Security - the new factor in Education?

STUDENTS SUBJECT TO CAMPUS FEAR

Security Is Emerging As A Factor In Choosing A Foreign University For Further Studies

Hemali Chhapia | TNN

Mumbai: About five years
ago, students looking to go overseas for an international degree had few options - it was US, US or US. Like a student of the Indian Institute of Technology said, “US was the constant; one had to then choose among MIT, Stanford or Georgia Tech.’’
Today, the spectre of insecurity on American campuses hangs over a student’s decision-making; for an MBA aspirant like Colaba-based Alexander Kuruvilla, heading out to a US university seems to make little sense anymore. He has instead shortlisted universities in Singapore if he does not get a seat in the Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business. “Security is one reason, but it is coupled with others like the economy not doing too well as also the cost factor,’’ said Kuruvilla, who currently works with a foreign bank in the city.
American universities are currently combating the twin challenges of campus violence and competition. Increasingly, for a variety of non-technical courses, the student population is looking at destinations cheaper or closer home. According to a report by the US-based agency, Open Doors, the annual enrolment rates of Indian students on Australian campuses has significantly outpaced those of American universities, clocking a growth of almost 30% to 40%.
Several parents, say consultants, are picking Singapore or Australia over the US. Harikrishnan Murugan (23), currently doing apparel design and merchandising at Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore, reasons the choice of his destination to the “peaceful and safe’’ environs of that city.
That said, deaths on US campuses have by themselves not dissuaded any of the hundreds of Indian engineers who fly to the US annually for a master’s programme. Jai Nithani, third-year mechanical engineering student from IIT-Bombay, says he intends on going to America after his BTech from the Powai college. The recurrence of violent incidents is not going to deter him. “You can get killed right here in Mumbai too. Look at what is happening in the city,’’ said Nithani.
If it’s any consolation for those keen on pursuing higher education in the US, American institutions have in recent years covered themselves with a blanket of security in order to tackle terror attacks and random shootings.Police blotters, security and alarm systems, emergency corridor phones, they are all part of the current set-up in most colleges.
Take the latest incident at the Northern Illinois University; the campus police arrived in a flat two minutes after the shooting which killed seven and left 14 others wounded.
Prashant Jain who is at Georgia Tech doing a PhD pointed out that his campus neighbourhood in Atlanta is not very safe. “A few months ago my room mate, an Indian student pursuing his master’s programme, was robbed at gunpoint. Break-ins into residential areas are getting more and more common. But the university is taking steps to clean up the area,’’ he pointed out. Escort services are offered from 6 pm to 2.30 am and emergency phones have been installed all over the campus.
After 32 students were gunned down on Virginia Tech University in April last year, Georgia Tech started a service called Emergency Notification - which sends out SMSes to students to evacuate the campus in
case of an emergency. “Students are being appraised about every incident big or small so that we can plan our activities. Campus police patrolling has been intensified,’’ said Jain.
As for Virginia Tech, the April massacre forced the varsity to start an e-mail alert service. “Every incident is informed to the students and patrolling guards move around the campus and hallway on mechanical scooters,’’ said Shyam Chaure, a student who was recently in the city on a holiday. A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
Feb 14, ‘08: A gunman opens fire at the Northern Illinois University, killing four and wounding many others. The shooter burst into an auditorium with more than 100 students inside and began firing before killing himself. May 7, ‘07: Texas A&M University-Kingsville Bodies of Pravesh Kumar and Vijay Mahadevan were found in a swimming pool in an apartment building on campus. Police said it was an accident, but suspicions linger Jan 16, ‘02: Graduate student Peter Odighizuwa, 42, recently dismissed from Virginia’s Appalachian School of Law, returns to campus and kills the dean, a professor and a student before being tackled by students. The attack also wounds three female students.
Aug 28, ‘00: James Easton Kelly, 36, a University of Arkansas graduate student recently dropped from a doctoral program after a decade of study and John Locke, 67, the English professor overseeing his coursework, are shot to death in an apparent murder-suicide.

Jan 18, ‘08: 29-year-old Abhijit Mahato was found inside his Anderson Street apartment in North Carolina’s Duke University. Mahato’s apartment was some distance from the university campus.

Dec 13, ‘07: Louisiana State University’s Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma (31) and Kiran Kumar Allam (33), two PhD students from Hyderabad, were found murdered at the latter’s apartment on campus. The varsity said the duo could have been killed in a home invasion, but cops did not find a clear motive.

April 16, ‘07: Virginia Tech University first-year architecture student from Mumbai, Minal Panchal, and Prof G V Loganathan from Chennai were among the 32 people gunned down by a Korean student in the worst campus massacre in US history