V. Ramgopal Rao, Ph.D.

I was happy to receive the "Outstanding Higher Education Stalwart of the Year" award for 2024 from The Economic Times (Economic Times) last night in Delhi. Of course, there is still so much to do. I returned from the US in 1998 to join IIT Bombay (IIT Bombay) as a faculty member. After 25 years in the IIT system (18 years as a faculty member in IIT Bombay and 7 years in IIT Delhi, of which 6 years as the Director of IIT Delhi), I am now with the BITS Pilanii as a group Vice Chancellor since March 2023. All these three institutions happen to be the Institutions of Eminence (IoE) as recognized by the Ministry of Education Ministry of Education, Govt of India. #IIT Delhi received the #IoE status during my time as the Director IIT Delhi following a highly competitive process. Higher education needs major structural #reforms in India. We are archaic when it comes to managing our best institutions. While Public institutions are dependent on Govt of India for 90% of their funding, Private institutions are dependent on tuition fee for 90% of their sustenance. Both are flawed #financial #models. We need to develop a #diversified financial model where endowments, overheads on research and tuition fee contribute an equal share. It requires major #policy tweaks. We need to seriously look at Study Now-Pay Later kind of models on the lines of Australia's HELP scheme. American higher education funding models burden the students with #debt. So much needs to be done in this space in India. Without a proper financial model in place, our institutions are totally at the mercy of bureaucrats and politicians. State #universities are already on their knees and it won't be long before the same happens with our centrally funded Institutions. Industry is the bridge between #research (generation of knowledge) and #innovation (utilization of knowledge for public good). With India ranked 66th among the 130 countries when it comes to academia-industry collaborations, it's clear what we need to do to promote innovation. It's again the Government which needs to make favorable policies for promoting #academia-#industry collaborations. Hope to see some of these #reforms taken up by the new government.