Should university education be made free?

                         Being a student the first thought that comes to my mind is to wish for a free university education, but logically I think university education must not be free. There are various factors that may undermine the standards of the university if the education is made free. The increase in student strength is a significant factor behind increased financial burden on the universities, which results in escalating student fees. The major factors that will deter the quality of educational environment with free education are lower faculty to student ratio, relatively low government grants per student and even the quality of students. 

                       There are few people who will argue that it is a mistake as charging for university will increase inequality in opportunity as students from low income group will not be able to afford the expensive tuition. But I would disagree with this fact because universities provide various job opportunities inside the campus to hone a student talent and interest. A free education would make a student over-complacent. But striving hard in the part time jobs to pay the tuition will keep up student more motivated and make them value the education even more.

                      Moreover, free education will result in enormous increase in student strength resulting in degradation of the quality of students. Even there would be declination of the faculty to student ratio which is disadvantageous to the student who are very much serious in their research and academia. There is a plethora of cases where students even leave universities before graduating and take jobs that do not demand higher degrees. In this case the university’s investment for these cases go in vain because they would not contribute anything to research or academia. So this arises more inequality in opportunities for students who are genuinely interested in research.

             Arguably, a higher degree from universities acts as an indicator to the employers that graduates have accrued greater skills. So the students end up with relatively high salary jobs. Therefore, if they financially gain from studying at university, it is fair enough that they pay the part of the tuition. An environment where student relax during their university period due to free education, would not make them a skilled asset to any organization or country.

                 To sum up, universities should charge students, which will help maintain standards, quality of teaching and the reputation of the universities. Besides, generating a huge number of graduates with high degrees is not going to benefit the society much. Students should take some vocational training and use their skills to contribute as much as they can to society. In this case university can also fund a few meritorious students who can dedicate more to research which will be a win-win situation for everyone.

Should people eat a vegetarian diet?

                    There are manifold reasons why people prefer vegetarian diet. The driving forces behind this preference can be due to person’s cultural background or may be due to health. There are beliefs that meat can be a major source of so many diseases as most of the animals these days are injected with steroids and drugs to produce more meat which can cause cancer. Moreover, a vegetarian diet also reduces the risk of obesity and heart diseases in this current stress-driven society.

                    The major population in India prefers vegetarian diet due to some spiritual beliefs. In the spiritual world, it is considered that like human-being animals too possess a sense of consciousness within them. For those people the definition of universal brotherhood means nonviolence to both humans and animals. It is considered that those people who eat meat, are not able to feel the pain associated with the animal when they are slaughtered to feed the diet of a non-vegetarian. That is the major reason why people of some culture avoid non-vegetarian diet. Some people even abstain from meat for the purpose of some animal rights movement. Though I am not a blind follower of some culture but I personally feel a person should not use the products that are borne out of afflictions on animals.

                   A reduced risk of obesity and heart-disease is also one of the major reasons for selecting vegetarian diet over non-vegetarian. Meat is considered to contain high amount of cholesterol. Due to high cholesterol content maintaining a better physical figure become a tough task. Vegetables also contains lesser preservative in comparison to meat and they mostly have raw intake. Majority of the vegetables have higher fiber content which improves the digestive capacity of a person leading to less risk of constipation and gastritis. Though some people may argue that vegetarian people may lack some nutrient which can only be availed from meat, but I think there are substitutes for these nutrients. For example, there are certain protein supplement like pulses, nuts, tofu etc. which provide the equivalent nutrients as that of meat.

               In conclusion, though I am not against non-vegetarian diet, but still I would prefer vegetarian diet because of my personal ethics and also because they are healthier. They improve the life expectancy of a people. I feel vegetables are supposed to contain more energy as they are the primary source of the food chain.  A vegetarian diet has also helped me to have control over my anger and emotions. This statement seems to have a biased opinion but it has also been scientifically proved. 

The effects that the computer had in our lives

It is impossible to imagine the existence of this twenty-first century without computers. The revolution of computers had its inception during the Second World War and is currently emerging exponentially by taking over nearly every aspect of our lives. It is one of the biggest blessing in disguise for the human race. They are undoubtedly changing and affecting society in an innumerable way. The three profound effects it had in our lives are the field of economics, communication and education.

Computers has dramatically changed the way modern business transactions and world economics is dealt with. Firstly, a business which is not computerized or not connected to internet ends up risking failure. In the world where consumerism has reached a new height due to online shopping, it is difficult for a business firm to be successful without internet. Every big corporation bases its operations on computing, regardless of which sector they are in. For example, companies like Amazon, Ebay, Google or Facebook may seem to have more necessity of computer to host their servers but companies like Ercot, DTE Energy or Duke Energy also need to sell their product i.e. electricity. Though the direct customer for these energy firm may be very less but it is crucial to use computers for their operations. Secondly, computing can be considered as a dynamo for world economics. Countries like India and China, which have the largest IT sector provides employment to a major demography and contributes to the GDP growth of these nation.

It is not only business that computers had an immense impact, but it has revolutionized communications. In the ancient time, when people used to write letters it took few weeks to reach their destinations. It used to take few minutes for a telecom operator to establish an international call. But with the usage of email or application like skype or hangouts has made the communication process simpler and faster.

The modern education system has been effected profusely by the advent of computer aided tools in academia. For example, usage of Autocad in civil engineering drawing has helped students get rid of the arduous task to modelling design by hands. In the field of research too, computer play a major role in designing a model and testing an algorithm. Nowadays super computer with high computational capacity help run complicated and lengthy simulations in few seconds. People these days can avail online education without investing a lot of money and time in class-room teaching.

In conclusion, computers have had a great impact in our lives and it is the field of education, business and communication that have benefitted the most from it. If the computer continues to evolve at such fast pace, business practices, methods of communication and education will undergo even more drastic changes.  

Online vs Face-to-Face Education

Along with the technological advancement, there has been an immense leap in the education system of this generation. Like the ancient days, it is not only confined to a four walled class room. Students these days can have access to quality education from any part of the world. Despite sharing some common attributes, a conventional face-to-face education is remarkably different than an online education. Both kinds of teaching would require an advisor to guide the students and an examination system to evaluate the performance. They would only differ on the grounds of their rendezvous point for the class, learning process, and the means of communication.

Firstly, I would like to discuss the way the classes are scheduled in both the scenarios. The traditional classroom system would require to book a specific room and restrict the number of students based on the available resources. It would also require the faculty and the students to have a fixed rendezvous point. In this way, interested students who want to avail themselves a good education from distant places would be at a loss. These days many people want to pursue higher education like the executive MBA while continuing with their full-time jobs. For the students of this category, the online education system would be their savior. Moreover, online classes provide learning access to unlimited students. It also facilitates time flexibility to complete a course for the students. Some students who want to work with their own pace can easily work without peer pressure. The conventional classroom would avail a mentor to have good eyes on his/her students. Usually all the students won’t be proactive in the class. It is very difficult for a teacher to make the pupil attentive through internet sessions.

Secondly, the way of learning is one of the biggest factors that classifies these kinds of education system. Traditional classrooms would require the usage of materials like boards, markers, chalks, books, etc. But for online classes people would require a computer or any other device that can have access to internet. In the on-campus class one has to depend on hard copies of the book and have to visit libraries quite often. But in the online-classes the reading material is easily accessed through the internet. With the advent of faster communication systems, the real-time interaction between the faculty and the students is quite easy these days. Use of visuals and animation aids to teach a complex topic in a simpler way is pretty much common to both of these ways of learning. Collectively, the learning method through online system have an advantage over the conventional system in most of the ground.

Thirdly, the means of communication also distinguishes both these methods. In face-to-face teaching, teachers can directly interact with the student and can understand their weaknesses and strengths. In online sessions, pupil can also discuss either through emails or any other discussion forums. A student cannot clarify their doubts immediately and sometimes even clearly. So in the online system, a good number of students get education, but some of them cannot get quality education that a traditional class room set-up can only provide.

Amidst all these pros and cons of both the methods of teaching, I would prefer the co-existence of both these education systems. In this way, students from underdeveloped countries who have less access to quality education can benefit from good education through online class. And some people who are not focused on studies can develop interest through traditional classrooms, with face-to-face interactions with the mentors.

Animals in research...

The people from research fraternity would undeniably disagree with the fact that research can be done without the usage of animals. Being a researcher, my ideas too coincides with the others. Pragmatically speaking, the usage of animals in research is essential as they are anatomically nearer to the human race. The highest priority in research is given to make this earth a better place for human beings. Nothing comes out without price. It is true that all the research would not necessitate animals but research in medical sciences cannot be done without them. But the animal lovers have equal affinity for both human beings and animals and may be a little more for the later groups of creature. They would completely disagree with the logic provided by me.

The big question that needed to be asked is, whether the animals are sacrificed or used in research. The fact that the usage of chemicals and medicines for testing purpose always kills an animal is fallacious. There always remains a little risk to the lives of animals, but researcher these days take enough steps to ensure they are not harming any living creatures. Getting a clearance for conducting research on animals has become an uphill task because of a plethora of scrutiny before allowing the researcher to conduct any kind of test on them. The scenario created nowadays compels a researcher to accomplish the task of analyzing the scope of the research before experimenting with animals.

I have never encountered a research constituting animals in the field of engineering. So the usage of animals in research is confined to a restricted domain. Those specific domains are mainly biology, chemistry, medical sciences, agriculture etc. There are certain experimental researches where human beings are part of it. So if human-beings can be part of it, then why not animals? There are certain cases which involves high risk to life where human beings cannot be tested so we make use of animals who bear high correlation with human-beings anatomically.

It is ironical to witness the world where people kill animals to fill their bellies and also protest the usage of the animals in research. For example, it is hilarious to consider the situation where a patient suffering from heart disease due to excessive eating of non-vegetarian food is undertaking treatment from the research borne out of involvement of animals. The world is surrounded by a few hypocrites who will always be an obstacle to the path of research, but they should also think that they survive because of the research. They survive so that they could at least be a living hypocrite. I personally do not bear any hatred-ness to any creature in this world. Even soldiers go to battlefield and there is always a high risk of their death.