Higher education for today’s India

It is clear that the problems that India faces today have no easy technological or scientific solutions readily available

“Higher education plays an extremely important role in promoting human as well as societal well-being and in developing India as envisioned in its Constitution— a democratic, just, socially-conscious, cultured and humane nation”- National Education Policy, 2020- Section II, Higher Education

The Policy goes on to say that the purpose of higher education is more than the creation of opportunities for individual employment.

While at one end, the objective of higher education is represented as key to more vibrant, socially engaged, cooperative communities and a prosperous nation, the individual choices that we see today perceives higher education as a private good and pathway for economic emancipation only. In fact, some of the premier management institutions established in the seventies to prepare young people to occupy important positions in the public sector are now mostly focused on preparing leaders for the corporate world. This shift of higher education as a preparation to work at or lead private-run corporations gathered momentum with liberalisation, technology boom, a globally connected world and various other factors. It is now time to bring back the focus of India’s higher education to the issues and challenges of the nation.

It is clear that the problems that India (and the connected world) faces today have no easy technological or scientific solutions readily available. The path ahead for jobs and careers is definitely going to be one that can help the professional to make connections and develop an understanding of people, their cultures and public institutions that impact our lives. One cannot be learning four years of computer science or mechanical engineering without any understanding of the real-world problems and societal needs.

As a nation, at one end we have invested heavily to prepare engineers, lawyers and managers (what is broadly referred to as professional programmes), but at the other end we have not equally strengthened the options of preparing public-service professionals. It is now the right time to focus on natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and more importantly the inter disciplinary domains of education, development, sustainability and prepare the youth for meaningful careers that await them in the 21st century.

Learning biology, economics, mathematics, philosophy or physics at a university in isolation without the context of the nation or the challenges of the nation is not only futile but also an inefficient use of their time. We should provide the young learner the opportunity to combine their interest in a discipline with an interdisciplinary area of their choice and open up the possibility of working in varied domains. For eg: A science or technology student who is exposed to the human development challenges can come up with solutions that will improve the livelihood of farmers or solutions to help reduce infant mortality rate in India. Someone who will learn biology with sustainability may want to study or work further in the area of environmental science, wildlife science or conservation biology. We can think about many such areas of work where the higher education curriculum is clearly focused on solving problems of the here and now of the country.

Skills for 21st century

The world is evolving now at a faster pace than we can imagine. Jobs of today will vanish and new jobs will evolve and will need trained professionals with problem-solving skills. The university education should provide them with transferable skills irrespective of their sector or nature of work. To quote what contemporary Historian Yuval Noah Harari says, the four Cs required in the 21st century are Critical thinking, Communication, Collaboration and Creativity.

A well-designed university curriculum should have courses that will initiate students into the process of acquiring critical thinking abilities and effective communication skills (reading and writing). It should also have courses that engage with logic, argumentation and ethics. These are the courses that will help students acquire the much required fundamental capacities necessary for their continuous learning and will help them navigate their professional, personal and social challenges.

Careers in public services

The higher education curriculum should be designed in such a manner that it should open up multiple possibilities for employment, further education and not restrict them to an industry or a narrow sector.

Some of the career opportunities that await in public services are that of a biologist, ecologist, scientist, teacher, teacher educator, curriculum specialist, economist, historian, development journalist, policy analyst, civil service officer and social entrepreneur. The country also needs experts in the field of public health, climate change, water, waste management, renewable energy, agriculture and other allied public services.

India’s development challenges are huge and to be relevant, we need to revamp higher education that will lead to meaningful work opportunities and be a direct contributor to building a society that we have envisaged in the Constitution.

(The writer is Head of Student Affairs, Azim Premji University)