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Begin New Search Topic Education Political Geography India Content Type Research Paper Publication Year within 10 Years Publication Year within 5 Years Publication Year within 25 Years

1. Internationalising Indian Education: Work Visas for Foreign Students

Author:
Sifra Lentin
Publication Date:
11-2023
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations
Abstract:
This paper recommends amending India’s student visa policy to allow foreign students to work in India on paid internships while studying at Indian colleges and universities, and in jobs for pre-determined periods after they graduate. This modification to India’s ‘S’ Visa provisions would be an important step towards internationalising Indian higher education institutes (IHEIs) – a pivotal objective of India’s New Education Policy (NEP 2020), which advocates attracting more foreign students to study in Indian colleges but does not address changes in student visa rules, even though they would align India’s student visa practices with global norms. The paper supports its argument with five key findings: First, authorising foreign students to work in India surely would attract many more than the estimated 50,000 foreign students currently studying in Indian colleges either at their own cost or on scholarships. Second, India’s accredited new private and regional or state universities and colleges would benefit greatly from an increase in overseas students. New Indian universities have been seeking to build culturally and globally diverse student bodies, enrich classrooms, expand student networks and bring in foreign-exchange revenues. Allowing foreign students to work during or immediately after their time on campus will support their pursuit of all these goals, in particular by attracting students from beyond India’s neighbourhood. The success of overseas Indian doctors and engineers in these countries will encourage students from developed countries to enrol in Indian institutions, and students from established source countries in Africa and South Asia will see the opportunity to get field experience in India as a key value addition to Indian degrees. Third, work visas for foreign students would be important for Indian companies that are internationalising. Through on-campus recruitment and hiring of foreign talent on Indian campuses and hiring alumni of Indian colleges and universities who return to their home countries, Indian companies should be able to develop a natural talent cohort that is culturally acclimatised to India. Fourth, alumni of Indian institutions of higher learning who return to their countries of origin can serve as a valuable “cultural bridge” between India and other countries. Finally, for India’s foreign policy, student work visas would reinforce an important plank of bilateral relations: reciprocity. An estimated 65% of Indian students who study abroad – 7,50,000 Indian students in 2022 – avail themselves of overseas work experience. Offering one-to-three-year work visas to foreign students who graduate from Indian universities can only strengthen India’s international relationships. A student work visa policy can be implemented in a two-year phased and regulated manner. Such an implementation period will help all stakeholders – universities and colleges, companies, and ministries of education, external affairs, home, finance, and commerce – to develop and hone systems, processes, policy, regulations and coordination structures.
Topic:
Education, Students, Visa, and Internationalization
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

2. Birth Order, Sibling Sex Composition, and Quantity–Quality Trade-offs – Evidence from India

Author:
Ilke Onur and Malathi Velamuri
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)
Abstract:
We use two waves of data from the India Human Development Survey to investigate the effect of family size on (i) parental expenditures on children’s education; and (ii) test scores of proficiency in reading, writing, and maths for 8–11-year-old children. We investigate whether these effects vary by gender, birth order of children, and sibling sex composition. We address the endogeneity of family size, using an instrumental variable approach. Our ordinary least squares estimates provide evidence of quantity–quality trade-offs in children’s educational expenditures, the existence of birth-order effects, and a sizeable pro-son bias. For test scores as well, ordinary least squares estimates indicate negative spillovers from additional children. The instrumental variable estimates, in contrast, find no evidence of quantity–quality trade-offs, birth order, or sibling sex composition effects in either expenditures or test scores. However, instrumental variable estimates of the male premium are bigger than ordinary least squares estimates. They also suggest that children enrolled in private schools do no better than those in government schools. Moreover, the advantage that boys appear to have over girls in maths is largely reversed in private schools.
Topic:
Education, Gender Issues, Children, and Family
Political Geography:
India and Asia

3. Kanak Mukherjee (1921-2005): Women of Struggle, Women in Struggle

Author:
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
Publication Date:
03-2021
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
Abstract:
The twentieth century was marked by national liberation struggles that emerged in Africa and Asia, as well as in Latin America where neo-colonial structures had subordinated the formally independent countries. The achievements of the Russian Revolution in 1917 inspired the peasantry and the working class across the Global South. The fight for equality and liberation under the leadership of working people are ongoing in the anti-imperialist struggles of our time. Women, in a myriad of ways, powerfully shaped and continue to shape all of these struggles. In the Women of Struggle, Women in Struggle series of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, we will present the stories of women in struggle who contributed not only to the wider arena of politics, but who also pioneered the establishment of women’s organisations, opening up paths of feminist resistance and struggle throughout the twentieth century. Praxis, as a knowledge of theory and of organisational methods of struggle as they change and respond to history, gives sustenance to ongoing struggles to face oppression. As militants, we study the diverse organisational methods of these women not only to better understand their political contributions, but also to inspire us as we build the organisations necessary for our fight against oppression and exploitation today. In this second study, we discuss the life and legacy of Kanak Mukherjee, a fighter for the people and people’s struggles who was born in undivided Bengal, India, in 1921. The rich trajectory of her activism teaches us about the history of women organising in local, national, and international struggles that linked women’s rights to anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist struggles throughout the twentieth century. In Mukherjee’s own words: ‘We cannot see the question of women’s rights in isolation. The roots of women’s subjugation and the discriminations against them lie in class exploitation’.
Topic:
Education, Imperialism, Colonialism, Feminism, Biography, and Gender
Political Geography:
India and Asia

4. Value-Based Education

Author:
Kishore Singh
Publication Date:
11-2019
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
India International Centre (IIC)
Abstract:
There is widespread concern today with the ‘values crisis’. Moral and ethical values are sinking, and materialistic pursuits generated by the neo liberal economy are thriving. Mushrooming of privatisation in education, giving rise to the phenomenon of ‘edu-business’ in India, fosters this trend. This makes a mockery of India’s great traditions in education, her spiritual heritage and civilisational values in which gyaan or vidhya is not a commodity—a vyapaar and in which education has no lucrative purpose. Moreover, ‘edu-business’ is also an affront to the ideals embodied in our constitution. We seem to have lost all respect for our philosophical foundations and civilisational values where knowledge is free, and the head is held high. Use of digital devices also adds to the values crisis, as evidenced by fake degrees awarded by Internet-based learning, as well as the potentially harmful effects of various sites on the minds of children and adults. Many countries around the world are recognising the need and importance of overcoming the values crisis by promoting human values as a primary vocation of education. India, with its rich spiritual heritage and philosophical traditions, should be at the forefront in such initiatives. It is all the more imperative for India to play a pioneering role in value-based education since the thrust of India’s spiritual quest had been ‘universalist’, which makes it the heritage of the whole of humanity. Transformation of the education system in that spirit calls for radical measures. The challenging task is to evolve a new architecture for education in India, in which core human values derived from India’s philosophical legacy and spiritual heritage, as well as from ideals and principles enshrined in India’s constitution, permeate the entire education system. Value-based education is invaluable in mitigating and overcoming many woes that afflict our society.
Topic:
Education, Ethics, Neoliberalism, and Values
Political Geography:
India