Having an interest in life long learning, teaching and overall education ecosystem and based on my experience with going through various diplomas and degrees, below is what I would say should be the future of education in India. If India needs to have more well educated and better / productive citizens, then education & health have to be in primary focus.
- Online education courses should be promoted widely. Degree & diploma granting via online modes is a critical step for learning in people who cannot be involved in full time education in colleges / universities. Higher education related regulatory bodies have taken steps in this direction last year by approving a framework for online education. NPTEL, Swayam have already existed since few years and this framework for regulation is the logical next step
- Innovative courses around areas like cyber security, pharma management, analytics, bio-technology, quantum computing, satellite technology, geo-sciences, bioinformatics linked to innovative and new upcoming areas, space sciences, etc. should be readily promoted
- Work integrated learning programs where learning is integrated with work via exercises, self study on top of online modules should be promoted
- Bachelors & Masters degrees should be made a lot more flexible in terms of what students can study, how they get entry into it and what majors they specialize in. A Physics / engineering student should be allowed to take credits from arts, economics, other sciences, medicine, pharmacy, etc. as long as s/he meets the pre-requisites. Admissions should be based on standardized tests rather than long theoretical / domain mapped exercises / tests. Change of full major in Bachelors and Masters should be allowed mid way through the course as long as credit and requirements are met
- Complete change in areas of specialization between Bachelors and Masters should be allowed based on student interest and background
- Executive education in terms of work integrated, online, mixed mode should be encouraged and institutionalized
- Industry internships / linkages should be increased in realistic terms not just as an academic exercise by allowing 1-2 semesters in full degree to be done at a company with industry outcomes mapped to them
- Focus of regulation for courses in educational institutions should be on accreditation rather than approvals
- Part time, distance, online and executive education which in the recent years has faced major setbacks in terms of course closures, less or no approvals, inter state jurisdiction issues, etc. should be resolved at the earliest
- Single regulator for overall education system should be formalized and created
- School education should also be built on a lot more modular system where taking economics with biology or physics and literature or history should be considered normal not frowned upon
- Top universities from around the world should be allowed to form joint ventures in India for education, granting degrees, course development, up-gradation, consulting, etc.
- Research process, patent filing, trademarks, entrepreneurship, intellectual property rights and related laws, company formation, business incubation assistance, cyber security, etc. should be discussed and taught right from school level with compulsory modules / subjects in higher education. The full ecosystem of paper publishing, research, journals, conferences, research methods, statistics, etc. should be available as a module in schools & colleges for every student
- Rigid norms for PhD in terms of how, where, when, with what background and who can research should be relaxed so that industry professionals can jointly undertake research with universities at their work place easily
- Linkages with industry in terms of visiting faculty, adjunct faculty, part time professors from industry, joint research should be promoted in big way and institutionalized
Many of these things are already fully or partially enabled at some of the top universities and institutions in India like IIMs, IITs, BITS Pilani, NITs, IIITs, etc. but this now needs to percolate to the larger ecosystem
Email me at neil@TechAndTrain.com
