Outlook – July 28, 2019

(Axel Boer) #1
FORESIGHT

UNIVERSITY
SPECIAL

64 OUTLOOK 29 July 2019


played the role of a university.
However, for the vast major­
ity, to find what resonates
with their inner drumbeat
is a quest on which they emb­
ark when a university stimu­
lates their minds with
various issues and happen­
ings of the real world. So a
university of the future must
draw up a curricular platform
where each individual is
drawn to engage with some­
thing or the other from the
real world. Such an engage­
ment makes a student search
within to find her personal
drumbeat. And that sets the
tone for the future. Are we as
a nation successfully able to
provide such a platform of
learning for our youth? The
answer is emphatically in the
negative as the most salient
feature of such a platform of
learning is that those who
pass through its portals must
find fulfillment in some tan­
gible manner.
How does one gauge the
situation in India? A few
years ago, the University of
Delhi invited a leading
multi national firm for a
campus placement exercise.
The firm had a few hundred
openings for graduates that
needed basic communica­
tion and analytical skills. The
uni versity advertised widely
and shortlisted 1,200 of the
best resumes and organised
blind interviews. The firm
picked up only three stu­
dents. And what about the
famed IITs? Here is a sample
from among many frank
opinions expressed by
students at a well­regarded
IIT: “The three­and­a­half
years are an academic void.
The little I learnt during the
course while mugging for
exams got erased as soon as
the exam was done.” The
story goes on and on.
The other important factor
we need to tackle is our easy
embrace of mediocrity in the
education sector. This is

readily recognised not just by
our inability to win a Nobel
prize, but also by the realisa­
tion that no Nobel laureate
from anywhere seems to be
even mildly inclined to spend
any meaningful time at any
Indian university.
Our quest for a design of
the future must also take
into account the staggeringly
large numbers of students.
For instance, this year more
than 35 lakh students have

graduated from high school
through the examinations
conducted by the Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar and CBSE
boards. The University of
Delhi, one of India’s largest,
admits about 55,000 each
year. One can only try and
imagine the picture for the
entire nation. Thus, for a uni­
versity of the future, a very
out­of the­box design is man­
dated. Through the use of
artificial intelligence and
meaningful and judicious

use of IT­based learning plat­
forms, much knowledge can
be imbibed by large groups
of students with enjoyable
experiences that are increas­
ingly more fulfilling than
most classroom experiences.
Of course, this also req­
uires the teacher to be an
enlightened mentor who
sees value in hands­on activ­
ity and team­based project
work that needs a trans­
disciplinary approach. The

university must realise that
knowledge comes in many
forms, that all human and
worldly activity has a knowl­
edge component, that
knowledge without action is
meaningless, and that skills
and knowledge are two sides
of the same coin. They must
grasp Gandhi’s dictum in the
context of education: “What
you do with your hands
enters your heart.”
The university shall have to
embrace technology crea­

tively and large­heartedly.
The young today can and do
adapt very easily. They must
be given freedom to innovate
and experiment, and learn­
ing must be student­led.
For research and
knowledge generation, such
a university must recognise
that more and more kno­
wledge seems to be coming
out of enterprises outside
formal systems, such as
ISRO, Tesla, Google andVir­
gin Galactic, and in an all­
encompassing manner,
through the web. The endea­
vours of individuals such as
Kabir, Guru Nanak, Gregor
Mendel, Craig Venter, Elon
Musk and many others must
also be pointers to where
much knowledge can come
from or where it is being put
to use for the future.
So the university of the
future shall have to ensure
that the young are in a
position to know what it
takes to create such enter­
prises and the basic skills
needed to be a part of such
enterprises. For the students
of the immediate and distant
future, their desire and need
to gain knowledge should be
met not so much through the
campus­based environment
as by technology­enabled
experiences, and a peer­led
and enjoyable learning mode.
The university shall just be
an enabler and enlightened
mentor that lets learners
proceed by themselves.
Students shall engage and
become aware of the power
of quantum computing, arti­
ficial intelligence, robotics
and big data, and these shall
have to be made second
nature to them. Technology
through AI and computers
shall be the learning platfo­
rms for the university of the
future, and a good university
shall also redesign enlight­
ened ways of according
credit and assessing. India
shall then truly prosper. O

Desire to gain knowledge should
be met not so much through the
campus-based environment as by
technology-enabled experiences.

TRIBHUVAN TIWARI
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