Mangalore March 13: The intense discussion on the relevance of public funding for higher education caught the attention of the young students at National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, as curtains dropped at the four-day national technical symposium - Engineer 07 - on Sunday.

Participating in the discussion was an expert panel which felt that it was the collective responsibility of all stakeholders in the system to change, for the change has to come from within.

Prof Deepak B Phatak, Head of KReSIT, IIT Bombay, who chaired the panel, blamed the lack of innovation among students and teachers’ unwillingness to make students think creatively as the prime reasons why increase in public funding cannot be justified. He felt that various constraints such as low salaries were preventing students from entering the teaching profession.

On IT boom, Prof G D Yadav, HoD of chemical engineering at UICT Mumbai, felt that innovation in every field is necessary for the overall development of a nation and not just in the field of IT, and urged students of other branches of engineering to take up careers in their core branches.

Citing examples of the people from US who make immense contribution to education, he urged the alumni association to offer support to their alma mater on financial fronts too.

Arun Ramu, vice-president and head of Independent Validation Services Solutions, Infosys Technologies Limited, brought forth the industry perspective into the discussion. He felt that public funding should not be a one-sided approach, in which the industry approaches the college, but even the colleges should make efforts to attract industries with their works of brilliance.

Anil K Gupta, professor, Centre of Management for Agriculture at IIM Ahmedabad, felt that investment in higher education is justified only if the people stand to gain something out of it.

He urged the students to develop an opinion on various issues and requested teachers not to be authoritarian as it discourages students from being expressive.

As the founder of the National Innovation Foundation, he highlighted the various awards which the foundation has given away over the past few years in the field of education.

Suhas Gopinath, CEO of Globals Inc, at just the age of 20, was also a part of the panel. The spirit of entrepreneurship among students will encourage them to think creatively, Suhas said. His idea received support from Anil Gupta who spoke of how entrepreneurs, if they fail in their venture, can come back to continue their degree in college and be entitled to the same jobs as those currently graduating. He also felt that the mindset of the Indian society was such that they are not able to readily accept the idea of entrepreneurship.

P Subanna Bhat, professor, department of electronics and communication at NITK Suratkal, said a de-centralised local initiative was necessary for promoting education. He drew a parallel of the Indian universities with their US counterparts, and said what we have achieved in 45 years is incomparable to what they have.

Quoting a few instances of the constant government interference in the activities of the deemed educational institutions, he felt that a small minority had still persevered and continued to work in spite of all the obstacles.

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