Higher Education and Changing World

What is the issue?

Higher education across the globe is failing to keep up with the changing demands of an unpredictable world.

What are the global issues in human development?

• In recent times humans and machines are coming together at a cognitive level, the boundaries between the two are getting blurred.
• The quality of air, water and soil is teetering at the edge of habitability.
• These inflexion points are deeply inter-connected and constantly changing.
• For developing countries a massive job creation challenge is further complicated by the fact that machines are replacing human jobs.

How future generations should be prepared?

• By necessity, a new vision for education would have to represent the coming together of technology, humanities and ethics.
• It would weave together thought with action, left brain with right brain, arts with sciences and ultimately, the learnings of the past and present with preparedness for the future.
• This model of interwoven learning would represent a departure from other models of education anywhere in the world.
• Learning must equip graduates to learn to learn, but this is not enough either, Thus higher education should prepare students for life, not just a career.
• In a world of shortening attention spans and transactional relationships, students need to be given an opportunity to look deep inside to discover their sense of purpose.
• At the same time, individuals need to be cognisant of the role they play in society, and how their thoughts and actions impact the world.
• Finally, and most significantly, students need to learn to deal with the inevitable ethical challenges they will face.

How can an institution deliver these critical outcomes?

• Undergraduate experience needs to be split into modules, the Foundation module would introduce students to ways of thought and expression in the social sciences, natural sciences, humanities, arts and literature.
• The Core skills module would help students develop a set of life skills, including ethical reasoning, data science, design thinking and effective communication.
• The Concentration module would permit them to deep dive into a chosen discipline, not merely for the sake of accumulating knowledge in that discipline, but to develop a deep sense of inquiry and to learn to solve problems.
• To be able to deliver all this, an institution would need to build porous boundaries between itself and the real world, where theoretical learnings from coursework are woven together with real-life situations and problems.

What measures Indian institutions must take in this regard?

• The Government of India’s initiative to select Institutes of Eminence (IoE) is a step in the right direction.
• And these IoEs need to think beyond the current mandate of breaking into the top 500 global rankings within 10 years.
• Further, the intent must be to provide a flexible regulatory environment so that, with or without the tag of “eminence”, institutes are encouraged to experiment.

Source: Indian Express