U.S. and Non-U.S. Scholars

Fulbright New Century Scholars Program
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Sharma, Kavita A.

• Principal
  
• Delhi University
  
• Hindu College
  
• India

Kavita A.Sharma is the Principal of the prestigious Hindu College in Delhi.  She has wide teaching experience of thirty five years and has been exposed to different education systems having taught not only India but also in Japan in the Tokyo Women’s Christian College and in Indonesia in Universitas Indonesia.  She has deep interest in education on which she has done extensive writing both in popular newspapers and magazines and in more serious academic books. The Press Trust of India invited her to join its panel of writers on education.  

Dr. Sharma has also taken several issues pertaining to reform in the educational system into the public domain by founding the Parents’ Forum for Meaningful Education in the 1990s.  She used her legal knowledge, having done Master’s in Law, to approach the courts for the correction of faultlines in the rules and regulations pertaining to syllabus formation and examination in one of the National school Boards.  Her involvement in all aspects of education led her to write the only history currently available of the University Grants Commission of India entitled “50 Years of University Grants Commission”.    She is currently working on a project for the Centre For Policy Research entitled India’s External Relations: Role of Education Sector, that has given her a first hand knowledge of several universities and colleges in India.  She has been awarded two fellowships of the Shastri Indo Canadian Institute in which she was affiliated to University of British Columbia, Vancouver and University of Ottawa during the years 1991-92 and 2002-2003 respectively in which she worked on ‘Indian Migration to Canada’ and ‘Dual Citizenship’.  Dr. Sharma has a wide range of interests including; Indian Classical Music and Ikebana in both of which she has teacher’s level training.

She is on the Board of Governors of several prestigious schools in Delhi like Modern School and Shri Ram School.  She has also been granted the “Indira Gandhi Sadbhavana Award” by the National Integration and Economic Council on the occasion of the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister Late Smt. Indira Gandhi i.e. 19.11.2005.

 Selected Publications

• 50 Years  of University Grants Commission, December, 2003, University Grants Commission, Govt. of India,  New Delhi.
• The Ongoing Journey: Indian Migration to Canada, New Delhi: Creative Books, 1997.
•  The Windmills of the Mind, Rupa & Co, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi  2006.
• The Queens of Mahabharata, Rupa & Co., Ansari Road, Daryaganj, New Delhi, 2006.
• “Legislative Provisions and Popular Perceptions Linguistic Minorities in Canada and India,” 4 Indian Journal of Canadian Studies, 1995 pp 8-20.

Affirmative Action in Higher Education: India and USA

This study is concerned with the cultural and societal norms that affect access and equity in higher education and the philosophy behind its state policy of preferential treatment. It will compare how India and the US have tried to give access to the less privileged in institutions of higher education while maintaining quality at the same time. This study will concentrate on issues of race and color in the US and on the caste system in India as the basis of preferential treatment.  It will also explore issues ranging from the financing of higher education, from the point of view of the students, to faculty infrastructure and standards, as it impinges not only on access and equity but also on societal leadership in knowledge societies around the world. Affirmative action or numerical quotas in institutions of higher education is an inflammatory issue and has been contested consistently.  In making this comparison, the study will see the inception of policies pertaining to preferential treatment in higher education, the debates surrounding them, the process and timing of implementation and the landmark judicial pronouncements pertaining to them.  The impact of reservations/affirmative action will be assessed to explore who has benefited, the numbers involved and what has been the effect if any on the educational institutions themselves. The further question will tackle exactly how long affirmative action should be followed or whether or not there is a time frame when preferential treatment will no longer be required.  After analyzing these issues, an effort will be made to see whether the answer for India lies in numerical quotas or whether the American example provides a viable alternative.

 Higher education has also become so expensive that it can prohibit the individual from obtaining an education.  In India the fee structure has been kept minimal and at times nominal.  It has often resulted in inadequacies of physical and academic infrastructure in relation to the quality of teaching. This has led to a debate on government spending, pitting elementary and secondary education against higher education.  The US has tried to address the problem by providing students with financial assistance in several forms, while simultaneously raising the fees to recover at least a portion of the money spent through other mechanisms, like consultancy by faculty.  But finances of higher education also relate directly to research and its quality.