Masters / PhD Stipends : USA Vs India (No, We Are Not Better :))

Here's how funding of graduate students (Masters and PhD) works in the USA:

~ Top 5%: These students are considered to be "exceptional" and are given a monthly stipend (+ fees waiver) without any assistantship responsibilities. Complete freedom to work on any research problem for their thesis without any other responsibilities.

~ 35%: Teaching Assistantships: These students earn their monthly stipend (+ fees waiver) by working for 20 hours a week. Responsibilities include checking homeworks, conducting tutorials, holding office hours to clear students' doubts, conducting labs/drawing-classes/workshops and checking lab-reports/weekly-drawing-sheets/weekly-worksop-work, invigilating exams and helping with answerbook sorting and grade preparation. (Exam answerbooks are checked by professors.)

~ 20%: Research Assistantships: If a student is considered a good fit to a research group, the professor in charge can absorb him on his/her project as a RA. Then the student works full time on the research project for his/her thesis. This itself becomes his employment and he/she earns a monthly stipend (+ fees waiver) for the same.

~20%: Fees Waiver Only: No monthly stipend by the university. Most such students work part time on campus to earn some money for part/whole of their rent, food and other living expenses.

~20%: No Fees Waiver and No Stipend. The student has to bear complete cost for the course he/she is studying as well as other living expenses.

The monthly stipend is set such that 2-3 students can rent a decent apartment together, pay electricity and water bills, buy groceries and cook for food (eating out every day is not affordable), buy books and stationary, cover bus/metro fares, and save a little for exigencies. There are no subsidized hostels and no subsidized messes for food. You have to cook, clean and do your laundry yourself. (The stipend in US universities is simply set as per expected basic expenses in USA - and that makes sense.)

With all the responsibilities as above, barring some exceptional students in India, in general the research quality of students in USA is better than students in India.

We have to steadily bring this culture of responsible work ethic in Indian universities. Right now the situation is pretty sad: Most graduate students expect their fees to be covered + monthly stipend + subsidized hostel accommodation + subsidized mess food, but are not willing to work more than 6-8 hours per week for their assistantship responsibilities. And even then, they quote the stipends being earned by students in USA in dollar amounts to demand increases. (Why would Indian universities pay as per expected expenses in USA?)

This is not healthy for our academia and is setting weak work ethics in motion that have long term repercussions.