Asia: The next destination for higher education

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12671198

Asia, more particularly India and China are going to be the most sought after destination for higher education in the coming decade (if not earlier).

China increasing its quality of education - China has been trying to attract foreign students since a long time and more importantly to retain its students who go abroad for studies in huge numbers. The quantity of schools and universities is not a problem for China, but the inherent quality of education to match with the Harvards and Oxfords of the world is a key challenge. However, with Capital in hand it can reform this and make itself the next best option after US and UK and may be exceed them in near future.

India - with reforms in the education sector which now provides permission to foreign universities to setup campuses and courses in India, we are already seeing foreign universities setup in India. We might soon see a Harvard and Cambridge in India, and coupled with the quality of facutly India has, it can be a very lucrative destination for foreign students.

UK set to reduce immigration levels - with UK set to curb immigration for non-EU citizens from April 2011, which might impact students coming for higher education (UK's education export amounts to almost £40billion). We will definitely see more students choosing to study at home in Asia rather than going abroad.

We have already seen decline in number of student intakes in the last few years in Australia due to visa/work restrictions and other reasons. And with a fear of double dip recession still looming over USA, we might see a decline in people opting for the states as the destination for foreign education (however, I believe USA will still remain the hottest destination for near future).

Another factor to consider is the level of opportunities people are exposed to after they come out of universities with MS, MBA, PhD and other degrees in hand. Pay levels (which are higher in USA/UK) are definitely a factor and if we start seeing such levels in Asia (Singapore/HK already have such levels), this can be a defining factor in attracting people to study and work in Asia.

Also read - India- the next university Superpower?

Almost half way through my MBA

Yeah, I am doing an MBA from Cranfield School of Management and already neck deep into it. Next week, we have mid term exams and I will be half way done through my MBA.

Here are a few musings from my MBA so far:

Its fun : Those who think doing an MBA is tough, competitive and way too difficult after lots of work experience, I would say its not. Its quite a lot of fun actually. The work load is manageable, competitive and we do have lots of parties here (especially since we live far away from London).

There is always something happening here: We are always upto something. We had the VCIC competition recently, some people are doing Hult global challenge, a few are deep into preparing for Regatta, Ski Trip, Eastern european extravaganza etc. We had pancakes day last week, having a St Patricks day this week, an auction for supporting London Marathon this friday apart from Career's fair tomorrow, and Venture capitalist's briefing, Exam reviews, couple of assignment submissions, and job interviews for a few of us. Boy ! Its a lot to chew.

And if I add what all we had in the first term, I would be going on and on about it... People here have amazing levels of energy and are extremely supportive.

 

Vote for Project 'Paani' (Water)

http://apps.facebook.com/hultglobal/contests/101940/voteable_entries/17796207



A few of my colleagues are working on Project Paani for a Hult Global Case challenge.

Sincerely request you all to vote for this amazing idea of solving water crisis in countries around the world that need it.

India VS China : Continued

Read an excellent article in The Hindu about how its insane for India to chase China in growth rate. India should compete with it on other issues like Social Indicators of Health, Employment, Literacy, Infant Mortality etc. The article is written by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

Sen argues that India is growing at a better rate than Bangladesh, but still lagging in most of the social factors which indicate the overall well-being of the society. We should try to improve these (While continuing to grow, ofcourse) , rather than focusing too much on how much India's GDP is growing vs the Chinese.

Here are a few stats give out by Dr Sen.

India,         China ,    Bangladesh

GDP growth rate

(approx)                                8%   , 10%  ,   6%


Life expectancy                     64.4 ,    73.5 ,  66.9

Infant mortality                  50/1000 ,   17 ,   41

Under-5 mortality rate     66/1000 ,  19 ,  52

Adult literacy rate              65 ,  94,   54

Children immunised

with DPT vaccine                66% ,  97% ,  94%

Health care

spend (as % of GDP)           1.1% , 1.9% ,   NA


GNP per capita    (USD)    3,260 , 6,770 ,   1,580

Though India is better off than Bangladesh in adult literacy rate, its worse off in female literacy rate. This has been the reason for immense social well-being in Bangladesh, empowerment of women. India is still lagging in female literacy rates which is the prime reason (among others) for poor performance in other indicators like IMR, U5MR, population growth rate etc.

Now, given these facts can we say that India is doing better than Bangladesh just because our GNP is growing faster ? Absolutely not. It can be argued that higher GDP overall means higher spends in education, healthcare and infrastructure, but somehow these basic issues are ignored while we blow the trumpet of growing at 8% (or so) and overtaking China by 20XX.

 

[Source:  http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article1453228.ece?css=print]

Is EURO the cause of European Crisis ? - Krugman believes so.

Paul Krugman on European Crisis

Can Europe be Saved ? What are the Causes of the current crisis in Europe ? How did America cope with recession ? Krugman writes about these things in this article. Its a nice read.

Creating a common currency was a good idea, or atleast thats what European elites thought at that time. But did it really make any sense, as the trade between european countries has increased just by 10-15%, not enough - says Krugman. Also due to the diversity in culture and language in the Eurozone, there is not enough mobility of people to fill employment gaps created by other countries. Krugman compares Ireland with the state of Nevada in USA which have similar economies and use a common currency for trade with their neighbours,  but Nevada is supported by the common culture and any unemployment gaps can be filled as people can move in and out easily without any barriers of culture or language, which is not the case with Ireland.

Another problem with a common currency, argues Krugman, is that the indvidual countries can not adjust to the falling/raising Euro. UK is lucky, as it did not fall into the 'Euro-trap' and is free to re-valuate its currency depending on the situation to implement wage cut/inflation/deflation etc.

FT Global MBA Rankings 2011

Here is how Cranfield fared in the FTMBA 2011 rankings:

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  6th in the UK

  
  


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  13th in Europe

  
  


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  34th in the world

  
  


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  3rd in the world for teaching Economics

  
  


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  5th in the world for value for money

  
  


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  8th in the world for career progresion

  
  


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  8th for top salaries in Europe

  
  

See full rankings in FT website here.

[Source : CMAWorld]

[Source : FT Rankings]

Spend Wisely, Waste Less

70% of poor students in India miss out on their primary education because of lack of funds. Sometimes its as small as 500 Rupees (12 USD), which is sometimes the same or even less in some cases as that spent by an average urban youth in movies, haircut or partying...

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjYNGj4tuOc]

There is a small message to this video - Think before you spend. I would add more to it - do not waste. Especially to the urban Indians.