Parents, wake up. Stop obsessing with the Ivy leagues and top 30-40 American colleges for higher studies. We have an Ivy league-type university brewing right here in Gurgaon and almost none of us have seen it coming.
Let me explain in some detail. A full-page advertisement by Amity University, Gurgaon, held my attention for almost one hour the other day. The advertisement that appeared in The Times of India claimed that leading corporates find their future leaders at Amity University in Gurgaon. It further went on to elaborate the university's academic brilliance, the employability and placements of its alumni, its industry focused curricula, its technology-enabled learning, its student-centric initiatives, its research and innovation focus and its modern and safe facilities and amenities.
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The university - that offers courses from nursing to nanotechnology - has a 110-acre campus, which has a sports complex on 20 acres, houses 3,000 students and apparently has 180 hi-tech labs with modern equipment. It's a 100 Mbps "smart campus". Further, the university boasts 1,000 distinguished faculty, scientists and staff, with several Nobel laureate scientists and researchers as honorary professors. Its students have in the past found jobs at Porsche, Harley-Davidson, Deloitte, Wipro and Airtel, among other established companies.
The advertisement says the university has over 20 research centres conducting research in stem cells, data analytics, robotics and BRICS studies - among others - all in Gurgaon. Students have innovated and developed a solar car, a gyroscopically controlled aircraft, a bio-arm (whatever that is) and a quad-copter. Several multi-crore research projects seem to be in progress in partnership with the Indian Council for Medical Research, department of science and technology, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and a whole host of other organisations - BRNS, MGIRI, NISE, AMT (USA) - whose full forms I am unaware of. The advertisement further adds that there's even a rural innovation village in there for grass-root uplift.
Anyone who has been living in the metro cities of India knows that the Amity Education Group has seen phenomenal growth in the last decade or so. The advertisement asserts that they have 1,25,000 "brilliant" students across eight universities and 150-plus institutions (1,200 acres of campus) and 6,000 faculty and scientists, and I really have no reason to doubt all this. Yet, this Gurgaon phenomenon has really surprised me to say the least and here's why.
I have lived in Gurgaon since 1996. Almost all the parents I know today - across Gurgaon and Delhi - have at least one college going child or a child ready to head to college very soon. If a university of such acclaim had indeed sprung up right around me, I'd normally hear about it from the horse's mouth (parents and students) - just like the buzz there is around about some other private universities such as the Ashoka University in Sonepat of late.
However, I am yet to meet or come across a single student from Amity Gurgaon. Of course, it could simply be the case that none of the students I know have made the cut required to gain admission. But for me to be convinced that something of such high quality is indeed brewing in my backyard, I need to hear about it from someone. Anyone.
Moreover, could there indeed be Nobel laureates whizzing in and out of Gurgaon without any of us getting a whiff of it? Is such cutting-edge research being conducted in the neighbourhood? Despite the fact that I meet people in the education sector all the time, could something so big have been kept a secret? The question that arises is that if all this is indeed true, how come none of us have heard about it?
Call me a doubting Thomas if you will, but these claims may well appear to many as exaggerated. This brings to my mind a new set of questions regarding what the responsibilities of institutions ought to be in this country. Can I claim just anything? Can I, for instance, claim to be Saraswati's chosen messenger here on earth to educate people about education? Will everyone take my word for it if I advertise in The Times of India? Or will someone at some stage question me on my claim?
So, given the possibility that all this may not be true - I can't say for certain but it's just my hunch - is there some way that the university can be made to validate its claims? Shouldn't there be someone to hold such institutions accountable? Has anyone gone and seen this stem cell research or tested this gyroscopically controlled aircraft?
Since the authorities are somnolent, I vote we take matters in our own hands. All you parents, who are desperately looking for higher studies options and avenues for your children, unite. Let's fill a bus-load and head right to Amity Gurgaon to find out for ourselves.