On his first visit to the Indian School of Business (ISB), Morton Schapiro, President, Northwestern University interacted with the ISB community recently. He presented his views on the lessons to be learnt from the US higher education system and the challenges for India in this sector.

Prof. Schapiro is an accomplished economist, who has focused on the economics of higher education in his research works. In over 100 publications and seven books, Prof. Schapiro has tackled some of the challenging problems facing higher education and related to college financing, affordability, and the economics of tenure.

He is a Professor of Economics in Northwestern's Judd A and Marjorie Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and also holds appointments in Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, an associate school of the ISB.

Prof. Schapiro talked about American higher education system, challenges for India in Higher Education, the reality of the teacher-scholar, role of private players in higher education, dearth of top talent entering academia and the role of technology.

Speaking to the gathering Prof. Schapiro said that accreditation is the key to ensuring that the quality of higher education is not diluted by the massive increase in capacity. He added that the number of scandals that have resulted in accreditation being withdrawn from a number of engineering colleges in India highlights the challenge.

Prof. Schapiro said that the magic of the top schools is the learning experience they provide by getting the best faculty to teach in small classrooms and schools that provide a high quality of instruction can use technology to enhance the learning experience and improve productivity. For everyone else, technology is a means of outreach. 

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