If memory serves me right, Richard Stallman wrote:
This is very different from my experience in the US and Europe. Occasionally a student who becomes a free software developer and does important work acting on his own, but students *in the academic context* hardly ever contribute anything that works.
It is not very different in India .... the only real difference here is that universities are not very particular about claiming ownership of the student's work ..
For example our college has a graduate project programme .. but very few students take it into forming a GPL'd project and working it via Savannah or some other CVS ... That is the point where the FSF/GNU guidance is needed ...
And of course -- "catch them young" . (which seems to be the policy of a huge software company judging by the number of institutes offering their courses...)
Speaking as a student and FS developer, Gopal