Letter from the Editor-in-Chief

Dear friends,

May 2012

The higher education sector in India is by and large not matching the demand. In other words the institutes can not accommodate the number of students vying for seats. When it comes to the north east, the situation is hopelessly poor. It may be appropriate to mention here that if we compare the number of universities in India with those in the USA it will be crystal clear that we are lagging far behind. The Americans have 3650 universities for a population of 301 million, whereas in India we have only 348 universities for a population of 1200 million. It is only very recently that the Central Government has taken initiatives to start a few Central Universities in the north east region and the private players jumped on the band wagon realizing how lucrative running a university is. One basic shortcoming of the Central Universities in the north east is that none of them are having placement cell whereas private institutions open a placement cell with retired company executives whose responsibility it is to coordinate and invite companies to recruit students from their campuses.

There is no official data available as to how many students are migrating to the mainland particularly Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune etc in a year. The conservative estimate puts it at around 60, 000 to 1, 00,000 students per year from all the eight states of northeastern region (including Sikkim). However, Delhi remains the city of preference for these students due to the high job potential and the exposure to the outside world that the city offers.

The cover story that we have carried this month highlights the problems faced by the students of the north east in different parts of the country. The North East Support Centre had revealed that 78 out of 100 people from the north east suffer discrimination at Delhi and this number is definitely a cause for concern.

The Chief Minister of Meghalaya Dr. Mukul Sangma who lost his niece recently at Amity University, Gurgaon had called a press conference there and stated that the matter was being taken very seriously and he had also demanded a stringent follow – up to the case. Besides this, he also called for a Central legislation setting out guidelines for addressing the issue of safety and security of students. Dr. Sangma had also insisted that the region must have its own institutions of excellence. However, even if we have institutions of excellence, will this stop the exodus of students to the other parts of India? Perhaps not. Today, having children ‘studying outside’ has become a status symbol for parents of the region. It has been observed that many parents send their children outside to pursue something as mundane as a class 12 degree even though the region has quite a number of acclaimed institutions which can provide far better education to these children than the little known about institutions they join in other parts of India. Also, sending their children out seems to be the end all for such parents and they seldom check the fine print and the conditions that these children are subjected to in these institutions. Hence what is needed is a coordinated effort by all the states of the region to look into the genuine grievances of the students so that they can be addressed in the right perspective and they are not left alone in the hour of crisis.

Dr. K. K. Jhunjhunwala