Higher education in India is facing a moment of reckoning. It needs to reinvent itself to survive and thrive. A few trends are well in place:
* Increased gap between present curriculum and industry needs and future skills.
* Increased middle-class aspiration for quality and inaccessible education of global standards.
* Lowered importance of formal degrees due to changing job and industry needs.
* A growing disconnect between societal issues and learning outcomes.
These trends have amplified during the pandemic, making the sector ripe for disruption. By its very nature, academia seeks stability and is not designed to pivot frequently. But, this time, innovation is a survival need.
In India, teaching is usually not the profession of choice for the best talent. This is exacerbated by a poor research environment, and regulatory and funding constraints. Good talent migrates abroad for better research and career opportunities. Consequently, it is difficult to find a motivated high-quality faculty.
On the operational front, university work culture is status-quoist and universities are not seen as aspirational places of work for younger staff. As a result, the best talent find exciting opportunities elsewhere. This makes it difficult to develop a disruptive cutting-edge culture within universities.
School education in India is in a poor shape, the educational outcomes far lagging global standards. Consequently, the incoming supply of talent into universities is overwhelmingly not of good quality.
Universities that intend to provide exceptional outcomes have to put in a lot of hard work upfront to get the student prepared for higher education. This includes improvement in basic numerical and analytical skills, communication skills that include professional writing, critical thinking and a research aptitude. At 18, it is sometimes too late to imbibe these basic skills. As a way out, most universities limit themselves to making the student good enough for a job, not an exceptional human being.
Read more at: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/et-commentary/why-indian-universities-should-now-unlearn-and-relearn/articleshow/94972609.cms