Sour Grapes

This is what happens when an university nobody is made a Union Human Resources Development Minister...

Joshi questions quality of IITs

According to the honourable minister, sprawling campuses and high fees do not constitute quality education. Just for the record, Banaras Hindu university and Allahabad university (where the minister taught and incidentally remained on the rolls even after switching over to active politics) have huger campuses than any of the IITs. Secondly, most private engineering colleges are far more expensive than the IITs which actually provide heavily subsidised tuition. I have studied at an university and then at an IIT. My university education I did not enjoy. The professors were often absent and when they were not, were screwed up, embroiled in politics and incompetent. When I went for my post-graduation, I was amazed. I had laboratories that actually functioned, a well-stocked library, decent hostel accomodation and the most amazing professors I have ever come across. I do not know what other students think, but in my opinion, the professors at the IITs are a very motivated lot and they are the ones who impart quality education. I have yet to meet a totally dumb IITian maybe because of the impartial selection process or whatever. I have not known one who was totally worthless and I have met many in my lifetime. I shudder to think what would happen to the IITs and the IIMs if the BJP and the likes of Joshi had their way. In my opinion, there are very few institutions in India that impart quality education and if you break those down, there will be not much that India would have to offer to science and technology. I'm not saying that quality research does not happen elsewhere, it does, but saying that the IITs or the IIMs have not contributed much to India's progress is a pretty idiotic statement for a union minister to make.