US wants to replicate India's tech edu success

The India-US education scenario is full of puzzles. Vastly larger number of Indians go to the US for higher studies than do Americans. On the other hand, US firms are recruiting Indian technical graduates in thousands, impressed by their quality.

"With a high quality of education and strong focus on Mathematics and Science, India is churning out large number of highly skilled people," observes US secretary of education Margaret Spellings.

But despite the availability of such quality education the number of Indian students pursuing studies in various universities and institutions in the US is much higher than that of the US students studying in India.

Sources say that over 70,000 Indian students are undergoing higher studies in the US, which is the highest anywhere in the world. In contrast, there are just 780 US students presently undergoing studies in some Indian universities, mainly in IT, agricultural sciences and working with high schools to understand the pattern of higher secondary education in India.

Senator Michael B Enzi feels that "although more American students can come here, getting into universities here requires going through a very competitive process." Although the same competitive process was there in the US, "but we obviously have much excess intake capacity in our colleges and universities."

He, however, said that in the US interest to ensure that the students from other countries, who are getting educated in the US, should stay and work in the country. "We want their innovation skills and talents to be utilised in our country."

Both Spellings and Enzi, who were the part of a delegation comprising some leading US Senators that visited Bangalore recently told Business Standard that the way India was churning out over 200,000 engineering graduates every year, while at the same time maintaining quality, really baffled them.

"Education of course is a shared value between the two countries and as the secretary of education, I am also anxious to know how you develop human capital and such a vast talent pool," Spellings said. This was evident from the fact that so many American industries and companies were coming here to grow and expand, she added.

Underscoring the strong emphasis on Mathematics and Science in the Indian education system that produces large numbers of highly skilled people, the US education secretary said, "we need to incorporate this in our country". This is one of the reasons why the US president has called for an 'American competitiveness initiative', which focussed on secondary education and Mathmatics and Science.

She said in the changing scenario, more and more US students are interested to learn in India, particularly in the IT and systems management field.

"At Infosys, they were telling us there were 300 permanent employees who will come here for six months to two years from the US and then go back. These are growing programmes and will grow over time," she pointed out.

"There are already some instances when both Indian and US students are part of joint online degree programmes with partnership between the institutions here and in US." This is happening as the barriers, whether bureaucratic or geographic, are breaking down, she added.

Earlier, Spellings along with Senators Enzi, Lamar Alexander and Johnny Isakson, visited Infosys, Texas Instruments, and GE's R&D centre in Bangalore.