About the Authors REIMAGINING INDIAN UNIVERSITIES About the Book Dr (Mrs) Pankaj Mittal, Secretary General, REIMAGINING The world is today undergoing rapid and concurrent Association of Indian Universities, is a notable economic, demographic, social and technological woman academic administrator in the country. In changes. The pace of change which is increasing her illustrious career spanning over three decades, exponentially day by day is outpacing the past and she served the Indian Higher Education System at INDIAN UNIVERSITIES high offices like Vice Chancellor of Bhagat Phool bringing us close to the future prematurely. In this Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya and Additional scenario, reimagining the universities is essential to Secretary, University Grants Commission. She is make them effective and future ready. also a Fulbright Scholar. Her areas of expertise Editors include Policy Planning and Management of Higher Reimagining Indian Universities is a collection Education and Human Resource Management. Dr Pankaj Mittal of essays by some of the greatest thinkers in the Mittal has made academic visits to USA, Canada, field of Indian higher education. Each essay in the United Kingdom, Australia, South Korea, Spain, Sistla Rama Devi Pani book examines one or more of the critical topics Germany, South Africa, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and provides solutions and methods to overcome Mauritius and Philippines. She had led a delegation of the issues involved in them. The book generates 15 Vice Chancellors to UK and Mexico for academic a corpus of new ideas that are significant for collaborations. She is the recipient of the prestigious President of India Award in 2017 for Digital Initiatives the reforming and reimagining the Indian higher in Higher Education; Honoris Causa from Karnataka education system. The book aims at providing a State Women’s University, Bijapur; and First Padam roadmap to government as well as the universities Shri Subhashini Devi Award 2018 for contributions in to gear themselves towards becoming more Societal Development and Community Engagement responsive to the present and future demands of from the Chief Minister of Haryana. Dr Mittal is a higher education. member of many high-powered committees of MHRD, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and The release of the book coincides with the launch various other apex bodies in the country. Dr Mittal of New Education Policy. The writings certainly will has widely published in national and international enthuse all of us to play a meaningful role in this feat journals including two edited books. Currently, she of reimagining and re-shaping Indian universities is also National Commissioner-Rangers at Bharat while implementing the recommendations of the Scouts and Guides. National Education Policy–2020. Dr Sistla Rama Devi Pani, Editor, University News, Sistla Rama Devi Pani is one the popular women editor of the country. She is known for her meticulous editing and persistent regularity in the Weekly Journal of Higher Education Pankaj Mittal brought out by the Association of Indian Universities. Starting her academic career as Lecturer in Editors Education at Dr Harisingh Gour University, Sagar, in 1991, she served Indian Higher Education System at various capacities in MHRD, NCERT, IGNOU, NIOS and AIU. She is Member of curriculum development and evaluation committees at IGNOU, NIOS and many universities including University of Delhi. Apart from 150 Special issues and more than 1000 regular Issues of the University News, she has to her credit 200 Editorials, 5 Books, 2 Question Banks, and more than 20 papers and articles in different national and international journals. Dr Pani holds Doctorate ASSOCIATION OF INDIAN UNIVERSITIES in Distance Education, and a Masters degree in 16, Comrade Indrajit Gupta Marg, New Delhi - 110 002 Chemistry, Education and Distance Education. She EPABX: (011) 23230059 23232305 23232429 23232435 23233390 received distinction in Diploma in Educational and E-mails: [email protected], [email protected] Association of Indian Universities Vocational Guidance from NCERT, New Delhi. She [email protected], [email protected] was conferred with National Award and Plaque of Fax : (91)-011-23232131 New Delhi (India) Appreciation by Public Relation Society of India. Website : http://www.aiu.ac.in REIMAGINING INDIAN UNIVERSITIES Editors Pankaj Mittal Sistla Rama Devi Pani Association of Indian Universities New Delhi (India) ii © Association of Indian Universities, New Delhi August 2020 ISBN: 81-7520-154-1 Association of Indian Universities, AIU House, 16 Comrade Indrajit Gupta Marg (Kotla Marg), New Delhi-110 002. Cover: Courtesy AIU Library Painting Collection Printed at: New United Process, A-26, Naraina Indl. Area, Ph-II, New Delhi 110028, Ph: 9811426024 FOREWORD We are living in excitingly turbulent times buffeted by emerging ‘disruptive technologies’. In such a scenario, education, more specifically Higher Education, can act as a panacea in tracking the emerging changes and tackling the upcoming challenges and prepare mankind for unexpected future realities. The book, Reimagining Indian Universities, containing the writings of some of the best minds in the country, underscores the deep conviction of the Association of Indian Universities to prepare a roadmap on what the future of Indian universities should be and how we prepare our universities to be future ready. It is an apt time for release of such a publication in view of the recently launched National Education Policy–2020. I am delighted that Reimagining Indian Universities is about transforming education to prepare learners to face and overcome the unexpected life challenges in an increasingly competitive world. Human nature has multiple dimensions and multiple needs. Aims and purposes of education must correlate to the needs and ideals of life and, therefore, have to be dynamic. They change from age to age, place to place and with the societal advancements. Thus, the important prerequisite for education in the 21st century and beyond is the integration of employability-oriented soft skills as an integral part of the higher education system. This education-employment connect, calls for strong industry engagement with equal emphasis on domain knowledge and humanism so as to restore to India her ancient place of pride in the global educational rankings. According to Indian philosophy, the ultimate aim of higher education is development of the universal human beings having a healthy inter-relation, interdependence and integration with everyone considering the Earth as a family—Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. Ancient India, which climbed the highest pinnacle of education by emerging as Vishwaguru, has left a rich heritage of teaching learning system for us. I am happy that there is a strong view of scholars that our ancient Indian knowledge system, which has reached sublimal heights, should be the basis for re-imagining our universities. iv I am confident that these suggestions from the captains of Indian universities would be very helpful in re-envisioning our universities in sync with the educational needs of the 21st century and beyond. Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ Union Minister Ministry of Education Government of India PREAMBLE “The old order changeth, yielding place to new, and God fulfills himself in many ways, lest one good custom should corrupt the world”. This line from the poem ‘The Passing of Arthur’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson leads us towards optimism of change. Nothing in life or in nature is ever constant. Change is the law of life and we all have to be accustomed to change. The matter of concern is not the change but it is the pace of change which is increasing exponentially day by day outpacing the past and bringing us close to the future prematurely. We stand today where the noon of tomorrow is shining. The way we adopt and adapt to new technologies is leading to disruptive changes causing disorientation and complexity in the society. This complexity is characterised by uncertainty and unpredictability. In this scenario, it becomes the responsibility of universities to guide the change and reshape the attitudes and beliefs of people at large, to prepare them for emergence of new norms and complexities. This constitutes the most important task of the future ready universities. The most pronounced dimension of reimagining universities in India is to have future ready universities that nurture personal qualities such as breadth of mind, courage, self reliance, flexibility, adaptability, and resilience in students so that they understand the complexities, deal with them, cope with them and respond to uncertainty. India is one of the fastest growing economies today, and its workforce is among the youngest, globally. In fact, by 2030, when majority of the countries will have middle-aged or elderly workforces, India will still have the advantage of a relatively young workforce. India is rich in the repertoire of traditional knowledge as well. For reimagining Indian universities, all of us who are serving in the field of higher education should try to embrace the old wisdom and unite it with all that is new and fresh to stretch into new vistas of knowledge and application. It is a task to create something new from old culture. Culture too is continuously growing with some new angle of vision, some new organ of research and some new mirror of reflection. Alvin Toffler is famous for popularising the field of futurism with his influential book Future Shock (1970) in which he says “a future facing vi higher education system can help create the consciousness needed for man to undertake the control of change and the guidance of his revolution. For by making imaginative use of change to channel change, we can spare ourselves the trauma of future shock and can reach out to humanise distant tomorrows”. By the term future shock, he meant the sense of disorientation that we are feeling due to rapid changes in our world today. This state of confusion is similar to culture shock that anybody feels when they visit some new place and have to live with new norms and taboos of the culture they are visiting.