Guest Column – Rendezvous

Going global can do wonders for brand IIT

Srivatsan — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 06:03:29 +0000

Now that IIT Delhi and IIT Madras have been granted permission to start their international campuses in Abu Dhabi and Tanzania, respectively, Prof V Ramgopal Rao examines the benefits IITs can gain from these international campuses, and what needs to be done to leverage this opportunity

The National Education Policy released in 2020 opened doors for India’s public funded higher educational institutions to open campuses abroad. IIT Delhi was the first public funded institution in the country to approach the government in 2020 for permission to open a campus abroad. Now, IIT Delhi and IIT Madras have been granted permission to start their international campuses in Abu Dhabi and Tanzania, respectively. Other IITs may follow suit. This is indeed a historical moment for India with our public funded institutions venturing into foreign shores. Let’s examine the benefits IITs can gain from these international campuses, and what needs to be done to leverage this opportunity?

Increased diversity — Operating campuses in different countries helps attract a diverse pool of students from various cultural and educational backgrounds. This enriches the learning experience, fosters cross-cultural understanding, and prepares students for a globalised world. It is important, therefore, to not rely on just the Indian diaspora to study in these campuses but rather to attract students of diverse nationalities.

International rankings — In this year’s QS World University Rankings, our older five IITs received an average of 1.3 points out of 100 for international students and 2.9 points out of 100 for international faculty. This pulls down their international rankings considerably. Given the challenges with infrastructure, admission policies and cultural differences, it is difficult to expect international students to come and study in IITs in India. By having international campuses and offering Bachelor of Science (BS) programs (so as not to dilute the brand value of B.Tech degrees offered in Indian campuses), there is an opportunity to expand the IIT brand globally and attract more foreign students to its Indian campuses as well. This cross-pollination of talent and ideas can elevate the institution’s status and rankings. Another way to improve cultural diversity is to have students in these international campuses spend time on the main campus in India for a minimum of one semester to a year, as part of their curriculum requirements. The enhanced fee charged from these students can help support the infrastructure requirements to host them. This will also significantly enhance our international rankings.

Global reputation enhancement — One of the reasons for the poor showing in international rankings is also because of low perception scores. In the last QS Global University Rankings, the five older IITs scored an average of 21.9 points out of 100 in the total weighted reputation score. Having an international footprint will help improve perception of our institutions which, in turn, can help our standing in international rankings.

Revenue generation — International campuses can add an additional revenue source for IITs. They can charge higher fees, and if properly managed and with rules permitting, surplus funds can be reinvested in the main campus back in India, improving infrastructure and academic facilities here.

Collaboration opportunities — They can also serve as hubs for collaboration with foreign universities, research institutions, and industries. This facilitates knowledge exchange, joint research projects, and technology transfer, leading to innovations and advancements in various fields.

International faculty recruitments — Freed of rigid salary slabs that exist on Indian campuses, these foreign campuses may attract more international scholars as faculty. Main campuses need to utilise this global talent pool. For example, it is well-known that research papers co-authored with international scholars receive twice the number of citations as compared to purely national collaborations.

Alumni engagement — Having overseas campuses can strengthen ties with IIT alumni spread across the world. This support can be crucial for funding research, scholarships, and infrastructure development.

Addressing brain drain — By offering quality education and research opportunities abroad, Indian institutions can potentially retain some of the top Indian talent that might otherwise have gone elsewhere.

Policy influence — Global presence of our institutions can also provide India with greater leverage in shaping policies, both in India and the host countries of their international campuses. This soft power can help improve India’s prestige abroad.

However, establishing and maintaining international campuses also come with challenges such as meeting regulatory requirements, availability of resources, ensuring quality control, and maintaining the institution’s core values and standards across all campuses. It is also important not to overdo this. We need to see how the two extension campuses perform before expanding on this model further with other IITs. With careful planning and execution, the benefits can outweigh the challenges, contributing to the overall growth, reputation and global rankings of our institutions.

The author is currently the Group Vice-Chancellor, Birla Institute of Technology & Science, and has served as the Director of IIT Delhi between 2016 and 2021. This article was first published in The Times of India and has been reproduced with permission. You can read the article here: https://bit.ly/45QyFWZ

When they see us

Srivatsan — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 08:18:45 +0000

The rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence do raise some critical concerns over its impact on society, especially in matters concerning misinformation and deception. However, Dr Mark Lee, who is a professor of Artificial Intelligence in the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham, says that it is important to strike a balance between innovation and accountability to harness AI’s full potential

Mark Lee

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is currently going through a technological revolution with the potential to revolutionise the way we live and work. Generative AI is now freely available to produce photorealistic images, movies and even music.

I specialise in Natural Language Processing (NLP). From voice assistants to chatbots, NLP plays a crucial role in understanding and responding to human queries. However, the future of NLP lies in advancing beyond the simple question answer interactions.

In the coming years, we can expect NLP systems to possess a deeper understanding of context, emotions, and subtle nuances of human language. This will empower machines to engage in more natural and sophisticated conversations, resembling human-like communication. Imagine an AI assistant that not only understands what you say but also detects your tone and emotions, fine-tuning its responses accordingly.

Another area where NLP will shape the future is in language translation and global communication. Machine Translation was one of the first goals of NLP research in the 1950s. Now services such as Google Translate are widely available for use on mobile phones etc.

There is still room for improvement. Most of the current NLP models rely on massive amounts of textual data and so there has been a focus on languages such as English and Chinese where such data freely exists. Current research involves adapting such models to handle languages with less resources. Given India is the home to 22 official languages and almost 400 different languages in total, this will be a key challenge.

The eventual goal of Machine Translation is the ability to do real-time spoken translation as a seamless technology which will enable effective communication between people from diverse international backgrounds. This will foster better collaboration, understanding, and cultural exchange on a global scale.

NLP will continue to transform content creation and personalisation. Content generation algorithms, such as those used in news articles and marketing campaigns, will become increasingly sophisticated and indistinguishable from human-authored content. Businesses will be able to automate content creation, tailoring it to individual preferences and demographics. Imagine receiving personalised news updates, blog posts, or product recommendations that perfectly align with your interests and needs.

Generative AI cannot now be ignored as a technology and so it is crucial to address ethical considerations such as protecting privacy, combating bias, and mitigating the spread of misinformation. There are already discussions about creating robust regulations to control AI research. However such regulations can only go so far, especially when concerning the global development of AI. There is an urgent need to educate our politicians, and the wider public, to better understand both the potential benefits and risks.

A difficult consideration is who owns these technologies. All of the existing Large Language Models (LLMs) which power chat bots such as ChatGPT, Bard, are owned by either Big Tech companies such as Microsoft and Google in the US or Baidu in China. All such companies have their own agendas and company biases and prejudices. It must be noted that in March, Elon Musk and a group of artificial intelligence experts wrote an open letter citing potential risks in developing systems more powerful than OpenAI’s GPT-4, calling for a six month pause in AI experiments. In the future, I expect nations to develop their own AIs to be used for their own national interests. There is a real risk of misinformation and other forms of deep fakes becoming commonplace.

I predict that AI will continue to make ever faster advancements and these technologies will become commonplace. Therefore ethical considerations must be at the forefront of research. As we embark on this exciting journey, we must strike a balance between innovation and accountability to harness the full potential of AI to shape a better future.

The ‘I’ in inclusion

Srivatsan — Thu, 04 May 2023 09:46:02 +0000

Are educational institutions sensitive to gender and diversity? What does it take to create an inclusive classroom? What can we do to increase awareness among teaching professionals? Dr Heike Pantelmann, Managing Director, Internationalisation, Gender and Diversity in Teaching at the Freie Universität Berlin, argues diversity-sensitive teaching is good teaching

Heike Pantelmann

One of the first impressions when coming from Germany to India, and to the beautiful campus of IIT Madras, is the diversity of the student population – the same probably applies to staff and faculty as well. Compared to Germany, India’s diversity is much more complex and multifaceted.

The variety of languages, ethnicities, religions, and as well as castes, adds weight to India’s diverse demography that German Higher Education institutions do not have in the same sense. Broadly speaking, diversity is often seen as an asset. However, to be anti-discriminatory – and this is what a modern, international university wants – diversity has to be “managed”.

Managing diversity at a university can mean different things. In this context, it refers to managing a diverse student population, aptly reflected in their everyday interactions: preferences and tastes, food choices; the subjects that interest them, and their leisure activities.

Faculty are experts in their respective fields, but they are mostly not trained to teach in diverse classrooms. They have to be aware that students come from diverse socio-economic backgrounds (from rural or metropolitan cities) and have different gender identities, and beliefs. They have to factor that in when teaching.

To support good academic teaching, a toolbox on gender and diversity was introduced at the Margherita von Brentano Center for Gender Studies at Freie Universität Berlin. Since its launch in 2016, it has become a renowned platform for the cause. It is available for free in German, English and Spanish, and the team offers workshops for academic teaching in all departments at Freie Universität Berlin.

The toolbox gives insights into sensitive academic teaching – from skills and methods to the sensitive use of language and much more. Moreover, it offers a starter kit for a quick overview of gender and diversity in the German Higher Education system.

The five dimensions that play a significant role in any university are framework (environment), teachers, learners, teaching methods, and – of course – content. The following are suggestions on how to improve academic teaching in a diversity-sensitive way. Framework (environment) relates to questions such as: Does the time of the course collide with family responsibilities? Can everyone in the classroom see and hear well? Is there enough space for everyone? Are classrooms and restrooms easily accessible? Is the room organised in a way that everyone feels comfortable? These questions might seem trivial. However, they influence the learning outcome.

As a teacher, it is very important to reflect on your role, and to be aware of diversity, to avoid discrimination in the classroom; to identify and broach the topic of discrimination in any form: sexism, racism, classism, and ableism. Teachers serve as role models and set the tone for communication on campus. Therefore, they should be conscious of the language.

In the classroom, it is important to be aware of the learners’ backgrounds in terms of their social dimensions such as gender, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, caste and religion. This helps us address questions such as “Who speaks and in which order?”, “Who gets more time to speak or less?” and “Who is heard?” – not in the acoustic sense but in the sense of who is being heard.

It is also important to encourage students to use diversity-conscious language to avoid peer discrimination and to encourage them to create a diversity-aware organisational culture at the university.

The choice of teaching methods should reflect the diversity of the students. And of course, there shouldn’t just be one method of teaching, so variation is the key. The method you employ should also be accessible by students with disabilities. The use of teaching material (handouts, leaflets, presentations etc) too should be accessible by all. It is often believed that Humanities and Social Sciences are two disciplines that can accommodate gender and diversity in the content being taught. However, other disciplines can do it too.

Addressing issues related to diversity in occupational fields includes not just the assessment of the profession’s emergence and evolution but also the current factors and trends. Likewise, the academic critique of one’s discipline encompasses the history of the discipline and its knowledge production. Applying and using scientific findings might include an assessment of the impact and implications of specific research on the perpetuation or modification of inequalities.

Want to learn more? Check out the toolbox: https://www.genderdiversitylehre.fu-berlin. de/en/toolbox/