-Dr Ajeenkya DY Patil
Pro-Chancellor of Dr DY Patil University, Navi Mumbai
1. What is the biggest drawback of higher education in our country?
The biggest drawback I think is that we have not changed even a little since independence. Rather we slided down from a systemic point of view.
For a long time, individuals, committees and commissions have all tried to treat the symptom and never ever looked at what really is ailing our system, which was once so glorious. In the name of transparency and accessibility we created so many roadblocks that it’s impossible for anyone to travel fast on this way. We removed all trust from our system and its stakeholders.
Here I remember Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee. He was a brilliant mathematician and a legal luminary. He was the Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University for five terms. His work as the Vice Chancellor is a lesson for all of us to learn what is wrong with higher education in India. An extraordinary eye for talent led him to offer a professorship to CV Raman who was then an unknown entity working for the Indian Accounts Services. He brought Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishan as a professor who until then was a lecturer in Mysore University. There are many such instances of his brilliant decisions. If you think of today’s time he surely would not have been allowed to take any of these decisions and hence we would not have had the Nobel laureate CV Raman and nor would we have had Dr Radhakrishnan.
There are many such examples from the 19th century which allowed the foundations of modern education to be formed and which we in our over zealousness and reactionary responses made hollow.
Group (ADYPG) and holds leadership positions in several other organisations such as Vice President, Continental Medicare Foundation, Managing Director, Trancefx Studios, Vice President, DY Patil Educational Academy, Trustee, DY Patil Education Society and President Ramrao Adik Education Society.
2. How do we instill quality in higher education?
Quality of education is about ensuring students learn something of lasting value. For much too long our regulators have focused on the input parameters rather than paying attention to outcomes. The regulators look at infrastructure, curriculum, facilities, faculty etc. They seldom have any consider what students actually learn. The quality view of the industry that the adherence to process will produce consistent industrial output has been applied to education without even considering that education is all about celebrating individual diversity and any efforts to cause conformance are actually a disservice.
Obviously we need to start caring for the right things that are meaningful. Let the colleges and universities decide the learning outcomes and the methods to measure and validate them. We should get back the trust in the faculty and the students. We need to experiment more, try more things and should be allowed to do so.
3. What according to you is the next best option for any student unwilling to go for engineering or medicine?
There are a plenty of options. The world is full of opportunities and interesting occupations, which can give students a chance to learn what they love to do and have a meaningful career. Instead of singling out the next best option, I would rather urge students to explore. Exploration will give them vision and understanding hence providing them with conviction to choose their path of progress. Students must remember that all education is good. All education leads to a good life provided you are good at it and you put the weight of your genuine effort behind it. A career is not a qualification you attain. A career is constructed by a deliberate series of steps you take.
4. How can a student balance between studies and upgrading themselves with new age skills?
The new age skills in today’s time should not be treated a distinct entity to be mastered alongside regular studies. The regular studies must imply attainment of new age skills. For example creativity is a very important new age skill which distinguishes a human being from a computer. This is a skill not to be acquired separately, but is to be instilled in the students through the course work of their regular studies. Students have to make themselves aware of the changing times. They need to know that by the time they graduate the times would have changed. As such students must master the fundamental principles of the domain they are studying and more so acquire the new age skills by their pursuit of knowledge in the domain of their choice.
is repetitive in nature is good and will hold good even in the changing times and will protect the students from the side effects of automation. The phrase survival of the fittest in this context will read as survival of the adaptable. While old occupations become extinct, there are plenty of new occupations taking birth, which is an opportunity canvas.
5. What are the most prominent features of leadership that a future aspirant should always keep in their mind?
Howard Gardener, the professor at Harvard University has beautifully summarised this in his book 5 Minds for the Future. He describes five minds that we should develop which are:
- The Disciplinary Mind: mastery of a subject or a professional craft.
- The Synthesising Mind: an ability to integrate ideas from different disciplines into a coherent whole.
- The Creating Mind: the capacity to uncover and clarify new problems, questions, and phenomena.
- The Respectful Mind: awareness of and appreciation for differences among human beings.
- The Ethical Mind: fulfillment of one’s responsibilities as a worker and as a citizen.
These five for me are the most prominent features of leadership and your toolbox to face the future with confidence and succeed.
The regular studies must imply attainment of new age skills. For example creativity a very important new age skill which distinguishes a human being from a computer. This is a skill not to be acquired separately, but is to be instilled in the students through the course work of their regular studies.
6. As a leader and a visionary can you see any Indian University coming at par with universities like Harvard or Stanford in the future?
In terms of successful start-ups created, I guess that our IIT’s are already at par with Stanford. So it really depends on what parameter you measure what. Having said so, I would say that we have a long way to go to come to par with these leading names in holistic terms. We have to cause radical changes to the way our system is structured. Small, incremental changes will not help for sure.
7. As a leader and an educationist, what do you see as the most promising career option available for the future generations?
Any career option that does not lead to an occupation that Your message to the students. Don’t be afraid. It’s not all doom and gloom. Stop measuring success by the yard stick of your parents or elders. Change your lenses and you will see that there is light everywhere.
