All-India institute of excellence

Miles of corridors snake down the middle of each floor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi. If you walk down these neon-lit corridors, you'll come across closed doors on each side, sporting nameplates of doctors and departments, occasional academic posters on bright beige walls and, of course, brusque signboards: "Medical representatives NOT welcome." On most weekdays, the sound of your footsteps will reverberate down these quiet and tidy walkways. These are the corridors of knowledge, the academic arena within which students learn from their teachers the ways of the human body-how it works, what makes it tick.

Further down the corridors, an unsavoury smell hangs in the air: the stench of disease. The temple of knowledge loses its way into a teeming mass of humanity, spilling over from every side. This is the out-patient department, where every day, over 4,000 people-ill, unwell or injured-throng the passages, a Rs 10 coupon in hand, and besiege the doctors. They wait for hours on uncomfortable wooden benches till their turn comes. In their little chambers, the doctors toil away, perfectly aware that for most of their patients, they are the last resort of hope. Dr Amlesh Seth, surgeon of urology, smiles: "It's a great learning experience. Where else would students get to see such a wide range of patients and diseases?"

What makes a university great? That's the question to ask in this season of rankings. Is it one that matches academic credentials with stunning surroundings? In a World Bank report on what makes the best of the best universities, education economist Jamil Salmi writes that a high concentration of talented teachers, researchers and students distinguish top universities from their competitors. But every ranking of universities, globally, suffers from a problem: who will measure the quality of teaching in technical fields and how will the impact be quantified?

The annual college rankings by the US News & World Report ignores 'intangibles', such as 'faculty dedication to teaching'. The Times Higher Education rankings have tried to solve the issue by measuring reputational questions on teaching, teacher-student ratios and so on.

Let us consider AIIMS: if about 9 per cent of nearly 6 lakh students who take the All India Pre-Medical/Pre-Dental Entrance Test (AIPMT, now NEET) exams get into a medical college, just 0.67 per cent of the 1 lakh students who take the AIIMS entrance exam every year are able to clear it.

With manpower of over 10,000 people, including 826 faculty, over 700 scholars in various courses, 800-plus postgraduate trainees and fellows, it enjoys a very high student-teacher ratio of 1:1.2 overall. "The philosophy, ethics and patient management that our students get trained in cannot be found anywhere else," says Dr G.K. Rath, chief of the Dr B.R. Ambedkar Institute-Rotary Cancer Hospital at AIIMS. "In the last 10 years, the number of people applying for teaching posts here has gone up 10 times. Senior people from other hospitals take up junior posts, just to be in AIIMS."

Another factor that sets top universities apart is their sizeable budget, reports the World Bank task force on higher education: elite institutions have higher funding for impressive facilities, good infrastructure, operational spending and research. "All these are vital part of the educational experience of students," says Dr M.C. Misra, Director, AIIMS.

As the premier-most brand, AIIMS has the largest budget sanctioned by the Indian state: Rs 1,000 crore for planned allocation and Rs 1,043 crore for non-plan in 2016. "An encouraging move," says Misra. AIIMS has already started the process of hiring 100 faculty members and 1,000 nurses to further boost the institution, he points out. New projects are coming up: from expansion plans for the AIIMS?Emergency block and Trauma Centre to new OPD blocks and a mother and childcare unit. A significant focus area is research. About 1,100 annual publications is what AIIMS produces a year, ranking third in a review of the world's largest database of peer-reviewed literature in the world, reports Current Medicine Research and Practice, April 2016, right after Massachusetts General Hospital and Mayo Clinic in the US.

World-class universities invariably thrive in an ecosystem that fosters creativity, competitiveness and critical thinking. Flagship universities in North America and Europe are known for successfully combining freedom, autonomy and leadership. Jawaharlal Nehru's dream institute, set up to foster a scientific culture in modern India in 1956 by an Act of Parliament, AIIMS has been an autonomous body under the Union ministry for health right from the beginning. It is not answerable to clunky bureaucracy and externally imposed standards. As a result, with its small student body of the brightest and most motivated young minds from around the country, the institution has been able to experiment with its unique model of curriculum and mode of learning: from modern, interactive, small-group teaching to problem-based learning, allowing students the lead time to spend more hours in anatomy classes, experiment with new teaching tools such as ultrascope, video-instruction systems, MRIs, CTs, X-Rays, ultrasonograms, e-learning and digital technology-breathing new life into the lecture theatre.

But you will never understand what AIIMS means unless you are a patient there. Take Dr Seth, for instance. Even his daily surgeries tantamount to sessions with students. And even patients, if they are not on general anaesthesia, can follow what is going on.

As Nirmal Joshi, 78, a patient with initial stage cancer in the urinary bladder, says, "I saw my entire procedure on the screen in front of me. What's more, with the doctor explaining to several of his students helping him in the OT, I understood the entire experience fully." It did not just distract him during the procedure, explains his wife, it also made him more positive during the healing process, post-surgeries.

So is it the beauty of a strong leadership team, a well-thought-out curriculum, qualified academicians and meritorious students? "AIIMS certainly provides some of that, but what makes it great as an institution is its ability to take the hard road when the chips are down," says Dr Misra. "Here, the only thing we are interested in is making AIIMS a true place of learning."