Vice Chancellor: The debased don

A shocking media report recently was that a university professor had paid a huge sum of money to a middleman to secure him the Vice Chancellor’s post in a certain university. The middleman turned out to be an imposter who cheated the ‘learned professor’.

The professor chose to complain to the police rather than keep quiet and salvage his reputation. Obviously, he wanted to get back his money. Two hoots to reputation! Who is a bigger culprit -- the academic don who gave the bribe or the criminal don who ran away with the booty?

This news might have shocked ordinary mortals, but for academics, this is casual dinner-table talk. They will tell you that most coveted positions in the state universities go to the highest bidder or the most influential ones. One should have loads of money or a weighty godfather to grab these plum posts. Merit can take a walk.

Those that spend large sums of money to get a posting will have no qualms about making several times that money while on the job. It’s another clever ‘investment plan’. What a shame!

Remember how we once used to look up to a Vice Chancellor (VC) with awe and admiration. The VC was sure to be head and shoulders above others in academic credentials and leadership accomplishments. Today, we can count on the fingers of one hand university VCs who were chosen for sheer merit, without their having to do any lobbying or paying for the job.

The above episode will hopefully have embarrassed the entire higher education community, especially those in leadership positions. Anyone with a modicum of self-respect will have hung their head in shame upon reading this report. For every such reported incident, there are likely scores of others not brought to light. This one is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Did not another VC aspirant recently end his life upon failing to get the job?

What is the solution to this malaise? If governments indulge in dispensing favours like a vice-chancellorship to their favourites for extraneous considerations, it’s not only subversion of democracy but also a malicious attempt to destroy our universities. It’s undoubtedly an unspeakable and heinous attempt to defame and devalue the sacred symbols of a university. The post of VC is one such symbol. The person who adorns the position should be worthy of it.

We lament the fact that none of India’s universities rank among the top 100 in the world. Even our much-talked-about IITs and IIMs do not make the grade when matched with the best ones internationally.

How do we go up that ladder? We need to get our act together if at least some of our universities are to reach even the league of the top 500. A study undertaken by Jamil Salmi for the World Bank cites three critical components needed to establish world-class universities. Studying the attributes of the top universities in the UK, US, Japan, etc., he concluded that three factors distinguish them from the rest.

First, they try to attract the best talents as students and teachers from all over the world, without considerations such as national borders. This helps them make the university a crucible of talents from across the world to create new and exciting vistas. The very term ‘university’ implies universality. Unfortunately, in our country, we promote ‘in-breeding’ and ‘consanguinity’, which can only stunt the intellectual rigour of our universities. Worse, it spawns intellectual dwarfs and midgets.

Take the examples of the best-known universities. “Harvard, for instance, has a student population that is 19% international; Stanford, 21%; Columbia, 23%. At the University of Cambridge, 18% of the students are from outside the European Union.”

The second factor is the budget of such universities. Quality comes with a price. Our investment in higher education is still meagre. An institution of quality needs vast sums of money, either from government funding or from private endowments. Many of the better-known universities in the US thrive on endowments from generous benefactors.

“The third factor of success is a combination of freedom, autonomy and leadership. World-class universities thrive in an environment that fosters competitiveness, unrestrained scientific inquiry, critical thinking, innovation and creativity.”

Our State-funded universities need autonomy and must move out of the clutches of the powers-that-be to emerge as world-class universities. Most importantly, our universities must choose excellent leaders, men and women of calibre and commitment, not men and women of straw who fiddle around with moneybags to steal the job.

Universities need to grow not only in terms of infrastructure and in numerical terms but in terms of quality. They must be islands of excellence, ever-expanding and influencing the world outside by sheer dint of their creativity, research output and knowledge creation. Sustained leadership with vision and passion of the highest order is most essential to take a university to international standards. That’s why VCs must be the cream of the crop, not incompetent, unethical upstarts.

(The writer is Director, Little Rock Institute for Educational Leadership, Udupi)