have been reading with interest everyon'es response on the FSF mailing list on how to tackle the microsoft university challenge:
here's my take
a) welcome microsoft to education, and let them spend their resources and energies into building what could be a showcase of education worldwide.
b) lobby very very hard for a mandate that *all* education at university-level across india must be:
1) platform-neutral for IT-education.
2) conducted using muft and mukt syllabus and courses. am sure nagarjuna can provide more details regarding point 2), right? :-)
3) allow for multiple-industry-players to education interaction.
4) recommend to fsf-friends worldwide to lobby very hard with their respective govts to adopt the above points, so we also have precedents to follow and finetune.
5) and while the above things take their slow, dragged-feet time, and assuming the university launches with overwhelming applications for enrolment (i hope so), work hard to contact students and parents at an individual level, and ask them to lobby from inside to balance their education.
6) lobby with other education institutions in india, to set up the example "to become the change you want to see in the world". hey! we've got thousands of colleges and universities across india. if over time enough create a juggernaut of mukt education, i hope parents and students feel rather silly to pay for education that will probably give them shop-talk.
personally, i have started to believe real-education in india is possible, unlike any other in the world, if we just wake up and remember who we are. but that's another story.
you see, education is always a two-way process. the educator gets further educated in sharing knowledge with students.
time for some education for microsoft as well. why do you think they're setting up the university, eh?
:-) niyam