Studying abroad for undergraduate/graduate courses- My personal views
It is not uncommon to see a lot of young people gearing themselves up for GRE/TOEFL/GMAT etc. What I, from my personal experience, have seen is that there are two kinds of student categories in India (speaking very broadly). One is the serious bunch of students genuinely seeking a quality education abroad, in some of the best universities/colleges of the world. My best wishes to them. It is the second type- the typical middle/upper class students who just want to go abroad! Whatever socio/cultural/economic/psychological reasons they might have, I want to share my thoughts with some of them here (Blogging per se allows one to speak his mind out, isn’t it!!)
With a lot of foreign students flocking our universities to study here and experience the phenomena called India, I feel really bad for the students who want to go to third and lower rung colleges/ universities and blow a cool 15-20 lakhs of appreciating Indian rupee on their education. I mean, money spent on Ivy league/Oxford- Cambridge is understood, as they are and will remain the Mecca of Quality education for times to come. But as in India, many countries are replete with a lot of forgettable universities and colleges. I had around 19 of my classmates from school studying at those kinds of universities at various point of times. With all due respects to their decisions, what I feel is that there needs to be a rigorous cost benefit analysis by parents and most importantly, students themselves. Is that university degree acknowledged in India? What value addition will that university provide which an equivalent Indian degree cant? Is the money spent worth it?
Now there I have treaded into an uncharted territory, where I am sure to attract a lot of brickbats. To logically solve the issue at hand, let me enlist the reasons for why a particular student may want to study abroad in those kinds of universities:
To permanently settle there. ( A phenomena till lately seen only in youth of Punjab, HP and Haryana, now a nationwide trend)
To escape (for a lack of a softer word) the current circumstances at home and enjoy the period of stay there.
To attain a particular bargaining power in the Great Indian Marriage Bazaar (Believe you me, one of my very close friend told this as his real reason to study in a non descript Canadian University)
S/he might not have done well in the studies till school level and is unfit to clear tougher competitive exams. And since their parents can spend, why not go abroad and study?
To find a foreign job for some years.
Now, the real reason may be different from the above ones or a combo of some of them. Apart from 1 and 5, which seem to be more of a choice made after many deliberations, 2, 3, and 4 seem to me the most absurd of all. Spending hard earned money on those courses which an Indian education will get you for a fraction is what should be emphasized. And for those vouching for the better quality of education in those institutes, think again. More often than not, the quality of education is really bad there. And by that I am not taking into consideration the ‘Hardware’ or the infrastructure of the institution. I am talking of the quality of time spent in real learning and knowledge development. And if not getting any better than here, what is the use of even going there?
In these better times, it is better to stay over here and start a decent, well defined career. Entrepreneurship is no bad option, which can be explored for the money that you would spend on a useless foreign exposure. A decent undergraduate degree combined with a fair amount of work experience, and you are among the sought after job hunters in the market. With a lot of MNC’s establishing their captive units here, they are need of the local talent, not a foreign educated/job exp one.
My views and reasoning may have a lot of weak points in them. But I hope that it may actually help rethink at least a few of my younger counterparts.
More on the details of evaluating the foreign education and comparative analysis later on.
With a lot of foreign students flocking our universities to study here and experience the phenomena called India, I feel really bad for the students who want to go to third and lower rung colleges/ universities and blow a cool 15-20 lakhs of appreciating Indian rupee on their education. I mean, money spent on Ivy league/Oxford- Cambridge is understood, as they are and will remain the Mecca of Quality education for times to come. But as in India, many countries are replete with a lot of forgettable universities and colleges. I had around 19 of my classmates from school studying at those kinds of universities at various point of times. With all due respects to their decisions, what I feel is that there needs to be a rigorous cost benefit analysis by parents and most importantly, students themselves. Is that university degree acknowledged in India? What value addition will that university provide which an equivalent Indian degree cant? Is the money spent worth it?
Now there I have treaded into an uncharted territory, where I am sure to attract a lot of brickbats. To logically solve the issue at hand, let me enlist the reasons for why a particular student may want to study abroad in those kinds of universities:
To permanently settle there. ( A phenomena till lately seen only in youth of Punjab, HP and Haryana, now a nationwide trend)
To escape (for a lack of a softer word) the current circumstances at home and enjoy the period of stay there.
To attain a particular bargaining power in the Great Indian Marriage Bazaar (Believe you me, one of my very close friend told this as his real reason to study in a non descript Canadian University)
S/he might not have done well in the studies till school level and is unfit to clear tougher competitive exams. And since their parents can spend, why not go abroad and study?
To find a foreign job for some years.
Now, the real reason may be different from the above ones or a combo of some of them. Apart from 1 and 5, which seem to be more of a choice made after many deliberations, 2, 3, and 4 seem to me the most absurd of all. Spending hard earned money on those courses which an Indian education will get you for a fraction is what should be emphasized. And for those vouching for the better quality of education in those institutes, think again. More often than not, the quality of education is really bad there. And by that I am not taking into consideration the ‘Hardware’ or the infrastructure of the institution. I am talking of the quality of time spent in real learning and knowledge development. And if not getting any better than here, what is the use of even going there?
In these better times, it is better to stay over here and start a decent, well defined career. Entrepreneurship is no bad option, which can be explored for the money that you would spend on a useless foreign exposure. A decent undergraduate degree combined with a fair amount of work experience, and you are among the sought after job hunters in the market. With a lot of MNC’s establishing their captive units here, they are need of the local talent, not a foreign educated/job exp one.
My views and reasoning may have a lot of weak points in them. But I hope that it may actually help rethink at least a few of my younger counterparts.
More on the details of evaluating the foreign education and comparative analysis later on.
posted by Raman Sallaria @ 7:18 pm
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