The Indian Scenario

The student community, being young and energetic, are a bundle of inflammable material, which at the touch of a spark ignites into a large uncontrollable fire like forest fire. They, being young have no patience, are lively and malleable.

In India, the trend of students actively participating in politics began in the early 20th century, when India was fighting for its freedom. The elders being busy with their bread earning, they actively encouraged the youngsters to enter the arena of politics. Besides, they were young and would be easily enthused to join the mass movement at the drop of a hat. Political parties at that time started enlisting the support of the young students who organized themselves happily, to help one party or the other. This trend started in the early years of 20th century and continued and even expanded up to date.

However, once independence was won, it was to be reconsidered if students should be allowed or couraged to enter politics. Some sections of society now started believing that students should stay away from politics and keep to their study schedules only. While the society kept debating on this issue, the politician took the younger generation as their work cum energy tanks and this participation of students in politics has come to stay.

Managers in Higher Education Must Harness Power, Politics

Competition for resources - internal and external - means power and politics become even greater issues for managers in higher education today.

Add to that the closer scrutiny of performance, both academic and administrative, and managers in higher education face some real challenges.

From an educational perspective, the changes over the last decade in the way learning is facilitated (e.g. the move to such strategies as distance learning, e-learning and blended learning), mean the challenges for managers become twofold - content, what is done and process, the way it is done.