Study Abroad?

Hundreds of thousands of students from IITs and other leading colleges in India go abroad for higher education (Masters and Ph. D.).  Of course, many students also choose indian academic institutions, but the first preference appears to be abroad. In this blog, I will argue how pursuing higher studies in India can fetch rich dividends to students.  A rider, my conclusions are general, but they are more aligned to physics research due to my familiarity in this field.

In India, there is a significant research support to Ph D scholars.  For example, the institute or university, rather than the individual scientist, pays scholarship to the students.  Consequently, a student can choose to work on in unfashionable area with a professor who is not funded.  This is not possible in many western countries, specially USA.  Note that fundamental fields of science and engineering need to be supported for advancement of knowledge, even though it may not yield financial benefits right away.  Students interested in such areas must be very cautious.  I must add that many Indian scientists are doing very good work specially in fundamental areas.

The scholarships in India is quite good considering the cost of living.  In addition to the scholarship, students in India are provided accommodation and food in the campus itself, which saves a lot of time and headache.  In west, specially in metros, the time spent on commute to work could be quite siginficant. Also, getting support for attending conferences (specially national ones) is also rather straightforward.

A friend of mine, Prof. Anantha Ramakrishna, did some preliminary profiling of the graduating physics students from IIT Kanpur and concluded that around 1/2 of the students doing PhD in India get an academic job in the country.  However, the corresponding percentage for the abroad PhD’s is quite low.  One of the strong reason for the above is disconnect of the abroad PhD’s with the Indian academia.  The Indian PhD students working in reputed institutions are known to the community via interactions in conferences, visits, and seminars.  Such occasions are rarer for students following PhD abroad.  Another important factor is that Indian PhD is more likely to work in problems being followed in the country, hence more likely to get an academic position afterwards.  

I have met very good international students who pick their Ph. D. supervisors based on their interactions during their undergraduate days. Often they continue to work  in their undergraduate institution itself to work with their favorite professor.  Some of the best results from IIT Kanpur have are similar PhD students of the student (e.g., Manindra Agrawal, Nitin Saxena, Neeraj Kayal, Shreesh Jadhav, A. K. Mallik).  I do hope that many more students will follow similar paths.

There are other factors like culture, family ties, language, climate, etc.  Most students do not bother about these aspects, but I strongly believe that the a proper ambience is required for highest level of creativity.  We do our best work when we are at ease, for which a comfortable ambience is very critical.  I personally believe that the above factors could be the reason for suboptimal output of the some of the best minds working in uprooted environment.

It must however kept in mind that the best universities like Cambridge, Harvard, etc. have very strong traditions that we could emulate, and students should go to such places for higher studies.  A attractive option is to go to the top western institutions for a postdoctoral research, during which time there is more flexibility and freedom compared to doctoral research.

A fundamental change is occurring in Indian scenario with individuals wanting to take larger risk and attempt difficult problems.  We do hope that young brains in the country will participate in this challenging efforts.