry guys here. I think a lot of teachers who are students turned teachers without any industry experience may actually enjoy imparting knowledge gained to students as a teacher. Teaching a subject forces you to learn it really well if you want to earn the respect of students, and almost any teacher worth his salt would want that. BUT the pressure to produce research publications directly eats into the time the teacher needs to master knowledge of design & programming. So most CS & IT teachers just manage with bare minimum knowledge of design and programming - anyway as they become senior they move out of Lab. courses and so they can be completely oblivious of design and programming from then on. I think that's the mindset - due to the research publication pressure.Of course, there may be quite a few exceptions to what I have sketched above. But I think that is the norm for most CS & IT teachers. As Prof. Stroustrup mentions in his article some CS Profs. proudly say that "they don't code" - I guess they feel coding is meant for lower lifeforms :-).Eklavya Sai had written in an earlier response: Sometimes I feel it is almost like a religious monk's quest for 'purity' - pure intellectual quest of a particular knowledge area untainted by application of that knowledge area to society.?Friend wrote in response:? Sai had written in an earlier response: I don't think I agree with your generalization that academia focuses on things that are original but ignores whether it is useful.Friend wrote in response: I was oversimplifying. I didn't really mean that utility is 100% ignored, just that the goals are skewed. Isn't it true that academia rewards original ideas more than putting together existing ideas in a slightly different way or making subtle tweaks to something that already exists? But what if the best potential for improvement comes from an idea that already exists? You don't want to close your ideas to that and have an a priori assumption that you need a new idea.After all, the whole point of ideas is that you can use them in umpteen situations. So statistically you're better off seeing if an existing idea can address whatever problem you're looking at, than go hunting for a new idea.Eklavya Sai responded:I have had very limited exposure to CS research paper publications. But, at least in the area of Web Services Security, I saw that some research papers did build on extending existing ideas in different ways. I think mature researchers probably value extending old ideas or perhaps even applying existing ideas to new problem areas. But overall my perception is that academic researchers tend to find new ideas more attractive that extending old ideas. Don't know whether industrial researchers look at it the same way.From a technologist/software engineering perspective, application of well established ideas/approaches to problems demanding solutions is perfectly fine and can be quite challenging depending on the problem. New ideas delivering better solutions are also welcome. But what is important is the quality of the solution and the satisfaction it gives to the users and not whether the ideas/approaches used are old or new. That, I think, is a really key difference between a technologist's view and an 'academic' researcher's view.Eklavya Sai had written in an earlier response: academic research does have a vital role in society.Friend wrote in response: Sure, but couldn't it be even more if they get rid of their bias towards new ideas?Eklavya Sai had written in an earlier response: I mean, if the student is smart enough to learn by himself why should he come to college to learn?Friend wrote in response: To get a piece of paper called a degree certificate, so that Google will offer him a job :)Eklavya Sai responded:I think the Internet knowledge base is going to change all this. I mean a guy can learn so much from the net today itself. As online education portals become more organized and sophisticated I think they may become a powerful teaching alternative. To test whether a guy has learned or not they can have examinations - how the guy learned via regular brick-and-mortar universities or 'cloud campus' may be the choice of the student and/or parent.Another major factor in favour of online education portals is the huge costs of university education especially abroad. I have heard horror stories of US students going into massive debt just to finish college and then they find they don't earn enough money to pay back the debt - they are into a debt trap BECAUSE OF COLLEGE STUDY. Horrifying stuff!!Eklavya Sai had written in an earlier response: My experience is that it is quite easy to teach standard stuff to a smart student - the real challenge is to motivate and impart knowledge to the average student.Friend wrote in response: Interesting. Yes, I don't have a teacher's perspective. Not being a teacher, I don't have to deal with the problem of the average student :)1 comment:Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 3, 2011 at 5:07 PMLong discussion spawned as a child post:?CS & IT: Pure vs. Applied ReseachSaturday, October 15, 2011A Defense of The CS/IT PhD TeacherNet url: is an edited mail exchange with a friend in response to the post:?Is a PhD in CS/IT Necessarily a Good Teacher?Friend wrote: First, let me be upfront with the fact that I may be in defensive mode - only because I have seen somethings very different here (West) and back in India, in some cases.For pedantic, completeness reasons, I would like to add d) Non-PhD + Not a good teacher... We have both seen examples of this type, I am sure. They may not be immediately pertinent to the discussion at hand, but sometimes tend to negatively influence some policies.Eklavya Sai wrote: Very valid point. I had missed it. Thanks. Added it to post.Eklavya Sai had written in the post: And then there is the communication skills issue. Research typically needs solitude and an individualistic approach.Friend wrote: I must disagree. While lots of R is individualistic, presentation skills are extremely important. Infact, every Graduate student is expected to go thru' comm. skills training, just like in the Industry.Eklavya Sai wrote: Well, I think it is clearly recognised by researchers that presentation skills are important. I am not disputing that at all. But picking up presentation skills and good communication skills (spoken & written) is not easy for many. And so, quite a few PhD qualified CS/IT persons in India are not good communicators though they very much desire to be good communicators.Friend wrote: Sadly, this is not the case in India, but in general, comm. skills are an absolute must.Eklavya Sai wrote: I am really focusing on the Indian CS/IT academic system space. US is really different. My impression is that there it is a market driven system. I mean, tuition fees are so expensive that if a PhD qualified teacher is not a good communicator, students would crib and crib loudly - they would not care about whether he is a PhD or not. So a poor communicator PhD qualified teacher would not be able to last long as a teacher and may move to research-only positions.Eklavya Sai had written in the post: So only a few should understand, for your research work to be considered noteworthy :-).Friend wrote: Why is this the case? Because, only a few are capable of understanding this. Hence, it is all the more important to be able to effectively communicate to that elite few capable of understanding you. Consider the converse: if many could understand, you will probably gloss over most of the details and hope that those who can, will understand: this is definitely not effective communication, IMO.Eklavya Sai wrote: The comment was made part-jokingly, part-seriously by a UK academician. I think many of the greats in sciences have the ability to convey their research ideas very effectively. I have been very impressed with how certain Western scientists present complex stuff. They can really communicate.And I certainly recognise that very complex research stuff will be understood only by persons of the field. I mean I will not understand much about your research work, to be honest, as I am a technologist and not a researcher :).But I have noticed a common flaw in some persons of both the researcher and technologist communities. When they are not sure of their stuff they take refuge in jargon. And this jargon stuff well used can give an impression to not-so-knowledgeable people that the guy is knowledgeable!! If the guy gets grilled by a really knowledgeable guy who is not willing to get fobbed off by jargon & assumed-punditry, then his ignorance gets exposed.That is why tech. reviews are so important in the software technology space. And I guess that must be the role that reviewers of scientific journals are supposed to play. The elite journals would surely be having quality reviewers but I think there are a lot of non-elite journals where high-sounding-but-low-real-content stuff passes through.I think it is this aspect of the researcher that the UK academician part-jokingly referred to. I mean, the guy had a PhD under his belt and years of academic teaching experience in the West. It is not a non-PhD, non-researcher guy like me talking.Eklavya Sai had written in the post: And all non PhD software industry professionals are NOT good teachers - but some certainly are.Friend wrote: Isn't the converse also true? And therefore, only a few people are in general, really capable of teaching - not just restricted to the PhD circle.Eklavya Sai wrote:I agree, all can't teach. Whether it is PhD circle or non-PhD circle. I presume this is what you mean.Friend wrote: Why is this pertinent? Because, what I have seen is this: people who have spent more time with research, generally tend to know things that you can only know by that deep study. So, among the good teachers, those who have a PhD would tend to be the more knowledgable ones and thus prepare better students.Eklavya Sai wrote: They tend to know things in their research area well. And I have acknowledged that in the post. "Note that for the course he teaches where he has done research he will be very knowledgeable typically - I am talking about other courses here."But for other courses? If a guy is a PhD in algorithms, will he automatically be knowledgeable enough to teach OOAD? IMHO, he won't. So he will read from a book, understand it well (as he has certain amount of intellectual capability - he did a PhD after all) and then teach. But that will be only book knowledge. How can it compete with a professional with years of OOAD expertise under his belt? Neither will it be able to compete with a PhD in OOAD.And, as I wrote in the post, the teacher cannot do another PhD in OOAD just because he has to teach OOAD.Now elite colleges & elite PhDs are perhaps special cases. In an IIT a teacher may offer only a couple of courses - one may be his research area and he can spend enough time on the other to know it reasonably well, even if it is book knowledge. And, anyway the teacher is a real smart guy.But in commoner techie colleges in India for CS/IT I think the picture is very different. Bookish knowledge teachers are the norm rather than the exception. They may be teaching 4 to 8 courses in an academic year and only one CS/IT course may be corresponding to their research area.I think you do not have exposure to the commoner techie college issues and commoner CS/IT teacher issues so much. I get the impression that your views are more appropriate for elite colleges and elite teachers, at least in the Indian CS/IT academia perspective. But, I could be wrong. After all, my exposure to Indian CS/IT academia is quite limited.Eklavya Sai had written in the post: But most students and parents are not interested in research!Friend wrote: Not sure about students, but afaik, many parents these days actively encourage their ward to go into Research/Teaching. Their reasons could be less stress, more respectable job (even if not pay ;) ) and quality family time.Eklavya Sai wrote: Well, let's look at the numbers. I play it somewhat safe and say it is 80% industry job and 20 % research (what students do after passing out of grad/post-grad CS & IT degree programs). Stroustrup wrote (in a mail exchange I had with him in early 2010) that he feels it is more 95 % industry? job and 5 % research.Eklavya Sai had written in the post: ...curricula not left to PhD alone...?Friend wrote: I can think of atleast one reason why this tends to be the case (I am by no means endorsing or opposing the statement). Education is as much about preparing people for the future as it is for the present. Not everyone is capable of picking-up skills; and so the system must consider the majority of the populace that cannot stand on its own. And, people can in a position to have some inkling about the future of science, technology, humanities, arts are those engrossed in R in those areas. Difficult choice - for both the people on curricula committees and for those deciding who gets to be on the committees as well.Eklavya Sai wrote: Well, I think there should be transparency in the system. And the student should be able to choose what he wants to do. As far as I am concerned the Indian CS/IT academic system is heavily biased towards the elite. And that is why you have this new, "IT Finishing School" concept, which even IT graduates go to!!! Unbelievable. And, IMHO, a terrible proof of CS/IT academic system failure for the commoner students. For more please see this post:?IT Finishing SchoolsBut this is my view and I guess I get a little emotional about it. During my industry days, I have conducted countless tech. interviews and wondered what the he** the teachers were teaching students doing programming courses in colleges. After spending some time in CS academia, I think now I know what the problems are when it comes to teaching programming in Indian CS & IT academia. Maybe that is clouding my vision about the bigger CS/IT academic picture.Thursday, April 18, 2013Nature and Science 2011 Articles on Lack of Importance Given to Teaching NowadaysNet url: is a Jan. 2011 article, "Scientists Fault Universities as Favoring Research Over Teaching", refers an article in Nature, Jan. 2011, "University cuts show science is far from saved", , which states that funds for teaching have been cut in UK universities.It also refers an article in Science, Jan. 2011, "Changing the Culture of Science Education at Research Universities",?, by 13 authors from 11 different US universities including MIT, Harvard and Yale, which states, "The reward systems at research universities heavily weight efforts of many professors toward research at the expense of teaching, particularly in disciplines supported extensively by extramural funding". It suggests seven initiatives for ensuring equal commitment of science faculty to their teaching and research missions.Articles in Nature and Science, both of which are top scientific journals/publications, raising the lack of importance given to teaching, in 2011, clearly shows that research grant money is corrupting academic teaching ideals in the scientifically advanced Western world. Is India going to follow their path and make the same mistakes? Will young Indian students have to endure mediocre and poor teachers due to excessive importance being given to research in Indian universities? I think there is a serious risk of such things already happening and becoming more commonplace in future.1 comment:Ravi S. Iyer, April 19, 2013 at 4:52 PMI thought some readers may want to know that I sent a mail a few minutes ago with mostly similar content to the above blog post to appropriate Indian government ministers, top academic administrators, some NAAC executive committee members etc.Sunday, September 30, 2012Suggestion of Separate Tracks for Teaching and Research by US AcademicsNet url: updated on: 2nd October 2012Is it time to have two separate tracks for teaching and research in academia (higher education)?It seems that some faculty in the USA are talking about separation of teaching and research:1) A tech. view from?Georgia Tech., one of the top US research universities in science and technology?here:?) A humanities view from a?Columbia University Professor Emeritus, Herbert Gans?here: could be wrong but I think that really seems to be the future for higher education in these times of economic uncertainty worldwide. The online education movement may push strongly for this separation.?In the case of CS and IT graduate/post-graduate degrees (e.g. B.Tech., M.Tech.) where, I presume, there is supposed to be substantial focus on teaching software design and development, excellence in teaching these topics should naturally go hand-in-hand with software contributions - if the teacher of these topics does not practice software engineering/development himself/herself how can he/she be an excellent teacher of software engineering? And what better measure of a teacher's excellence in the practice of software development/engineering than his/her software contribution record?In my references above to software engineering I mean the actual practice of software design and development which includes, as a small part, study of various software development processes. Sometimes the software engineering subject is considered to be limited to study of software development processes which I think is a big mistake. Such limited view of the subject should be called software engineering process(es) and not software engineering.Wednesday, April 17, 2013India (and Other Emerging/Developing Countries) Should Not Obsess about Higher Education RankingsNet url: . Altbach,? , , wrote an article titled, "The overuse of rankings", , in The Hindu dated March 9th 2013.[Please note that the CC-BY, Creative Commons Attribution license?does not?apply to this post.]In the article Prof. Altbach mentions how top political and other leaders across the world, including India's Prime Minister, give tremendous value to university rankings like the Times Higher Education ranking (officially called World University Rankings),?, and the Shanghai ranking (officially called Academic Ranking of World Universities),?. The article states, "Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently chastised Indian universities for having no institutions in the “top 200” of the global higher education rankings. He sees this poor showing as an indication of the low quality of Indian higher education."The author of the article digs deeper into the above two rankings. He states that the Shanghai rankings are research based (teaching quality is not measured). The Times Higher education ranking gives research a lot of importance but also tries to factor in teaching quality and internationalization by using "weak proxies" to measure them. The article discusses some more issues related to the rankings.In its conclusion the author states, "For India, or other developing countries, to obsess about the rankings is a mistake."There was a response to this article from Mr. Phil Baty, editor, Times Higher Education rankings, "Why this global ranking process matters",?, in The Hindu dated April 11, 2013. Mr. Baty warned "it would be a far greater mistake for Indian institutions and policymakers to under-use the global rankings than to overuse them".?Mr Baty wrote that Times Higher Education ranking (measures) "teaching, research, knowledge transfer and internationalisation".?Prof. Altbach wrote another article, seemingly in response to Mr. Baty's article, "Ranking obsessions and India’s educational needs",?, in The Hindu dated April 16th 2013.I am so glad to read the articles from Prof. Altbach, a distinguished educator, questioning the relevance of higher education rankings like Times Higher Education rankings or the Shanghai rankings for the vast majority of Indian universities/colleges (typically regulated by UGC/AICTE). While I am nowhere close to being a knowledgeable person on these matters from a country-wide perspective, it seems to me that his assessment that many of these higher educational institutions (of India) "mainly provide supervision of colleges and teaching in selected postgraduate fields, but perform little if any research" is correct. And, IMHO, there is nothing shameful about it! That's the role they are cut out to play, in terms of the finance available to them, the faculty available and the students they cater to. Teaching alone is not shameful but a very respected calling, IMHO.I particularly liked him noting the "latest eminent person to castigate Indian higher education for its low quality". I think it has become a popular sport for India's top politicians. I would have hated to be in the shoes of the academics who had to listen to such castigation without any chance to respond.He wrote, "It (India) needs a small number of top-quality, internationally competitive research universities." I guess the elite IITs, IISc, TIFR etc. have government or other funds support and limited teaching load for its faculty, to shoot for these goals."And it needs significant improvement in the overall quality of the system, and especially of the colleges." I think teaching quality needs a lot of improvement. BTW here is an interesting article about NPTEL tying up with some corporates (Google, TCS etc.) for its free online learning solutions:?. They plan to have exams and certification for a fee (the teaching part of the course will be free). That may make it a very interesting option for many young Indians.I think online education may 'revolutionize' Indian higher education landscape. I feel India is just about ready to get on to the MOOC bandwagon as the Internet has really caught on even in semi-urban India and some parts of rural India as well. If you want to read a short blogpost on why I feel MOOC may revolutionize higher education teaching, which is based on an external link article, you may please visit Napster, mp3 music industry disruption and MOOCCS & IT ResearchMy Viewpoints/ArticlesShould M.Tech.(CS) Project be CS Research Oriented Or Software Engineering Project Oriented?, April 2013Discussion/Informative Posts Involving Others' Articles/Views, Media reports and Some Comments from mePursuing CS/IT Research Individually - Ph.D. Possibility?, September 2011?CS & IT: Pure vs. Applied Research, September 2011?Google's Hybrid Research + Development Model, July 2012Prof. David Parnas' views on Corruption of (Academic) Computer Science Researchers/Scientists by Publication Counts, April 2013Oct. 2013 Economist article on Problems with scientific research - How science goes wrong, January 2014Ground Rules for Sending Scientific Papers for Publication, December 2012?Grad-Student. What does it really mean?, September 2012Open Access Journal Scams, September 2012?Off-Campus PhD Degrees - Assam State Government to reduce pay of teachers with such degrees!, April 2013UGC seeks details on Ph.D. candidates in state universities, May 2013Monday, April 29, 2013Should M.Tech.(CS) Project be CS Research Oriented Or Software Engineering Project Oriented?Net url: updated on June 14th 2013The first part of this post has some views of mine which have had the benefit of an email conversation with a correspondent and discussion with a senior Indian CS academic. The second part of the post has an edited version of the email conversation with the correspondent which includes the views of the senior academic.For readers who do not know much about the M.Tech.(CS) program I felt it appropriate to provide some background information.What is M.Tech.(CS)An M.Tech.(CS) program stands for Master of Technology (Computer Science) and such programs are conducted in AICTE approved colleges/universities in India after getting approval from AICTE,?, the key government constituted and supported technical higher education regulator of India. [Note this post does not focus on the elite technical education institutions of India, the IITs,?, which also offer an M.Tech.(CS) or (CSE) program. The IITs cater to a small percentage of technical education students in India. The vast majority of technical education students in India are catered to by AICTE regulated institutions and this post has a focus on M.Tech.(CS) or (CSE) offered by such institutions.]The M.Tech.(CSE) program, I believe, is very similar, if not the same, as the M.Tech.(CS) program. It is just a matter of nomenclature with some institutions preferring the Computer Science & Engineering name instead of only Computer Science. So, I believe, all that is written in this post about M.Tech.(CS) applies to M.Tech.(CSE) as well.Eligibility Criteria for M.Tech.(CS)I don’t think the eligibility criteria for an M.Tech.(CS)/(CSE) is uniformly defined by AICTE. Different institutions seem to have slightly different criteria. Here is one from a Bangalore, Karnataka engineering college, which seems quite typical:“Candidates who have acquired BE/B.Tech/AMIE or equivalent degree in Computer Science / Information Science / Electronics & Communication Engineering / Telecommunication Engineering / Electrical & Electronics Engineering by securing not less than 50% marks in aggregate are elgible (eligible). However in case of candidates belonging to SC/ST/Group, the aggregate percent of marks in qualifying examination should not be less than 45%. The admissions are through central counseling on the basis of merit in PGCET or GATE. A few seats are also available under sponsored and Management quota. GATE qualified candidates are eligible for scholarship through AICTE.”Source:? seems to be the state level Post Graduate Common Entrance Test for the state of Karnataka. Source:? stands for Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering and "is an all India examination that primarily tests the comprehensive understanding of various undergraduate subjects in Engineering and Technology. GATE is conducted jointly by the Indian Institute of Science and seven IIT's (IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras and IIT Roorkee) on behalf of the National Coordination Board – GATE, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India." Source: group refers to SC/ST reservation,?, which in the education system, provides for lower thresholds of entry and some other benefits to certain categories and castes of Indians who historically have been deprived/depressed.However there are institutions that allow M.Sc. i.e. Master of Science Maths/Physics students to also pursue M.Tech.(CS). An example is a university in the state of Himachal Pradesh, :?“The candidates should have passed with minimum 50% marks (45% in the case of reserved category) in aggregate in B.Tech/B.E. in Computer Engg./Computer Sc. & Engg./ Computer Technology/Information Technology/ Electronics Engg/Electrical Engg. or M.Sc. in Computer Science/ Electronics/IT/ Software Engg./ Maths/ Physics/Statistics or MCA or its equivalent examination from any recognized University.”Even the elite IITs allow M.Sc.(Maths) students, who qualify and get a good rank in the GATE (CS) exam, to do an M.Tech.(CSE) as I know of such a case less than a decade ago.M.Tech.(CS) ProjectI could not locate suitable links on the net describing the academic regulations for the M.Tech.(CS) project. From experience I can say that it is typically referred to as the final year project (2 semesters, namely third and fourth semesters of the 2 year M.Tech. program). The third semester may have some additional courses to be done but the fourth and final semester is exclusively for the project work. At one institution, 10 credits are associated with the project and I believe that to be quite typical.The evaluation components of the project, from my experience, are a large component of external examiner evaluated thesis, smaller component of project viva and perhaps some other small components evaluated by project supervisor/guide. I believe this evaluation pattern to be a typical one for AICTE regulated educational institutions.M.Tech.(CS) Project TypesFrom my experience, broadly there are two types of projects, software engineering project oriented where the student gets exposure to problem requirements, design, development and test for a significantly sized and complex system software type problem in CS areas like web services security, image processing, parallel processing, ontology (for primary & secondary school education - roughly equivalent to K-12 in USA, I guess), object oriented analysis and design etc. I refer to this type as software engineering type. Such type of projects typically have no research component. They may involve studying associated computer science literature but will typically not involve publishing a research paper on the project.Then there is a research oriented type of project where the student first studies computer science research literature for a research problem suggested by his/her supervisor and then works on the research problem. Typically there is some software engineering work as implementation of approach adopted to solve the research problem. During the course of the project or after the end of the project, the student in conjunction with his/her supervisor may also publish a research paper or two from the project work - typically conference paper(s).[Jargon Confusion: Software engineering is a research area as well. In this post I am not addressing that area of research at all. In Indian CS & IT academia, the term software engineering research seems to be used quite rarely as compared to computer science research. In this post I am differentiating between software engineering research and software engineering software development work by referring to the latter as 'software engineering project' or simply 'software engineering' without the word research.]?Should M.Tech.(CS) Project be CS Research Oriented Or Software Engineering Project Oriented?As the M.Tech.(CS) program usually allows students with Bachelor's degree in non-CS areas to enter the program, many students entering the M.Tech.(CS) program may not have done a software engineering project as part of their Bachelor's degree. Further they may have basic programming skills like using C++/Java for some kind of work but not be really proficient in using them for complex system software kind of tasks. E.g. Using C++/Java/equivalent programming language along with, say, an Image processing class library may be something which may severely test an M.Tech. student who is mediocre in programming.In my humble opinion (IMHO), before advising an M.Tech. student to take up a particular type of project, the supervisor should assess the student's capability in software engineering project work involving requirements study, design, development and test of a fair size problem of system software type complexity (as against simple Database forms oriented applications). If the student is weak in software engineering project work then the student should be advised to do a software engineering type project and there is nothing wrong about it as, I am given to understand, AICTE regulations permit such projects with zero research component to be considered as M.Tech. projects. [I tried to locate/download AICTE (model) regulations for M.Tech. projects but could not find it.]If, on the other hand, the student is found capable/experienced enough in software engineering project work of system software type by the supervisor, then the supervisor can, or perhaps should, advise the student to take up a more challenging computer science (or software engineering) research oriented project (which will also typically have some software engineering project component). This allows good and excellent students to get the best out of their M.Tech. project - research angle exposure as well as some software engineering project work.But "actively encouraging" most or all M.Tech. students to take up research oriented project work in AICTE type of universities (unlike the elite IITs) can be ill-advised if the regulations allow for zero research software engineering projects. IMHO, it is an unethical practice to "actively encourage" M.Tech. students to do research projects (or scare them by veiled or open threats of poor marks for zero research component software engineering type projects) when the academic regulations allow for zero research component software engineering projects.If a department wants to have a Masters program which is only research oriented there are AICTE approved programs like M.S. by Research which a department can take up. In such cases there will be no confusion from regulations point of view at all.Another point is about rural university/college issues. Typically such universities/colleges have significant number of rural students. Many of these rural students who enroll into an M.Tech.(CS) program may not really be strong enough technically to take up research work in their M.Tech.(CS) program. Expecting all such students to do research as part of the M.Tech. project work and then getting disappointed by the work they do seems to be a grave error of advise/judgement.Yet another point is the need for senior academics to have research assistants for doing research work and publishing research papers. In places where senior academics do not have enough PhD scholars (PhD students/grad-students) or M.S. by research students associated with them, the senior academics may view the M.Tech.(CS) students as their research assistants! That, IMHO, is not an ethical practice.IMHO, academics must always bear in mind that their first and foremost duty towards M.Tech. students is the teaching part of their mission; the research part is secondary and optional. Most M.Tech.(CS) students look for a software engineering job (systems software type usually) in the industry after passing out. If they have not had good exposure to a software engineering project of system software type they may either struggle to find a suitable job or worse, get a job and then struggle to perform adequately in the job. IMHO, M.Tech.(CS) post-graduates passing out through the educational system without decent software engineering project exposure of system software type is a failure of the teaching mission of Indian CS academia.This second part of this post has an edited version of the email conversation with the correspondent (who is currently based in USA) which includes the views of the senior Indian CS academic. It is rather long and so please feel free to skip reading it or just skim through it.Ravi wrote:In the blog post, “Nature and Science 2011 Articles on Lack of Importance Given to Teaching Nowadays”, I plan to add the comment below:In some extreme cases, research glory/publication count obsessed administrators may even create a culture where Masters students are "actively encouraged" to work on research projects thereby contributing to research output of the department/institution but many times at the expense of their Masters learning goals. The poor students may not even realize where they are losing out while they are doing their Masters. When they start looking for non-research jobs like applied science and technology jobs after their education then they will realize the shortcomings in their education. [Industry and academic research jobs, I am given to understand, are more suited for PhDs. A non-PhD person joining a research job may find a PhD glass ceiling staring him/her in the face very quickly in their career.]A PhD scholar/grad-student (graduate doing a PhD) working on research is a completely different matter, of course. Same is the case with an M.S. by research student. That is what s/he is expected to do. I am talking about Masters students like M.Sc. and M.Tech. students. Encouraging the typical M.Tech. student to publish a conference paper while s/he is doing their project work is, IMHO, a very dangerous and unethical practice. While the student is doing an M.Tech. s/he should focus on learning the technologies involved in his/her project and aim at excelling in that area. Once the M.Tech. project period is over, including submission of project thesis (for evaluation), and the viva/exams, s/he exploring the possibility of publishing a conference (or even journal) paper based on their project, seems quite fair and ethical to me.Some exceptional M.Tech. students may be brilliant who not only can publish some research papers (conference papers typically) but also learn the technology skills part very well. But most M.Tech. students will lose out on picking up technology skills well if they are "encouraged" by their supervisors/guides to publish a research paper while they are in the middle of their M.Tech. project work. [A classic case may be a project supervisor "encouraging" an M.Tech.(CS) student to try out a research approach using MATLAB instead of C++/Java as the student is not able to write such C++/Java programs quickly. The student may pick up MATLAB skills but may end up keeping his/her C++/Java/(other well known programming language) programming skills applied to a particular domain like Ontology (Automatic Classification/Automatic Annotation) or Image Processing, by using associated class libraries, which are the vital skills an M.Tech.(CS) student is expected to be proficient in, at a lower level than the desired level!]Such practices will help the supervisor/guide (as they will be co-authors of the paper) and it will help the department/institution, as it will increase the publication count but, IMHO, it is an unethical practice, as most M.Tech. students will lose out on the learning technology part. I think such a practice, if followed, will be a clear case of academic research craze corrupting academic teaching ideals.[Ravi: As the comment above is now part of this post, there is no need to add it as a comment to the other post referenced above.]Correspondent (Corr) wrote: I've been mulling over what I should say for some time now. First, I am not sure I am an appropriately unbiased person in this matter: I’ve been fortunate to have a reasonable balance between the CS and programming; notice that I am distinguishing the two. I have seen far too many botched projects because of a lack of understanding of basic CS concepts. All I contend is that you need both: programming skills and sound CS fundamentals.IMO, what happens when people don’t understand basic CS is what I’d like to call the copy-paste programmer. He may be good enough to write assignment programs, but not really industry projects. He will use the miserably slow linear scan-and-search when he could be using something much better. And so on.Ravi wrote: For system software projects, I agree with your view. Fundamental theory of CS (as against advanced stuff which I consider as optional for some type of system software projects) + programming fluency makes the ideal combo. Only programming fluency without fundamental theory of CS makes for a weak systems programmer typically. [As a mostly self-taught and mostly systems software programmer in the mid 80s to around the end of the millennium, I had to struggle with my theory gaps by doing some intensive self-learning of some CS topics. I was not the ideal systems programmer due to lack of a proper, formal CS theory background but the supply of knowledgeable CS theory + programming guys (as against formally CS qualified but without good knowledge of CS + programming) was so low that people like me with intense self-learning periods, had to do such jobs and did it to quite some satisfaction of the customers usually. In today's context I really do not know whether significant number of CS graduates and post-graduates in India are knowledgeable enough of fundamental CS theory. Of course, there will be more numbers of good CS graduates now than my times (1984 to 2002). However the demand for system software chaps must have gone up exponentially in recent times in India. So don't know whether the good CS graduate numbers have grown in a matching exponential way or better.]Corr:? Coming back to the problem addressed in your comments: departments at universities usually pitch themselves as Research-oriented or Teaching-oriented; or at least what the majority of the faculty think they do is pretty clear. I think there is sufficient onus on the student to do his homework and find out what he is up for before admission. Once a student joins a research-oriented department, I am not sure who is to blame. What can the supervisor do if the student is not good enough to program his project in C/C++/Java? Should he allow the student to lag and potentially fail his degree? Matlab like environments are an easy compromise. Moreover, IMO, the masters projects are hardly a place to learn programming; rather, that is where students prove that they can effectively apply what they learnt: both in terms of programming and CS basics. I see the Masters projects as a place to fine tune and polish existing skills more than a place to 'learn' programming.Again, please remember that I have a natural bias in this regard.Ravi: And I may have a bias too. So let us have a free exchange of our views knowing that either or both of us may be rather wrong. The exchange of views can help in possibly both our views becoming more nuanced.About M.Tech. degree: Initially when I was in industry I thought M.Tech.(CS) chaps would be really great guys technically as I sort-of presumed that it will be a B.Tech.(CS) + M.Tech.(CS) combo. When I checked around somewhat recently I was told that even at IIT usually a B.Tech.(CS) guy does not do an M.Tech.(CS)! It is guys from other streams (Other engineering streams, Maths, Physics etc.) who want to change their stream and get into the CS stream that do M.Tech.(CS).So the typical M.Tech.(CS) student may not have done a strong software engineering (req. + design + programming + test) project prior to his/her M.Tech.Certainly an M.Tech.(CS) project cannot be a programming assignment. It has to have a project flavour as against a programming assignment flavour. And what is a project flavour; the problem should be of significant size, should involve req. analysis, design, development and test - all of this work should be appropriate for a 10 credit course (in my experience at an educational institution that is what it was IFIRC; at other places it may be slightly different). The project report should present all the work done so that it convinces the examiner that 10 credit equivalent amount of work has been done and that it is of sufficient technical complexity (system software type) suitable for an M.Tech. degree.Based on interactions with experienced Indian CS academics I was told that this is how an M.Tech. project is viewed elsewhere in Indian academia too.About departments pitching themselves as research-oriented or teaching-oriented I think the crux is the academic regulations for a particular degree program. If the regulations for it (e.g. M.Tech.(CS)) provide a zero research software engineering type of project to be taken up as an M.Tech. project then the department must allow a student that option.You wrote, "the masters projects are hardly a place to learn programming; rather, that is where students prove that they can effectively apply what they learnt: both in terms of programming and CS basics."I agree in general. I repeat that the Masters project cannot be a programming assignment. It has to be a full project. And a full project will typically involve CS basics and programming.You wrote, "What can the supervisor do if the student is not good enough to program his project in C/C++/Java? Should he allow the student to lag and potentially fail his degree? Matlab like environments are an easy compromise."I think this is a vital part of our discussion for me. I think your view is what some CS academics in India take. Maybe you and they are right. But I think the CS academics are terribly wrong from a teaching point of view. Maybe I am wrong. Anyway, here's my view:An M.Tech.(CS) student who cannot do a technical project in C++/Java/equivalent programming language but slips in something in MATLAB, should not be given a CS degree, IMHO. He/she does not have the capability to provide system software engineering solutions. He/she should be forced to learn system software engineering skills (req. + design + programming + test) before he/she is awarded the M.Tech.(CS) degree.Matlab environments are an easy compromise only from research results point of view. But in reality it is the poor M.Tech.(CS) student who suffers by not getting a chance to learn good systems programming as part of his/her project work (in the case where the student is weak in such programming skills).I feel people who are weak in software engineering should not be allowed to take up research oriented M.Tech.(CS) projects. If a supervisor finds that the student is not able to implement some paper in C++/Java quickly, the supervisor should change the M.Tech.(CS) project of the student to a software engineering type instead of research type in the interest of the student and in the interest of academic honesty & integrity. And such a project is in full conformance with AICTE regulations - that is the vital thing in AICTE regulated institutions/departments in India.An M.S. by research in India gets evaluated differently I am told. That seems understandable to me. So a guy doing his project work in MATLAB for an M.S.(CS) by research may be fine. But not an M.Tech.(CS).Corr: 1. Let me clarify further on the copy-paste programmer. Some persons earn a name for being capable of beating code until it "works" but they may not have a good CS background. They use copy-pasting from other sources/web-sites without having an understanding of how that code works. When instructed to implement concept X/algorithm Y (which is a common way that requirements are given out) they cannot understand basic things about the algorithm and cannot implement it. So they try to use copy-paste techniques without understanding the copy-pasted code. While such cases may be chronic cases, I say this just to point out that it is not necessarily true of only/mostly system projects needing basic understanding of CS fundamentals.Ravi: In my generation/group of self-taught systems software programming guys I think a programmer who could not explain code that he copy-pasted from somewhere else into his own 'production'/released program would be considered an unreliable and bad programmer.Corr: 2. Regarding the M. Tech degree: I don't think it is true in general that mostly non-CS people do M.Tech. It is definitely the case in some institutions, but not in general. Specifically, IIT-ians don’t bother with M. Tech mostly because their B. Tech degrees are good enough to get extremely high-paying jobs. Trend was, when I graduated, most IIT-ians end up doing MBAs from IIMs. That is the trend with IITs. If you look at the admission process to the IIT-Bombay M. Tech (CS) degree, you need to clear the GATE-CS exam (, see the ‘CSE Department Admission Requirements and Procedures’ section).Ravi: IIT + IIM (IIMs,?, are the elite management education institutions of India) was the prized combo even in mid 1980s when I started my career. Most top software consultancy companies then including Datamatics,?, where I was employed (considered then, I believe, to be 3rd/4th top software consultancy company in India after TCS, TBL - Tata Burroughs Ltd, and sometimes after PCS - Patni consultants ... - Infosys was not born yet – Mr. Narayana Murthy was working with PCS then I believe) recruited some of such "stars". And some such stars were pretty good, I must say. I was very impressed with one such person with whom I had a professional and personal friendly relationship for many years. He became a director in a medium sized international software consultancy company.Had a discussion with a senior Indian academic today on matters related to this mail exchange. His view was that B.Tech.(CS) or B.E.(CS) rarely do M.Tech./M.E.(CS) from same college/university. But many who do B.Tech.(CS) or B.E.(CS) from mediocre (and poor, I guess) universities/colleges pursue M.Tech./M.E.(CS) from better universities/colleges. That seems to make sense to me.Regarding IIT M.Tech.(CS) needing GATE in CS clearance. Yes, I guess. But even GATE would not be able to test software engineering project kind of exposure of the student well. So you can certainly have many cases of people entering an IIT M.Tech.(CS) program with zero software engineering project experience.In this connection I would like to share some personal experience. Around 1990 or 1991, as a software manager of a startup firm in SEEPZ, Mumbai, , I recruited an M.Tech.(CS) IIT Bombay passed out student. I recall that during the interview I conducted with him, he was talking about a radar technology project. I did not understand the physics/electronics part but I did try to dig in the software design & development part of the project. He could not give me a good account. I thought maybe I did not do the interview well - after all he is an M.Tech.(CS) from IIT Mumbai. And he did explain some programming stuff quite OK (separate from project). I gave the okay for recruitment. Later I saw he was a little slow on software development initially. But he picked up the stuff quickly - so there was no eventual problem.I also learned that he had done B.E./B.Tech.(Production Engg.) and then moved into M.Tech.(CS). That seems to explain his poor software engineering project experience - zero software engineering project experience in B.E. and research type project in M.Tech.(CS) at IIT Bombay.Corr: M. Tech, by virtue of its name is a technology program. But it is not uncommon that the projects be research oriented. For example, CSE IIT-B clarifies this upfront: ?(Postgraduate Programme (M. Tech.) section, first para, last line). The way I see it, this is a symbiotic approach. Universities mostly thrive on research. While teaching helps the students, research helps the university. And, mostly no sane teacher/lecturer/professor asks for research from Undergrads. But the moment one is enrolled in a masters program, I suppose it mostly requires some research. How else would you show a value-add for the masters program?Ravi: Hmm. My non-academic, man-on-the-street view is that a Masters degree can involve teaching of advanced topics not taught in a Bachelors degree. That is the value addition. The research component may be optional depending on the kind of degree offered. But then I do not know whether this view matches the academic view. And that view is more important here.Corr: I think if programming is to be taught, it should be at the undergraduate level.Ravi: I don't disagree. And I think that is the case in most academic setups in India too. However they may not teach stuff like Advanced Unix programming, Socket programming, in a B.E.(Civil) program or an M.Sc.(Maths/Physics) program.Corr:? Even in the US universities, programming capability is assumed for the Masters program. If you cannot program, the professor can atmost direct you to enroll in an undergraduate programming class and quit the current masters class. Masters programming oriented classes mostly focus on things like language support for certain design patterns, C++11 features etc. And mostly such classes are offered as single credit, seminar electives.I think a (possibly better) approach would be to have more strict filtering during the admissions, rather than failing the student for lack of programming skills. To me, failing a student for lack of programming skills is simply an acknowledgement of the failure of the admission process whose goal was to filter and choose sufficiently prepared students.Ravi: Well, there are various types of programming skills. The entrant to the M.Tech. program may have basic programming skills like using C++/Java for some kind of work. But using C++/Java along with an Image processing class library may be something which may test a mediocre in programming student severely. And that's where him using the MATLAB route for quicker research results, IMHO, is a terrible option from an M.Tech.(CS) technology learning perspective.About admission process being weak. I think the practical reality in India is that many M.Tech.(CS) students enter the program with poor software engineering project work skills. You have to deal with such students.Corr: 3. Finally, there is the humanitarian aspect to education. Barring a few statistical exceptions, many supervisors sometimes want to overlook the students’ shortcomings and hopefully help or push them through the program. They need to find such methods to help them out.4. I definitely agree with this though: I feel people who are weak in software engineering should not be allowed to take up research oriented M.Tech(CS) projects. However, I think supervisors must allow leeway for the student to experiment with their own capabilities. But yes, the supervisor should be proactive to point out and change the direction of the project if needed.Ravi: That (point 4 above) is the crux of the whole discussion for me. I took the opinion of the senior academic I mentioned earlier, on it. We agreed that the supervisor should assess the student's capability in software engineering project work. If the student is weak then the student should be advised to do a software engineering type project and there is nothing wrong about it as, according to the senior academic, AICTE regulations permit such projects with zero research component to be considered as M.Tech. projects. [BTW I tried to locate/download AICTE regulations for M.Tech. projects but did not get it.]If, on the other hand, the student is found capable enough in the software engineering project work side by the supervisor, then the supervisor can, or perhaps should, advise the student to take up a more challenging research oriented project (which will also typically have some software engineering component). BTW I entirely agree with this view. This allows good and excellent students to get the best out of their M.Tech. project - research angle exposure as well as some software engineering project work.But "actively encouraging" all M.Tech. students to take up research oriented project work in AICTE type of universities (unlike the elite IITs) can be ill-advised if the regulations allow for zero research software engineering projects. In my strong view, I consider it to be an academic ---- to brainwash M.Tech. students to do research projects (or scare them by veiled threats of poor marks for software engineering type projects) when the academic regulations allow for zero research software engineering projects.The senior academic pointed out very well that if a department wants to have a Masters program which is only research oriented there are AICTE approved programs like M.S. by Research which a department can take up. So no confusion from regulations point of view at all. BTW today I came across even an M.Tech. (Research) program.Another point that came up in our discussions is about rural university/college issues. Typically such universities/colleges have significant number of rural students. Many of these rural students who enroll into an M.Tech.(CS) program may not really be strong enough technically to take up research work in their M.Tech.(CS) program. Expecting all such students to do research as part of the M.Tech. project work and then getting disappointed by the work they do seems to be a grave error of advise/judgement.Yet another point is the need for senior academics to have research assistants for doing research work and publishing research papers. In places where senior academics do not have enough PhD scholars or M.S. by research students associated with them, the senior academics may view M.Tech.(CS) students as their research assistants! That, IMHO, is not an ethical practice.Corr: A few clarifications:1. copy-paste programmers are no good -- even today. It is just a matter of who identifies/interviews and makes that call decides who get in and who get out. In my 3 years, I only okayed one candidate. My managers learnt to ensure only high performer positions were interviewed by me too. Otherwise, they realized that it will simply be a time waste to try to sneak a candidate through me -- for good or for worse.2. There is no excuse for admitting students to M.Tech.(CS) with poor programming skills -- even though you point out that this routinely happens. Perhaps if this problem is solved, the problem of having to deal with non-performing students during project phase will go away. But I guess the problem at hand is to treat the symptom rather than the root cause. Put another way, it is trading one problem for another, IMO.Ravi: I believe the standard of software engineering project work in B.E./B.Tech.(CS/IT) streams in many AICTE colleges is not great at all. And it is some of these persons who will come into an M.Tech. Guys coming from other streams which do not have a software engineering project at all are also strong possibilities. They want to do an M.Tech.(CS) due to the job potential mainly, I guess, and so some colleges somewhere will provide the programs to meet the demand. As I see it, it is a simple supply and demand issue.And so, in the foreseeable future in India, lots of M.Tech.(CS) entrants may have not so strong programming skills. The point is that even a free education system needs students - even if they don't meet a minimal standard. For commercial education systems, which are the vast majority of CS education systems in India, without sufficient students they may not be able to pay faculty salary!These, IMHO, are the inescapable realities of non-elite CS/IT education in India.Corr: 3. Yes, there is no excuse for forcibly thrusting research on people who can't cut it -- there is no arguing about that, IMO.Corr later passed me two links referenced below.The article, "How Different Is A B.S. In Computer Science From An M.S. When It Comes To Recruiting?", was very interesting to me. Some quotes/points that I found to be of particular interest:*) "In my experience, an MS degree has been one of the strongest indicators of poor technical interview performance." [Ravi: That, from a US recruiter, is a very strong criticism of the MS post-graduates tech. skill levels in the US.]*) The article mentions that some MS in CS students have an undergrad degree in some other field and so never do an algorithms or data structures class. It further states that graduate-level (i.e. MS) algorithms class would have easier grading when there are many students in it who have not done CS in their undergrad studies. [Ravi: I am quite shocked really to read about the point about the grading curve being easier as lots of guys in the class have never done any programming! But I think that must be the reality even in the USA. Of course, there would be some exceptions but when taken as a whole across the US, like in India, there must be many students doing MS with poor level/knowledge of programming/software engineering skills acquired in their non-CS graduate degree.]*) It mentions that one of the attractions of an MS from a top CS school is the paper degree legitimacy value. It proproses another option of doing Udacity and Coursera classes, building some cool software and working with a recruiter. [Ravi: Wow! That's some clear and off-beat advise. I don't know the US job market and the quality of Udacity/Coursera classes well enough to comment with certainty. On the face of it, the advise seems to be quite an interesting option.]"MSCS",?, was very interesting. Looks like MS coursework-only may be like Indian M.Tech. Don't know if the MS will have project work though. The research MS seems to be similar to MS by Research in Indian academia.*) This article references the previously mentioned article, "How Different Is A B.S. ..." and draws attention to the article stating that MS in CS has become a cash-cow. [Ravi: I think the cash-cow point may be really hitting the nail on the head.]?*) "The best MS students and the best undergrads are extremely strong. However, the median-quality MS student is weaker than the median-quality undergrad. A lot of this is caused by the MS students who don’t have a CS background: they simply are not ready for a serious upper-division CS class." [Ravi: This time the comment is from a US Associate Professor and not a recruiter. So clearly, in USA, there seem to be significant number of MS in CS students without CS background who struggle to cope with Masters level course work.]*) "At many institutions, the responsibility for not getting in over one’s head is placed largely on the students. While this is in some ways admirable, it does lead to some amount of unnecessary suffering." [Ravi: I read this as the poor student not getting a clear idea of what s/he is getting into by going in for MS without having a BS in CS background. And then s/he is left on her/his own to cope up with the Masters level classes! Unfair deal for the student, IMHO.]*) [Ravi: This article seems to be biased towards MS by research CS. The advice the author offers a student who intends to pursue an MS is research oriented. The author did not clarify that the student wanted to pursue MS by research - perhaps the student did not know much about differences between MS by research or coursework-only MS. Ideally the advice should have covered pros & cons of both MS options. IMHO, this is reflective of the strong research bias most CS academics have at the expense of technology skills.]---Another correspondent who has taught CS in UK academia shared this comment with readers:"In the UK they have what is called a 'conversion' MSc and an 'advanced' MSc. The first is for students from other disciplines who want to learn some CS; classes are very often at about the same level as final year degree CS courses. This kind of course is very popular with overseas students and hence with university administrations who can charge them higher fees.There are fewer advanced MSc courses and they are usually intended as preparation for research."Tuesday, September 27, 2011Pursuing CS/IT Research Individually - Ph.D. Possibility?Net url: , edited appropriately for general viewing, from a mail exchange I had with friends on my advise/views on pursuing CS/IT research individually & industry-research-job possibilities are given below.I have to preface the extracts by clarifying that I have never been a Ph.D. scholar - just observed and interacted with some Ph.D. scholars over 8 to 9 years. I also need to state that I personally am utterly disinterested in pursuing a Ph.D. or doing academic CS/IT research.But that does not mean that I do not respect researchers! I certainly respect their endeavour to push the boundaries of knowledge in their chosen fields. Their life their choice. However CS/IT research does not appeal to me. What appeals to me is applying established technology to provide working software solutions that help society - a technologist's view perhaps as against a researcher's view. My life my choice. Both technologists and researchers are needed in society.---- Start Extract of mail Eklavya Sai sent to a friend ---I think a smart guy like you can definitely get a research job. During my days IFIRC some places like ---snip--- used to offer research jobs along with a chance to pursue Ph.D.I don't know whether you have a feel of the CS 'research' picture. Thought I can share my exposure to it even if you know about such things already.A few years ago while I was at ---snip---, I was forced to keep aside my scriptural study/research during the holidays and review the remarks we got for an IEEE conference paper on Web Services Security for which a student I guided and me were the main authors. The paper was accepted in the conference provided we make the appropriate modifications. I did not have a choice as the student was not in a position to go through the remarks and the papers the remarks referred to.Grudgingly I read those papers :-) A couple of them IFIRC turned out to be from ---Major IT consultancy company--- R&D!!! One of them was from a Ph.D. scholar in ---Major IT consultancy company--- R&D. That was very good exposure to me about possibilities of Ph.D. in applied research areas like Web Services Security and how research in such areas are encouraged by even a 'software consultancy services' company like ---Major IT consultancy company---. I mean, it was clear to me that pushing the envelope in a relatively new area like Web Services security was a not-so-difficult path to publishing conference and journal papers. And that, if I wanted to, I could, without too much intellectual challenge difficulty, pursue a Ph.D. in such "Applied Research" areas.Though I am not familiar with the Industrial R&D picture in CS research in the country, I am quite sure you may not only get an industry research job but also be able to do a Ph.D. while at it. The issue may be that you need to choose an area that is relevant for industry. Pure research into, say, Design & Analysis of Algorithms may not find takers in India.Another point I wanted to share just in case you are not aware is how a Ph.D. thesis is evaluated. --- snip --- for CS area seems to be one well-recognised international journal publication or a couple or more not-so-well-recognised international journal publications. The thinking seems to be that if the guy could publish in a reputed journal then he has been vetted well enough by those guys and deserves the Ph.D.Of course there are the rules and regulations and the Ph.D. defense, but I get the impression that if you go through the experience of one reputed journal publication you can handle the rest of the stuff.So if you want to explore research I suggest you get some feel of reputed journals in your interest areas (maybe mobile-ipad computing/usability). If you like it then you can start your 'research work' in your spare time even before you get a research job/register for a Ph.D.Interestingly AICTE/UGC have norms of certain number of journal paper publications, with an appropriate impact factor, in a particular area being considered equivalent to a Ph.D. Anybody can send a paper to a journal for publication. They, of course, can reject it. So you are free to publish in journals even outside a Ph.D. program and if you publish a few papers you may even be considered Ph.D. equivalent!!--- End Extract ------ Extract (edited) from mail exchange with another friend on the above ---Friend wrote:The advice sounded fair. However, few 'non-functional' parameters to complement your advice.1. Doing a PhD in India is not really a job, unlike in many other countries - a prospective student may want to remember this since he may have an incomplete picture based on his friends doing PhDs elsewhere.2. My personal experience with Industrial PhDs in India: very few, very far apart; highly elitist. Scope for publishing in journals and conferences is all the more difficult due to IP considerations. Can consider job opportunities in Industrial PhD to be under .01% (probably a baseless statistic, but stated only to make a point).Eklavya Sai responded: Thanks for mentioning the VITAL IP point. I forgot to mention it in my mail. Of course, the IP angle and the profit-making angle will present problems for industrial researchers to publish all their research work freely in a public journal. I mean, no company will want their research work to be used by its competition to improve their (competition's) products and use those improved products to cream the company that did the research!!3. PhD in many Indian institutes entails menial jobs for the supervising professor (feedback from a friend doing his PhD in --- leading Indian science research university ---, under an established professor). And the time to graduation is very very long: supposedly, over 5 years - which is a lot more than in the US, where one would graduate with 99% probability in 5 years time.4. It means having a very very very good rapport with the professor, during the entire time. Granting the PhD is usually entirely at the behest of the professor, and little outside of his word matters - feedback from friends in India doing PhDs at --- leading Indian science research university ---.Eklavya Sai responded:?Noted the very very very! The absolute & totalitarian control that the Ph.D. supervisor has over his research-scholar-students is really scary!!! I mean, if a naive research scholar ends up doing his Ph.D. work under a manipulative Ph.D. supervisor - that's it - his/her life will be misery, man - completion of Ph.D. will then be like release from bondage!!!But I must also say that, as a disinterested observer, overall I have seen excellent relationships between Ph.D. supervisors and their research-scholar-students. It is almost like a father-son relationship at times.5. Yes - depending on the topic of research, India may or may not be an ideal place for research.6. It means a ton of possibly frustrating days/months with very uncertain days - one does not know when one can get a publishable result - can be a mental drain. And, the meager pay can add to the mental weight.Eklavya Sai responded:?Oh yes, man - I understand. And for a guy who was making tons of money in industry before he switched to do academic Ph.D. research the mental-drain-meager-pay-pinch can be acutely painful!7. Many times, one needs the weight (name) of a well known professor to even get your work to be taken seriously - so working by yourself and attempting to publish papers could be a challenge. Also, most conferences have prohibitively high fees, creating yet another (possibly artificial) barrier to entry for an unaffiliated and un-funded individual - this is more the norm, not a hard fact.Eklavya Sai responded:?Ah! That may be the killer for unaffiliated and un-funded individual research. I mean the bar for an unknown individual trying to publish a paper on his/her own must be very high. The content would have to be really brilliant and eye-catching for it to get the publication nod.--- End extract ---Friend final response:You said that you've seen the relationship between the supervisor and student to be near father-son at times. True, but in India, it is just 'at times' I am told!Friday, September 23, 2011CS & IT: Pure vs. Applied ReseachNet url: : This post is from a mail exchange related to the post:?CS & IT Academia: Research vs. Teaching??Eklavya Sai had written in a previous mail: academic researchers tend to find new ideas more attractive that extending old ideas... But what is important is the quality of the solution and the satisfaction it gives to the users and not whether the ideas/approaches used are old or new.Friend wrote: Exactly. So putting together the two points we agree on, which are quoted above, academia should look at how to improve things without bringing into consideration whether the idea is new or old.Eklavya Sai responded: My second statement which you have quoted above is what I made in the context of the "technologist/software engineering perspective" and not in the context of an academic researcher's perspective. See more of my comments lower down.Friend wrote: I was trying to say, this is perhaps part of what people mean when they talk of the academia-industry gulf. Academia (again speaking in broad strokes) restrictions itself to idea generation. Whereas we need people assembling them into next-generation systems, and in fact new ideas may or may not be called for in solving a given problem. The focus should be on the ends (solve the problem) rather than the means (whether coming up with new ideas or assembling existing ideas in different ways).Eklavya Sai responded: Well, I think your view is somewhat limited to "practical problem solving" research & development. While I am sure you are aware of the Pure Research & Applied Research differences I feel it will help the discussion to put down some salient points about them (as I, a non-researcher using Wikipedia sources of information, see them :-)].Importance of Pure Research from? research, basic research, or fundamental research? is research? carried out to increase understanding of fundamental principles. Many times the end results have no direct or immediate commercial benefits: pure research can be thought of as arising out of curiosity. However, in the long term it is the basis for many commercial products and applied research. Pure research is mainly carried out by universities.----Pure research generates new ideas, principles and theories, which may not be immediately utilized; though are the foundations of modern progress and development in different fields. Today's computers could not exist without the pure research in mathematics conducted over a century ago, for which there was no known practical application at that time. Pure research rarely helps practitioners directly with their everyday concerns. Nevertheless, it stimulates new ways of thinking about deviance that have the potential to revolutionize and dramatically improve how practitioners deal with a problem.--- end extracts from Pure Research wiki page ----I am not a mathematician neither do I know the history of mathematics to know the accuracy and reliability of the statement above, "Today's computers could not exist without the pure research in mathematics conducted over a century ago, for which there was no known practical application at that time." But I would not be surprised if it is true and I presume it to be true as it is on Wikipedia unless some authoritative (knowledge-based authority) person disputes it.For the purposes of this discussion let us presume the statement to be true. So if all of research & engineering was only towards practical solutions to society's problems then you & I would not be enjoying the computer & internet age!!!Now I am not a researcher either. But I do have an opinion about research and here is my technologist opinion of research, for all its worth :-).Industrial research may have very limited scope for "pure research" as industry is focused on providing solutions to society's problems, or rather those societal problems whose solutions have profit potential.Academia probably is the only large community where "pure research" can be done without worrying about any practical problem-solving ends. And, perhaps, the intellectual excitement and allure of a radical new idea is far more thought-provoking and galvanising than extending an old idea. So I think it is quite natural for academia to have a bias towards new ideas.But then academia also has "applied research". And I think that applied research publications and project achievements are also well recognised in academia. But "applied research" is also the area of industry research and so perhaps there is some kind of competition there. "Applied research" where the profit potential is very limited like Text to Speech for Telugu or Malayalam or Sanskrit is typically ignored by industry. This is where some academic "applied research" is/can be done. I think here academia is quite receptive to extending old ideas to solve the problem.However, IMHO, no matter how useful the extension of an old idea may be to solve a practical problem, the radical new idea "breakthrough" will always have more intellectual grandeur and appeal to the researcher & thinker and to the academic community, in general. And so, academia will, perhaps, always have a "new idea"/"original & path-breaking work"/"innovative idea" craze :-)! If somebody is not so comfy with it, like you and me, then we don't fit in 'regular' academia as it is today - as simple as that!Eklavya Sai had written in a previous mail: That, I think, is a really key difference between a technologist's view and an 'academic' researcher's view.Friend wrote: And it's obvious which camp I belong to :)Eklavya Sai responded: I guess I belong to the same camp as you :-). I also am respectful of the other camp and their view and their choice.Sunday, July 22, 2012Google's Hybrid Research + Development ModelNet url: Updated on July 23rd 2012Here is a very interesting recent paper from ACM flagship, CACM, July 2012 on "Google’s Hybrid Approach to Research". The page also has an embedded video of around 5 minutes where the authors give their views - worth watching, IMHO.Some important points of the paper from my perspective:"Research results come not only from universities, but also from companies, both large and small. The way research results are disseminated is also evolving and the peer-reviewed paper is under threat as the dominant dissemination method. Open source releases, standards specifications, data releases, and novel commercial systems that set new standards upon which others then build are increasingly important."Google does research + development together with R&D (or R&E) teams usually writing production or near-production code from day one! [Ravi: That's awesome!]"Typically, a single team iteratively explores fundamental research ideas, develops and maintains the software, and helps operate the resulting Google services— all driven by real-world experience and concrete data."Google's CS Research follows "Hybrid Research Model" where research teams are encouraged to have the right balance between research and engineering activities. The right balance can vary greatly. [Ravi: That's quite fuzzy. But the message that they give importance to engineering/software development as a vital part of its research model comes through clearly.]The paper has some information about Google's research efforts e.g. Google Translate, Google File System.Google publishes research work in academic publications "at increasing rates (from 13 papers published in 2003, to 130 in 2006, to 279 in 2011)."Google feels that academic publications are "by no means the only mechanism for knowledge dissemination: Googlers have led the creation of over 1,000 open source projects, contributed to various standards (for example, as editor of HTML5), and produced hundreds of public APIs for accessing our services."Google has "chosen to organize computer science research differently at Google by maximally connecting research and development. This yields not only innovative research results and new technologies, but also valuable new capabilities for the company."--- end Google Hybrid Research + Development Model Paper - my perspective points ---Some additional points regarding Google from a friendPlease note that some of the points mentioned below may have been covered in the above paper itself.Google seems to care about applied research, not pure — a Googler needs to be able to articulate why his/her research will substantially benefit millions of users.Google research is short-to-medium term: a few years at most.Google tries to break research down into a number of intermediate deliverables that each have commercial value.A research project may impact users, or it may advance theoretical knowledge, or ideally both.They don't build elaborate research prototypes. Focus is on real systems with real data and production-quality code. So research is often a component of a production-oriented larger project rather than being a separate research project in itself.Necessary components of the Google model:Smart engineersAbility for individuals, or entire teams, to transition to or from the research organizationDistributed computing infrastructure that lets a small team use tens of thousands of servers, which enables large-scale experimentsA billion usersLots of moneyThe friend reiterated that publishing (academic) papers is only one way to distribute knowledge.Indian CS Academic Research vs. Google Hybrid CS ResearchI (Ravi) find Google's hybrid approach to be very interesting as it is in very great contrast to what I have seen in Indian academic CS research. Very often, the craze is to produce a 'paper' and the 'research' stops there - I have not come across many instances of research efforts from Indian CS or IT academia which went beyond 'paper' to get translated into semi-real-life stuff which can then be handed over to interested software companies for real-life implementation. Maybe I am not that well informed. If Indian CS academia does have a hybrid research + development model then perhaps such models should be given publicity. Anyway I got put off Indian academic CS research due to this 'paper' publication limited goal mind-set - I took a decision to steer away from such 'paper' production oriented research.The big problem with this kind of 'paper' production research is that, most times, it is out of touch with real-world-software. So many academic conferences are around that getting such an out-of-touch-with-real-world-software paper published is no big deal. Now I am not saying that such? papers have false information in it - No, not at all. They are certainly valid within a very-small-prototype world. The question is whether the approach used in the very-small-prototype world makes sense to be considered in real-world-software. Most readers of such papers would have such questions and may just note the approach used in the paper. Instead, if academic CS research is able to combine research with development in some small way then academic CS papers would have a lot more value. Just imagine such academic papers having a reference to its open source software code + data download link. A reader who is interested in the approach can just download the software + data, and if he likes it, can even consider to do further research on top of this software + data.I think Indian CS academia should carefully study Google's Hybrid Research + Engineering model and see if it can pick up certain practices of Google and adapt it for use in Indian CS academia.Saturday, April 13, 2013Prof. David Parnas' views on Corruption of (Academic) Computer Science Researchers/Scientists by Publication CountsNet url: updated on 16th April 2013Prof. David Parnas,? ,? , "is a Canadian early pioneer of software engineering". He has won several famous awards in the field of computer science including ACM fellow(ship) and IEEE fellow(ship).Prof. Parnas has published an article/paper titled, "Stop the Numbers Game" with a subtitle, "Counting papers slows the rate of scientific progress.",? . [It is also available here as free download/reading:?? .]It was published in Communications of the ACM, November 2007. "Communications of the ACM", , is considered to be "the leading print and online publication for the computing and information technology fields".? that "Communications of the ACM is the internationally acknowledged premier magazine of the computing field."For those who would like to know about its impact factor,? its impact factor as 1.92 (which seems to be a very high figure for journals/publications in the field of Computer Science and Software Engineering).I have given below notes about and some extracts from the above-mentioned article dated Nov. 2007 of Prof. Parnas:[Please note that the CC-BY, Creative Commons Attribution license?does not?apply to this post.]"As a senior researcher, I am saddened to see funding agencies, department heads, deans, and promotion committees encouraging younger researchers to do shallow research. As a reader of what should be serious scientific journals, I am annoyed to see the computer science literature being polluted by more and more papers of less and less scientific value."...Prof. Parnas criticises the widespread policy of measuring (academic) researcher by number of papers published instead of the quality of the paper as the cause of such corruption....He notes that paper-count-based evaluation schemes are considered as "objective" but sarcastically quips that such an "objective measure of contribution is frequently contribution-independent" :)!...He writes that (academic) scientists play the publication count (numbers) game and thereby get corrupted....He states that a proper evaluation of a research paper requires several qualified persons to not only study and understand the paper but also prepare a summary of how it contributes to some greater picture....He notes that the present (academic) evaluation system is self-perpetuating. "Those who are highly rated by the system are frequently asked to rate each other and others; they are unlikely to want to change a system that gave them their status."...The distinguished computer science Prof. David Parnas concludes, "Those who want to see computer science progress and contribute to the society that pays for it must object to rating-by-counting schemes every time they see one being applied. If you get a letter of recommendation that counts numbers of publications, rather than commenting substantively on a candidate’s contributions, ignore it; it states only what anyone can see. When serving on recruiting, promotion, or grant-award committees, read the candidate’s papers and evaluate the contents carefully. Insist that others do the same."[The extracts from Prof. Parnas' above mentioned article have been reproduced above based on this copyright notice available at:? ACM 0001-0782/07/1100 $5.00Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee.?The Digital Library is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright ? 2007 ACM, Inc.]--- end article notes and extracts ---I congratulate Prof. Parnas and 'Communications of the ACM' publication for publishing this truth-telling viewpoint. IMHO, it allows interested and serious, public money grant administrators who are typically elected politicians serving as overseers of such grants (ministers in India) and their bureaucrats to ask top academic administrators (typically academics, in India) some vital questions about how they are spending public money to further the cause of proper academic research (similar issues, I am quite sure, will be there for other academic fields besides computer science). As the paper is from a distinguished professor and appears in a distinguished computer science publication, the academic administrators cannot dismiss the views contained in it easily. It also allows well meaning and serious academic administrators to reject wrong and harmful academic selection and promotion practices as well as academic institution accreditation and rating practices, which use publication counts as the vital measure without any qualified persons reading the related papers.I think such a truth-telling paper/article appearing in a reputed academic publication does a fantastic service for promoting the cause of proper academic research, academic researcher honesty and even proper academic institution accreditation and grading procedures. I thank Prof. Parnas for writing it and 'Communications of the ACM' for publishing it.1 comment:Ravi S. Iyer, April 17, 2013 at 1:00 PMI thought some readers may want to know that I sent a mail with mostly similar content to the above blog post to appropriate Indian government ministers, top academic administrators, some NAAC executive committee members etc., on April 13th 2013.So far I have not received a substantive response from any of the addressees mentioned above.Tuesday, January 28, 2014Oct. 2013 Economist article on Problems with scientific research - How science goes wrongNet url: updated on January 29th 2014Here's an interesting?Oct. 2013 Economist article, Problems with scientific research - How science goes wrong.Some notes and comments of mine:The article mentions that some research groups of a biotech firm and a drug company could reproduce/repeat only a small portion of important research papers.The number of scientists has increased from a few hundred thousand in the 1950s to 6-7 million which has impacted quality of research.?[Ravi: That's an increase of over ten times (presuming that few is less than 6). Add "Publish or perish", which the article goes on to mention, and we can see the factors behind large number of ?papers of dubious quality being published as "research".]"Nowadays verification (the replication of other people’s results) does little to advance a researcher’s career. And without verification, dubious findings live on to mislead."?[Ravi: Vital point - I did not know about this/realize this. But, as I think about it, I don't think I have heard too much about Computer Science or Information Technology papers challenging the findings/results of other papers. But then I do not read academic publications typically - I usually get to know of research articles in the academic/professional area of my interest ("practice of software development" in academia and industry) from others.]The article casts some doubt on the effectiveness of the (academic) peer review process and gives an example where many medical journal reviewers failed to catch deliberately inserted errors even though the reviewers were aware they were being tested.?[Ravi: I am so happy to see the Economist criticize the academic peer review process. I have undergone and participated (as a reviewer) in fair amount of fairly decent peer review in the software industry of designs, specifications as well as code. In contrast, most of the very little peer review that I have experienced in academic papers can be categorized as decent, or rather biased (in my view), or very superficial. I certainly am not that impressed by the little academic peer review process that I have experienced. There is a great lack of transparency in the review process which, to my mind, allows a reviewer to be unaccountable for his/her review remarks. In contrast, in the industry peer reviews that I have been involved with, the detailed review remarks were available for many interested people to view, and sometimes even archived along with various versions of the input documents/code. One could see the effect of the review process by examining the pre and post versions of the documents/code (with sometimes multiple round of reviews till the document/code met the required quality). The reviewer was accountable for his/her review remarks - I mean, outrageous review remarks could easily be passed on to neutral knowledge-authority figures who could question the reviewer.]It suggests monitoring of research in "virtual notebooks" and making data available to other researchers.?[Ravi: From what I have seen of academic research I think the fear of somebody else stealing one's ideas and techniques, and beating one to the research publication may come in the way of transparent reporting of research work prior to paper publication. But, in many cases, data can certainly be shared once the paper is published. However, such data (including software design and code for CS and IT work) sharing does not seem to be required or the norm (there are some exceptions, I am given to understand). Without the data it becomes very hard for others to verify the results. So I think some people can get away with making false claims about results in their research publications.]It suggests improving of the peer review process or its replacement by "post-publication evaluation in the form of appended comments" and states that the latter has worked well for some fields in the recent past.?[Ravi: I think review remarks should be published along with pre and post versions of the paper. Further, when the reviewers are willing to do so, they should mention their name as well and get credit for their review remarks (or get criticized for poor review remarks). In my experience in the software industry, reviews were not blind - yes, that led to some discomfort at times but one got over it. After all the objective is to use the experience of a knowledgeable group of people to improve specifications, design and code. Part of the process of maturity as a software development practitioner is to learn to not only accept good criticism but value it as it contributes to improving one's work and catching flaws early (thereby preventing or controlling the damage these flaws cause/can cause).]"The false trails laid down by shoddy research are an unforgivable barrier to understanding."[Ravi: This last sentence of the article is a strong one, which seems to be correct. I guess the right word is pollution. Shoddy research papers pollute research publications with the good research papers getting mixed up with the bad. And, if I have understood matters correctly, these publications are viewed as capturing the state of the frontiers of knowledge of various streams. That makes it a serious problem.]---------------------------Later I started going through the comments on the article webpage. Some of them are rather shocking but some suggest solutions. I think it is really worthwhile for those who have not read up on such matters (like me) to have a look at the comments to get a seemingly truthful inside-view of the state of science research (publications) today. I particularly liked the following comments:CnKQ7pSia6Oct 17th 2013, 19:30?[Details of an alleged bad medical science experience]chriffOct 17th 2013, 20:58?[Short allegation of bad science involving a Nobel laureate]OhioOct 17th 2013, 16:31?[This one suggests a solution for part of the problem (validation)]HangyaOct 18th 2013, 15:24?[This one comes across to me as a balanced and wise comment]Monday, December 17, 2012Ground Rules for Sending Scientific Papers for PublicationNet url: veteran and distinguished Computer Science researcher with decades of experience in academia and industry in India, UK & USA shared with me the ground rules he follows while sending scientific papers for publication. Further, he kindly permitted me to share that below for the benefit of interested readers.Let me tell you the ground rules under which I send papers for publication.a. I choose a journal or conference which I think is most appropriate for the subject matter (e.g. because of related publications that have appeared there and/or I trust the editor/program chairperson to be fair).b. When I receive the referees reports (usually 6-12 months later for a typical journal, 3 months for a conference), I take a deep breath and read them.c. Usually, they start encouragingly and end by saying things I don't want to hear. I put them aside for a day or two and then re-read them.d. I make a summary of the changes they have asked for and which the editor agrees with in a general way.e. I revise the paper to meet the objections and resubmit it to the editor, making a list of the changes asked for and made. If I don't agree with any objection I explain why I have not made corresponding change.The rule I follow is simple: if I want a paper published in a journal, I must satisfy the editor that my article follows most of the recommendations of the referees. I must do this whether I like it or not. It does not make sense to pick a fight with a referee or to tell the editor he or she does not know their job.If the paper is accepted and appears I invariably see that the new form of the paper is definitely better than the original submitted version. That is true for every paper I have ever submitted and however strongly I first objected to the referees' comments.Many (perhaps most) papers are rejected after refereeing: good journals and conferences may accept only one of 5-10 submissions. So everyone experiences the rejection of a paper. Of course it is dispiriting and one begins to question everything from the sanity of the reviewers and the editor to their objectiveness and knowledge. There may occasionally be an unfair rejection but in the overwhelming number of cases a rejection is justified because:a. The paper is just not good enough;b. The paper has been submitted to the wrong journal or conference;c. There are errors or weaknesses that lead the reviewers to question the author's knowledge of the area; it does not matter what you think the paper is about, it's what someone reading it concludes;d. The same results have been reported earlier. Saying that this is the first time something has been done in India is not a valid argument for it to be worth consideration. Science is universal and it does not matter where the work was done or what language it was reported in.I discovered that the results from one paper I published in the UK in 1986 were rediscovered by? a researcher in Argentina and by a PhD student in the UK, neither of whom had read my paper. They both graciously accepted that their work, while done independently, was done later. It's the job of the referees to be aware of all work related to a submitted paper but they are human and will sometimes not be aware of everything that is done.There's not much one can do when a paper is rejected except to grin and bear it. You can revise it and try resubmitting it to another journal or conference. That works sometimes but the paper may well end up with some of the same referees!There may be things in the paper that can be used elsewhere if they are made part of a bigger piece of work with something genuinely new. Or there may not.By the way, the paper I refer to above was rejected by one journal before it was resubmitted to and accepted by another (it has since had over 800 citations).Monday, September 17, 2012Grad-Student. What does it really mean?Net url: I served in Indian academia as an honorary staff, honorary faculty and visiting faculty, I had initially got confused with the term grad-student that I saw on some foreign web sites/literature as I thought it may mean a student doing his graduate studies. As far as I know, the term is not commonly used in India. Later I understood that it meant somebody who is doing a PhD or other post graduate studies. (In India, research scholar is the term I have commonly come across to refer to a student doing a PhD). Somebody who is studying to be a graduate is referred to as an under-graduate student.Today, as I came across the grad-student term in an article, I decided to browse around for it and confirm my understanding of it. That led me to two very interesting web pages.First I will share, what seems to be, very wise advice from a?science department of Yale: Some Modest Advice for Graduate Students by Stephen C. Stearns, Ph.D.?It does not shy away from saying the unpleasant truths and seems to have solid tips to succeed in earning a science Ph.D. and become a scientist. While I am a technologist and not a scientist, I get the impression that it is top quality advice from an experienced scientist and academic.The second part is a very harsh view of grad-student life. But I think there seems to be some truth to it and so is worth reading after reading the above, to get a balanced perspective.?The urban dictionary view of the grad-student.This video is another harsh view, this time from a cartoonist's perspective:?The Simpsons - Comments about PhDs and Grad Students. Once again I think it is worth viewing for the balanced perspective.1 comment:Ravi S. Iyer, September 18, 2012 at 9:57 PMSome more harsh views:Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don't Go, By Thomas H. Benton, Jan. 2009On the Job Hunt, Trust No One (Humanities), By Edwina Martin, Aug. 2012Sunday, September 30, 2012Open Access Journal ScamsNet url: article from "The Hindu" claims that there are scams involving Open Access Journals. I do not know how accurate its information is:? above article concludes, "With no organisation or system in place to check the entry of counterfeits, the onus is on researchers to decide the reliability of what they read, and where to publish their work."The article indicates that quite a few researchers/authors based in India seem to have published in these alleged "scam" journals. Perhaps their research work loses some/most value as it has got published with journals which are being labeled as scam journals! I think researchers need to be pretty careful about not getting caught up in such scams.Here are some links regarding such alleged scam journals.1)??(referred by The Hindu article) authored by Associate Prof. Beall, academic librarian,?, has a list which seems to have over 50 individual allegedly "questionable" journals.? a list of allegedly "questionable" open access publishers. The list seems to have over 150 names!Here's Beall's Criteria for Determining Predatory Open-Access Publishers, )?)? Hindu article states that names of academics/researchers are advertised as members of the editorial board without the knowledge of these academics/researchers! That is Identity Theft, pure and simple! This is horrifying.I think this is where the brand name of the publisher is so vital. For computing areas, top brand names like ACM and IEEE must be having top peer reviewer panel quality, decades of experience in publishing and a sophisticated publishing organization in general. Besides being top quality publishers they certainly seem to be safe publishers as well. Initiatives like ACM Author-izer,?, seem to resolve concerns of those authors who want their articles in these publications to be accessible at no charge.1 comment:Ravi S. Iyer, March 29, 2013 at 5:56 PMA recent Nature article gives superb insight into science/research publishing business and how Open Access is making significant inroads into it,?Open access: The true cost of science publishing.An interesting extract from it:The number of open-access journals has risen steadily, in part because of funders' views that papers based on publicly funded research should be free for anyone to read. By 2011, 11% of the world's articles were being published in fully open-access journals.Friday, April 5, 2013Off-Campus PhD Degrees - Assam State Government to reduce pay of teachers with such degrees!Net url: did not know much about off-campus PhD degrees. I knew that as a possibility but did not know that it seems to be a mechanism for getting an easy PhD in some places in India! And with a PhD one satisfies UGC/AICTE norms to be appointed as Assistant Professor!Here's an article about Assam education minister speaking in the state assembly about cutting pay and stopping increments of teachers with off-campus Phd degrees, notes:"Assam education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today said the government would reduce salaries and stop promotions of college teachers having “off-campus” PhD degrees." The minister opined that off-campus PhD degrees have relaxed rules and involved less academic pressure. He also made a nice quip about attempt to find details about universities offering such off-campus PhD degrees being a work of research in itself!He mentioned reports of a shocking 75 per cent of college teacher appointments in recent years involving off-campus PhD degrees!?He also raised some doubt about on campus PhD degrees from National Assessment & Accreditation Council (NAAC) 'C' grade universities and indicated that they may not be accepted. [Ravi: So NAAC rating plays a vital role in establishing credibility of a university not only with UGC but also with the very powerful government ministers.]The article also mentions about a college teacher who got an off-campus PhD degree from a UGC recognized university, and who followed all norms for UGC PhD degree. He said that it will be an injustice if the government does not recognize his/her degree now. [Ravi: I tend to agree with the above college teacher. If the off-campus doctorate has been obtained from a recognized UGC university following UGC norms then UGC is at fault for giving permission to the university to give off-campus doctorate degrees. How can the government punish the poor teacher for UGC's fault and declare his/her off-campus PhD invalid!]Ravi comments:Hmm. Interesting world of PhD club academia. The idea, in the case of some of the less reputed academics/academic-institutions in the country, seems to be to somehow get a PhD by hook or by crook, and then get into some academic institution with current pay commission scale as Assistant Prof. How well s/he teaches seems to be almost besides the point :)!I wonder how many of such off-campus PhD teachers are CS or IT teachers.P.S. A State Level Entrance Test (SLET) or National Entrance Test (NET) is not even mentioned in this context. I get the impression that, at least for the less reputed academics/academic institutions, the PhD route is the easier route to Assistant Professorship than clearing SLET or NET. But then I am not sure and may be way off the mark here.A US academic responded by mail to the above matter by sharing the Lorenz university, , case with me.?I am quite astonished by this Lorenz university online degree mill continuing to do business! With online accreditation agencies to boot! how Lorenz university hides its real life address. I confirmed the hiding behind a proxy by visiting, Lorenz offers a doctorate degree as well!But then, it being a scam can easily be detected by knowledgeable persons. In the case of the Indian state, Assam, some of whose universities are offering weak off-campus PhDs, it seems that they were recognized by UGC, the apex higher education body of the country! That makes it far worse.I was also informed that a number of people associated with Tata Research Development and Design Centre (TRDDC) did their PhDs as external students from different universities (typically IITs and IISc).I am quite sure that TRDDC would be an outstanding example of genuine and high-quality, off-campus (external student) PhDs.As I have understood the desperate attempts by top academic administrators, bureaucrats & ministers to stem the rot in less reputed Indian academic institutions, which perhaps are a significant majority, they use a sledgehammer approach to resolve such problems. Perhaps they don't have a choice given the magnitude of the problem they face both in terms of the rot and in terms of sheer number of students affected.In this case I am quite sure exceptions will be made for genuine high-quality off-campus (external student) PhDs. But the rule on paper may exclude off-campus PhDs. Such is life in India. The scamsters create trouble even for the genuine people.1 comment:Ravi S. Iyer, June 26, 2013 at 1:41 PMBesides PhDs being sold, medical degrees also seem to be virtually on sale in India, according to this article in The Hindu on June 26th, 2013,?Doctors by merit, not privilege. The author, Sujata Rao, has?strong credentials.Tuesday, May 7, 2013UGC seeks details on Ph.D. candidates in state universitiesNet url: is a very relevant article for PhD scholars and their supervisors in UGC regulated universities. It appeared in The Hindu yesterday, "UGC seeks details on M.Phil, Ph.D admissions", seems to apply to state universities and so I am not sure whether it will immediately apply to deemed universities as well. Key points relevant to PhD scholars and supervisors are:Are PhD scholars allowed (given enough time, I presume, is what it means) to pursue research after finishing the course work?Is publication of one research paper in a refereed journal made mandatory before the PhD thesis is submitted? Note it is just a refereed journal and there is no mention of any impact factor associated with the journal.Is the thesis being evaluated by at least two experts, one from another state or abroad?Is the candidate having to defend his/her thesis and has s/he undergone a viva-voce examination?The article mentioned that Andhra Pradesh state has some universities where PhD scholars are more than the PG students! And, in some cases, they run into thousands! [Ravi: My God, so PhDs will either be already flooding the job market or will do so in the near future.]Science ResearchDiscussion/Informative Posts Involving Others' Articles/Views, Media reports and Some Comments from meGreat article about Fields Medal winner Manjul Bhargava and his blend of Maths, music & poetry (incl. Sanskrit poems) interests, August 2014Nature April 2014 article - Policy: Free Indian science by Dr. Mathai Joseph et al., April 2014Jayant Narlikar, famous Indian astrophysicist, on Dr. Joseph's Nature article about Indian science policy problems, May 2014A Hard Look at the Indian Scientific Establishment, December 2013Whistle-blowing on the Internet - Solution for problem of Science Fraud?, April 2014Suspended jail sentence for scientific fraud for South Korean scientist, March 2014Thursday, August 21, 2014Great article about Fields Medal winner Manjul Bhargava and his blend of Maths, music & poetry (incl. Sanskrit poems) interestsNet url: updated on August 22nd 2014An old friend passed on this link, The Musical, Magical Number Theorist, , which I found to be a great read giving insights about the prodigy that Manjul Bhargava, , seems to be as well as some details of his prodigious accomplishments. The article also covers Bhargava's blend of interests in Mathematics, Music (Tabla) and poetry (including old Sanskrit manuscripts capturing some Mathematics in poems). I must also mention that I did not understand some of the Mathematics references in the article :).The sub-title of the article is interesting, "The search for artistic truth and beauty has led Manjul Bhargava to some of the most profound recent discoveries in number theory."And I think the first two paragraphs of the article summarize Bhargava's interests and approach quite well. I have given below the second small paragraph of the articleBhargava’s mathematical tastes, formed in his earliest days, are infused with music and poetry. He approaches all three realms with the same goal, he says: “to express truths about ourselves and the world around us.”--- end extract ---One of the correspondents to whom the mail having the link was sent (it was sent to a group of old friends/ex-colleagues) mentioned something to the effect that Bhargava could make it big because he was in the USA. Had Bhargava been in India he would not have flourished due to Indian bureaucracy.My response (slightly edited) was:Sure, Bhargav was able to make it big far more easily in the USA than in India. But I am not sure if that's the fault of Indian bureaucrats. I think the issue is related to economic prosperity of USA as against developing nation status of India. To make it a little concrete, that Princeton has an endowment, as of 2013, of over $18 billion!!! [Bhargava is with Princeton now and had also spent time in Harvard.] Harvard's figure is 32 billion, Yale is 20 billion and Stanford is 18 billion. These seem to be in the top five universities in USA by endowment. , "By endowment per student, Princeton is the wealthiest school in the United States."Further, "Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey." I think Harvard, Yale and Stanford too are private universities. I.e. Government does not pay salaries and other expenses of these universities, though these universities may win research grants from govt. funded institutions like the National Science Foundation, I have been reading up a little on Indian academia I think I can say that India has no private university which is anywhere close to these universities in terms of funding (endowment). The premier research (and teaching) institutions of India - IITs, IISc, IIMs are all heavily, if not fully, govt. funded institutions. While the faculty there are treated with great deal of respect I don't think the research environment can match the US private Ivy league universities, mainly because of the huge difference in financial outlay. Further, I think that fair bit of additional responsibilities are put on faculty of these elite institutions.Regarding Indian bureaucracy vis-a-vis Indian academia, I think elite Indian universities are treated with a lot of respect by Indian bureaucrats (of MHRD). Most internal administrative matters including hiring and promotion, I think, are handled by academics in administrative positions in these universities with bureaucrats not daring to interfere. I mean, if MHRD bureaucrats try to interfere with such things in an IIT or IISc the top scientists?may complain directly to the Prime Minister directly. These top scientists of elite institutions have that sort of access and carry a lot of clout with the govt.I should also add that nowadays the research setup in these elite Indian universities seems to be pretty good in comparison to what it was some decades ago. I think that is due to India's improved economic condition leading to significantly more money being provided to these institutions. Money for going abroad for interactions with top foreign scientists also does not seem to be a big issue for academics/researchers of these elite institutions. For fields like Mathematics which do not need very expensive labs., I think elite Indian institutions today may be quite a decent place.--- end response ---Another friend said something to the effect that we should set aside India, America ... and enjoy Bhargava's accomplishments. I agreed with her. And added:BTW I was Honorary Staff/Honorary Faculty/Visiting Faculty for nine years (2003 to 2011) in a Dept. of Mathematics & Computer Science, which was far more of a Mathematics dept. than a computer science dept. For these Maths guys the Fields Medal is the Nobel prize for Mathematics!!! And, as an abstract field which has has been around for centuries and millenniums to be more precise, it takes serious intellectual skills to master some of these Maths areas let alone make breakthroughs in new research. [From : "From ancient times through the Middle Ages, bursts of mathematical creativity were often followed by centuries of stagnation. Beginning in Renaissance Italy in the 16th century, new mathematical developments, interacting with new scientific discoveries, were made at an increasing pace that continues through the present day."]So even if Bhargava is a born in Canada and raised mainly in America person but whose parents hailed from India, I think it is very nice that somebody with some Indian roots made it so big in Mathematics and that too at quite a young age (40 is young for these kind of top-notch research prizes, I gather).Saturday, April 5, 2014Nature April 2014 article - Policy: Free Indian science by Dr. Mathai Joseph et url: updated on April 6th 2014Dr. Mathai Joseph,?, "a leading Indian computer scientist", in association with another person, has written an article on the policy problems faced by Indian science and suggestions to improve them, which has appeared in the prestigious journal, Nature. The article can be accessed here:? Hindu dated April 3rd 2014, also carries an interview of Dr. Joseph on the same matter: . Joseph invites comments. In a mail exchange I had with him he wrote the following:Comments and criticism are very welcome, especially if made publicly. Science policy and its implementation are rarely discussed in India and they need to be analysed far more by the public.--- end Dr. Joseph mail extract ---So I request interested readers to publicly comment on the matter on either/both??or/and?, and pass on the above links to others who you think would be interested, inviting them to comment.I submitted a comment on the following lines to the Nature article link (the comment does not appear as of now and I don't recall the exact words I used - I have modified an earlier comment I made a couple of days back which did appear on the article web page but on editing that comment it disappeared):Dr. Joseph mentions that scientific achievement in India is not rewarded adequately, instead other factors like longevity of service decides rewards. Government control and bureaucracy are named as the main factors holding back Indian science. He has given four specific suggestions for improving Indian science.As a non scientist (I am software technologist) I am not in a position to know how accurate this analysis is. But, as an Indian citizen, I am concerned about these charges of mismanagement of Indian scientific endeavour which is mainly funded, I believe, by taxpayer money. The accountability has to be laid at the door of the ministers and bureaucrats responsible for disbursement of public funds to Indian science. They MUST respond to this article giving their side of the story and invite top science administrators they entrusted with science management responsibility to write their side of the story. Accountability in terms of suitable performance for quantum of taxpayer money disbursed is perhaps a good first step in trying to fix Indian science.I would like to add that having been a part of the Indian IT success story (I started and spent a good part of my IT career from the mid-80s to the turn of millennium in SEEPZ, Bombay, an export promotion zone and the crucible of the Indian IT exports success story), I can say that a crucial factor for its success was the free-market economic principles that software export companies had to follow for growth and even survival. If a company did not suitably reward talent then the talent would simply move on to another company which was willing to pay better. Hanging on to and protecting non-performers would pull down a company in comparison to more effective competitors, and threaten the very existence of such companies with many non-performers. Star performers rising fast and making significantly more money had to be accepted by peers and even sluggish seniors, no matter how envious they got. While these words sound somewhat harsh I guess they were, and most probably continue to be, the reality of the tough economic battlefield of the business/commercial side of international software development.Perhaps Indian science administrators should study the Indian IT success story companies from the management perspective and explore introducing similar management/administration measures in Indian science.--- end comment ---A smaller version of the above comment also appears on The Hindu article (interview) web page.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A senior person from the Indian Computer Science/Information Technology field commented in response to a mail I sent him on this matter, about all areas of Indian society being compromised by crass selfishness and nepotism, and so Indian science having these problems is not strange.I have given below an edited version of my response to him:When I first experienced the petty nature of some Indian academic administrators as an outsider (honorary staff/honorary faculty/visiting faculty for 9 years in a deemed university) as well as the very limited knowledge of software development of some of the senior Computer Science academics, I was shocked (most senior academics had a Mathematics or Electrical Engineering or Electronics PhD and had migrated to the Computer Science field without, it seems to me, having to really learn/do significant/any software development). Later I realized that the problem was a systemic one as all the career advancement possibilities were tied to research output and bagging research grant projects bringing good money to the institution, rather than teaching software development well. That explained to me why the skill level of most Indian CS/IT graduates and post-graduates in the practice of software development was and continues to be very poor. I mean, when the senior academics and academic administrators of the field and many times, the teacher of programming courses himself/herself, does not know software development well, what can we expect students to learn? I repeat that the fault is with the system which does not provide career advancement to the CS/IT academic for proficiency in the practice of software development, and not the academic himself/herself who is trapped by the flawed academic system into not paying much attention to the practice of software development.Over the past 2 to 3 years as I wrote (blogged mainly) and mailed about my views on improving the practice of software development in Indian Computer Science and Information Technology academia, I also studied some other sectors in India via TV news, print media and Internet news outlets. I think there is a lot of change in many government regulated sectors like police, district administration (collectors, mandal revenue officers etc.), govt. hospitals, public transport etc. in terms of the fear they have of media exposure of their failings and wrong-doings. The top people interact with the media and keep them informed of major events. In case of any serious problem the media grills them and the top people provide responses. So, IMHO, the accountability and transparency in these publicly funded organizations has significantly improved over the past few decades, though, of course, there is still lots of room for improvement.In stark contrast, Indian higher education sector rarely faces tough questions from the media - it is almost as if the media is scared of criticizing them. Only major scandals like examination paper leaks or misbehaviour of male academics towards their female juniors results in media criticism.I think we badly need open discussion of British Raj type management of most of Indian academia, which will then enable stakeholders like ministers and officials (bureaucrats) as well as students and parents to put pressure on Indian academia to change. USA higher education seems to be going through a major shake-up and part of that process is open debate about the challenges it faces today (if you have not seen the 2013 Milken Institute panel discussion on future of USA Higher education you may want to see it. The youtube video link is available in this blog post of mine, 2013 Milken Institute Panel Discussion - The Future of Higher Education in America).I think people like Dr. Mathai Joseph are trying to trigger such debates in India with these articles in top-notch journals of the world. My view is that Dr. Joseph did not criticize the scientific community itself that much as he criticized the government. So it will be wonderful if some senior official like Shri Ashok Thakur, Secretary of Department of Higher Education, MHRD, or perhaps the current minister of state for MHRD, Dr. Shashi Tharoor, respond to such articles defending themselves and putting the onus on the scientist-administrators to make their case. [I forwarded the mail (about this matter) to both Shri Thakur and Dr. Tharoor (both his MHRD mail id and his office mail id). Even if his office staff draw his attention to the mail, perhaps Dr. Tharoor may not want to look at it now as he will be focussed on elections. Dr. Tharoor certainly has the capability to effectively put up MHRD's case and invite scientist/academic-administrators of CSIR, UGC, AICTE, IISc, IITs etc. to respond in public to Dr. Joseph et al.'s article.]--- end response ----------------------------------------------------------------------I tried adding the following comment on The Hindu article web page mentioned earlier in this post, , but was informed that the article is closed for comments and that I could email the editor. So I sent the comment over email to The Hindu today morning (6th April 2014) but a few hours later the comment does NOT appear on the web page. (The two comments of Dr. B.S. Sudhindra referred in my comment were "Posted on: Apr 4, 2014 at 19:27 IST" and ?"Posted on: Apr 3, 2014 at 22:49 IST")---start comment---I find both of Dr. B.S. Sudhindra's comments to be quite interesting as they are specific suggestions to improve the situation. Some (or all) of the suggestions may have flaws or be impractical. If so, these flaws or impractical aspects should be pointed out by science-administrators by joining in the public debate instead of choosing a take a haughty imperial kind-of stand of simply ignoring such public discussions. I mean, these science-administrators are paid taxpayer funds and oversee disbursement of taxpayer funds, and not their own funds. So, IMHO, they owe it to the hard-working taxpayers of the country to join in this debate and give their side of the story.?About Dr. Sudhindra's comment about stopping coaching classes, I disagree. I think coaching classes thrive because they provide an effective service to students who pay extra money to them and spend extra time with them (besides their regular classes). If the regular classes did their teaching function well perhaps there would be no market for coaching classes. It is democratically unjust to deny students access to private teaching facilities they want and are willing to pay for. Let us not inhibit free-market economic principles in the field of education as that may worsen the already poor teaching standards in Indian schools and colleges, in general.--- end comment ---Saturday, May 10, 2014Jayant Narlikar, famous Indian astrophysicist, on Dr. Joseph's Nature article about Indian science policy problemsNet url: Narlikar is a revered icon of Indian science,?. Even during my Physics graduation days in the early 80s he was already well known as an astrophysicist. Some info. about him from his wiki page:*) Narlikar received his Bachelor of Science degree from Banaras Hindu University in 1957. He then began his studies at Fitzwilliam House, Cambridge University in England, where he received a B.A. in mathematics in 1959 and was Senior Wrangler. From (University_of_Cambridge): 'The Senior Wrangler is the top mathematics undergraduate at Cambridge University in England, a position once regarded as "the greatest intellectual achievement attainable in Britain"'*) After receiving his Ph.D. in 1963 under the guidance of Fred Hoyle, he served as a Berry Ramsey Fellow at King's College in Cambridge and earned an M.A. in astronomy and astrophysics in 1964. He continued to work as a Fellow at King's College until 1972. In 1966, Fred Hoyle established the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in Cambridge, and Narlikar served as the founder staff member of the institute during 1966-72.*) In 1972, Narlikar took up Professorship at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, India. At the TIFR, he was in charge of the Theoretical Astrophysics Group. In 1988, the Indian University Grants Commission set up the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune, and Narlikar became the Founder-Director of IUCAA.*) Narlikar is internationally known for his work in cosmology, especially in championing models alternative to the popular Big Bang model. During 1994-1997, he was the President of the Cosmology Commission of the International Astronomical Union. His research work has involved Mach’s Principle, quantum cosmology, and action-at-a-distance physics.--- end Narlikar wiki extracts ---Jayant Narlikar wrote an article recently titled, What ails Indian science?, , in The Asian Age. The Asian Age calls itself India's global newspaper,? comments on Narlikar's article:*) Interesting view about making an inventory of Indian science output after independence - echoes Dr. Joseph's views, if I recall them correctly.?[BTW here's my blog post on Dr. Joseph's article in Nature arguing for Indian science policy to be freed, including a link to the Nature article, Nature April 2014 article - Policy: Free Indian science by Dr. Mathai Joseph et al.]?The sentence about awkward questions must be faced ..., is rather sceptical but that may have come from a long history of frustration with bureaucratic atmosphere in Indian science. The new 21st generation of Indian scientists surely have the capacity to bring in change in Indian science, like change has been brought in so many sectors in India in the past few decades.*) It seems to me that Dr. Narlikar may have put his finger on the core problem in Indian science - bureaucracy and bureaucratic mindset of Indian science administrators. But then I am not a scientist and so I cannot be sure on this one.*) About productive scientist to be given faster promotion: Seems like a straight-forward management no-brainer kind-of thing for me.*) About the Space Department being an exception with young scientists being given important positions: So here's a proven model for excellence/decent performance in Indian science, which is fully government funded. Why can't that model be adopted, with minor adaptations where necessary, for most, if not all, of the rest of Indian science?*) About the pioneer planners of science policy going for research only institutions without teaching and, so students: Very interesting view. Readers may be aware of my view that there should be research-intensive universities (which are the type of universities Narlikar refers to) which are expensive to run, and teaching-intensive universities which are more cost-efficient and more geared towards student objectives/needs from higher education.*) About Narlikar being thrilled as a student to attend lectures by Dirac, Hoyle, Feynman etc. and the teacher conveying/not conveying the excitement of research to students: Fascinating and true, I think. Over three decades later, I still recall the enthusiasm with which Dr. Patel, the Physics Head of Department in the college I studied, Ruia college in Bombay/Mumbai, explained how revolutionary Quantum Physics was (as against Classical Physics). But most smart Indian youngsters of today want big-time money and so, no matter how enthusiastic the teachers, most will go to higher-paying industry jobs, IMHO. However, a few among the bright students may catch the research excitement from the teacher and go for a decently paid Indian science research (and teaching perhaps) career.*) About will being required for action (change) in science policy - last paragraph of article: Those are concluding words. Hopefully words from such a big icon of Indian science in an Indian newspaper will stir up some change, or at least a rebuttal response from the 'mandarins', in case they have a very different view of what ails Indian science.Monday, December 16, 2013A Hard Look at the Indian Scientific EstablishmentNet url: correspondent who is a distinguished and veteran Indian and international CS & IT researcher, academic and industry person passed on this article, "Honours and Numbers", , published in Economic and Political Weekly issue dated December 14th 2013. The article takes a hard look at the current Indian scientific establishment. [Background for non Indian readers: CNR Rao is a leading scientist of India,?. Sachin Tendulkar is a (recently retired) leading cricketer of India,?. Both CNR Rao and Sachin Tendulkar were recently conferred the highest civilian award of India, the Bharat Ratna (Gem of India),?.]A main part of the correspondent's comment on the above article was: "It's high time there was more analytical thinking about Indian science. The popular press seems to thrive on handouts and personalities, rarely going beyond that to examine the case for (and against) science in India."I did not think that such articles challenging some of the practices and statements of the Indian (top) scientific establishment ever get written (publicly) in India.I have noted that the author has chosen to be anonymous. Perhaps that was a very wise decision! A correspondent mentioned that the reason could be to ensure that the focus was on the content and did not get distracted (from it to the author's name and personality). I think this reason makes sense (though I had not viewed it that way earlier).Not being a scientist myself (I am an industry trained and self-taught software technologist), I have had only a spectator view, though a long and close spectator view of around a decade, of the Indian scientific and academic establishment. But, to me, this article seems to be a very courageous truth-telling article about the Indian scientific establishment. I congratulate the author for this courageous and thought-provoking article.However, some of what the article states may be flawed or incorrect. I am not saying there are flaws or errors - I simply don't know. I don't have the in-depth exposure to and top-level view of the Indian scientific establishment to affirm the veracity of all of the article's contents. I hope this article will have a rebuttal from some appropriate person in the Indian scientific establishment so that readers can see both sides of the coin.BTW one distinguished US academic to whom I had sent the above link found the article interesting. He expressed concern at the state of affairs where number of papers and citations are given emphasis, and also noted that Peter Higgs would have lost out in this game and lost out so badly that he would not have had the chance to make the breakthrough that he did.For more on Peter Higgs' view of (Western) academia today please see, "Peter Higgs: I wouldn't be productive enough for today's academic system", : The Honours and Numbers article mentioned at the beginning of the post has the following reference which does not work, "2 See http: //geocities.corn/physics_plagiarism/ for a report on plagiarism by the vice-chancellor of an Indian university." (using .com instead of .corn also does not give the correct result). A correspondent provided this link, , which gives the correct page having details of the plagiarism as well as the list of Indian academics mostly from very well known and eminent Indian academic/scientific institutions who endorsed the webpage (Feb. 2003 seems to be the last update of the page).?Saturday, April 5, 2014Whistle-blowing on the Internet - Solution for problem of Science Fraud?Net url: came across a very interesting article in Nature News, dated April 3rd 2014, Publicly questioned papers more likely to be retracted, added the following comment which appears on the above web page:Ravi S. Iyer???a day agoI find this to be very interesting. So a single scientist who put up data about suspected science fraud on a blog was able to stir things up and have nearly a quarter of these suspected fraud cases (put up on the blog) retract or make corrections! That's quite awesome, I think.Wonderful to know of an editor-in-chief who studies "retractions and irreproducible research". Such studies may provide the means to reduce the science fraud problem to manageable levels.I certainly like the tone of Fang's last words in the article. I think the Internet should be used as a major tool by all academics and scientists worldwide who want to clean up the academic and scientific publications field of fraud. Some have already used it to good effect but perhaps we need more of the good and clean academics and scientists to step up to the plate and contribute their bit to the cleanup using the Internet.Friday, March 14, 2014Suspended jail sentence for scientific fraud for South Korean scientistNet url: updated on 17th March 2014Today's The Hindu carried this editorial article, The wages of scientific fraud, Notes and comments:The Supreme Court of South Korea upheld a ruling about Hwang Woo Suk, stem cell researcher of South Korea, resulting in a suspended jail term for one-and-a-half years for Hwang. Hwang is considered to have done fraudulent stem cell research.The following comment of mine appears on the web page of the article:On the one hand it is quite sad that such drastic action has to be taken on a scientist and academic but on the other, plunging ethical standards in science and academics in some parts of the world including South Korea and India, leave no option for authorities than to create such jail term fear among fraudulent scientists and academics. I think India should learn from this South Korean case and, if India does not have adequate laws, devise suitable laws and mechanisms including criminal prosecution, as punishment for scientific and academic fraud.?My view may sound harsh but, it seems to me that, lack of fear of criminal prosecution is leading to graduate/post-graduate project theses being bought & sold (instead of the student working and writing his/her own project thesis), fake Ph.D. degrees, fake scientific and academic projects to get government grant money etc. The only way to stem this rot seems to be to bring in fear of criminal prosecution.from:??Ravi S. IyerPosted on: Mar 14, 2014 at 13:46 IST ?--- end comment ---"He did not resort to relatively lesser evils like plagiarism but instead settled for the bigger ones — image manipulation, rampant data falsification and fabrication, gross misrepresentation of facts, purchasing eggs for research, and forcing junior members in the same lab to donate eggs. There were acts of outright fraud as well — embezzlement of nearly $3 million and making applications for research funds based on fabricated data."[Ravi: Utterly Horrifying!]..."Hwang epitomises and exemplifies the case of a brilliant researcher who allowed his moral compass to go completely haywire, all for instantaneous, though ephemeral, glory and fame."[Ravi: I think the lure of glory and fame in the scientific and academic field is almost irresistible to some. Among them, some aspire for it through ethical means, which I consider to be fair game, but some cannot resist resorting to unethically cutting corners to win glory and fame. This perhaps is the acid test of character for talented scientists and academics.]------------------------------------------March 15th 2014:A comment on the above (which I had sent over email to some contacts) about other fields where people make false claims and profit from it, set me thinking. I initially thought, maybe I went overboard on the criminal prosecution bit and came up with a more nuanced stand as follows:Regarding making false statements to acquire government funds, I think that would come under embezzlement/financial fraud in the penal code of most countries including India, South Korea and the USA, and so be a criminal offence if proved (with clear evidence of deliberate falsification to get the money). Typically the law may not be enforced for government grants to academics and scientists, but the provision would be there, I guess. So if things really get out of hand the authorities can use the existing laws to criminally prosecute financial fraud done by academics and scientists. [It seems that the South Korean Supreme Court convicted Hwang using/against such law(s) for embezzlement.]But what about deliberately falsifying data in scientific papers submitted by scientists & academics? It seems to me that the typical penalty for detected cases of falsification (deliberate or otherwise) would be just retraction of the concerned paper. Yes, the reputation of the concerned person(s) would suffer but there may be a significant number of academics/scientists who may not mind taking that risk. I doubt that such retraction due to deliberate falsification would result in even a temporary suspension, forget about dismissal, of an academic/scientist in most academic/scientific institutions in India (barring the elite). [The concerned academics/scientists would typically be willing to lie stating that the falsification was involuntary/not deliberate]. In other words, in most of Indian academia (and perhaps academia of many other countries worldwide) the deterrence for deliberate falsification of data in scientific papers is minimal. Given the huge growth in academics/scientists worldwide I think this is not a happy state of affairs.So what can be the solution? I think there should be a law for such offenses which prescribes civil punishment (as against criminal punishment). The same law should also prescribe civil punishment for persons responsible for fake Ph.D.s, running fake universities, fake project theses etc. [ a list of fake universities in India! Why could they not just shut them down? Probably because they cannot under the current laws]. I am not in a position right now to suggest what the civil punishment could be.In the current situation in India, self-regulation by the academics themselves seems to be a total failure - I repeat, total failure. Perhaps it is a club mindset where they do not want to hurt any of their own tribe. Having a law with civil punishment will enable people and/or the police to file civil suits against such offenders. [BTW I should also state that this club mindset resulting in failed self-regulation in India applies to other fields as well like lawyers (bar council) and doctors (medical council). It is very, very rare for these councils to take action on their members. Actions against them for matters like medical negligence are usually fought in a court of law by affected parties like patients/patient relatives.]But why target only academics and scientists for such deliberate falsification? Why not have similar laws for other fields like software consultancy companies & software consultants? Well, I think typically the public impact of falsification by academics and scientists is far higher than in other fields. Besides in fields where you have a paying customer like software consultancy companies the large customer protects his/her interests via a legal contract and small customers can go to court for fraud if companies have failed to deliver what they promised in return for their fees. For consumers, India has a consumer court which tilts towards the consumer in cases of defective products.--- end nuanced stand ---As I thought more on the matter I remembered that I was given to understand that record tampering is a criminal offence in India. For example, if an academic administrator (like the Registrar) falsely shows staff on the academic institution's rolls (typically to project an exaggerated picture to academic regulators & academic assessment organizations) or changes the records to deliberately assign false/wrong designations to staff (for malicious or non-malicious reasons), I understand that such an academic administrator can be booked for the criminal offense of record tampering. It is this severity of the offense that I presume deters most sensible academic administrators from indulging in such practices though, unfortunately in India, some foolish academic administrators still do such acts either through ignorance of the serious consequences if a police complaint is made, or from a foolish bravado.I wonder whether civil punishment may be effective, in India, as a deterrent for deliberate falsification of data in scientific papers, fake Ph.D.s, fake project theses etc. If not, then perhaps criminal punishment may be the only solution to stem the rot.------------------------------------------March 17th 2014A couple of comments on the above and my responses to the same:Comment (paraphrased): A simple solution may be to incur civil penalty for deliberate falsehood for monetary gain. Snag is that it is hard to know whether it is deliberate falsehood or not.My response: I think, for academics & scientists, in India and other countries where unethical practices have become a plague in academics & science, civil penalties is the first option that must be seriously tried, with rigorous implementation.Regarding whether the lying was innocent or deliberate I think we can look at how other fields handle such issues. Affixing a signature to a document makes a person liable to some extent to the contents of the document he/she signs (e.g. a loan application to a bank or an application for a voter's ID card). I understand that if the document has to be made more legally binding, the document is typically made on stamp paper (government revenue stamp) and notarized. But even if the signature is on plain paper and not notarized, if the matter does go up to a court of law, I believe that the person signing the document is held, to some extent at least, accountable for the contents of the document.I think a court of law might excuse one or two such documents having grave untruths that have a significant negative impact on some people and/or society at large, on the grounds of involuntary error. But if there are more such cases from the same person(s) then I think the court of law will not accept an excuse/reason of involuntary (not deliberate) error, and hold them accountable for the damage their errors/lies have caused, irrespective of whether the errors are proven to be deliberate or not.Perhaps civil punishment handed out to dishonest academics & scientists should be on similar lines. One case of detected dishonesty (deliberate or otherwise) - let them off with a warning but put them on notice and have it recorded on some globally accessible database. Further case(s) of detected dishonesty (deliberate or otherwise) - hand out the civil punishment and record it in the globally accessible ment (paraphrased): It is not feasible or reasonable to require statements to be provably true.My response: I agree that we cannot require statements in all fields including academics & science to be provably true. [In science (and academics in general, I guess), as per my understanding, a statement which has not yet been proved to be true, can still be made but is subject to being confirmed/proved as objectively true by others.] Subjective spiritual and religious experiences may be true for the subject who experienced it but there is no way for that person to prove to others that his/her experience was genuine. One should not bar such people from writing about/sharing their experiences on the grounds that it is not proven to be true.Further, people, including writers, have a right to be wrong as an Indian High Court observed in the context of a book ban appeal in 2010 (I have been wrong quite a few times, myself) and human error is part and parcel of being human. However, habitual falsehood must be checked in serious fields like academics, science, medicine, policing/law enforcement etc. otherwise the field may become a frivolous field like the tabloid press instead of a serious and respected one.Software WarrantyMy Viewpoints/ArticlesThe Without Warranty Wild West Software Industry, March 2013Discussion/Informative Posts Involving Others' Articles/Views, Media reports and Some Comments from meA Debate on Warranty for Software, March 2013Monday, March 18, 2013The Without Warranty Wild West Software IndustryNet url: updated on 28th March 2013The world today is pervaded by a huge variety of software from Operating System software to embedded devices software to mobile phone apps. Serious bugs including very scary security flaws in these software are commonplace and accepted as an inescapable reality and risk of using software. Is that a proper stand for the software industry and software customers & users to take?IMHO, the software industry culture is to blame for the current rather unsure and unprofessional state of the software world. In the nearly three decades that I have seen it, been part of it and experienced it as a user of software, the software industry worldwide seems to operate as a Without Warranty Wild West industry, with current generation of released software seeming to have far more bugs/problems than software on Mainframes/Mini-computers two to three decades ago. Forget application software bugs, the very operating system on which the whole software stack runs is without warranty and has a host of bugs including some terrifying security weaknesses. If you get hit by a malicious virus then it is your bad luck, that's it. You cannot hold the software company accountable. It is this lack of accountability of the software industry that, IMHO, is at the root of the excessive software failures that users have to suffer from.Once the software industry becomes like other mature engineering industries who are accountable for their products (e.g. a Television set manufacturer is accountable for its product), then, IMHO, the entire software ecosystem including the teaching/academics part of it will be forced to become more "professional" about software development/engineering. But will most software companies, or perhaps any software company, offer warranty for their software easily and of their own accord? I strongly doubt that will happen without outside or public pressure/intervention.Meanwhile we have to continue to live with the Without Warranty Wild West software world and produce software applications, within time & money constraints, of reasonable quality with some bugs here and there being tolerated like some security weaknesses here and there in the OS itself are tolerated. Is this the ideal software world? Certainly not! But can we freeze application software development till the software world becomes ideal? I don't think so! As far as I know, very, very few people like?Prof. David Parnas,? and?Prof. Bjarne Stroustrup?are thinking and writing and talking about these fundamental issues with software development today. And, IMHO, most people in the software industry or software academy don't seem to bother about or, in perhaps the vast majority of cases, even know about, what they are saying!The result is that, in this far-from-perfect software world, at least for a wide range of application software, as a software developer one also has to join the crowd and try to deliver software quickly, using approaches like component based development, even if the produced software has a few hidden bugs here and there. One may take a lot of care to ensure that one's code is well designed and reasonably tested given the time constraints one is operating under, but one simply cannot control the bugs in the components that one uses for the solution. As an individual, you can't stop or change this "some tolerance for bugs in return for quick and cheap software solution" culture. You, normally, have to go with it. Or else you, as an exception, can simply stay away from providing such solutions. Others then will satisfy the market demand for such solutions by providing them in your place. I could be wrong but that's the way I think it is.---I have also added below snippets of my part of a conversation that I had with a software development practitioner on this topic.I continue to hold the view that, at least for paid/significant cost software, providing a warranty like other fields of manufacturing, will bring order to the chaos that pervades the software industry today. Whether it can be pushed through, is practical enough, is a different matter. But if you ask the hapless user s/he does not care about whether it is practical enough or not, s/he is fed up of paying significant amount of money for software and having to live with painful bugs in what s/he has paid for!...About poor workmen (i.e. poor quality software developers/software engineers) being a problem, I agree. But till the poor quality of output produced by poor workmen is penalised the market/industry will employ such workmen and make money at the expense of hapless software customers & users. Prof. Parnas and others seem to hold the view that introducing licensure for software engineers will control the poor workmen problem like in other engineering sectors in the Western world. Maybe it will. But despite tremendous efforts of Prof. Parnas and others they, it seems, have not succeeded so far in the Western world adopting licensure for software engineering/development in a big way....I don't want to get into a detailed discussion on the practicality of warranty for software as I have not examined the matter in depth (and neither have the time to do so now). But then let us at least acknowledge that the software industry folks (including me in the past and perhaps in the future as an Open Source developer) are amateurs as compared to professionals from fields like civil engineering or mechanical engineering. Yes, most of us are/were highly paid for our software development work but we are/were only highly paid amateurs. We don't have the right to call ourselves "professionals" as we cannot give any warranty/guarantee about the software solution we provide, in most, if not all, cases.Please note that warranty does not mean error-free. A Television set may develop faults within its warranty period. Warranty, in my understanding, implies accountability to the extent of replacing a faulty product with a working product at no extra charge to the customer and also compensating a customer for significant damages incurred due to a faulty product.A distinguished US academic had a small mail exchange with me on this topic. I would like to share my part of that conversation below as I feel it adds some value to the topic.The point raised was that we all know today's software is poorly engineered. How do I propose to solve the problem?My response was:I think software companies need to become accountable by, for example, accepting financial penalties for significant failure of software during a warranty period. Catastrophic failure of software repeatedly should involve a govt. approved industry body examining the software very much like medical bodies examine repeated catastrophic failures of medical doctors. If the industry body deems that the software deployed did not follow minimum practices for design, code, test, etc. then a financial penalty should be levied on the company, and the record of the company and concerned software developers should reflect this failure. This will create a fear of appropriate professional repercussions for poorly engineered software.As of now, I don't think there is this kind of professional penalty/blot-on-record fear either at the company level or at the individual software developer level. The focus is on getting the minimum stuff done for the customer to sign on the dotted line and make the payment for the customized software developed/product sold. In case of products the fear is of bad publicity if the product is bad, and so losing out to the competition - that may be a motivator for trying to ensure good quality. In case of customized software solutions the fear really is of repeat business not coming. IMHO, such fear is nowhere close to the fear that a medical professional has if s/he is involved in negligence or malpractice. We need to bring in this fear of repercussions like in medical practice for badly done software. That may really bring some professional like discipline in software engineering/development.I hope I am not sounding like some fear-mongering dictator :). IMHO, very unfortunately, without fear of significant repercussions, people, in general, tend to cut corners in almost all walks and activities of life. In Asian countries like India, it is very much the case but I think it applies to quite some extent even in the materially advanced Western countries.Here's a mail exchange (slightly edited) with another correspondent/friend who kindly permitted me to share it on this blog post.Friend wrote in response to this blog post: I have one quick observation : When comparing a TV set with a S/w, the manufacturer of a TV will replace the set within warranty period if the operating conditions have not changed.My response: Well, I guess the warranty will be valid even if operating conditions change but are within the operating conditions for which the warranty is valid.?Let us say that a TV worked for 3 months and suddenly kicked its bucket. Then he will replace it - however, it should not be because of usage during high / low voltage, pouring water into it, etc.Yes, IMHO, as then the conditions for the warranty would be violated.In the case of S/w, is not the scenario different?There certainly will be certain differences between software and an electronics gadget like a TV. But I was going mainly by the principle which I feel can be applied to software too.?If you have been using the same functionality/features and if the S/w had worked earlier can it really stop working?Yes. The s/w may encounter new data which breaks it (e.g. boundary conditions). Further, nowadays for some software like operating system and anti-virus software you have the automatic updates feature, say over Internet, which may introduce new buggy code into the software, even a few days or weeks after it is installed.One scenario is as follows:?For instance, you might use a new choice in a menu and find that it is not doing what it is supposed to do, but perhaps it was not working right from the beginning - just that we did not find out about it.Yes, this is clearly a possibility with today's software which are sometimes overloaded with features/functionality that one does not regularly use.For instance, in a TV which claims to have 1000 channels, perhaps we tuned only the first 50 ones and after 6 months when we try to tune the 51st channel we find it is not possible. The above case is similar to this. So if we find it out within the warranty period TV manufacturer replaces it and so should the S/w provider / vendor.Agreed.Another scenario is what I wrote first. In a s/w can it happen? If it does, is it problem with H/w or S/w or some other "element" of the system? Whose responsibility should this be?If it is s/w which is the cause e.g. not handling the new data, then the responsibility should be the software vendor's.(I may not have) explained myself clearly, but I hope you see there is a difference here? Or is there??!!I am sure there will be differences. S/w warranty will be more complex than a TV warranty.In this connection, ideally a vendor should publish its QA reports for the software it sells to users. The QA report must detail all the tests that the software was put to. Such clear documentation of the QA process will allow customers to get a feel of the rigor of the software vendor's QA process. If the customer discovers a bug later on s/he can check against the QA report and see how this bug slipped through. The customer will then know whether the QA report missed it or whether it stated that it passed that test. In the latter case a question would pop up about the truthfulness of the QA report of the vendor.Such transparent QA reporting will give the customer a feel of how robust the software is, thereby allowing him/her to decide how much to depend on it.I don't know whether such QA reports are publicly made available for software products now. Maybe open source guys do that. Not sure if a company like --- would do that though :). They will consider it perhaps only if government (i.e. legislators) or courts force them to do it.... Another mail exchange with same friend ...Actually, what I find very very interesting is that so far (a software industry body) or any such body has not thought of this.Perhaps they know about it. (They may not want to consider) any demands for warranty as they may feel that it would negatively impact software companies, which they represent.Further, the non-IT MNCs which pay such huge sums also do not seem to be reporting the failure of s/w as a problem - surely it drains them of millions.?If one particular part is faulty, a car manufacturer takes the other party to task, but somehow when we come to s/w everybody seems to have infinite tolerance!!I think the world at large has been dazzled by the achievements of software. That and the huge money power that software companies have, makes these companies very formidable entities to aggressively question. I don't think governments will have the (will) to push software companies hard anywhere in the world today as the world is becoming more and more dependent on software, and (software companies would be having, I guess, significant political lobbying power). It is the Western world justice system that has the (will) to question and even fine software companies - e.g. ---,--- being fined for their practices like restrictive trade practices (---) and for using/capturing data of people from their wireless (home) networks without their permission (---).I think it is just a matter of time before some software glitch results in a catastrophe, provoking somebody/some entity to take the matter up to a Western world court (I don't know whether it has happened before; maybe it has but as I was not following this space before the past year or two, I do not know of it) - the top Western world judges will not easily buy arguments of software companies that the software is without warranty/"At your own risk" and so they are not legally liable for anything related to their software. They may (apply) some other law.?Thanks for this really thought-provoking perspective.You are welcome, brother --.Here is a follow up to this post titled,?A Debate on Warranty for Software.1 comment:Ravi S. Iyer, March 22, 2013 at 1:25 PMEven NASA is not able to avoid software glitches. Here's info. about glitch(es) that has/have stalled its latest $2.5 billion (reportedly) Mars Rover Curiosity probe/robot/mission:?Time article and?Information Week article.Sunday, March 24, 2013A Debate on Warranty for SoftwareNet url: updated on 28th March 2013The post,?The Without Warranty Wild West Software Industry, whose contents I mailed out to some correspondents, resulted in a few of them responding with the problems that warranty for software has, and some related views of theirs. I have given some of the responses below, and then my response to them.Correspondent1 (Corr1) is 'someone with decades of experience in academia and industry'. He wrote:This is an area I have worked in for decades so it is of great interest.I think the basic problem you are ignoring is that most software is developed to meet imprecise and incomplete requirements and specifications. I can give you numerous cases where the specifications failed to define all the possible cases that some software needs to cover and left it open to the implementer to decide what to do. There are other cases where assumptions are made but not stated and yet other cases where the specifier just did not know the existence of the case and/or did not know what to do if it occurred.We are talking about immensely complex systems, far more complex than any machine that is built. Just look at the billions or trillions of states that a large complex system will go through in its lifecycle.I think that given the limitations of the field today, it is not correct to talk about warranties because a warranty specifies a performance against a specification. However, we are far from having anything like a precise and complete specification for any software system.Instead, the focus should be on the process used to produce the software: the kind of design, the steps used for its construction and the tests done during the development. All this needs to be recorded and saved for ever.In the 1980s in the UK, the defence authorities were persuaded to issue standards called DEF 0055 and 0056 for software. The standard had a lot of conditions that no developer could hope to meet (including one that required all tools used during development to themselves have formal proof of their capabilities). The standards have since been made more realistic.You may be interested to read what Nancy Leveson has written on software and systems reliability (she has written a whole book on the subject), likewise Peter Neumann and others. Their main objection is to the lack of rigorous method during software development, the sort of due diligence that is essential and often watered down or ignored.Another correspondent, Rajendra Chittar (Raj), is an industry veteran and CS researcher of nearly three decades total experience who has a patent to his name and who states that he has delivered mission-critical bug-free applications. He wrote (slightly edited):That is interesting.? But the problem begins at the specifications level itself - software is so poorly specified that there will always be interpretations on what is "correct and bug-free" - and to the joke "it is not a bug but a feature" - and the hype is perpetrated even by the biggies - ---,--- etc.There is only one way in which the specifications can be made precise - so that there are no two ways about something being a bug or not - but that is via Formal Methods - and something that the industry scoffs at without even attempting to understand it fully.We are only using too long a rope to hang ourselves!!!I would like to put 2 definitions that go hand-in-hand - and are very relevant to the issue.? These are definitions of V&V (Verification and Validation):Verification: The process of ensuring that we are building the product correctly.Validation: The process of ensuring that we are building the correct product.Either only by itself is a road to disaster - and so is the one that does neither.? The software industry (at large) is about doing neither.? That is why we have delayed, over-budget, over-time, buggy software - and which ultimately is not what the customer wanted.?My (Ravi's) response to the above:Yes, I agree with both Corr1 and Raj that it is a very difficult, if not impossible task to define precise specifications for most of the complex software that is developed and used nowadays.But I still feel a limited warranty of some sort could be considered. Now, I am not an expert on this matter and have not studied the work of researchers on this topic. However, IMHO, I am entitled to express my opinion based on my nearly three decades of experience of the software industry and software academia.The test cases, test reports and test data that are used by a software vendor to check the quality of the software prior to releasing it to the customer, should be handed over to the customer. This will enable the customer to independently, if the customer so desires, check the quality of the software for themselves. Further, such test information & data can constitute the operating conditions for which the software vendor can provide a warranty. These operating conditions could also specify the version and other details of software components supplied by other vendors that the software solution is based on. E.g. Database, Report Generation tools and the Operating System.If the customer encounters a bug for a specific use case in the delivered software system, they can check whether the test cases and other operating conditions cover such a use case. If it does cover it and the use case does not work as required in the test environment using the specified/agreed-upon test data, even though the test report claims that it worked, then the customer has a clear case of the software vendor not having tested the software properly as per the agreed software development contract (or software product contract with the variation that the software product company unilaterally fixes the test cases, test data, environment etc.) The limited warranty will come into play with the software vendor having to do whatever is specified in such a warranty, e.g. fixing the bug(s) at no charge to customer, and, in the case of a very-confident/aggressive warranty, provide compensation for loss faced by the customer due to the bug(s).But will such a limited warranty which applies only to test cases & test data etc. considered at software development time be of any use at all? I think it will. As of now, I don't think that, in typical software deliveries, such test details are given to customers in such a way that they can run the tests independently. Once such a culture gets introduced, customers will get more involved with the testing process. Specifically they may ensure that the test data covers all the cases that they want in the software, as they get a warranty for such test data. If for their test data the software is found to not work during period of warranty they can hold the software vendor accountable! That can give tremendous confidence to customers about some sort of limited accountability for the software, as compared to the situation now where essentially the customer is told that the entire software is to be used "At your own risk"!Just imagine the business risks that come into play when a business becomes heavily reliant on such software which is used "at your own risk". Further try to imagine a chairperson or managing director of such a business trying to explain to angry shareholders in an AGM, a catastrophic software failure that caused significant damage to the company, and steps that will be taken to avoid similar catastrophic software failures in future.?Now software vendors offering such limited type of warranties may charge extra for the warranty. That is fair, IMHO. The customer gets a choice between less expensive software but without any form of warranty and somewhat more expensive software with some sort of limited warranty. This would parallel many other fields in India. E.g. mobile phones. The customer can buy cheap mobile phones produced by almost unknown company(ies) with no warranty OR mobile phones produced by reputed company(ies) with warranty which are significantly more expensive than the former. There is room in the mobile phone market for both.Similarly, I think, if some type of limited warranty is offered for some software, over time, we will have both types of software solutions - no warranty and limited warranty, each with their own space in the market.I should also mention that many devices/machines which use embedded software (e.g. medical devices, some or most cars, airplanes), I presume, are being sold with a warranty for the devices/machines which will include the embedded software part. But that is a specialized use of software, and anyway they seem to be providing a warranty already. It is the only software solution vendors (no device) that I am referring to in this post (and previous post mentioned at the top of this post). Now, in the only software solution space there is a huge variety of software from Operating Systems to Compilers to Database-oriented business applications. While I was writing the above my thoughts have focused more on Database-oriented business applications, as life in Indian towns & cities today seems to be heavily interacting with or dependent on such applications (e.g. banking, mobile top up, railway reservation, hospital admission etc.) but I have tried to be generic. So a lot of it may apply to other kind of software like a mobile spreadsheet application too.Now about importance to be given to the software process (requirement analysis, requirements capture, design, code, test, deployment etc.) - I entirely agree. Ideally there should be a minimum standard or a set of few minimum standards for the software process which should be published by government approved industry standard bodies. When a software vendor takes up a software development order it should inform the customer about which industry standard process it is following. Further, key artifacts produced as the software is developed using the industry standard process (design specifications, program specifications etc.)? should be provided to the customer, so that the customer can, if needed, itself, or by using a third party, inspect the artifacts to check whether the specific industry standard process is indeed being followed.Like in the limited warranty suggestion, the customer can be given a choice: less expensive software development but which may not follow any industry standard process OR more expensive software development which follows a specific industry standard process and with various artifacts produced by the process being provided to the customer.An important and significantly large exception to the above is that some software solutions are proprietary to the vendor and so most artifacts produced by any software development process followed for a software solution will have proprietary information that the vendor will not want to share with the customer.Regarding Formal Methods and (other) techniques to produce bug-free software, my knowledge about these topics is very, very limited. I believe such methods and techniques have not yet been widely adopted by the large majority of software solution providers. Perhaps there are some significant challenges/drawbacks which are impeding their widespread adoption or perhaps there are other political/mind-set type reasons for it. Anyway, their adoption is something that I am not in a position to contribute to in any way. I go by what the mainstream software development industry follows. If and when they switch to Formal Methods in a big way, I may have no option but to consider it seriously then.Ravi adds:?A correspondent brought up the "fit for its intended use/purpose" Engineering concept. I did some reading up about it.? (for USA):In common law jurisdictions, an implied warranty is a contract law term for certain assurances that are presumed to be made in the sale of products or real property, due to the circumstances of the sale. These assurances are characterized as warranties irrespective of whether the seller has expressly promised them orally or in writing. They include an implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose, an implied warranty of merchantability for products, implied warranty of workmanlike quality for services, and an implied warranty of habitability for a home....An implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose is a warranty implied by law that if a seller knows or has reason to know of a particular purpose for which some item is being purchased by the buyer, the seller is guaranteeing that the item is fit for that particular purpose....In some jurisdictions, an implied warranty in a sales contract can be expressly disclaimed by the use of specific language, such as the words, "as is" or "with all faults".--- end wiki page extracts ---So warranties need not always be limited to performance against a specification. A flawed car tyre that leads to many car accidents may not have failed its specifications, but would have failed the "fit for its intended use/purpose" implied warranty and so the manufacturer would be held accountable by the legal system/government.The software industry seems to have disclaimed the implied warranty of "fit for its intended purpose" by usually adding the words "as is" in the contract.Okay, so the software industry is legally not accountable even for any implied warranty. But how long can this "unaccountable" thing go on? I think it is just a matter of time before some government or some judiciary somewhere in the world responds to one or more catastrophic software failures badly affecting large number of people, by imposing accountability on software solution providers. And such imposed accountability, in all probability, ain't gonna be pretty!It would be far, far better if the software industry puts its own house in order by experimenting with some sort of limited accountability. My suggestions outlined earlier may or may not be good enough. There may be better suggestions somewhere else. Or, if nothing good enough is around yet, if the software industry puts its mind to the problem, I am sure they can come up with some concrete suggestions for limited accountability (with its possibly higher costs which the customer must be willing to bear) and which they can experiment with.Another correspondent questioned my assumptions about a viable market for the more expensive limited-warranty software. My views on it are as follows:The impression that I have is that people think that software can never have any sort of even limited warranty. As far as I know, concerted efforts by software industry to show that some sort of limited warranty can even be considered, are absent.I think for software that companies and government become heavily dependent on, e.g. hospital management software which controls many aspects of hospital functioning, income tax return online filing etc., both companies and government may be very interested in more expensive limited-warranty software solutions. In fact, they may consider only such solutions, if they were available. I am not saying that vendors should be forced to offer limited warranty software - customers should be able to specify that they are only interested in limited warranty software solutions. As of now, it seems to me, that no software (only) solutions or insignificantly small number of software (only) solutions fall in this category and so customers will not be able to specify in their Request for Proposals/(Request for) Tenders for software solutions that they want limited warranty software solutions only.Another point was about whether the service contract offered by software solution providers does not meet the need. My views:My initial thoughts are that typically a service contract comes into play after the warranty period runs out. Further the service contract is more limited than the warranty - e.g. may not involve replacement of product at no charge.To a TV manufacturer kind of guy, the software industry support contract may seem like milking the customer for the flaws in your product right from day one of the sale! I think a mature product/solution offering should have a period of free repairs/replacement, and I think warranty seems to be the appropriate name for it.A larger issue is what if the product/solution is discovered to be not "fit for its intended use/purpose" some period after the sale is made/software is used. A warranty seems to imply far more effort and cost to handle such situations than a service contract.A correspondent wrote that disclaiming the implied warranty of "fit for its intended purpose" (or to be more precise, "fitness for a particular purpose", see another definition also using the same phrase as the wiki page:?) with an "as is" clause may not really work/be valid (in all countries/jurisdictions). He mentioned that he had to learn about such matters when he took the exam for a Professional Engineering license (in Canada, I believe). The correspondent wrote that if somebody presses the issue then the implied warranty liability will hold even if there is an "as is" clause (at least in some countries/jurisdictions like Canada).Correspondent Corr1 wrote:"warranty of fitness for a particular purpose"The whole point about large and complex software systems is precisely that the "particular purpose" is (a) not defined, (b) incompletely defined or (c) wrongly defined.?Moreover, what works with one version of infrastructural software (operating system, database system, communication system etc.) may not work with later versions.?Of course we need more rigour in the way software is defined and produced. This is something software engineers aspire to and it will take time. Nevertheless, good software engineering practice today already follows best practices and uses all available tools to make software reliable.-- end Corr1 message --Ravi's response:The particular purpose of a car tyre too may not be defined completely. But that does not allow the tyre manufacturers to escape accountability for repeated accidents involving their tyres. We have a famous case of millions of tyres manufactured by a particular company being recalled, , . The reports do not mention that the tyres did not meet the specifications. They apparently did but, perhaps for cost saving purposes, lacked a crucial extra liner on the tire which would have made it safe and car/road worthy.I feel that the software industry needs to seriously explore some sort of limited accountability instead of sheltering in an "as is" or "use at your own risk" completely unaccountable strategy because the specifications for software typically are not well defined. The limited accountability can take into account the fact that specifications for software are typically not well defined and the version changes of infrastructure software (OS, Database, Comm. s/w etc.) E.g. The accountability could be limited to only the specific versions of the infrastructure software that was used for development and test of the software solution, and could be limited to the functionality specified in the requirement specifications and test specifications/reports.3 comments:Ravi S. Iyer, March 28, 2013 at 3:20 PMI came across a very interesting quote by Abraham Lincoln related to dangers of power craze/power abuse. I think this applies to the top people in powerful software companies, and the powerful software developer/engineer community in general too. While they may not have explicit political power, IMHO, they have extraordinary implicit power due to the vast and pervasive spread of software into virtually all aspects of life today. The political and other powers may turn to the software community for help and support, and so may be very reluctant to challenge them.“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.” - Abraham Lincoln.?Perhaps we now have a test of character for the worldwide software development/engineering community/industry. Can we rise up to the challenge and become a profession of "character"?Ravi S. Iyer, March 28, 2013 at 9:16 PMI felt it appropriate to share a personal experience regarding possibly poor car tyre quality. Please feel free to skip it if you are not interested. I was driving a Japanese model car, IFIRC, in the late 80's on a highway in New Hampshire/Massachusetts, USA, commuting from residence in?Nashua, NH?to business/work at?Wang Labs., Lowell, MA, at quite some speed, when one of its tyres gave way. I lost control of the car - it moved from the fast to the slow lane and then the breakdown lane. It was all set to hit a railing beyond the breakdown lane at still significant speed, when I tried the brakes. That resulted, fortunately, in the car turning back from breakdown lane to slow lane then fast lane, other (breakdown) lane, and then gently down the median valley. The car then turned upside down in the median valley but at gentle speed and came to a halt. Miraculously neither I nor two other passengers in the car including one in the rear seat who did not have a seatbelt on, had any grievous physical injuries. We were also very lucky that the rush hour traffic immediately behind our car had noticed the problem and stopped their cars and the traffic behind them on all lanes.Of course, I was given a dressing down by the passengers of the car, and since then I don't have the same level of confidence that I had earlier about cars.Now I feel maybe I had a defective tyre on the car. The car was from a rental agency. They gave me/us another car and that was it. As I was young then and a foreigner to the USA I did not press anybody to know the proper cause of that incident but just thanked my stars that I and others had come out unscathed from the incident/accident. I mentioned this experience to convey how the value of engineering quality, tyre engineering in this case, was brought home to me personally in a way that I will not forget for the rest of my life. And in this context, the "fit for its intended use" phrase/clause conveys the engineering quality aspect so well. Perhaps the tyre was not "fit for its intended use". But the cause could have been something else too. I feel I did not drive recklessly and so was not at fault but then that is just my opinion.Ravi S. Iyer, April 1, 2013 at 10:28 AMThis article, dated Aug. 2004, over eight years ago, shows how managers like a GM CTO viewed the matter then. The article also has views of software company people who have a counter view. Enterprise Software: Warranty Woes.The essence of the article is that the CTOs wanted to have a proper warranty but the software companies were not interested in providing a proper warranty. In its concluding portion the article states, "Large companies will have to shun software vendors that won't assume any liability for malfunctioning software.Small- and medium-sized companies will have to band together and insist on a standard set of warranties from providers of off-the-shelf software that at least guarantee the buyer that applications will be free of code defects and be secure outside a lab."Well, eight years plus have passed since the article was published and we seem to be having roughly the same state of affairs.MiscellaneousDiscussion/Informative Posts Involving Others' Articles/Views, Media reports and Some Comments from meIllegal wealth case registered by CBI against former Vice-Chancellor of an Indian university, July 2014Mumbai college principal arrested over charge of demanding donation for admission to XIth standard Science class, May 2014Information Technology - Products vs. Services, May 2014Srinvasan Ramani - First Indian perhaps in Internet Hall of Fame; Not Agriculture vs. IT but both Agriculture and IT, April 2014Dr. Ramani's blogpost about students not formally complaining about illegal fees and Dr. Joseph's Hindu article (mainly) on R&D in Indian software service companies, May 2014Content of Programming Courses shared on Blog For Free Access To Anybody, March 2014Will wake up the world to the urgent need for professionalism and accountability in software development?, February 2014Book Summary: Digital Republic, India’s Rise to IT Power by Mathai Joseph, June 2013Ethics Policy for Sharing Content of Mail Exchanges on This Blog, March 2012Truth Telling - A Tough Job, October 2012Free Coaching for CSIR-UGC-NET Exam in AP University, September 2012Safe Path for Budding Academics in India, September 2012Saturday, July 5, 2014Illegal wealth case registered by CBI against former Vice-Chancellor of an Indian universityNet url: sad, but at the same time, good news on corruption in Indian academia front. Today's The Hindu carries a report stating that the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which plays a roughly similar role to the one that Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) plays in the USA, "has registered a case against N.S. Gajbhiye, former vice-chancellor of Harisingh Gour Central University at Sagar in Madhya Pradesh, for allegedly amassing illegal wealth worth over Rs.2.54 crore." [Rs. 2.54 crore is Rs. 25.4 million which is approx. US $ 0.423 million i.e. US $ 423,000.] It also states, "According to the FIR, Mr. Gajbhiye was in possession of disproportionate assets amounting to Rs.2.54 crore in his name and his family members’ during the period under scrutiny, March 2009 to May 2014." Source:?. Gajbhiye obtained his Ph.D. (in Chemistry it seems) from the prestigious Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) in 1981 and is with the Department of Chemistry of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur,?. His Vice-chancellor stints seem to be like deputations from IIT Kanpur, after which he returned back to IIT Kanpur.The sad part is that CBI had to register a case of corruption/disproportionate assets against an academic from the prestigious IISc and IITs. However, Dr. Gajbhiye is innocent until proven guilty - it remains to be seen whether CBI will be able to prove its case in a court of law. The good news part is that CBI is willing to probe corruption charges against top academic administrators like vice-chancellors even if they hail from prestigious academic institutions like IISc and IITs. This will send a clear signal to those top academic administrators as well as other academics who indulge in malpractices and corruption that they could face the full force of Indian law which may result in them being sent to jail and their career getting completely destroyed. That should act as a deterrent for such corrupt actions.If you would like to read more about complaints made against Dr. Gajbhiye, here is another report dated 28th October 2013 from a mainstream media outlet, . It states, "The university vice-chancellor N S Gajbiye is allegedly embroiled in a scam involving siphoning off Rs 1000-crore of Central funds and committing irregularities in recruitment of professors over five years."?[Rs. 1,000 crore = Rs. 10,000 million which is approx. US $ 166.67 million using exchange rate of Rs. 60 for 1 US $.]Saturday, May 10, 2014Mumbai college principal arrested over charge of demanding donation for admission to XIth standard Science classNet url: this is the first time I am reading about a Mumbai college principal getting arrested, and that too for demanding donation for admission! For more see: . Here's a related article: , illegal and unethical practices are, very unfortunately, quite common in many parts of Indian academia today. Law enforcement stepping in and arresting guilty academic administrators and guilty academics may be the only way to stem the rot. Mumbai/Bombay police have a reputation of taking on criminal offenders even if they are highly placed in society.In a way it is a sad development. But on deeper thought, it is such action that will send fear shockwaves among those Indian academics and Indian academic administrators who indulge in corrupt and illegal practices. They will realize that they are not above the law of the land and that they too can be arrested and sent to jail if they violate the Indian Penal Code. That then will reduce such corrupt and illegal practices (including record-tampering which is a criminal offence under the Indian Penal Code, and which I have had some unhappy and blood-pressure-raising-furious experience of) in Indian academia. However, it may not do anything to hamper unethical but not illegal practices of Indian academia.BTW I did my half-year or so of M.Sc. (Physics-Electronics), before dropping out (due to financial problems), as a student of Khalsa college (for lab. work), Mumbai, in 1983-84. The lab. work was at Khalsa college with the theory classes being held in the University of Bombay, Kalina campus. In the short time I spent in Khalsa college I did not hear of such stuff but that does not mean that they did not happen. I must also say that the electronics lab. at Khalsa was managed by the very reputed Prof. Mohinder Singh (if I recall the name correctly). He took care of the lab. like his own child and we students had to be sensitive to his loving concern towards the lab. At that time, for M.Sc. electronics, due to Prof. Mohinder Singh mainly, Khalsa college lab. was reputed to be one of the best labs. in the University of Bombay (now Mumbai).On a personal note, I must say that Prof. Mohinder Singh was also a good man and I was told that he felt quite pained that I had to quit M.Sc. due to my financial problems - I could not bring myself then, as a student caught up in a very difficult situation, to tell him directly about me quitting. Maybe I was worried about him convincing me to continue - I wanted to simply start earning decent money by getting a job instead of struggling to do M.Sc. with financial problems. In hindsight, my decision to quit M.Sc. and take up a job instead was one of the best decisions of my life.Monday, May 5, 2014Information Technology - Products vs. ServicesNet url: updated on 6th May 2014Here is an interesting blog post by Dr. S. Ramani?titled, Information Technology Products versus Services,?[Dr S. Ramani is a distinguished veteran of the Indian Information Technology world. For those who would like to know more about him, Dr. Ramani earned a doctoral degree from IIT Bombay and worked as a post-doctoral research associate at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), USA. He started his career in TIFR Mumbai and went on to be the first director of National Centre for Software Technology (NCST) in Mumbai (now CDAC Mumbai,?) from 1985 to 2000. NCST helped him play a significant role in creating India's academic network, ERNET, which brought the Internet to India in 1987, and perhaps mainly for this contribution, Dr. S. Ramani was recently (2014) inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame, . ?In 2001 he became the first director of HP Labs., India, and played a key role in setting it up. He has been on the expert panel of the ICT task force of the UN and is a past-president and current fellow of the Computer Society of India.Sources: His blogger profile:? ]Given below is a comment (slightly edited to fix a typo) that I added to Dr. Ramani's blog post:My view based on my experience of the Bombay software export field in the 80s and 90s, is that, during that period, India was not that much of a viable market for fledgeling software products. It was far easier and far more profitable to offer software development services to economically developed countries like in the Western world or, in some rare cases, tie up with some NRI(s) based in the USA to develop products for the US market using software developers in India.In stark contrast, in the 80s and 90s, the US market was a fantastic one for fledgeling software products, even if many products failed. Customers were willing to try out new software that promised to fulfill some of their needs or improve their business in some way, and the software products that satisfied customers at reasonable price, succeeded, sometimes wildly succeeded. However, it was important to have a very good understanding of the customer needs and business and also be able to provide very quick-turnaround support for any issues faced by the customer. Due to that, attempting to create software products for the US market, based entirely in India, was not really working out - the US based competition was able to do far better.I don't know what the picture is about the Indian market today. I would presume that now there may be a decent market in India itself for Indian software products.Regarding B.E./B.Tech. and MBA being a good combo for company leaders, I am not so sure about it in the case of software product companies. I think that combo works out great for software services companies. For the software product companies, as you wrote, passion is a vital factor in such company founders and leaders. Risk-taking ability, brilliance in understanding the niche areas the product(s) cater to and mastery of technology are vital. The finance bit, IMHO, is not that hard to understand for a software product company start-up and does not really need a business administration or finance degree.I tend to agree with all four of your suggestions regarding education to encourage software (and hardware) entrepreneurship. I would like to add a point about education to encourage software product development skills:*) Students should study and then try hard to contribute to great open-source software products out there as part of their degree work. Just imagine the confidence a Computer Science (CS) or Information Technology (IT) graduate/post-graduate would have if her/his contribution got accepted. Unfortunately, the culture in most Indian CS & IT departments does not promote and reward (by good grades) such work. Many times the teaching faculty themselves are not so comfortable with in-depth software development, and even tend to look down upon software development work as low-calibre work (as against producing research publications). My considered view on the matter is that a software product developer/visualizer/creator has to first and foremost be fluent in software development - coding fluency is to software creation what linguistic fluency is to creative writing. That gives the foundation for trying out various ideas. Adding strong research skills/insights/ideas to a solid-base of software development opens up tremendous opportunities for software product creation. However, even top research skills if not supported by a strong software development skill base, will lead to self-doubt as the person may not be able to, by himself/herself, confirm/validate his/her research ideas through software prototypes.Wednesday, April 30, 2014Srinvasan Ramani - First Indian perhaps in Internet Hall of Fame; Not Agriculture vs. IT but both Agriculture and ITNet url: . Srinavasan Ramani, well known during my days (80s and 90s) in the Bombay/Mumbai software export industry as director of National Centre for Software Technology, , has been inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame (2014 inductee), . Perhaps he is the first Indian to be given that honour (BTW the Internet Hall of Fame started in 2012).Recently Dr. Ramani also wrote an article in The Hindu, An opportunity seized but not fulfilled, , which has some references to IT and agriculture.An extract from the article:A friend and I recently looked back a few decades, talking about how technology and professional education have created a new economic sector. I recalled how during a visit to an agricultural research institute (it must have been the late-1990s) an official there mentioned that the commercial value of sorghum grown in India was $2 billion a year.Those days, the Santa Cruz Export Promotion Zone near Mumbai was the star in India’s software exports. Sharing a hundred acres of land with gem and jewellery manufacturers, and employing 50,000 to 60,000 employees, the software units in SEEPZ earned around $2 billion a year. Look at the difference in productivity.Of course, it is not the dollar value that predominates. Sorghum cultivation sustained hundreds of millions of people, and gave them employment. But the point is the growing importance of software and services export in the Indian economy, from what is commonly called the Information Technology (IT) and IT Enabled Services (ITES) sector.--- end extract ---Two comments of mine appear on the article's web page. They appear under the name of Ravi S. as the new comments system in The Hindu truncated Iyer from my name :). Further the comments system collapsed my line breaks and so for better readability, I have introduced appropriate line-breaks in the reproduced comments of mine below:Congratulations to Dr. S. Ramani for being inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame. Perhaps he is the first Indian to be given that honour.As somebody who spent most of his software career in SEEPZ, Bombay (mentioned in the article) from 1984 to 2002, I tend to agree with the point about difference in productivity but also with the vital point about the vast number of people sustained by agriculture in India, (as against the comparatively tiny set of Indian IT professionals in the 90s). Perhaps now is the right time for Indian IT to contribute in a big way to Indian sectors of agriculture, IT enabled education (both primary, secondary and higher education) etc. which can benefit vast numbers of people in our country.--- end first comment ---A couple of other comments misunderstood Dr. Ramani's comparison to be a slight to Indian agriculture. I responded to them as follows:@sameer and Ravi NatarajanI don't think Dr. Ramani is denying the immense contribution of agricultural scientists as well as Indian farmers to the Indian people at large including Indian IT professionals. All Indians must be grateful to the Indian agricultural community as they provide the 1.25 billion of us food and contribute to clothing as well.But it cannot be denied that aspirations of Indian youngsters today including rural Indian youngsters and children of farmers is to lead a far more comfortable life than their parents. Given current standards of productivity in Indian agricultural sector taken as a whole, as well as huge supply of people in the agricultural sector, agriculture is typically not a profession of choice of such Indian youngsters. So we need to improve productivity of Indian agriculture (using IT?) and also provide other avenues like IT where India has made a name for itself in the global economy. It is not agriculture vs. IT - but both agriculture and IT.--- end second comment ---I was very pleased to receive a response from Dr. Srinivasan Ramani to a mail I sent him on the above. Further, he kindly permitted me to share the following part of his response on my blog:Thank you for email and for the clarifications you have given to say that no slight is intended to agriculture. I am 100% aligned with you. It is just that we never thought the day would come when IT & ITES would account for more than food grains.--- end Dr. Ramani response extract ---Dr. Ramani, of course, means food grains in terms of monetary value (today). BTW Dr. Ramani is one of the pioneers of the Indian Computer Science and Information Technology (CS & IT) field and so would have seen the days (seventies or perhaps even earlier) when India was almost nowhere in CS & IT.Later I noticed that Dr. Ramani has added the following comment on the article web page:I hasten to add that the comparison was not at all meant to say anything negative about agriculture. Above all, agriculture gives employment to over 500 million Indians. Today, jobs matter to people more than anything else. The comparison was mainly motivated by the shock I got when I realized that IT & ITES have grown quite big. Let us not pit one sector against another. That would be like asking "Does your daughter need rotis? [Ravi: Roti is an Indian bread, ] Or does she need to go to school?" We need good agriculture as well as good IT & ITES to create jobs and wealth for the country.-------A correspondent added over email:You can take the comparison further and see what software services companies do and what software product companies do. In India, average productivity (yearly revenue divided by staff strength) in the IT industry is somewhere between $30,000-$50,000 per year. Of course, fresh recruits cannot earn until they are trained and have some experience so companies that grow fast (and recruit, say, 40,000-50,000 fresh graduates each year) will have lower productivity than those who do not. But that can be taken into account.Service companies outside India (e.g. Accenture etc.) have a productivity of around $120,000 a year. They offer their clients a 'blended' rate by combining lower cost Indian workers with higher cost workers from the West. Indian companies find that difficult to do because their initial advantage is the low cost they offer.Now compare that with software product companies like Microsoft where the average earning(s) are somewhere from $300,000 - $400,000. However, they operate in a high risk market (1 in 10 product companies fail) and grow by acquisition (Microsoft acquired PowerPoint by buying a small company called Foresight).?Thursday, May 15, 2014Dr. Ramani's blogpost about students not formally complaining about illegal fees and Dr. Joseph's Hindu article (mainly) on R&D in Indian software service companiesNet url: 's a frank and interesting article by Dr S. Ramani titled, "Why no student complains that he has been compelled to pay an “illegal fee”!",? posted a two-part comment on the blogpost and have copy-pasted them below (slightly edited to fix a grammatical error):"The students and their families feel that the denial of educational opportunity of the type or quality they desire is the worst form of cruelty." Terrific takeaway for me from your article. I think you may have got it spot-on for many Indian families and students.About why students & parents don't blow the whistle on illegal fees: Most students and parents have tremendous fear of Indian academic administrators. And I think it is sensible that they have this fear as ruthless administrators get away with almost any unethical and even cruel action on students, so long as it is not illegal, in Indian academia. The administrator fears only the reaction from the parents and relatives of the student (or maybe the students' union - I don't know much about students' union as the deemed university that I was in, did not have any students' union). If these (parents ...) are powerful people the administrator will back off from strong action but if they are ordinary people, the administrator knows that he can get away with almost anything (so long as it is not illegal). Even after the student passes out, there may be requests to confirm his academic records - any student that blows the whistle on an educational institution will know that these administrators will be looking for a chance to take revenge. I think these are the ground realities of Indian academia today.Besides corruption and unethical practices are widespread in almost all walks of Indian life (barring some parts of the private sector), so why should students and parents take on the onus of whistle-blowing about the corrupt practice of capitation fee in private professional Indian higher education sector? It is already a well-known secret with so many people even writing about it in the mainstream media. But the govt. regulatory authorities seem to be completely powerless to do anything about ernment guaranteeing repayment of educational loans seems to be very risky, if not managed carefully. A more liberal approach was adopted by the Andhra Pradesh state government in recent years which seems to have resulted in a professional higher education bubble being formed and then bursting causing a lot of pain to students, faculty and higher education institution managment/owners. Some info. about it follows:The fee reimbursement scheme is meant for "students belonging to economically weaker sections in the state", (Andhra_Pradesh). Practically,?this April 2014 Hindu article, states, "Till now, students just had to submit the income certificate of less than one lakh per annum to secure admission." ... "Government pays Rs 35,000 per annum for engineering courses, Rs 27,000 for MBA & MCA courses and Rs 31,000 for the B. Pharm course if parents’ income is less than Rs. One lakh per annum."Regarding the bubble-burst aspect, one cause of it seems to be the govt. not reimbursing fees properly and/or promptly (another cause may be poor teaching quality perhaps).Here is a related April 2014 Times of India article, which mentions that at least 80 AP colleges will be asking AICTE permission to close down and hundreds of engg. colleges may ask permission to reduce seats. Degree programmes most affected include MCA, IT and MBA degrees....Deccan Chronicle of a few days back carries?an article about money owed to engg. colleges by Andhra Pradesh state. The first sentence in the article states, "The state government has not paid fees amounting to Rs. 3000 crore, of 27 lakh students from socially and economically backward classes under the fee reimbursement and scholarship scheme for professional courses." While this may be not surprising given how governments in India routinely delay payments, the next statement shows the pitiable state of students who are dependent on this state government scheme support, "With the deadline of June 2 for the bifurcation of the state drawing near, these students are nervous about their future, especially as there is no clarity about how these arrears will be shared by the new governments that take charge in Telangana and AP after June 2."I am now wondering about what happens to students enrolled in engg. colleges which want to close down! Are they left high and dry? Probably not - there may be consolidation of students into few colleges. But this will be the case only if the student can pay the fees. If the student is using this govt. fee reimbursement scheme then other colleges will shy away from accepting him/her, I think. Hmm. What a mess that will be, if that's how it is going to play out/is already playing t. fee reimbursement offered on a blanket scale like what Andhra Pradesh did - all students whose parents earn less than Rs. 1 Lakh p.a. - is just way too risky and imprudent from a financial perspective. And the worst sufferers when such a scheme fails due to it being financially unsustainable are the poor students whom the scheme intended to help! They would have been far better off if they had not enrolled into engineering and had instead pursued some other skill set/job which was more achievable for them given their economic status. I am not being an economic class snob - I am just being realistic. I myself had to drop out from my M.Sc. (Physics-Electronics) in Bombay University in 1984 due to financial problems, and look for a decent job instead - that decision was one of the best decisions of my life as, within a few months, I got a break into the sunrise software development industry as a trainee programmer (under 3 year bond; 6 months training and 2.5 years service to company under stipend-type salary with stipend rising periodically over the bond period).--- end comment ---Today's The Hindu had an interesting article from Dr. Mathai Joseph titled, "Why is there no Indian equivalent of Microsoft or Google?",?. I added the following comment to it, which is under moderation right now:Interesting article. I think the analysis about Indian software service companies is good including the analysis of the few product offerings they have (that they have been born out of their service efforts, and are a sort-of customized service offering in specialized areas).However I must also say that the title of the article led me to expect a somewhat different article.--- end comment ---Tuesday, March 25, 2014Content of Programming Courses shared on Blog For Free Access To AnybodyNet url: couple of days ago I sent the following mail to top Indian ministers and bureaucrats associated with higher education, UGC/AICTE academic administrators and others.Dear sir/madam,In the past I have sent you esteemed ladies and gentlemen some mails on my views about Indian Computer Science and Information Technology academia and my suggestions on how to improve teaching in general in this field as well as how to improve the practice of software development in this field.So I felt it appropriate to share the contents of the home page of a new blog of mine having contents of some of the programming courses that I taught, below. You may want to have a look at it.HomeLast updated on 23rd March 2014This blog has been created to offer the content of software lab. courses created by Ravi S. Iyer, Software Consultant, Puttaparthi, India, while he was offering free service as Honorary Staff/Honorary Faculty/Visiting Faculty to a Mathematics & Computer Science department in a deemed university in Andhra Pradesh, India, from 2003 to 2011. To know more about Ravi S. Iyer, please visit:? software lab. courses Ravi taught some of whose contents have been uploaded here and some whose contents are planned to be uploaded in the near future, are:C++ ProgrammingAdvanced Unix ProgrammingUnix Network (socket) Programming including pthread ProgrammingMinix/Linux Kernel InternalsJava Web ProgrammingC# & Web ProgrammingVC++/MFC/Windows ProgrammingOpen Source Web Technology (As applied to a free school educational web portal)This blog is owned and operated by Ravi S. Iyer. This blog aims to share useful output of Ravi as a teacher of software lab. courses/programming courses.Feedback from Former StudentsA former student who was taught this course by me in the deemed university in Andhra Pradesh, India, wrote the following over email on March 18th 2014 (modified slightly to fix a couple of minor grammatical errors):It is great that you have shared the C++ programming teaching material prepared by you on your blog. I really hope that people make use of it for I know how useful it could be. I can say this as a direct beneficiary of this, and today that is what fills my bank account at the end of every month.I just hope and pray that Swami gives you the strength and determination to keep up the good work. I also think that I too can take a tiny part of the credit in this endeavour of you putting up these slides, as I was perhaps one of the many who would have suggested that you put these slides up in some forum accessible to the students’ community. Thank you for considering the request.Another former student who had been taught Advanced Unix Programming and Unix Network Programming?courses by me, wrote me on 22nd March 2014:These courses (Advanced Unix Programming and Unix Network Programming) went a long way in helping me land my job at Alcatel-Lucent. I had a one-on-one interview with my hiring manager that was entirely on Unix. After joining the company I learned that this person(manager) was a big time ‘Unix fan’. It was very satisfying to have done well in that interview. On the job, we completely relied on Solaris Unix based servers and the concepts of processes and threads gained from these course(s), went a long way in helping me grasp the software.Thank you Ravi Sir.-------Net url:? S. IyerSoftware Consultant--- remaining part of email signature snipped ---Wednesday, February 5, 2014Will wake up the world to the urgent need for professionalism and accountability in software development?Net url: can’t handle appeals of enrollment errors, , is a very scary report of problems in the US govt. website which seems to be the primary mechanism for the new health insurance 'marketplace'/'exchange' system in the USA.Some notes and comments:The report mentions tens of thousands of appeals having been filed related to supposed overcharging, being steered into wrong insurance programs or being denied coverage by website.?[Ravi: What a stressful thing it would be for such users! Medical costs in the USA are said to be very high due to which most people barring the super-rich have to have a health insurance plan. Otherwise, as I understand it, they simply may not be able to undergo medical care involving operations.]It gives the case of a lady who was not given the right amount of subsidy by the website due to which she was advised to pay full price for insurance cover (she was due for surgery) and then appeal.It mentions that the (USA) 2010 Affordable Care Act provides a guarantee for timely hearings for appeals dealing with subsidies or being denied insurance and that legal advocates are looking at the matter.?[Ravi: Is this going to be a legal issue? Will somebody also look at the contractual obligations of the software provider and whether such obligations are fair and include accountability?]It reports that, as of now, the system can only store the appeals and does not have the functionality to permit officials to process these appeals.?[Ravi: Not a happy picture.]...The system seems to have asked some users to opt for Medicaid as they quality for it but their state Medicaid agency denied that. These users 'loop' back to the federal system and that is not able to fix the error.?[Ravi: What a mess! I can imagine the fury and frustration some of these users would be having with the software system.]...The article mentions that after undergoing surgery the above mentioned lady checked about resolution of her problem with the website and was told that the system does not have ability to fix a mistake in somebody's account.?[Ravi: I am so disappointed that the software system handling such a vital part of the life of US citizens has let down some people so badly.]--- end notes and comments ---I think steps must be taken to ensure that software dealing with such vital matters ('infrastructure software'), even if they are more of application type of software (as against systems software), go through a more professional software development and test lifecycle before release to users. Further there must be accountability like in so many other professions - civil engineering, medicine etc. with serious failures like these resulting in investigations and some kind of professional action against those software managers, analysts, designers, developers and/or testers found to be at fault.Some people may feel I am being very harsh especially since I am no longer in the software industry. But I think that it is the lack of accountability and lack of fear of professional action being taken for serious lapses that makes software development a 'Wild West' kind of enterprise. If software development earns people a lot of money then they need to be accountable for what they have developed. Is that not a fair thing to ask? I mean, will we accept going to a medical doctor who is not accountable for the treatment that he/she gives us? Will we live in a house/apartment whose builder and civil engineer are not accountable for the safety and durability of the construction?Monday, June 17, 2013Book Summary: Digital Republic, India’s Rise to IT Power by Mathai JosephNet url: updated on 18th June 2013This document is a summary-addressed-to-author with some additional comments of mine of the book titled "DIGITAL REPUBLIC" and sub-titled "India’s Rise to IT Power" which is a "History & Memoir" by Mathai Joseph. The book website is:?. It has been created from the mails I sent to the author as I was reading his book in May and June 2013. I am afraid I do not have the time to convert the summary-addressed-to-author document to a proper summary for a third person. However, I feel that even this summary-addressed-to-author document may give a decent idea of the book to third persons who have not read the book.I shared an earlier draft version of this document (which was modified only slightly for this version) with the author of the book, Dr. Mathai Joseph, who wrote back over email, "That is an excellent account (summary) of my book." Further please note that Dr. Mathai Joseph, who also holds the copyright for the book, has given me permission (over email) to share this document with others over email and also put it up on my blog.?[The Creative Commons Attribution license, CC-BY, does?not?apply to this post.]A few words about Dr. Joseph picked up from this book (there may be some small slip-ups). After doing B.Sc. and M.Sc. Physics from Bombay, he did a PhD in the new field of Computer Science from the world famous Cambridge University in UK. He returned back to India and joined Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in 1968 as a researcher (and system software developer/manager) in the nascent field of Computer Science in India. After a long period of around 17 years in TIFR he moved in 1985 to UK academia by becoming a Professor of Computer Science in the University of Warwick. After 12 years in UK academia he came back to India again this time as a Deputy Director of Tata Research Development and Design Centre (TRDDC), the research arm of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). He retired from TRDDC as Director in 2007.I found the book to be an utterly fascinating view of a distinguished CS academic and industry professional, of computer hardware and software development in India and, to some extent in the West, right from the mid-sixties, and the story of other aspects of his life during this fascinating software ‘revolution’ journey. I thought a quick view of his book from my summary-to-author may be interesting to many, some of whom may then go ahead and read the book itself.I also think there will be quite a few youngsters in the software industry in India who would like to read this book, once they come to know of its contents, to get some idea about the roots of the Indian software industry that employs them, treats them very well, provides interesting work most of the time (when compared to many other professions in India), and gives them a very affluent lifestyle (as compared to many other Indians).?The chapter names are given in bold in the summary-to-author [and?Ravi: comments] below. Some of my comments are intertwined in the summary-to-author itself but some are separately given within square brackets and in italics.Prologue and Self at BBVT, Chowpatty Chaat and Byculla Byways chapters:I thoroughly enjoyed most of it. I liked your style of writing and felt that it had the ring of truth in it. You were frank in sharing incidents about those years of your life and so it made for riveting reading.I could not relate very well to your early train journeys years as I did not do much outstation traveling during my early youth years. But I can very well imagine a single youth being made a 'bakra' for advice from all and sundry on long train journeys! Your accounts were interesting to read. It did not have much about your early boyhood/school days and the influence of growing up in whatever cultures you were exposed to in that period. Yes, I did get the Coonoor bit but it was rather scanty. Perhaps it was more of a base station rather than the focus of your boyhood years.I thoroughly enjoyed your Bombay/Mumbai accounts while you were doing your B.Sc. and M.Sc. BTW I was born and bred in Bombay/Mumbai + Dombivli and love them very dearly, despite their many flaws!?I liked the Wilson college/hostel life account along with the life you saw then as a B.Sc. student around that area. Hostel and nearby hotel food issues [Ravi: it is after I associated with a university campus that I realized how vital hostel food issue is to the life & happiness of students!] ... Sunil Dutt, Nargis, Raj Kapoor, ... paan + charas given to the stars ... mosambi/narangi type local brew in 'prohibition' Bombay then ... some politics ... some sports you played ... writing to the newspaper ... Blitz accounts ... the girls including the cabaret ... South Bombay ... Parel – working class community. Pretty good accounts which I was able to relate to quite well and enjoyed.Your point about the teaching being rather humdrum during B.Sc. days and not inspiring typically is interesting. I also enjoyed your M.Sc. account. A different hostel, inspiring teachers (the famous politician Madhu Dandavate being one of them!), experiments being rather tough to do due to equipment/budget constraints ... 3 quotations :) [Ravi: I heard that first when I joined the university here as honorary staff] ... film society ... Daman booze trip :) ... Joy! It’s a boy! way to conveying that you passed (with first class) and your mother getting upset with that way of conveying it :), and the move on to Cardiff. I liked your frankness about waving from the top of the gangway/entrance of plane like the others even though there was no one to wave to. I recall that I was very sensitive about such matters during my youth. I wanted to blend into the crowd.?Liked your account of the books you read and also some films you saw including the bit about predicting the story/end of Hindi movies by looking at the posters!Indian Origins?chapter of your book was interesting. I got a pretty good picture of computing history at that time (early 60s).Splott:Enjoyed reading Splott and getting a picture of a young Indian student (perhaps you were around 21/22 then) getting exposed to life in a European country (Cardiff in Wales, Great Britain). The cold ... the people and how they interacted with a young Indian (no racism mentioned at this point, which I was happy to note), the Welsh people remembering relations who had been in India, the colleagues & friends (Indian background + English/Welsh), computers in the college/university, getting exposed to programming, Asian bus conductors, their plans, the 'immigrant' issue, future plans, taking a shot at Cambridge!, for a short time working as a waiter!, London trips.'Technically Madingley'?goes into academic elite space! I liked the description in Splott where the Maths teacher, IFIRC, advises you strongly to take up Cambridge PhD instead of doing it at Cardiff! He would have known how different it is from academic rigor point of view and did not want you to lose out. I appreciate the academic sincerity.The living quarters, the way you are treated by people, the student colleagues, the elite Labs ... Quite interesting how getting into Cambridge from Cardiff changes the atmosphere you were into rather dramatically (upwards socially). Cavendish lab ... Rutherford ... legendary names in Physics.? It must have been really something working in a lab. close to Cavendish lab. which is part of the same institution!David Wheeler (PhD guide of Dr. Mathai Joseph) has a wiki page - I just went through it, ?(Note that the link may not work from the pdf file perhaps due to presence of special character. Copy-pasting the url into browser address bar works). Jump instruction being referred to as Wheeler jump (in the context of subroutine loop) is mentioned in the Wiki page too. Interesting.Interesting to note how Wheeler guided you. Social life with Indian/India groups was quite interesting.? Farukh Dhondy, Adil Jussawala are names that certainly ring a bell but I don't recall having read their works. You certainly had some would-be-elite-later companions at Cambridge.The research grind, frustration, sage advice from supervisor ... How new "computer science" was as a field then even in one of the top "computer" academic institutions in the world! Some Cambridge dons being Nobel prize winners in established areas of Physics, Maths & Economics! CS must have been looked upon as hardly a field of serious academic endeavour by some, or maybe most, of the Cambridge academics. Cooking challenges part was quite funny. The trip to the European continent by car was interesting.Trafalgar Road?chapter: Separate house as against hostel room. ... Computer time challenges ... Titan time-sharing system resulting in more computer time for you ... Bourne of Bourne shell being a student contributing to the system! Farming system in Rajasthan lecture - very interesting that Cambridge exposed you to that as well ... Carcanet magazine work along with Farukh DhondyReccomendation from Maurice Wilkes for IBM scholarship. Just read up his wiki, . Very impressive. The wiki page mentions Wheeler too and EDSAC and Titan. Wilkes moved to DEC in Mass., USA in the 1980s! Interesting. I loved this quote from his memoirs on the wiki page: "As soon as we started programming, we found to our surprise that it wasn't as easy to get programs right as we had thought. Debugging had to be discovered. It was on one of my journeys between the EDSAC room and the punching equipment that 'hesitating at the angles of stairs' the realization came over me with full force that a good part of the remainder of my life was going to be spent finding errors in my own programs."An interesting part about the IBM scholarship thing was how the IBM guy was kind-of bored and just wanted to know how much to pay and for how long, and how Wilkes was not surprised at all by you getting the scholarship! A recommendation for scholarship from Wilkes was something that IBM could not deny! Wow, that's the clout that top researchers had then with computer companies and probably have even now. [Ravi: As I have spent time in academia and then read up about academic world on the Internet I realize that the old-boy network is a very, very powerful one in the academic world.]Holiday Camp: Cairo experience was interesting. Telangana movement was making itself felt even then! Interesting Cambridge Research magazine experience. Elliot Automation research group doing research quite differently! First mentioned shave with racism and that too around the time of Enoch Powell's infamous 'rivers of blood' speech! Pulsar work Nobel prize winner Tony Hewish having to talk to Wheeler while you were having a ceremonial kind-of dinner with him - that was quite interesting. Noted the very unfortunate aspect of the research glory business where the research student's key contribution got overlooked for the Nobel prize. I wonder whether the prize winners at least publicly and unequivocally stated the research student's contribution. And you get the PhD finally. Noted that research paper publication was not mandatory. But scientific community would accept the research work only after a paper is published (in a suitable publication).Marking Time: Interesting account of how computing was tightly controlled by Indian government in those days (60's). Fear of clerical staff becoming redundant ... lack of indigenously produced computers made India dependent on foreign suppliers ... [Ravi: As I am not into research aspects of Computer Science or deeply into algorithms I do not fully appreciate the impact of Dijkstra, Backus-Naur, McCarthy etc. Of course, they are well known names even to me but since I never did fundamental system software stuff like designing a programming language I am not in a position to appreciate their contribution like I appreciate the contribution of Kernighan & Ritchie et. at. (C, Unix), Stroustrup (C++), Grady Booch (OOAD, UML), Erich Gamma et. al (Design Patterns), Tim Berners Lee (WWW), James Gosling (Java) etc.]CODA: Quite insightful account of how a university town forgets the passed out students and welcomes the new. ... "While there, Cambridge endowed them with entitlement, purpose and posture: on leaving they lose the entitlement but may have found direction from the purpose; some chose to live off just the posture." Beautifully put, sir.Quite a decision you made to come back to India, sir. Many of the people in your shoes would have stayed back in UK or even migrated to USA. Touching account of your father's illness and the treatment prescribed which may have been correct according to knowledge of that time & place but now is known to have been an incorrect approach. Such is life - these medical issues are very tricky stuff, even today - I mean it is not an exact science like Physics.The people of TIFR you have mentioned are very famous names, sir. S. Ramani was a well known name even to a solely-software-industry-no-research guy like me as I think he headed NCST Bombay during my times in SEEPZ. Narasimhan, M.G.K. Menon - really big names. I loved the account of your first experience of Narasimhan's managerial skills (being separated from S. Ramani as you two were getting along too well for him)! About the passing away of your father, "I told them there was nothing more to be said or done about a life lived well; his memory would stay in the minds of those who knew him." Fantastic, sir! IMHO, parents who shower love & affection on their children and raise them well, and lead a good & ethical life, have lived their life very well and earn the love of the people that they have interacted with.Job Description: I found this chapter to be of gripping interest! Choosing your research area - interested in OS & related areas ... Narasimhan suggesting Graphics ... You were not interested ... More importantly, one guy had already staked out the field!?You along with another person wrote a small time-sharing system which did not attract the interest of TIFR computer users who preferred the batch system similar to what was used by their peers! Hmm. Must have been a huge disappointment so early in your career. Good work getting ignored because of lack of knowledgeable users!View of one person that computing being an applied science should not be done in TIFR which should only do fundamental research!?Homi Bhabha's genius and TIFR ... if a person wants to leave, I want to know why ... Having to work very much on your own without much guidance ... [that must have been really tough] ... Journals helped to keep abreast with the West ... Labour unions against computers ... George Fernandes ...Enjoyed the family life and cultural life account. Lots of plays... Interesting account about Prohibition in Bombay. … 1971 war ... [Ravi: I did not know about General Jagjit Singh Arora breaking Gen. Niazi's sword over his knee - tried Google Image search for it but did not find suitable results (in the initial set at least).] Project of National Importance ... patriotically passed on by the physicists and mathematicians to the computer group :) ... PDP-11 real-time OS design (and development) followed by application development [Ravi: Wow! That is an awesome, awesome achievement for those days. While I have not done any core OS design or development (different from backup tools, networking products etc. which I have worked on), I have studied and taught a course on kernel development (tinkering would be closer to the truth) using Minix (Tanenbaum's OS). So I have some idea of the complexity involved and this was way back in the 70s I guess.] ... Field situation turning out to be quite different from what you'll were told! ...Eventually system moving into production at ECIL. ... And then all this really awesome work not getting proper recognition from the TIFR management - that must have really hurt. 'The Institute' would take the unpleasant decisions ... Not much consultation with persons about their career interests. ... presumption that people will not leave the privileged institute ... Your work provided visibility to government ... government committees ... IBM and ICL competition ... difficult job to be on these committees ... told only part of government's intention ... NCSDCT budget preparation ... INRIA research ... Indian emergency ... EPW anonymous article authored by you which was critical of BARC [Ravi: Wow! That would have needed some courage considering you were in TIFR, a government funded setup, and it was emergency time. Agree entirely with your view that the BARC guy could have given a rejoinder article. Hmm. Narasimhan spoke to you about it ... talk of pressure] ... 1977 elections with Indira Gandhi's defeat ... you joining in the exhilarating celebrations [Ravi: I was studying in a school in? Bandra (East), Bombay at that time, perhaps in ninth standard. I recall that people would say that the buses and trains run more closely to schedule and that there is more discipline now. But IFIRC I was told by my benchmate in school (a Sikh boy) who used to live, I presumed, in a rougher and poorer locality in Khar(E), about sterilization vans catching hold of young men and sterilizing them by force! And when I and a friend of mine elder to me by a few years were walking on the road around election results time discussing the elections in perhaps loud voices a police van pulled up and took my friend to the police station! I was terrified (around 15 years old then) - maybe since I was younger the police did not pick me up. My friend returned after some time - IFIRC, he was given a tight slap at the police station and warned not to speak about such things publicly! What a blot the emergency was on our democracy! We owe a great debt to people who fought for democracy then as well as the general voting public as they turned out to be quite wise and threw the tyrants out.]TDC-16 suite of basic software ... work duplicated by ECIL ... ECIL not distributing your software? ... ECIL lacking financial and technical accountability ... Taking over as editor of Computer Society of India journalAnnual review of activities of NCSDCT ... visiting lecturers ... [Ravi: I found this to be fascinating. Perhaps it was the main centre of computing research in India in those days. During the mid 80s and 90s we would associate IIT Bombay and NCST (NCSDCT later got renamed as NCST – National Centre for Software Technology, which in turn seems to have got renamed as CDAC-Mumbai – Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Mumbai,?) as the key computing research centres in Bombay and I don't recall coming across TIFR's name for computing research in Bombay then. But then my view was a software practitioner view and not a CS researcher view.] ... "We began to understand how much research is a game of balancing results and opinions, of judging where consensus lay and guessing what would be the big new problems." [Ravi: Interesting insight though being a non-researcher I can't really understand it/empathize with it.]Development of CCN multiprocessor system ... co-design of concurrent programming language ... OS and utilities allowed user to work in a virtual environment ... few other comparable projects anywhere else in the world at that time [Ravi: Wow! That is another awesome, awesome achievement from my software practitioner point of view.] Remote node for DEC system handled by S. Ramani ... Issues faced [Ravi: Utterly fascinating! How far has network connectivity and reliability and network products come now! Utterly mind-boggling change having unbelievably high level of social impact/transformation in a matter of just a few decades.]CCN systems demonstrated at NCSDCT annual review time ... Jerry Saltzer of MIT, , jumping on the floor near the system [Ravi: Wow! That must have been really something. The name Jerry Saltzer did ring a bell but I was not sure what I had known him for. I just read his wiki and him being a team leader for Multics which was the inspiration for Ken Thomson (& other Bell Labs. chaps) to develop Unix. During the mid-80s and early 90s Unix was a very, very big thing for us in Indian software consultancy industry. Bell Labs. is a hallowed name to me :). I think I may have read about Saltzer when I was reading up on Unix history.] … Narasimhan gets it moved to IIT! It was unwelcome there and did not get used again. [Ravi: My God! Horrifying!] … But publications on the CCN system were made ... and it got noticed by the researcher community ... [Ravi: Nice to know about this benefit even if the project had been disposed of.]Research administrators focusing only on publication counts and ignoring software development [Ravi: That problem continues to this day!] "You could build less software and write more papers (which most people in academic research ended up doing) [Ravi: I agree fully and I believe the situation is the same today not only in India but worldwide including the USA], or you moved to an institution where you built more systems and worried less about papers. Paradoxically, my masters in TIFR wanted both demonstrable projects and copious publications. NCSDCT may have had more freedom in the choice of work, but people were judged exactly as in TIFR." [Ravi: Hmm. It is quite a learning for me, though an unhappy learning, that even a prestigious institution like TIFR could not come up with better norms for appraisal of computer science researchers & engineers/developers. Perhaps the issue is that they are applying fundamental research mindset to appraisal of an "applied science" and engineering area. Maybe that is the same mindset that prevails in UGC/AICTE top committees that decide on appointment and promotion norms for all academics ranging from Physics, Chemistry to Electrical engineering, Chemical engineering, to Literature and also Computer Science and Information Technology.]Slow Progress?was quite an interesting account of Indian government attitude towards computing field and industry in the 60s and 70s.Shadyside?has your one year CMU (Carnegie Mellon University, USA) stint account. Noted the wise decision to stay away from "writing mountains of code for the impossibly ambitious software systems" ... FST&TCS conference founding - fascinating ... back to India ... book writing [“Multiprocessor Operating Systems” (A Multiprocessor Operating System) by Mathai Joseph, V.R. Prasad and N. Natarajan published by Prentice Hall International, ?] - 'Ah! A book. Of course it's not research' comment you got from the administrator when you gave him a copy of the book, followed by, ‘I suppose it can be used as a college text somewhere’ !!! ... "Science at TIFR was run as a collection of fiefdoms with the suzerainty of each leader unquestioned and unchanged till his eventual retirement (usually delayed as long as possible). This was true in several groups, and the Computer Group followed the pattern." [Ravi: that says a lot] ... Time for you to get a move on from TIFR/NCSDCT but at 41 years of age with family including two growing children you moved to UK academia as a professor! That was some move and would have taken huge amount of self-belief, courage and support from your family.Acacia Road?describes your twelve years at Warwick and I found it to be fascinating and very useful for getting some understanding of UK academia (then). "You never go to the VC unless you want something out of him. And I'd say it's a bit early for that." [Ravi: captures the 'VC' aura so well.] ... settling down to English life (school for children, home, neighbours ...), Registry and teachers interactions – [Ravi: I think that model fits in with what I have seen]? ... teaching ... research grants, research, visits abroad related to research (and lecturing) ... students issues including the human ones ... external examiner duty ... buying Pune flat ... another book written (jointly) and published [Real-time systems : specification, verification, and analysis; edited by Mathai Joseph, published by Prentice Hall International,?. A later update and download of the book is available here: ?] ... (UK) polytechnics converted to universities; teaching-quality assessments ... move back to India into yet another field of software industry research with TCS research (Tata Research Development and Design Centre – TRDDC) at Pune.Increasing Pace?is a short account of how the computing field in India (hardware to some extent, and software) picked up in the 80s and 90s.Koregaon Parked?is about your TRDDC/TCS stint ... joining as deputy director TRDDC, chalking out your own role, "I realized I had to find a place for the research and development work of TRDDC, making it contribute to TCS projects in a measurably significant way and still continue its research activities." ... notion of some TCS guys that they earn the money and R&D guys spend it! ... "In academic computer science there's a myth that people in the computing industry do mundane jobs and get paid far too much (this rankles most with poorly paid university teachers). It didn't take me long to discover a few mundane jobs and people doing them, but across most of TCS large teams of talented and hard-working people built complex systems against changing requirements and in quick time." [Ravi: Very well said, sir] ... tools that generate code from specs.; selling them/the idea to project managers ... TRDDC software group building software specific tools ... TRDDC tool generator would produce automatically a tailor-made tool in about a month! [Ravi: Wow! That's something; Code generation tools were quite popular then (4th gen. was one name I recall for such efforts) and many of my friends used one such tool from Baan Info. Systems for Baan ERP stuff. But the tool itself being generated automatically seems to be something special.] ... publicity for TRDDC tools and brand-building ... water filter innovation - fantastic stuff ... Information Security work, Masketeer ... hectic work schedule for you, lots of traveling ...American friend Luke raising the matter of Indians taking away American jobs like his! ... VP of large corporation saying, "We came to India for the costs, we stayed for the quality and we're now investing for the innovation." [Ravi: I think that captures the Indian software consultancy success story over the last two to three decades very well] ... How life changed for the better for the software professional from Moradabad, "Ajay might have done better than others who joined the software industry but, like them, he was transforming his family's life and expectations in less than a generation." [Ravi: So well put, sir]. ... Old friends from research and academia looking down upon your move to "commercial" work [Ravi: I think intellectual haughtiness is a terrible kind of haughtiness and, unfortunately, many academics and researchers, IMHO, are guilty of it; I wonder whether they have heard the term, "dignity of labour"] ..."Creating a link between academic research and its practical use worked both ways: taking new results into practice and bringing new problems for academic scrutiny and research. Finally, I had something that followed my idea of research from my TIFR days: 'models for theory and paradigms for practice'."? [Ravi: Brilliant! That's the kind of research that I really like. Now I know that abstract research has its value - it may result in fantastic applications over time, or may simply contribute to better knowledge/understanding of some fundamental aspects of matter, life or an abstract field like Mathematics/Logic. But sometimes in academic research, the impression I have is that the research stuff just stops at paper publication and the credit the academic and his/her institution gets. There does not seem to be a concerted effort to take the research work/results into practice.] ... TECS week ... Retirement.Epilogue?gives a nice overview of computing in India over the decades with the key concerns and issues that have to be tackled .. how India has impacted world IT industry ... "Modern software systems represent some of the most complex artifacts ever produced and an increasing number of them now have their origins in India." [Ravi: that's quite some statement about Indian IT role in world software industry].?"The amalgam of computing and communication has reached more people and more corners of the country than any other technical development in the country's history. Messages, e-mail and social networking are widely used today by people who until twenty years ago had been left largely unaffected by political policies and economic processes." [Ravi: And the cell phone in particular; in rural and semi-urban India it is the cell phone that has become/is becoming a life-changer even for the rather poor. Once a good, cheap and reliable tablet with affordable Internet connectivity hits rural and semi-urban India I think there will be a huge growth in knowledge in these areas. The kids in these areas are so hungry for knowledge - they just need access to good teachers on the net via cheap & reliable tablets and cheap & reliable internet.] ... online education.Concluding Comments by Ravi: Thanks for the wonderful book, sir. I enjoyed reading it, learned some new things, and confirmed some views of mine. I think it is a great contribution to the literature on history of computing involving research, academia and industry, mainly from the Indian perspective, and a nice memoir too.P.S. Book Omits The Bangalore System Software Product-Development StoryI think the book misses out on the Bangalore system software product-development part of the Indian software story (or does not have enough coverage of it). As I saw it, in the 80s and initial half or more of the 90s, the big software stories were in Bombay or around Bombay (like Pune). And these were primarily a software services story. Most of it was database oriented business app. development for customers and maybe some similar type product development. There was some system software product development kind of services provided by consultancy service companies to their customers - a good part of my industry career related to this kind of work. But system software product development in general was not the focus area of the Bombay software stories, IMHO.Towards the late 90s Bangalore and, to a lesser extent, cities like Hyderabad and perhaps Chennai too, started housing software development centres for US product development companies like Microsoft, Oracle etc. (I am not sure of the exact dates/periods). I think they found Bombay unsuitable - too crowded - as compared to Bangalore, Hyderabad etc. One young colleague in system software development who had taken up a Bangalore job in late 90s but returned to Bombay due to family considerations, told me that conditions were good and salary was better than Bombay (SEEPZ). Of course, Bangalore, Hyderabad & Chennai also housed software consultancy companies like Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, Polaris etc.After I started teaching and acting as technical consultant to students in the Maths & CS dept. of a 'deemed' university in Andhra Pradesh (South India) from Jan 2003 onwards, I came to know the South India software story better through passed out students who started working in South India based software companies. One student who did his M.Tech. (CS) from IIT Bombay is now working in Google Bangalore, another who did his M.Tech. (CS) from the university here worked with Lucent in Bangalore for some time and is now pursuing a CS PhD in USA, yet another who did his M.Tech. (CS) from the university here worked with Nokia and then Yahoo, and is now pursuing a CS PhD in USA. These examples are the brighter students from the university here who became part of the core product development teams of top tech. companies of the world, not in USA or Finland, but in Bangalore! Some passed out students work/worked with IBM Bangalore on its Power PC - one of them moved to Intel in Bangalore; some work for a Chennai based company which focuses on software to detect flaws in silicon wafers (that, I presume, would be used to create Integrated Circuits (ICs) - microprocessors are an advanced type of IC)!And all these students are from a relatively unknown deemed university of Andhra Pradesh! So, one can imagine, how many more CS graduates from various universities of the country would be employed in top tech. firms of the world, in their Bangalore and other South Indian city offices, doing system software hi-tech product development stuff.I think this book does not cover this part of the Indian software story (or cover it well enough).I must also state that many students from the Maths & CS dept. of the deemed university in Andhra Pradesh I mentioned earlier are employed with software consultancy service type companies in South India too.Saturday, March 24, 2012Ethics Policy for Sharing Content of Mail Exchanges on This BlogNet url: blog deals with "Peaceful and Amicable Indian Computer Science (CS) & Information Technology (IT) Academic Reform Activism". It is a tightly moderated blog to ensure as high a quality of discussion & debate as I can manage and feel appropriate for this topic. I also try to ensure that the views expressed are peaceful and amicable.As part of this activity, I have had the privilege of interacting over email, other web contact interfaces (e.g.?Indian govt. grievance portal for citizens) and paper mail with some important people in international academia as well as Indian government. I also had the privilege and pleasure of extending my interaction with some friends and colleagues to this particular topic. Initially I was a little casual about sharing views that I received over email with others. Now I have learned that many people, especially, leading lights of the CS & IT fields and government officials, have a genuine concern that their comments may be taken out of context and used for purposes that they do not approve of.So I felt it is appropriate for me to put out my policy on sharing content of email, other web contact interfaces and paper mail exchanges (referred together as mail below) on this blog.Firstly, mail exchanges to public offices like government and editorial offices of publications/media are "public" by default unless expressly declared as "private". So I consider it fair and ethical to share such "public" information on this blog if I want to. However, I may choose to not share some or all information about my interaction, say with government and academic regulatory authorities, to ensure that such information does not get "abused" by somebody for purposes that I may not approve of. I would very much like to be a team player working, in some small way, with the government and academic regulatory authorities to help improve Indian CS & IT academics from the viewpoint of students, parents of those students, and employers. I do not have any intention of becoming a "trouble-maker" activist for the hard-pressed government and academic regulatory authorities of India who have the HUGE AND ONEROUS BURDEN of planning and implementing policies for a country of over 1 billion citizens.I will treat mail exchanges with academics, students, industry colleagues, software users, friends etc. as "private" by default unless expressly declared as "public"/"Open". I will not share any part of the content of such "private" mail from others on this blog without prior permission/approval/OK from them. The content of my "private" mails to them is my intellectual property but, to be on the safe & amicable side, I will typically avoid putting the exact content of my private mails on this blog. Whenever needed, I may suitably edit the "private" mail content that has been composed by me and put it on this blog without having any references to the persons I sent the mail.Tuesday, October 2, 2012Truth Telling - A Tough JobNet url: to be a truth-teller in today's world is a tough job. It is an unpopular affair.I recently saw a few videos and read articles about how the great physicist Feynman faced the same challenges when he investigated the Challenger disaster. It was an eye-opener to me that even such a world-famous physicist had to face significant resistance from powerful administrators. If you have not seen it I recommend you see this 4 min 42 sec. video, Richard Feynman - Space Shuttle Challenger Investigation,? . The official view now seems that Feynman did catch the real problem: wiki page above states, 'He concluded that the space shuttle reliability estimate by NASA management was fantastically unrealistic, and he was particularly angered that NASA used these figures to recruit Christa McAuliffe into the Teacher-in-Space program. He warned in his appendix to the commission's report (which was included only after he threatened not to sign the report), "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."'My respect for the great physicist Richard Feynman went up enormously after I recently came to know of the above human goodness side and the sheer *guts* to speak out the truth in the face of powerful opposition side of him.So, I guess, it is always a challenge to be a truth-teller - material truth-teller - and far more challenging perhaps to be a spiritual truth-teller (e.g.?). The saying goes: Sathyam Bhruyath Priyam Bhruyath Na Bhruyath Sathyam Apriyam. [English translation: Speak the truth; speak the pleasant truth; don't speak the unpleasant truth.]Perhaps the safe path is to just put out one's views on the Internet and provide opinions only if people ask - a low-key activism and not a pushy activism.Sunday, September 30, 2012Free Coaching for CSIR-UGC-NET Exam in AP UniversityNet url: was very heartened to see this news report, "ANU tops in UGC-JRF-NET" in The Hindu a few days ago,? mentions that Acharya Nagarjuna University (ANU) of Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh has topped the UGC-JRF-NET results in the country with 142 applicants clearing the Lecturer-ship level of the exam. It also mentions that 4 applicants cleared the JRF (research fellowship) level. As I understand it, those who cleared JRF level are eligible for Rs. 16,000 p.m. CSIR or UGC research fellowship for 2 years initially followed by a few additional years (max. 3) at Rs. 18,000 subject to some conditions; and are also eligible for Lecturer-ship. JRF is the higher bar; LS (Lecturer-ship) is below it."Acharya Nagarjuna University is situated between the cities of Vijayawada and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh on Calcutta and Chennai National Highway (NH-5).",? . That seems to imply that it is a tier-2 city or semi-urban university. In my humble opinion, that makes the achievement even more laudable.The interesting point for me is that the article mentions that ANU has, with the assistance of UGC, provided free coaching classes for the NET exam since 2005. That may have been an important contributory factor for the wonderful results. Perhaps other semi-urban/rural universities could emulate ANU in this regard.It would be interesting to know the break up of NET results streams wise.? the results but without any break up stream wise? - I mean CS&IT, Physics, Maths, etc.? general info. about the CSIR-UGC NET exam but I could not find links to streams wise break up. An interesting link is the information bulletin for the coming Dec. 2012 Joint CSIR-UGC NET exam:? did some quick summing-up of the numbers to get a feel of how many cleared it. To facilitate the summing up I copied the data into an Excel sheet.?Note: A result row has a maximum 10 pairs of roll no.-rank entries/columns.Quote from result pdf document "1. Junior Research Fellowship(JRF-NET):The candidates whose roll numbers are listed below have qualified in the test for JRF-NET. These candidates are also eligible for Lectureship-NET subject to eligibility criteria of UGC/Universities/ Institutes."The number count:(I) JRF(NET)CSIR:-[(37 + 49 + 33)? rows * 10 rank-columns]? + 1 rank-columns? = 1191(II) JRF(NET)UGC:-[(11 + 49 + 49 + 21)? rows * 10 rank-columns]? + 0 rank-columns = 1300Quote from result pdf document "2.Lectureship(NET):- The following candidates have qualified the eligibility test for Lectureship-NET. The candidates qualifying for Lectureship-NET will be eligible for recruitment as lecturer as well as for JRF-ship in a Scheme/Project, if otherwise suitable as per the eligibility criteria of that Scheme/Project. However, they will not be eligible for Regular JRF-NET Fellowship. They will be eligible to pursue Ph.D program with or without any fellowship other than JRF-NET."The number count:[(21 + 49 + 49 + 49 + 49 + 49 + 49 + 12)? rows * 10 rank-columns]? + 4 rank-columns? = 3274To summarize: 2491 candidates passed JRF and 3274 candidates passed LS (Lecturer-ship).So ANU's count of 4 JRF seems to indicate that it is not really in the top bracket. Therefore the article's statement that ANU "topped the country in UGC-JRF-NET" results seems to be quite a stretch :). Nonetheless 142 applicants qualifying for lecturership seems to be quite an achievement and ANU may have topped the results country-wide from this numbers-count point of view.Another point, important from CS/IT perspective, is that I was told that, at least for CS&IT stream (Computer Science & Information Technology), this NET exam pattern has been changed to more of an objective test type recently (perhaps from last December) and so is somewhat less difficult to clear as compared to previous years.Sunday, September 30, 2012Safe Path for Budding Academics in IndiaNet url: think the world economic climate is pretty grim now. US academia seems to have suffered significant budget cuts in the recent past. Perhaps this is due to the condition of the US economy. The current debt of the US is reported to be around 15 to 16 trillion dollars and growing.Will Indian academia be spared the problems that are currently afflicting US academia? I think a challenging economic climate in India may impact Indian academia too. How should budding academics in India chart out a safe course for themselves in this uncertain world economic climate?The safe path for budding academics in India seems to be to clear UGC-NET for LS (Lecturer-ship), get appointment as an Assistant Prof. and then pursue a PhD. Time for PhD work can be difficult to make as teaching load may be 3 to 4 courses per semester. But job security is assured (after one becomes permanent) and the PhD can be done slowly, even over, say, a 10 year time period.?The big risk comes when one does PhD without an Assistant Prof. teaching position. Even if one is on a research fellowship I am given to understand that most of such fellowships at this junior level are time-bound (4 or 5 years). One day the fellowship will end and that's when the lack of permanent on-scale teaching position (Assistant Prof.) can hit very, very hard. By which time the young man/woman may be close to 30 years old! Even if he/she does win the PhD degree but does not have a job, they may find themselves in a severe life-crisis. Of course, this path provides far more time for PhD research work and so one can really delve into research fully and do possibly excellent research work.The brilliant PhD holders will not be having any problems landing a job either in academia or in industry research. It is the less than brilliant that may struggle depending on the PhD job situation.I think the problem may be quite challenging in the US now even for fields like CS. Starry-eyed youngsters may be under the impression that a US PhD program is the dream to be achieved and presume that there will be gold at the end of the US PhD rainbow in terms of an assured tenure-track faculty position. I am not entirely certain that that is the case now. There seems to be significant risk of even CS PhDs having to work for many years as adjunct (temporary) Professors/temporary researchers in the US which has (relatively) poor salary and perhaps no benefits. Perhaps industry research positions in the US are plentiful for CS PhDs now - I do not know for sure.I was given to understand by an eminent Indian industry research correspondent that the Indian IT industry and Indian academic demand for CS PhDs is very good as of now. So, it seems that PhD scholars in the CS area in India need not be so worried about job prospects provided they do quality research work during their PhD program.My intent in posting on this topic is just to ensure that the right job opportunities picture is presented to would-be (and current) PhD scholars. It certainly is not to be a scare-monger. If viewers of this post have input that presents a different picture (more positive hopefully) from what is presented I would be glad to receive it and be corrected.Steve JobsDiscussion/Informative Posts Involving Others' Articles/Views, Media reports and Some Comments from meSteve Jobs: One of The Greatest Tech. Revolutionaries of Our Times, October 2011?Steve Jobs: The iPhone Introduction (2007), post last updated in October 2011?Steve Jobs: Some Criticism and Some Defense, October 2011?Thursday, October 6, 2011Steve Jobs: One of The Greatest Tech. Revolutionaries of Our TimesNet url: Updated on 23rd October 2011One of the Greatest Tech. Revolutionaries of our times has passed away. May God shower His Grace on Steve Jobs. May God give strength to his personal family as well as his 'company' family at Apple to bear this HUGE loss.And this is a HUGE loss not only to his personal family and Apple, but to millions, or should I say billions of people on this planet as even those whose lives have not yet been touched & improved by the CREATIVE GENIUS of Mr. Steve Jobs & Apple, may get touched in future, directly by Apple products or indirectly by competition inspired by the proven & breathtakingly beautiful ideas of Apple products.Thank you so much, dear Steve, for bringing so much joy into our lives. May you rest in everlasting peace and joy.-----I read some very good articles on him and also viewed videos. Am sharing some of it below.Please read Stanford University, 2005, Commencement Address by Steve Jobs: comments on it:[I wanted to copy-paste extracts but that would be a copyright violation - Unfortunately this address is not under a Share-And-Share-Alike kind of copyright. What a pity!]Steve's biological mother wanted his adoptive parents to be college graduates and had planned it out. But a quirk of fate resulted in Steve being adopted by a couple who were not college graduates - the father had not finished high school and the mother had not graduated from college. But Steve's biological mother signed the adoption papers only when his adoptive parents promised that he would someday go to college.And Steve does join college. But one that is almost as expensive as Stanford! All his working-class parents' money was being spent on his tuition. Six months into college, he does not see the value and drops out - and calls it one of the best decisions he ever made. But his college, Reed college, is a nice one as he is allowed to drop-in on courses that interest him.But he is strapped for cash - sleeps on the dorm floor - returns empty coke bottles to buy food and walks 7 miles every Sunday night to be fed Hare Krishna temple Prasadam!?His drop-in courses include calligraphy which eventually helps him bring beautiful typography into the Mac [and then it goes into Windows :-)].And he talks about trusting in your gut, destiny, Karma! Maybe it was the Hare Krishna temple influence. Great Spiritual Masters say Self-confidence is THE VITAL thing.Then he talks about the devastating & public ouster from Apple. How he felt he was a public failure at 30. And how he even thought about running away from the Valley.He digests the ouster and becomes a 'light' beginner again and embarks into one of the most creative periods of his life. And says that it would not have happened if he had not been given the bitter medicine of being thrown out of Apple!!! I mean, you and I and the world would not have got the iPod, iPhone & the iPad if Steve had not been thrown out of Apple the first time. What a rum thing, life is?Then about matters of the heart and about the only way to do great work is to love what you do.About death!!! Wow, this guy was a real spiritual guy. The great spiritual people learn some of the greatest lessons of life from death!! All this will pass, they say. Antah Maya (All is an Illusion). And as Steve says, in the face of death all unimportant things like external expectations, pride, fear of failure fall away and leave only what is truly important. And he says, echoing Great Spiritual Masters, "You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."Then his cancer diagnosis. He says, "I didn't even know what a pancreas was." We take our biology for granted. But, at the body level, it is the complete biology that rules no matter how evolved the brain may be. The brain's just a part of the biology and needs a lot of the other organs & stuff for it to tick. I mean, if the brain does not get blood, it dies. Period. Doesn't matter if it is a Nobel Prize winner brain or an uneducated simpleton brain.Some great philosophy from the great man. He says that death is life's change agent. And he tells the Stanford Univ. youngsters that they are new now but they will become old and get cleared away!! He doesn't pull any punches, does he?And so he advised them that in the limited time that they have life they should have the courage to follow their heart and intuition. "They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." Wow!!! I mean, this guy was spiritual guru-level material. Some of his teachings, shall I say, match with those of the Great Spiritual Masters.------I have put down some more links, and also thoughts of mine about Steve Jobs below:The venerable NY Times:?[Some extracts from the above: "Mr. Jobs was neither a hardware engineer nor a software programmer, nor did he think of himself as a manager. He considered himself a technology leader, choosing the best people possible, encouraging and prodding them, and making the final call on product design. " Eklavya Sai: That ties in with the UK Telegraph article, "How Steve Jobs changed computing", whose link is given below."It was an executive style that had evolved. In his early years at Apple, his meddling in tiny details maddened colleagues, and his criticism could be caustic and even humiliating. But he grew to elicit extraordinary loyalty. " Eklavya Sai: Ah! The perfectionist wants his way :)The NY Times article is fantastic! I wanted to give more quotes but felt it would not be fair to do so. I urge the interested reader to study the NY Times article for a superb account & analysis of Steve Jobs.]How Steve Jobs changed computing:Steve Jobs was undoubtedly one of the great technology pioneers of our age, says Ian Douglas, but his biggest talent was for leadership, not engineering:? [Eklavya Sai: Interesting analysis that Steve's prowess was not in engineering or design. Understanding needs & desires of consumers, ability to attract talent and leadership was what he possessed states the above article in its conclusion. Perhaps, like many great political and business leaders, Steve's expertise was having a very keen feel of the desires of people, and the creative vision & business management ability to satisfy them.]Some fascinating extracts from the US conservative, Democrat-baiting FoxNews tribute to Steve Jobs (even if you are not comfy with FoxNews I suggest you read the article skipping the Obama baiting stuff):? did not know that Steve Jobs was born of a Syrian father (biological father) & an American mother who insisted that Steve be given for adoption to a couple that will guarantee his college education!!! Steve, as a baby, was given for adoption to a Mountain View, California couple. Fascinating! I mean, the genetic makeup of Steve + his upbringing seems to an interesting mix. And, once he came to know of his biological background, it may have had a very significant impact on his mind-set.Here's some info. on the biological father:? 's some info. on the biological mother:? here's some info. on his adoptive parents (real parents I guess as they raised him): that Steve Jobs massive impact on the world was quite recent. I mean, as a young techie I had heard of Next and, of course, Mac. But that was limited to the techies. His products reached out to the non-techie, man/woman on the street with:iPod released in 2001 but probably gets really well-known in 2004 (4.4 million ipod sold in fiscal 2004).2003 - iTunes music store announced2007 - iPhone announced. [It is that recent - just 4 years - and what a presence it has now and how it has completely changed the smartphone game. Wow!!!]2010 (Jan) - iPad announced.So his (and company's) products that really impacted the world-at-large were all in the last decade. My God!!! I mean, I am finding it difficult to swallow this. Just one decade and how his stuff has gone and touched and changed the lives of millions across the world. Personally speaking, my music experience has been enhanced tremendously by the iPod. And my iPod Touch has been a pretty good pocket e-Reader with some cool apps too.And, this creative genius was a college drop-out!!! He finished high school, joined college but dropped out after one semester. And his biological mother had wanted his parents to guarantee his college education!!! Amazing!Here's the ComputerWorld timeline which was the source of the dates given above: 's what the Taiwanese manufacturer of iPhone & iPod for Apple said:"Steve had an immeasurable and positive impact on the lives of people around the world and the global electronics industry is all the better for the many contributions he made to ensuring that technology is understandable, beautiful, and, most importantly, accessible to people from all walks of life," Hon Hai said in a statement.[Eklavya Sai: I think that is a beautiful and very meaningful tribute.]Source:? Live News clip:? News clip:? Jobs: a man of contradiction and genius:? 's video timeline:? World Reacts - ABC News:?[Eklavya Sai: The share price chart at the bottom of the article clearly shows how it is after 2004 that Apple really started impacting the world-at-large. The money numbers give you the real deal on this kind of impact-on-world-at-large stuff.][Eklavya Sai: A young 1984 Steve in Padmasana with a Mac in his lap! BTW Steve travelled to India in the 70s (IFIRC) looking for spiritual wisdom.]ABC (Autralia video interview)?[Eklavya Sai: Has good insights on Steve's personality. The interviewee is a senior journalist who seems to be quite knowledgeable about big businessmen.]And, finally, this post draws to a close with our Economic Times giving an account of the India link to Steve Jobs including a reference to Neem Kairolie Baba!!!? comments:Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 7, 2011 at 10:59 AMA friend passed on a lovely Ad. video from Apple about Thinking Different:?Think DifferentEklavya Sai Maalik, October 7, 2011 at 11:32 AMA friend passed on this superb Paul Graham essay which analyzes social factors and startups: The High-Res Society.Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 7, 2011 at 1:13 PMA friend shared some Steve Jobs quotes:"Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn't what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it's all about. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don't take the time to do that."- Wired magazine, 1994"In most people's vocabularies, design means veneer. It's interior decorating. It's the fabric of the curtains and the sofa. But to me, nothing could be further from the meaning of design. Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service."– Fortune magazine 2000Having done a fair bit of OOAD, I entirely agree with his statements above as far as software design goes. "... fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in ..." - so beautifully expressed!!. BTW I don't have any exposure to hardware design. And, perhaps, that's where Steve was at his aesthetics-cum-engineering-design best.Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 7, 2011 at 2:21 PMThe rough side of Steve Jobs:?Steve Jobs: The unparalleled revolutionary 'tyrant'Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 7, 2011 at 2:26 PMAnd a not-so-nice side as well:?Steve Jobs kept tight rein as he drove AppleEklavya Sai Maalik, October 7, 2011 at 6:29 PMBut then we all have our flaws, don't we? And CEOs can't be nice guys - fact of life - it is not a popularity contest post.And here's a reviewer's take on Steve's Genius:?Steve Jobs: Imitated, Never DuplicatedMonday, October 10, 2011Steve Jobs: The iPhone Introduction (2007)Net url: Last Updated On 23rd October 2011Steve Jobs' 2007 iPhone introduction videos (partial):Part1Part2The youtube video links above mention that the videos belong to Apple, Inc. Therefore the Steve Jobs quotes/partial transcripts of the videos that I have given below also belong to Apple, Inc.The iPhone was a revolutionary product (commercially), and today smart phones have become very significant multi-purpose computing devices. Prior to the iPhone I don't think people felt that you could really write general purpose apps for the smart phone. iPhone & AppStore changed all that. Now Android is a craze, and even for my "Service to Society" IT software I may end up writing a few Android apps. which may run on an Android tablet or smart phone. Perhaps Android owes its current craze/success to Steve Jobs proving with iPhone that smart phones can run general purpose apps. So I wanted to study this 2007 iPhone introduction video in depth and share some comments on it.I think it really exemplifies Steve's marriage of creative vision & drive to create experientially beautiful consumer electronic products with hard business reality understanding. Perhaps he had realized during his days of exile from Apple that his special talents would be a runaway winner in the "consumer" products like portable music players and phones market as against the "enterprise" products like desktop/personal computers market. The Mac is certainly not a 'loser' but cannot be called, by any stretch of imagination, a runaway winner in the desktop/personal computer space.Some quotes from Steve Jobs' iPhone introduction:"Every once in a while a revolutionary product come along that changes everything....In 1984 we introduced the Macintosh. It didn't just change Apple. It changed the whole computer industry."Eklavya Sai: Now Apple was not the first company to use a mouse and the GUI for a computer - Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC) developed the first computer that demonstrated the GUI in 1973; mouse was created by somebody else even earlier:? . But Apple's Macintosh, inspired by Steve Jobs' acumen for commercialising beautiful computing ideas, was the first commercially successful product to use the GUI. To get a feel of Steve's willingness to take on the big guns, see the famous Ad. introducing the Macintosh:?. Steve was taking on Big Blue (IBM) and the Ad. likened their dull & drab console based UI to Big Brother of George Orwell's "1984" fame. Fantastic theme but it apparently ran into copyright issues with George Orwell's estate. See: did Macintosh change the whole computer industry (by itself - implied)? I don't think so. In fact, I feel it is quite an exaggeration. But its successful commercialization perhaps made Microsoft start going the GUI way. With Microsoft Windows 3.0 in 1990, GUI exploded into cheap PCs that reached even small companies in India. I know from experience as my first exposure to GUI was with a project related to X-Windows in the late 80's. But that was on expensive Sun Workstations & Apollo workstations running Unix. Microsoft Windows ran on cheap Intel PCs and this affordable WINTEL combo was a massive game-changer in the desktop computing space. When I moved into a startup company in SEEPZ, Mumbai in 1990, we were able to buy cheap WINTEL PCs and have Microsoft Windows as well as SCO-Unix with X-Windows/Motif running on them. We started two GUI application software projects, one on Microsoft Windows and another on X-Windows/Motif in 1990 itself. But Macintosh was limited to desktop publishing kind of market in India and not really seen in software development consultancy companies. BTW I have not yet worked on a Macintosh.So Apple did not invent the GUI and the mouse. They just were the first successful commercialisers of it with the Macintosh. But Macintosh was not able to really take over the desktop market with their GUI. That was done by Microsoft Windows & Intel. BTW Apple sued Microsoft over Windows but did not win - it seemed to have got settled out-of-court eventually.I guess this exaggerated line just shows what a good showman and Ad-savvy guy Steve was."In 2001 we introduced the first iPod and it didn't just change the way we all listened to music, it changed the entire music industry."Eklavya Sai: I think his claim about changing how "we all listened to music", especially in the affluent West, must be quite true barring minor exceptions, of course. I think iPod really was a music listening device, music library software & music purchasing software game-changer. While it would have had a very significant impact on the music industry - Steve pushed through hard business deals with music industry bigwigs - I don't know about changing "the entire music industry". From a music consumer point of view, I think iPod was truly a revolutionary game-changer. Even though mp3 players had been around for some time prior to the iPod, the click-wheel UI & software of the iPod just blew them away. that over 300 million iPods have been sold. Over time the musicphones took over this space (minus iTunes lock-in) with the same wiki page stating that in 2007 the installed base of music phones passed 1 billion!! And so the iPhone had to come."An iPod, a phone and an internet communication device... These are not three separate devices. This is one device. And we are calling it iPhone."Eklavya Sai: This part does not seem to be so revolutionary, by itself. I mean, a lot of the smart phones already had music player, phone + internet. But his showmanship is great and the adulatory fans really lap it up."Business school 101 graph - smart axis & easy to use axis ... leap-frog product way smarter than any mobile device has ever been and super easy to use. This is what iPhone is. So we are going to reinvent the phone."Eklavya Sai: I think he is SPOT ON here. Way smarter and super easy to use - No exaggeration here whatsoever, IMHO."Revolutionary UI ... interplay of hardware and software ... (popular smartphone models then) ... What's wrong with their user interface. Well, the problem with them is really sort-of in the bottom 40 there .. they all have these keyboards that are there whether you need them or not ... and they have all these control buttons that are the same, that are fixed in plastic for every application ... Every application needs ... a slightly optimized set of buttons just for it.... It doesn't work because the buttons and the controls can't change."?Eklavya Sai: SPOT ON analysis, put so simply! [Update: A friend contested the "Revolutionary UI" term strongly. Touch interfaces were around prior to the iPhone. I feel the whole package - multi-touch, better touch technology and so no stylus, fantastic software, fast, sleek & light - can be termed 'revolutionary UI' especially at a commercial product level. Maybe something similar existed previously in niche markets and R&D labs. - but the world at large did not seem to know of it.]"What we are going to do is get rid of all these buttons and get a giant screen.... Who wants a stylus? You have to get'em and put them away. Yuck!! Nobody wants a stylus."Eklavya Sai: Could he understand people's needs & problems with using technology or what!! I think part of his genius lay here."(Touch screen) - Works like magic - Far more accurate - Ignores unintended touches - multi-finger gestures - and boy, have we Patented it!"Eklavya Sai: Apple's hardware genius seems to have really delivered the goods here. Maybe they had some great touch screen technology supplier who was driven by Apple specs./design. I am not knowledgeable about touch screens, but I get the impression that prior to the iPhone the touch screen technology for mobile phones was not so great. I mean, I had seen guys tap around with their stylus but I had not seen anybody use his finger to operate the mobile phone touch screen."Software - iPhone runs OS X. -- Multi-tasking - networking - power management - awesome security - And to write apps - cocoa - graphics - animation - audio & video ... built right into iPhone ... and that has let us create desktop class applications & networking ... not the crippled stuff that you find on most phones - one of the pioneers of our industry, Alan Kay, has a lot of great quotes throughout the years and I ran across one of them recently that explains how we look at this ... cause we love software and here is the quote, "People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware." Now, Alan said this thirty years ago. and this is how we feel about it and so we are bringing breakthrough software to the mobile device for the first time and its five years ahead of anything on any other phone."Eklavya Sai: Steve clearly knew the value of software. Perhaps it was the decision to use "breakthrough software" meaning a very powerful OS X on the iPhone, which perhaps was truly years ahead of the competition that made the mind-boggling and absolutely fascinating variety of iPhone Apps possible. That seems to have been the key winner for iPhone. I mean, an iPhone or an iPod Touch without its Apps. would be as ordinary as a WINTEL PC without its Apps.?2Being a Silicon Valley guy, Steve could create the hardware for the breakthrough software to run. I think in the consumer device space this hw+sw combo seems to be an outright winner. But not in the mainstream enterprise computing space where proprietary hw+sw coupling led to the demise of many erstwhile computer giants. BTW Alan Kay was associated with Xerox PARC GUI:?."Design - something wonderful for your hand - on the front only one button down there we call it the home button, takes you home from wherever you are - that's it."Eklavya Sai: [Update: Watered down my original comment.] IMHO, a stroke of UI Genius. I mean, there was room for buttons on either side of the Home button. But they did not succumb to putting buttons there - they let the bitmapped screen buttons provide the other buttons besides Home. Fantastic clarity of design perspective. Makes it so simple for the users. If you land up somewhere weird in the App. just press the single bottom-centred Home button to get home - the safe, known space."... thinner than any smart phone out there"Eklavya Sai: Hardware engineering genius of Apple. Steve was famous for insisting on elegant hardware no matter what."We have also got some stuff you can't see. We have got three really advanced sensors built into this phone ... proximity sensor ... when you bring iPhone upto your ear to take a phone call it turns off the display and it turns off the touch sensor instantly. Why do you want to do that? One to save the battery. Two, so that you don't get spurious input from your face into the touch screen. Just automatically turns it off, take (it) away and boom it is back on ... ambient light sensor ... accelerometer ... so you can tell when you switch from portrait to landscape; it's pretty cool."Eklavya Sai: Perhaps proximity sensors in touch phones may have been old hat as other touch phones would have had the same issues as what Steve mentioned above. But the way he explains it is so dramatic and cool. Regarding accelerometer I recall that when I got my ipod Touch I was quite fascinated by the portrait to landscape switch as I rotated the device. I had never experienced that in any device earlier. So it was real cool. I think this relatively minor aspect of the iPhone must have appealed to a lot of people.Eklavya Sai: The introduction goes on, beyond the two youtube videos given at the top, but I feel I can stop the analysis here. I would just like to add that another vital aspect of Steve Jobs' genius was his ability to drive innovative business deals with business partners like telephone carriers, music industry, etc. For techies, such skills are usually poor - somehow he could understand business tycoons of other fields and make them business offers they could not turn down :)NotesAs I started my software career in 1984 :), I can completely empathise with the theme of the Ad. I worked on Wang VS Computer line which was compatible with the IBM 360. Wang VS was introduced around the same time as DEC's VAX. Wang VS computers were referred to as mini-computers and targetted the mid-sized systems market where IBM was not completely dominant. In the mainframe sector (more powerful than mid-sized computers) it was IBM all the way. Absolute Dominance. It is difficult for today's techies to imagine the complete sway of IBM then in the business computing space. No wonder the Ad. had the Mac. taking on THE Big Brother. And here is some info. about Wang Labs. including a photo of its HQ where I had worked for 2 assignment stints totaling over one and a half years in late 80s:? possess an iPod Touch, but I don't own an iPhone. Instead I have a Nokia E-52 with the plastic keyboard :). But then I do not use my mobile phone much.7 comments:Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 11, 2011 at 10:32 PMA friend sent these links on Steve Jobs. They talk about his leadership ability to turn Apple around, and some other things. Worth a read. Sai Maalik, October 11, 2011 at 10:34 PMFascinating joint interview of Steve Jobs & Bill Gates in 2007: Sai Maalik, October 12, 2011 at 9:56 PMA friend wrote:I agree largely. Exceptions below:Yes, sometimes it's irritating when he calls everything magical or revolutionary, or claims he invented something groundbreaking when they've copied it from elsewhere. I got irritated after watching a few keynotes (not at once, but over the last couple of years). I mean, give me a break from all the magic talk. Now in all the adulation, I've forgotten that.Steve Jobs is supposed to have this nasty habit: Someone would present an idea, and he'd say, "That's the stupidest thing I ever heard. Why would you want to do that?" And he'd later present that idea as his own.As for your point that the Mac wasn't revolutionary because it didn't have a high market share, it would still be revolutionary if Windows largely copied genuine innovations from the Mac as opposed to if Windows copied things from PARC or copied things from Mac that the Mac itself copied from PARC. Until we know the answer to that question, we can't determine whether the mac was revolutionary.I agree that the iPod itself probably wasn't a game-changer as much as a better mousetrap, but if you read iPod as iPod + iTunes + iTunes Store, it was. Music is now available legally online.As for enterprise, Steve said it's hard because among other reasons, the users of the software are not the ones who decide what software should be used.And with the consumerization of IT (consumer technology is now more advanced than enterprise technology, whether iOS or Google Docs or gmail or DropBox...), I'd say not focusing on enterprise was a good decision.I doubt pre-iPhone touch phones had a proximity sensor. The vendors were clueless and just stuck a touchscreen on the device, checked the appropriate box in the checklist and went back to their old ways.As for iPhone being more advanced, as a person who's worked (to varying degrees) on almost half a dozen mobile platforms (iOS, Android, J2ME, Symbian, Windows Mobile -- the old one), iOS is the best platform. What I care about is the user experience you can build, and the effort it takes to build that user experience, and iOS is far ahead of everything else. For example, it takes two lines of code to have an animated transition (and it's hardware accelerated), compared to taking 3 months to write a Hello World app for Symbian (unimaginable amount of friction). Even if you have an infinite amount of time to spend building an app, the Symbian or J2ME app just looks ho-hum, so you've essentially wasted your time, whereas the iOS app delights its audience far far more than they would expect from mere software.iOS is as beautiful inside (as a programmer) as on the outside (the user experience). It's even more advanced than Mac OS X on the desktop in a few places.This is why I'll happily spend $1000 next fortnight for a top-of-the-line iPhone 4S with 64 GB RAM :)Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 12, 2011 at 10:07 PM@FriendThanks for your knowledgeable comments. Especially the one on iOS. I have zero programming exposure on mobile platforms but am planning to look at Android somewhere down the line as rural India cannot afford iPhone. But your high praise about iOS may make me have a look at it just to get a feel of how great it is. Your point about iOS app. delighting audience is a striking one. Seems to confirm my view that iPhone's very powerful OS software choice "made the mind-boggling and absolutely fascinating variety of iPhone Apps possible".And, do enjoy your iPhone 4S when you get it :)Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 13, 2011 at 10:00 AMA friend passed on this link which shows a nice, simple human side of Steve.: must say that this is something I admire in Americans. During my stints in the US I have seen how top managers can also be very simple man-on-the-street kind of nice-guys as well.Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 13, 2011 at 10:14 AMHere's a BusinessWeek article giving business heads' vignettes of Steve: . I got some great insights about Steve from this. In my industry experience I realized that these top business heads meeting up and joining together or fighting each other often results in decisions and actions that affect many companies and many industry professionals like me!!! As an example, the rise of Microsoft & Intel in the very early 90s meant the fall of the Wang VS mini-computer (and other mini-computer companies like DEC), and along with that fall it resulted in a fall in demand of professionals with Wang VS expertise. So as a professional I had to sense the changing times and move to different tech. areas/acquire different skill sets or PERISH. I chose to move from Wang VS/Unix/C to the Windows/C scene then (Windows/C++/VC++ was not around then; that came in '92-93) and that decision paid off well!!Especially enjoyed the description of how a former Motorola CEO watched Steve Jobs in 2004 grab from him the then yet-to-be-introduced clamshell Razr phone model from Motorola and ask about its manufacturing process & materials used, and realized that Steve is "going to do a phone"!!! This is how the top business guys play the tough and ruthless industry game. Almost like how kings in the past used to jockey for power & dominion.I have had some exposure to it on a far smaller scale when I was pushing marketing for a startup software consultancy where I was the software head. The marketing area is where one sees the real power struggles and competition - by marketing I don't mean just Ads. & Sales. The wiki on Marketing states, "Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development.":?. I mean Marketing in this complete sense.So I think I can really "get the picture" from this BusinessWeek article :)Ravi S. Iyer, March 25, 2012 at 3:29 PMCreation Myth: Xerox PARC, Apple, and the truth about innovation; by Malcolm Gladwell May 16, 2011.A very insightful and delightful account of the fact and fiction of creative ideas moving between Apple & Xerox PARC. Not only is the Macintosh idea covered with interesting info. about Steve Jobs and others' role in it but even how Xerox created "the first high-speed, cut-paper laser printer in the world". The article states, "Gary Starkweather’s laser printer made billions for Xerox. It paid for every other single project at Xerox PARC, many times over." This is news to me! I knew about Xerox PARC not successfully commercializing its "Xerox Alto" and wondered whether Xerox PARC was a commercial failure. Now I am better informed.? confirms that Gary Starkweather of Xerox invented the laser printer.The article ends on a very poignant note about how a particular kind of innovation may match one particular kind of company but may be a mismatch for another kind of company, even if the latter company is widely considered to be a torch-bearer of innovation. Read the article to experience the pathos - I don't want to spoil it by revealing the latter company's name.Tuesday, October 18, 2011Steve Jobs: Some Criticism and Some DefenseNet url: Updated On 23rd October 2011A friend sent a few links which were partly critical of Steve Jobs. I have given my views (extracted from email exchanges) below the links.FOX Studio head on SJ:?, wasn't he? Threatening to collar a business partner by flying down to Greece and interrupt his holiday!!!My experience of industry was that it is these driven guys who can handle the heat of the top seats. Otherwise the competition just walks over you.From a human point of view, such a driven life, completely mucks up family life. They call it 'sacrifice' - I don't know whether that is the right word. I think Steve Jobs' family life was not that great - towards his end he seemed to regret that he did not spend enough time with his kids. IMHO, that's a TERRIBLE PRICE to pay for FAME & SUCCESS.New York Times article, "Against Nostalgia":? Jobs was a tough business nut but I really don't recall any top business tycoon who was not."Today there is no tech company that looks more like the Big Brother from Apple’s iconic 1984 commercial than Apple itself, a testament to how quickly power can corrupt. ". I disagree but then I am not closely following the business. IBM was HUGE. To get an idea the saying in the late 80's (when I got exposed to IBM's dominance) was that "You can't get fired for buying IBM". [Update: A friend argued that Apple had, at a particular point of time, near-monopoly (88%) in the US legal music download business. That market-share reduced later on.]Apple may have tremendous net worth or whatever they use to judge a company's financial strength but even in the phone business you have Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, LG, Sony-Ericsson etc. Is the market share of Apple's iPhone anywhere close to the dominance that IBM had in the mainframe business in the 80's? I doubt, though I do not have the numbers, so I can't be sure. But I got some info. that half a million Android devices are being activated per day!! That will seriously worry me if I am an Apple management guy.About the Apple lock-ins. Well, I think it is a fair deal. You don't like the lock-in - don't buy Apple. Buy Creative, Sony, Nokia .... You want Apple - accept the lock-in. That's the way he ensured Apple made enough money to be able to continue to build those fantastic products. It is like how Drug companies make huge money on successful products (like anti-cancer products) for a stipulated amount of time (till the copyright or whatever the equivalent is called in the pharma industry runs out). This pays for their R&D and takes care of the losses of many failed products.I accept Apple lock-ins for both iPod Nano & iPod Touch. I do crib about it but the bottom line is that I am willing to pay the lock-in price for the fantastic value of these devices. And, if I get too bugged about it I can always shift to another vendor like Creative, for example. It is just nowhere close to a MONOPOLY like what IBM and AT&T enjoyed in the past. You could not turn to anybody else - REALLY. Like what BSNL was in the past in India.About appalling labour conditions in China - [Update: My earlier comments on this were strongly contested by a friend. I feel it is not appropriate for this blog to get into sensitive labour conditions matters, so have deleted my earlier comments.]"We would also see a man who in the end failed to “think different,” in the deepest way, about the human needs of both his users and his workers. " [Update: Watered down my original comment.] Maybe Steve Jobs drove his workers hard. Maybe he was a perfectionist who could not tolerate others who could not match up to his 'perfectionist' standards. Maybe he was unfair at times. But he was a business leader and not a spiritual master leading his followers to spiritual brotherhood and joy. I feel that is part of cutting-edge business life. If, as a worker, you cannot handle the heat you can move out and join a more easy-going organization.And this one from ESR, "On Steve Jobs’s passing":?"Jobs created a myth that arrogated that innovation to himself". Well, I felt it was an acceptable marketing strategy. They commercialised the Mac & the iPhone. So his boasts can be read as arrogating the commercialization of the innovation to himself/Apple. I mean, Xerox failed to commercialize the Alto. Jobs succeeded in taking Alto ideas into the Mac and commercializing it. R&D alone is not everything - Commercializing it successfully is what delivers R&D to people and not prototypes or journal publications."The myth was freedom, but the reality was Jobs’s way or the highway." Well, the relatively cheap and beautiful Mac as compared to the huge cost & monopoly of IBM - that's the freedom that the 1984 ad seemed to imply to me. Not open source hardware and open source software.[Update: Deleted Open Source vs. Proprietary comment as I realized that it is not an appropriate comment for this blog.][Update: Deleted comment on Steve Jobs' medical decision. Realized it was too sensitive a topic to be put up on this post.]3 comments:Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 23, 2011 at 5:54 PMInteresting article on how Steve Jobs' cosy friendship with Google's Larry Page & Sergey Brin turned into a revengeful mindset after Android.?Will Steve Jobs' Final Vendetta Haunt Google?Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 26, 2011 at 2:12 PMSteve Jobs on learning intuition in India"The people in the Indian countryside don't use their intellect like we do, they use their intuition instead, and their intuition is far more developed than in the rest of the world. Intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That's had a big impact on my work," Steve Jobs said to Walter Issacson, the biographer. Source: also said, "The main thing I've learned is intuition, that the people in India are not just pure rational thinkers, that the great spiritual ones also have an intuition." Source: Masters, IMHO, value intuition far, far more than the intellect. The feeling is far more vital than the thinking.Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 31, 2011 at 2:45 PMA friend passed on this link.Steve Jobs' biographer, Walter Issacson, analyses the 'genius' of Jobs - NYTimes.?Fascinating article giving the author's comparisons between Jobs & Gates, Einstein & Poincare+Hilbert, Benjamin Franklin & Jefferson.The author feels that Jobs stood at the intersection of sciences and humanities. And that the future of innovation in technology like Apple's technology lies there.Though I disagree with a part of the concluding remarks about Indians & Chinese not being as creative & imaginative as the West. Perhaps it is true in the technology space, as of now.But in arts & religion & spirituality perhaps India is far more creative & imaginative than the West.Dennis RitchieDiscussion/Informative Posts Involving Others' Articles/Views, Media reports and Some Comments from meDennis Ritchie, a Truly Great Software Guy, December 2011??Thursday, October 13, 2011Dennis Ritchie, a Truly Great Software GuyNet url: Updated On December 26th 2011A friend passed on the news of Dennis Ritchie, one of the truly great contributors to the software industry & profession, passing away.He wrote a touching mail:I imagine somewhere up there, earlier today a class just started with:#include <stdio.h>main(){??? printf("Hello, heaven!\n");}So long and thanks for everything, Dr. Ritchie!----Eklavya Sai: I am immensely grateful to Dennis Ritchie for his 'C' programming language as well as Unix. I pray to Almighty God to shower His Grace on Dennis Ritchie.I will never forget how much his (& Kernighan)'s book, "The C Programming Language", contributed to my learning programming decently. So, in a sense, I guess I am a student of his, and also a long time practitioner of his programming language creation.But, to be honest, he was a private man and so I have very little info about the man, Dennis Ritchie. I am sure he would have been a very decent chap.His contribution to CS & IT can be felt by the fact that even today in most CS depts. and some other depts. in Indian academia they still teach 'C' programming!! Linux is still written in 'C'. From 1971 (?) to 2011 - 40 years on in the fast changing tech. world and still current!!! I think that is tremendous testimony to the value of his creation.Here's a nice article on him:?'s his Bell Labs home page:? here's the wiki page on him:? on 'C' programming language:? comments:Eklavya Sai Maalik, October 14, 2011 at 11:16 AMHere is a tribute to Ritchie from , where an MIT Prof. says, “Jobs was the king of the visible, and Ritchie is the king of what is largely invisible,” Sai Maalik, December 30, 2011 at 5:38 PMHere's a nice tribute to Ritchie from NYTimes: Finishing SchoolsDiscussion/Informative Posts Involving Others' Articles/Views, Media reports and Some Comments from meIT Finishing Schools, October 2011?More on IT Finishing Schools, October 2011?Tuesday, October 4, 2011IT Finishing SchoolsNet url: somewhat recent trend in Academia seems to be having IT Finishing Schools (ITFS) which help graduates of any discipline who could not land a job to pick up IT skills so that they land a job.? how Ministry of Human Resources & Development (MHRD), Government of India, directed NITs (National Institute of Technology) in Calicut, Durgapur, Jaipur, Kurushetra, Surathkal, Tiruchirappalli and Warangal and IIT-Roorkee to experiment with IT finishing schools. The document (dated 2007) also gives the syllabus covered in these "IT finishing school" courses.And a finishing school set up by the Government of Kerala, states:"Achieving quality standards in employability has fuelled the setting up of the Model Finishing School by the Government of Kerala. It is hoped that this venture will go a long way in remedying the perplexing problem faced by the youth of Kerala; of not being able to secure employment in desired numbers in spite of brilliant technical and analytical credentials"!!!Here is the finishing school:? think these initiatives on part of the Central & State governments are wonderful, as it will be of great help to needy students who graduate with degrees & skill sets which are not in demand. I mean, it is all fine to be very knowledgeable about something and have "brilliant technical and analytical credentials" but if society does not have enough jobs/needs requiring that brilliant technical and analytical knowledge and skill set, how does such a person earn a living?A great challenge in the Indian educational system is the availability of "higher education" opportunities for the masses which are relevant to society's needs, or in other words. relevant to job opportunities in the market place. So a student may do B.Sc. Physics only because he could not get a B.Tech. (IT) seat and not because he wanted to become a Physicist. Many times, he just wants to do his "graduation" as many white-collar jobs need at least a "graduate" degree. If the student had a choice he may have studied B.C.A. or B.Tech. (IT).Now my comments should not be misunderstood as me looking down upon Physics or other sciences in comparison to IT. There are many brilliant students who do sciences, say B.Sc. Physics, out of an interest in Physics. But some, like me, studied Physics as I could not land a day-scholar engineering seat in Mumbai (in 1979), and could not really afford hostel-scholar engineering. It is not that I did not like Physics - it was just that I was given the impression then that the job prospects of engineering are better. And, given the financially strapped condition of my family, job was THE vital thing for me, and not knowledge for the pure love of knowledge.[As an aside, even as a kid, the knowledge that I really loved most was scriptural knowledge but then there were, and still are, not many decently paid jobs/earning opportunities for guys who know Upanishads, Geeta or Bhagavatham! I mean the profession(s) related to scriptural knowledge expertise expect you to lead a life of Thyaga (sacrifice) and submission to God's Will, which at that age, frankly, I was not prepared to do.]And even among those who study Physics (or other sciences or commerce or arts) as a second-option, like me, a love for Physics blossoms. IMHO, pure sciences like Physics are far, far more intellectually challenging to master than applied science streams like software/computer engineering. Specifically, IMHO, IT software design & development, while it does have its intellectual challenges & complexities, comes nowhere close to the intellectual challenge of mastering areas of science like General Theory of Relativity () or understanding the genetic makeup of the human species ().Many of such science-first-choice or science-second-choice (or commerce or arts) students may become brilliant scientists (or experts in commerce & humanities) and contribute to extending the horizons of scientific (or commercial or artistic) knowledge.But I think the inescapable truth is that many, many students doing science, commerce and arts degrees do it only to procure a decent job (like me). And IT is an area where many jobs are available. But IT degree seats are far, far fewer than the demand. So many students do something else as second-choice. And eventually many BUT NOT ALL science, commerce, arts and engineering graduates from various streams gravitate to the IT stream when they start looking for jobs. You just cannot escape from the market realities of Supply & Demand.I feel, if AICTE/UGC policy makers seriously explore Internet based education possibilities, at least for the CS & IT field, they can really open up higher education opportunities to the masses. See the post on?CS & IT: Internet Based Learning?for some thoughts on this.Private finishing schools also seem to have joined the bandwagon. Here is a 2007 news report: is the "About Us" page of that finishing school, which claims that it "Pioneered India’s first IT finishing School in 2007":? 2007 news article gives some idea about the cost too: ITFS states:"---- IT finishing school is a concept aimed at moulding industry-ready candidates. As per statistics, only 1 out of 4 engineers passing out from Indian Universities are employable. This is definitely a matter of concern and is a prominent factor that leads to unemployment among IT graduates. It may sound as a paradox that there are large volumes of unfilled vacancies in all leading MNCs. ---- IT finishing school is thus a creative solution for such bewildering factors. The new venture of ---- is an academic-industry association, where a student is provided training in all the needed hot skills and soft skills and then offered a real time industry experience."?and that it has "Offered service to more than 300 educational institutions in South India".Here's its home page:? there is a small wiki page on (IT) finishing school too: does all this apply to CS & IT academia? Well, if CS & IT academia produce only "theory and research Generals" with poor programming skill set then employers from industry may prefer employing "software development soldiers" from IT finishing schools instead of CS & IT "theory and research Generals".Wednesday, October 19, 2011More on IT Finishing SchoolsNet url: updated on 4th September 2014: A very interesting article in Dec. 2009. [Update: This article seems to now be behind a login wall] Some notes from the article:Dr K R V 'Raja' Subramanian, CEO of Radix Learning, a finishing school with a focus on IT and a former BITS Computer Science professor says 'We need outcome-based learning,' as that translates to 'job-ready' students...It is important for students to know their "unemployability quotient" and then (if that is high) focus on doing something about it.--- end Notes ---Here is a BBC article in March 2010, "Finishing school for Indian IT graduates": , 2009, Education Plus, Hindu article, "Applications invited for IT Finishing School": is the IT Finishing school mentioned in above article:? , "The concept of IT finishing school was pioneered in India by 3Edge in 2006." (online) course:Mode : eLearningDuration : 3 MonthsEligibility : Graduate/PG (Eg: BE/B.Tech/M.Tech, BCA, B.Sc., MCA, M.Sc. etc)Fee : 4500 + Free TechnoFIRST Career Magazine (6 Months)Syllabus:??? * Programming Fundamentals??? * User Interface Design??? * C Programming??? * HTML Basics??? * LINUX OS Concepts??? * Software Testing Basics??? * Basics of UNIX??? * OOPS Concepts??? * Database Concepts (RDBMS, MS SQL Basics)Placements: We have a 100% placement assistance program and you will also become a part of our extensive recruitment database after undergoing our 6 months industrial training.....Eklavya Sai: Sounds like a pretty good deal. Wonder how good their placement record is? May not be great - sounds too good to be true.---------Well, the IT Finishing School concept seems to have become quite established in India. So looks like the division of labour is that AICTE/UGC governed CS & IT departments focus on the theory & research stuff and also impart some weak programming skill set, and the market-forces-created private "IT Finishing Schools" step in the "gap" to provide "job oriented skills" to those CS & IT graduates who could not land a job. Of course, some of these finishing schools are open to all graduates not just CS & IT graduates - but clearly many CS & IT graduates are not able to land a job without the help of such "IT Finishing Schools" or private training institutes.About This Blog, Stats. and a Small God PostPageviews of this blog cross 10,000 over nearly 3 years; Top ten audience countries & posts, August 2014Eminent Indian computer scientist-cum-administrator Dr. S. Ramani writes: this Indian CS & IT academic reform activism blog is interesting, July 2014ContributorsAbout MeSabka Maalik Ek - God is OneFriday, August 22, 2014Pageviews of this blog cross 10,000 over nearly 3 years; Top ten audience countries & postsNet url: updated on 23rd August 2014Period: The posts (excluding first post not related to academia) are from Sept. 2011 to now (Aug. 2014) i.e. around 3 yearsTotal published posts: 127Total pageviews: 10,006 [My guesstimate is that Reference spam accounts for 15 to 20 percent of this count]The total pageviews is not a large number given the number of posts and the period. However there are some visitors almost every day, if not every day, viewing some post or the other. The typical monthly pageviews in the recent past is above 300 views. So I think the objective of sharing my views and the contributions from various contributors and mail correspondents with interested people out there on the Internet has got met to some extent. Around 10 percent of the pageviews are referred by search engines like Google.Audience - top ten countriesEntryPageviewsUnited States2850India2027Russia883Germany450Ukraine324United Kingdom291France237Brazil174Poland157Turkey143Interestingly the highest pageviews are from USA and not India. Viewers from other countries like Russia, Germany and Ukraine also have shown some interest in the ten postsSteve Jobs: The iPhone Introduction (2007)?- 218 viewsCS & IT Academia: Serious Systemic Problems??- 140 viewsProgramming: Practical Solution Mindset vs. Scientific Mindset?- 137 viewsOff-Campus PhD Degrees - Assam State Government to reduce pay of teachers with such degrees!?- 130 viewsComments on Stroustrup's paper, "Software Development for Infrastructure" in IEEE Computer, Jan. 2012?- 123 viewsCS & IT Academia: How to Teach Programming??- 114 viewsNapster, mp3 music industry disruption and MOOC?- 113 viewsOnline Programming Courses: Use MIT's OCW or IIT's NPTEL or Stanford's SEE?- 102 viewsGeorgia Tech, Udacity and AT&T offer Online MS degree in CS under $7000?- 99 viewsShould M.Tech.(CS) Project be CS Research Oriented Or Software Engineering Project Oriented??- 90 viewsImportant pre-print academic paper (external link) related to this blogA pre-print paper of mine titled, "Improve the Practice of Software Development in India by Having a Software Development Career Track in Indian CS & IT Academia", put up on hosted by Cornell University, USA,??(Pdf: ), is shown as the?top/first result in Google search?(from incognito Chrome window on my PC on 23rd August 2014) for the following terms:poor software development skills Indian CS graduatespoor software development skills Indian Computer Science graduatesimprove software development skills Indian CS graduatespoor practice of software development Indian CS graduatespoor practice of software development Indian Computer Science graduatesimprove practice of software development Indian CS graduatesimprove practice of software development Indian Computer Science graduatesIt is the 2nd result for this Google search term:improve software development skills Indian Computer Science graduatesAs does not show the number of views of the abstract and paper I do not have any idea of how many people viewed the abstract and/or paper.Though it is a pre-print paper, i.e. not published in a peer reviewed publication (journal/conference proceedings/academic magazine), it has received one citation as listed by Google scholar: wrote to the editor (perhaps it was editor-in-chief) of the famous international computing field publication, Communications of the ACM,?, many months ago, perhaps over a year ago, who responded that while I was welcome to submit the above paper to the peer review process of CACM, he wrote something to the effect that his view was that it would be of limited appeal (as it dealt only with Indian CS/IT academia, I presume). I then decided not to invest my time in that peer review process.Some months ago I wrote to the editor of a well known and high-level (in terms of policy debate) publication, I believe, of India dealing with a variety of fields like politics, economics, sociology etc., Economic and Political Weekly,?, wondering whether they would be interested in considering this paper for review and possible publication. I got no response from them.Sunday, July 6, 2014Eminent Indian computer scientist-cum-administrator Dr. S. Ramani writes: this Indian CS & IT academic reform activism blog is interestingNet url: . Srinivasan Ramani (well known as Dr. S. Ramani), one of India's eminent computer scientist-cum-administrators, first director of National Center for Software Technology. NCST (now CDAC-Mumbai,?), significant contributor to India's academic network, ERNET,?, first director of HP Labs. India, and 2014 Internet Hall of fame inductee,?, has put up a post on his blog titled, Regulating private educational institutions, , which refers to this Indian CS & IT academic reform activism blog. He writes, "Ravi Iyer runs an interesting blog titled the Indian CS & IT Academic Reform Activism" (blog) and then goes on refer to discussions on this blog about profit-oriented private sector education.I view this reference as an important and honourable one which encourages me in my efforts to improve the practice of software development in Indian Computer Science and Information Technology academia (higher education) in particular, and improve teaching standards in Indian academia (higher education) in general. I am very thankful to Dr. S. Ramani for these encouraging comments.ContributorsNet url: updated on 1st September 2014A few friends have made significant contributions to this Eklavya Sai blog. I would like to put on record my appreciation for their contributions. One friend chose not to have his name/pen-name mentioned. Thanks guys.The contributors/friends are:Anakin (pen name)Rajendra ChittarPicard (pen name)LiveSriOrDie (pen name)HemanthThe pen name contributors do not have their pen name mentioned in the blog posts. Instead they are usually referred to as simply, friend, in the posts.All the above mentioned contributors have agreed to use of CC-BY license for their content on this Eklavya Sai blog including content provided as blog comments. Of course, I also agree to use CC-BY license for my content on this Eklavya Sai blog.Besides the above mentioned contributors some other email correspondents, which includes some leading international Computer Science academics & industry figures, have also contributed to this blog by agreeing to me sharing some of their email responses on this blog. I would like to put on record my appreciation for the contribution of these correspondents too.About MeNet url: name is Ravi S. Iyer and I am using this blog to play a part-time, peaceful and amicable, Indian CS & IT academic reform, Internet-based activist role. Actually my focus is on improving the practice of software development in Indian CS & IT academia. But I think that it is such a vital part of the CS & IT field and that it is so poor in many parts of Indian CS & IT academia, that I feel it is appropriate to refer to my efforts as Indian CS & IT academic reform efforts.I started this blog with the pen-name of Eklavya Sai Maalik as I was not sure about how my views may be received by the academic community. Now, I am very happy to state, they are quite tolerant about my views even though some of them may disagree, perhaps vehemently, with my views, and so I do not need to use a pen-name.I am a Physics Graduate (and Physics Masters drop-out) who was industry trained and later self-taught in software development.I worked in the international software industry (US, Europe, Japan, South Korea, India etc.) developing systems as well as applications software (CS & IT) for over 18 years after which I retired from commercial work.Later, mainly as a "visiting faculty", I offered free service of teaching programming courses (lab. courses) and being a "technical consultant" for student projects in a Maths & Computer Science department of a deemed university in India for 9 years. course material (including links to external US university sites) of some of the computer programming (software lab.) courses taught by me in the aforementioned Mathematics & Computer Science department of a deemed university.I was pursuing, in a part-time capacity, "Service to Society" Free and Open Source IT software development, especially aimed at rural Indian society but have suspended that activity due to lack of time.For bio-data and work experience details, please visit? spirituality and religion blogs a humble exploration of and views on the God & Science conversation (done after August 2011), and little more. When teachings of religions or miracles mentioned in Holy Scripture are referred, as far as I recall, no mention is made of any contemporary or near-contemporary religious leader/founder - the attempt is to emphasize spiritual teachings/paths/philosophy/knowledge which may be viewed as universal though the Hindu way of expressing them is used. It must also be mentioned that a few posts are specific to Hinduism. a blog about Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba and other spiritual & religious matters.My Google+ Posts:? Twitter Account:?, August 14, 2011God is OneNet url: Updated On 21st April 2013Various realized persons and saints have, across faiths and across ages, declared that the Ultimate Divine Power is One.The?Great Shirdi Sai Baba?used to say, "Sabka Maalik Ek" i.e. The Master (owner/boss/father) of All is One. ................
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