Best of Both Worlds

     Recently, a “Study-Abroad” fair was held in Hyderabad, India. Over twenty US universities participated and hundreds of students attended the fair. Most of the students who attended the fair were interested in pursuing a masters’ degree in the United States. True to the word, US universities have gained the reputation of being among the best when it comes to college education. Even the high cost of attendance is not a deterrent to many international students. I am one of the privileged students to get the opportunity to pursue higher education in the United States.

      One student who attended the fair answered with the word “infrastructure” when asked why he was interested in pursuing higher education in the United States. “US universities have good infrastructure. They have the funding to do research and I heard that it is a great experience to pursue a degree in the US”, he said. As a matter of fact, India too has Universities that stand in the top ten of the world’s best universities. Then why are US universities so reputed that every student dreams of pursuing a degree here?

       Say, there are a hundred universities in India and an equal number of universities in the US. Those hundred Indian universities should serve a billion college students but the hundred US universities have to deal with may be a million students which makes the issue of infrastructure a bit easier. When I graduated from high school, I was one of the 100,000 students to graduate from high school from my state alone that year. Only three reputed universities offer the major I was interested in and only the top thousand ranked students in the entrance test were eligible to get an admission. Naturally, I got an admission in one of the local colleges affiliated to one of the three universities. The university frames the syllabus and the 650+ colleges affiliated to the university teach the course. If you assume that the professor who frames the syllabus is in-charge, then there is roughly one professor for every ten thousand students. On the other hand every US University strives to make sure that there is one professor for every twenty students.

        To my utter surprise, the syllabus we followed was more or less similar to the syllabus followed in any US University. The syllabus is similar to the “core knowledge” curriculum mentioned in the essay Teach Knowledge, Not “Mental Skills” by E. D. Hiresh. Even though the syllabus is similar, the main difference is in the teaching and examination methods. A typical college student in India should theoretically be able to recite the whole text book. I feel that this situation is similar “stuffing information into a person” as mentioned in the essay “What True Education Should Do” by Sydney J. Harris. A college student in the US is good enough if he is able to understand the concept and if he is competent enough to use the concept to solve a typical problem. This situation is similar to “eliciting knowledge from the student”, stated in the same essay by Harris.

My university exams were held as public exams where all the 100,000 students following the syllabus framed by the university take the exam at the same time. Answer sheets were evaluated by the lecturers from all over the state and no one could know who evaluated whose paper. Anonymity was strictly maintained to facilitate a fair evaluation. Where as in the US universities, the professor who teaches the course evaluates the exams he or she conduct. A professor can help a particular student based on his performance but a college level student should be in a position to seek help or should be able to help himself.

I come from a country where the education is based on rote memorization. I like the system there which helps in remembering what a student learns. When a student has the concept in his mind, no matter which method he used to get it there, he can use it anywhere without the need to refer anything. I feel privileged to get an admission into a US university where a student need not memorize anything because, here a student has license to freely speak, write and be creative as mentioned in the essay “We should Cherish Our Children’s Freedom to Think” by Kie Ho. I am privileged to experience the best of both worlds.