Strategies to Make Technological Universities Globally Competitive

Many technological universities have five star infrastructure, brilliant faculty and scholarly students, who do possess lot of advanced scientific knowledge needed most by national and global economy. They continuously generate new knowledge through research at PhD, PG, UG levels. Mechanism for transfer of knowledge from lab to land, in both the private and public universities in India, is however almost absent. Universities are insensitive to market demands. Government has perfected systems for import of technology, but it has not perfected systems for technology transfer from universities to industry. Feedback loop today is incomplete. As a result continuous feedback inputs to reform education are not provided, productivity of various professions and vocations on this account remain low. 25% people live in poverty; the rate of return on investment in universities, due mainly to lack of outreach, is for too low. Technological universities are expected to be industry oriented. They are expected to provide ever emerging technology to industry, to keep them globally competitive. But today their impact is far too less. What is the experience of western schools?

Many western schools, on the other hand, are having well defined and perfected knowledge transfer systems and procedures. They are not only educating students to keep them competitive lifelong but practically generating and marketing new technology/ new knowledge and transferring their full scientific capacities To the benefit of society in their vicinity and all over the world. The outreach of technology universities and feedback, is far and wide. Hereby, they are enriching themselves and augmenting new ideas besides providing budget support for future growth. Technological Universities, large in number exist in US, Germany, Japan. By virtue of knowledge they have moved from periphery to the centre. They have become the drivers of economic and social prosperity. The visions&missions of Universities are dynamic, adaptive based on sharing experiences with people, at large.

The paper presents from experience in The world, new directions to the Indian technological universities so as to make them world class. They should not remain mere examination bodies, as they are today, producing soldiers fit to do lower end jobs in the army of multi nationals. Students have to be educated in what they like, and then they achieve excellence. Un(form standard does not facilitate excellence. Freedom to learn with necessary autonomy is the need of the hour. The paper presents in brief, the strategies to make technology universities competitive by world standards.