Page 48 - Education World November 2022

Cover Story

and researchers and suo motu under- professionalised ARC (alumni and
take massive research projects. New corporate relations) office on its 300-
schools, faculties, libraries, sports acre campus in suburban Mumbai.
stadiums etc are funded by award of This office is reportedly manned by
naming rights to philanthropists, cor- 35 full-time employees engaged in
porates and HNIs. continuous fundraising. It maintains
Nor is Harvard University an ex- an up-to-date database of its 65,000
ception. Several American, European alumni most of whom have risen to
and East Asian universities have be- high positions in the corporate world
come financially independent aca- and are grateful to the institute for
demic powerhouses by accumulating having provided them excellent tech-
endowment corpuses that are mind- nical and engineering education at
boggling by Indian standards (see over-subsidised rock-bottom price.
box). funded institution, the management of
However, despite being a publicly
T HE DEGREE TO WHICH IIT-B proved to be surprisingly reluc-
fundraising has been pro-
tant to share its fundraising expertise
fessionalised “into a sci-
ence and near art form” by Thakore: "science & near art form" for the benefit of Indian education.
Despite your correspondent comply-
America’s best universities is testified 2,500 students. Sustained, highly pro- ing with all pre-conditions (written
by B h a ra ti T h a k ore , a media and fessionalised fundraising has enabled questions, vetted copy matter etc),
communications alumna of Denison DU to follow a need blind admissions D r. R a v in dra G u di, dean of ARC,
University, USA (DU, estb.1831) and policy and provide ultra-modern fully responded with exaggerated caution
promoter-CEO of the Mumbai-based digitalised academic, co-curricular to an innocuous request for informa-
New Millennium Education Partners and sports education infrastructure tion and opinion and finally failed to
Pvt. Ltd (estb.2017), a consultancy and excellent residential accommo-
whose transnational clients list in- dation to students on its superbly World's wealthiest universities
cludes the Beau Soleil School (Swit- landscaped 850 acres campus,” says (endowment corpuses)
zerland), H. Farm International (Ita- Thakore.
ly), and Corvuss American Academy, While a few new genre top-ranked ($ billion)
Karjat (Maharashtra) among several universities such as Ashoka, Jindal, Harvard University (USA) 53.20
other domestic schools and NGOs. Krea and most recently Plaksha (Mo- Yale University (USA) 42.30
According to Thakore, Denison hali) have learned and adapted the
University’s Alumni Affairs division fine art of fundraising from American Stanford University (USA) 37.80
sited within the varsity’s sprawling academia, the great majority of public Princeton University (USA) 37.00
campus is to all intents and purposes (government) universities — some of Massachusetts Institute of
run like an autonomous corporation whom are over 150 years vintage — Technology (USA) 27.40
with 46 full-time highly qualified busi- are hopeless novices in this art and University of Pennsylvania
ness professionals led by a vice presi- abjectly dependent upon grudging (USA) 20.50
dent for institutional advancement. government largesse. University of Notre Dame 18.40
(USA)
“This team engaged in fundrais- This is reflected in their shabby,
ing full-time is supplemented with rundown campuses with low-grade Texas A&M University (USA) 16.90
1,033 volunteer members who also residential accommodation and mini- University of Michigan —
raise funding for DU. As an alumna, mal research output. However there Ann Arbor (USA) 16.80
I was one among 7,864 donors who are exceptions. It’s well-known that Washington University in
received five well-crafted letters this India’s six vintage Indian Institutes St. Louis (USA) 13.70
year to contribute any amount over of Technology (IITs) and Indian In- Cambridge University (UK) 8.18
$100 towards the university’s endow- stitutes of Management (IIMs) have Oxford University (UK) 7.00
ment corpus. This extraordinarily accumulated large — by Indian stan- IIT-Bombay 0.11
personalised and professional fund- dards — endowment corpuses. IIT-Madras 0.08
raising has enabled DU to raise $7.89 For instance, IIT-Bombay IIT-Delhi 0.04
million (Rs.65 crore) thus far this (estb.1960) owns a sizeable endow- IIT-Kanpur 0.03
year. Moreover, DU has accumulated ment corpus of Rs.966 crore. This is NB $=Rs.82
an endowment corpus of $1 billion, the outcome of the institute’s man- S ource EW compilation
:
which is large for a small university of agement having established a highly

48 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2022