Edunology - Saumya Aggarwal

India: Private Education miniting enough money to influence media

Decade back, there were not enough private institutions and quality education was forte of government run institutions. Now the scenario is fast changing with tons of big groups entering into private education as billion strong Indian population needs to get "Educated".

This is my first post since shifting to Singapore. Well almost settled here, I feel there is stark difference in education in Singapore and India. I came across an article in Times of India today (website) which boosts of private colleges being hub of industry interaction and placements.
The article seems to be inspired from these so called TOP education institutions making false image in front of vast reader base. Money seems to be pouring into these institutions and they are not shy to influence media with money power.

Article says "Galgotias University was also ranked as the No.1 Private University for Engineering Education in Northern India by the DataQuest Top T-Schools Survey 2014. Galgotias University is also top-ranked among India's top 20 engineering institutions - ahead of several leading NITs."
Though it is great to see new private university making it to top but it certainly raises questions on credibility of these ranking companies. I asked 2 students who are known to good friend of mine and it gave me completely different perspective.
---

Student 1: "I read the article shared by you. It makes me think that if I am among top ranked student in lets say North India and could not crack IITs, will I take admission in Galgotias? Answer is no, no top students want to go to Galgotias."

Me: I was shocked to see his reaction as it is stated to top in North India. I decided to probe further.

Students 1: He said all these rankings are fake. Thapar University is known to be great and pretty old for this reputation, how come Galgotias, which take heavy capitation and actual placement records are nowhere close to advertised one, made it to the top?


Me: Ok, may be this student is biased. Lets head to second one.

Student 2: This article is crap. My girlfriend studies in Amity and her best friend in Galgotias. Both claim to be best and in certain inspired rankings both come number 1. We need to understand why they do it - to take more money from prospective students claiming to be best as they do not make much money through normal meritocratic route. Placements figures are fudged and sometimes companies are paid to come to institutions to pick students. The entire industry is running on IT boom where even sweepers need to be engineers.
---Article in contention is http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/How-do-premium-private-universities-achieve-near-complete-placements/articleshow/46039404.cms

Please do not pay heed to such articles and make an informed decision by what I call 2 way approach (CP Approach):

1. C: Current Student: Talk to current students to take complete stock of the institute situation and its practices. It is very easy

2.  P: Past Student: Check out LinkedIn for past students in terms of profile and work organizations. Also check if anyone became a genuine entrepreneur (not joining his dad's company).

Don's get me wrong, I do believe that private education can or rather have made an impact but boastful marketing is not in benefit of society. 
Everyone has seen full pagers ads stating better than IITs, IIMs on consistent basis. I think media should play constructive role in educating masses about quality of education and where to find one. Capitation is one of by product of privatization and state government should take over admission process to ensure quality is accessed on meritocracy and black money is not involved.