Oxford dictionary defines education as ‘an enlightening experience’.
Education at elementary or higher levels should thrive on building the ‘persona’ of an individual. It is often overlooked as just an academic component of the learning process, which is a fallacy, as education decides the ‘identity’ of an individual. But yes, ‘knowledge’ which is the core of any educational offering finds a place only if it reflects in ‘performance’. It is perhaps for this reason ‘career’ has been given utmost importance after higher studies.
Students and parents are often on the lookout for the ‘best’ colleges and institutions. To understand this mindset, let us first try to know what gives a college the recognition and what distinguishes a start-up or a growing college from an established brand in terms of the quality of education and career prospects.
A Start-up/ Growing College
Here, the college needs to ‘test waters’ before taking on any step, which in itself is a herculean task! Of course, a big brand also once took a plunge as a start-up, but now, the rest remains history! A start-up or a growing college will have a long way to go before it can draw a parallel with a big brand, in terms of gaining the parents’ and students’ confidence correspondingly.
An Established College (Brand)
Just the size and having sticking on for long does not guarantee a brand its worthiness. An established brand with all its prowess and adaptable attributes will have stood the test of time and sustained against all odds. By the virtue of being an old hand, it will have come up with the best mix of quality of education, infrastructure; career opportunities for its students; strong industry relations; a track record of producing notable outputs, and so on. Making students industry-ready, in a sense to equip them with practical knowledge makes a college stand out in the competition and students get firsthand experience working on real-time projects with the who’s who of the industry.
A ‘big brand’ promises pedagogical proficiency which sure is the primary concern for any parent. The alumni of a college speak volumes about the kind of education being imparted and the placement opportunities. This concept holds good for any course, be it, technical, management, art or design. Placement assistance/ opportunity is the critical thing that people look out for while joining a course and choosing a college. Today, when every industry is taking giant strides, there is no such course/ stream which does not have enough opportunities or scope. While industries like software, automobile, etc continue to grow exponentially, fields like art & design have shown surprising growth in the last decade. It wouldn’t be wrong to say tech giants, FMCG companies, and other biggies are making a beeline to hire students from art & design institutes owing to the creative and design knowledge they carry with them.
Top companies are so upbeat about campus recruitments with colleges having a high profile, i.e. colleges which have established academic credentials, industry association the college has, placement of its alumni in industry giants, to mention a few factors. This plays on the mind of every person who wants to be on the top and get into the best college considering all factors.
Infrastructure is one of the other major aspects that parents expect in a college, this, as ostentatious as it might sound, is a very vital factor. Providing students with the most conducive environment in terms of the classrooms, equipment, and other facilities which can keep them vitalized and keep the zeal going is as important as imparting knowledge itself.
So, what are parents and students looking for?
If we are talking about any business which can carry an A/B testing to see if the results work or which works better, then perhaps both variants stand a chance, but on the educational front, neither the students nor the parents will ever risk the career prospects. We want to reiterate here that the article doesn’t discourage a start-up college in any way & that we are no proponents of opulence or grandiosity, this has been conceived after understanding the mindset of parents who will ‘not settle for less’ when it comes to their children’s future.
