Indian Higher Education Vs Global Institutions | Aparna Sharma | Consulting Editor | The People Management

The dream of a successful global career inspires many Indian students to seek international education from some of the most reputed institutions in the world. Acquiring practical skills is as important as acquiring knowledge for becoming a part of the global workforce. It takes a lot of effort, determination, and sheer will to obtain prowess for working at such a level.

With a very rich history of knowledge and various other golden events happening in India that gave birth to some of the important major fields of education, Indian education does surely get a lot of praise worldwide. However, when it comes to imparting skills on a global level, the overall general basic education in the western countries are given more preference in comparison to Indian education.

The students who choose to go overseas for their higher education have a different mindset and very often tend to adopt a practical approach towards learning.

Difference between Indian Education system and Foreign Education system-

The education system in India is very different from the education system in other countries. Often, Indian education is criticised for not providing a diverse platform to students where they get an opportunity of learning practically. The circumstances of a country play an important role in the foundation of an education system as well as shaping that education system in the coming years. The surroundings, the source, the process and various other factors are also essential. While the roots of the Indian education system originated from the British education system itself, it’s consequential state resulted from the lack of essential infrastructure and funds.

Today, while many definitive measures are being taken to improve the state of the Indian education, there is still a long way to go to achieve the standard of education as it is in some of the leading nations of the world. Until then, the path of education abroad can help Indian students get education that is at par with their peers in an international workforce.

The education systems in India and abroad vary drastically on a majority of aspects.

1. A practical and research-based approach to education in foreign destinations – One of the very major points that many students agree upon is that education overseas has a lot more creativity and innovation in comparison to Indian education. The process of foreign education is more of a practical approach while Indian education is more theoretical. The way they deal and implement the concepts is far more impactful in making students understand the concepts and apply those in real-life situations.

2. Funds, facilities and investment in education – Indian education is not able to provide the opportunities to the students for research-based knowledge work, due to shortage of facilities, mediums, funds, that are very often overlooked by the government. Research education in many foreign deemed institutions is being funded by not only the government but also by many big organizations of the world like Microsoft, Google, etc, thereby increasing chances of good research initiatives.

3. A rich and diverse curriculum in developed nations of the world – The curriculum in Indian education is somewhat based on previous conducted research, thus not giving the student enough opportunity to learn something new and implement it practically. While countries like the US, UK, many European Countries have diverse curriculum which is full of opportunities for the students to come out of their comfort-zone and limited knowledge zone, it also encourages the students to do innovative research. Most of the students usually prefer the US for their studies and according to the survey. It was found that the US ranked first with 59 percent of the students pursuing from all over the globe, Australia, UK, and Canada followed the next ranks with 7 percentage, 6 percentage, and 1 percentage.

4. Flexibility on the choice of subjects – Having different academic facilities like options to choose other subjects as well while pursuing higher education surely gives a plus benefit to foreign education. In India, students generally cannot have more than one major subject, for e.g., A Student of Chemistry major can’t opt for Commerce related major subjects. But, most of the foreign universities give chances to their students to switch as well as choose more than one subject for their higher education, giving them a more diverse curriculum and opportunity which is an added advantage.

5. A blend of conventional and contemporary programs – In Indian Universities, students have only a few selected higher education options like Engineering, Medical and Management. On the contrary, universities abroad provide their students the education in not only these conventional fields but also the opportunity to learn modern courses such as game designing, photography, mechatronics etc.

More often than not, it is true that top international recruiters value education at global institutions due to the benchmark that these institutions have set in the past years. Therefore, the students from these universities get a head-start in their careers. The standard of education at Indian universities is not that remarkable, and hence, there are limited opportunities for the students. The admissions to top notch colleges are highly competitive with limited seats. Along with these, there are also many other factors like environment, lifestyle, exposure, and more which differentiates foreign education from the Indian education. For us as Indians, it’s a matter to take these things as a challenge and work on it effectively to make it a great nation for an excellent education in future.

The factors stated above can help students to understand and make an informed decision to choose their future. Studying overseas does give new experiences, but ultimately, one should consider the higher education option in which one finds their utmost interest being fulfilled. Remember, education is a learning process in which we grow and develop our skills for our future.