06-26-2008, 04:59 PM
Racist Japanese want Indian IIT students
http://www.boloji.com/opinion/0398.htm
Japanese Universities Wooing Indian Students
The development of a global knowledge-based international society is now questioning the rubrics of the Japanese model of higher education.
Like any other postindustrial society, Japan too faces many structural problems in higher education related to resource allocation, university hierarchies, hiring processes, ethnic diversity and formulating curricula that leave both the faculty and graduates dissatisfied. The traditional purpose for which these universities were created has become so eroded that most universities find it difficult to distinguish the means from the ends. Instead of a serious debate on overhauling the educational system completely, Japan hopes that its outmoded system would still work with a little bit of tinkering.
Wanting to improve the standards of Japanese higher education and make it internationally competitive, Tokyo University plans to recruit bright young students from India to come and study in Japan.
Both the Japanese media and intelligentsia believe that in the last decade India has excelled in many areas from information technology and medicine to overseas investment and academic cooperation. Japan therefore wants the very best talent from India. It desires the top companies to invest in Japan. It wishes IIT students to come to its universities. It seeks top Indian politicians and CEOs to lecture in Japan. This tendency is termed in Japan as âbrand huntingâ. The fetish for brand names does not necessarily ensure quality or benefit, though brands are hard to get. By and large Japan assumes that its status as an advanced nation should be enough to attract the crème da la crème from India.
Most Japanese universities like Tokyo University are keen to invite the very best students from India to study at their prestigious campuses as they feel the urgency to compete effectively with other universities in Asia
It is also quite concerned that the information technology departments at Indian universities have ten times more students than departments at Japanese universities. It is somewhat troubled that over the decades Indian universities have forged important academic links both with Britain and the United States, which have given them an edge, which it does not have.
In order to gain lost ground Tokyo University plans to woo Indian students, whose numbers are abysmally low in Japan, by opening a representative office in New Delhi next year. Last year itself only ten Indian students were enrolled in different course at Tokyo University, while at the same time 679 Chinese students and 502 South Korean students studied here. The new plan envisaged by the University for India involves joint research projects and admissions in its various faculties. Most Japanese universities hope that these spectacular superficial plans would undoubtedly attract exceptional Indian students from elite institutions from India to come and study in Japan.
Well, easier said than done. The haunting question is why these supposedly brilliant Indian students do not want to come to Japan, even when Japanese universities are inviting them with open arms? This question is not so difficult for Indian students to answer but incomprehensible to government planners. As Indian students gradating from prestigious institutions like the IITs, IIM
would tell you, that even before they graduate they have secured admissions to equally prestigious institutions in the U.S. or Britain with full scholarships. Such students not only aspire to do well at American universities but actually do well and then find a job, get a green card, buy a house within a few years and settle down with equal rights as any other native born American citizens. They can then decide to retain their Indian citizenship or become a U.S. citizen. These students would like to know if Japan could do better.
The Japanese system of university employment is heavily biased against foreign academics. There is no transparency in the salary structure. It is virtually impossible for Indian academics to find tenured professorship; and the immigration laws do not make things easy. The chances of Indian students getting absorbed as tenured faculty after completing their doctoral program are minimal or nonexistent. To add to all this Indian students would have to invest a couple of years learning the Japanese language and bear with the high cost of living and studying in Japan. After they procure a degree what are they expected to do? Go back to India and become an interpreter! Or join a Japanese company in India as an executive on an Indian salary! You must be kidding!
This does not mean that Indian students will not come to Japan even when they are wooed. India is a vast country with 369 universities and 18064 colleges. Over eleven million students are enrolled at these universities and colleges where English is largely the medium of instruction.* There are thousands of students who do not belong to the prestigious institutions named earlier. They come from middle-level universities and see Japan as a possible destination to secure a future. Such students may not have found a good American or European university to go to and they would be most willing to try their hand at a Japanese university. The bind however is that Japanese universities do not want such students; they want the very best.
Japan is the only country where the money spent on English learning is highest and the results lowest. In this prickly situation it is rather difficult to evolve a truly egalitarian and international education.
http://www.boloji.com/opinion/0398.htm
Japanese Universities Wooing Indian Students
The development of a global knowledge-based international society is now questioning the rubrics of the Japanese model of higher education.
Like any other postindustrial society, Japan too faces many structural problems in higher education related to resource allocation, university hierarchies, hiring processes, ethnic diversity and formulating curricula that leave both the faculty and graduates dissatisfied. The traditional purpose for which these universities were created has become so eroded that most universities find it difficult to distinguish the means from the ends. Instead of a serious debate on overhauling the educational system completely, Japan hopes that its outmoded system would still work with a little bit of tinkering.
Wanting to improve the standards of Japanese higher education and make it internationally competitive, Tokyo University plans to recruit bright young students from India to come and study in Japan.
Both the Japanese media and intelligentsia believe that in the last decade India has excelled in many areas from information technology and medicine to overseas investment and academic cooperation. Japan therefore wants the very best talent from India. It desires the top companies to invest in Japan. It wishes IIT students to come to its universities. It seeks top Indian politicians and CEOs to lecture in Japan. This tendency is termed in Japan as âbrand huntingâ. The fetish for brand names does not necessarily ensure quality or benefit, though brands are hard to get. By and large Japan assumes that its status as an advanced nation should be enough to attract the crème da la crème from India.
Most Japanese universities like Tokyo University are keen to invite the very best students from India to study at their prestigious campuses as they feel the urgency to compete effectively with other universities in Asia
It is also quite concerned that the information technology departments at Indian universities have ten times more students than departments at Japanese universities. It is somewhat troubled that over the decades Indian universities have forged important academic links both with Britain and the United States, which have given them an edge, which it does not have.
In order to gain lost ground Tokyo University plans to woo Indian students, whose numbers are abysmally low in Japan, by opening a representative office in New Delhi next year. Last year itself only ten Indian students were enrolled in different course at Tokyo University, while at the same time 679 Chinese students and 502 South Korean students studied here. The new plan envisaged by the University for India involves joint research projects and admissions in its various faculties. Most Japanese universities hope that these spectacular superficial plans would undoubtedly attract exceptional Indian students from elite institutions from India to come and study in Japan.
Well, easier said than done. The haunting question is why these supposedly brilliant Indian students do not want to come to Japan, even when Japanese universities are inviting them with open arms? This question is not so difficult for Indian students to answer but incomprehensible to government planners. As Indian students gradating from prestigious institutions like the IITs, IIM
would tell you, that even before they graduate they have secured admissions to equally prestigious institutions in the U.S. or Britain with full scholarships. Such students not only aspire to do well at American universities but actually do well and then find a job, get a green card, buy a house within a few years and settle down with equal rights as any other native born American citizens. They can then decide to retain their Indian citizenship or become a U.S. citizen. These students would like to know if Japan could do better.
The Japanese system of university employment is heavily biased against foreign academics. There is no transparency in the salary structure. It is virtually impossible for Indian academics to find tenured professorship; and the immigration laws do not make things easy. The chances of Indian students getting absorbed as tenured faculty after completing their doctoral program are minimal or nonexistent. To add to all this Indian students would have to invest a couple of years learning the Japanese language and bear with the high cost of living and studying in Japan. After they procure a degree what are they expected to do? Go back to India and become an interpreter! Or join a Japanese company in India as an executive on an Indian salary! You must be kidding!
This does not mean that Indian students will not come to Japan even when they are wooed. India is a vast country with 369 universities and 18064 colleges. Over eleven million students are enrolled at these universities and colleges where English is largely the medium of instruction.* There are thousands of students who do not belong to the prestigious institutions named earlier. They come from middle-level universities and see Japan as a possible destination to secure a future. Such students may not have found a good American or European university to go to and they would be most willing to try their hand at a Japanese university. The bind however is that Japanese universities do not want such students; they want the very best.
Japan is the only country where the money spent on English learning is highest and the results lowest. In this prickly situation it is rather difficult to evolve a truly egalitarian and international education.