Universities of tomorrow

Bharat H Desai 

PRIME Minister Modi, in his convocation address at Patna University on October 14, 2017, unveiled the idea of promoting 10 universities each in the public and private sectors by removing all controls; to enable them to compete for providing world-class education. A handsome funding of Rs 10,000 crore — over a period of five years — was promised, with the hope that they could find a place among the top 500 universities in the world. ‘Don’t you think that we should erase this slur and change the situation?’ he asked. 

It is a first such concrete initiative in education pronounced at the highest level. Several studies and committees have underscored the deep-rooted inertia and mediocrity of leadership in a large number of our universities. The crucial question, however, remains: Will the promise of monetary bounty revitalise universities? Can monetary reward compensate for the serious crisis of competent leadership in most of our institutions of higher learning?          

Our struggle for designing universities of tomorrow suffers from several structural fault-lines. We do not seem to understand the idea of a “university” as a living system that provides the backbone for a nation’s knowledge economy. Universities have been “grounded' to such an extent that it remains a dream to have one of the 800 universities figure in the top 500 universities in the world. It is a painful reality that barring some rare exceptions, we do not have a culture/system to value world-class contribution of scholars who chose to work in India amid the decay and mediocrity. 

Apart from funding, we require an enabling environment, positive mindset, value for scholarship and “balanced” scholars as trailblazers to head our institutions. We need to reverse the trend that pushed some of our best scholarly talent to go abroad. Many emerging private universities have been tapping the “hidden” talent struggling to survive in public-funded institutions.    

What does it take for Indian universities to become world class? The mantra of “knowledge first” must pervade in all spheres of our society. We need to learn from our past knowledge tradition and also draw from the best in the world. We need concerted efforts to overcome systemic inertia. It is rare to have an idea or a proposal sent by a scholar to the President of India, as visitor to a central university, get an acknowledgement, not to talk of an invitation to make a presentation. It indicates a lack of valuation for scholarship and the difficult times we live in. Though an ancient Indian adage proclaims that a “scholar is worshipped everywhere”, we have created a system where they are pushed to the corner and given scant respect in decision-making. It has become fashionable among bureaucrats to use the pejorative phrase: “don’t be academic”. It is no wonder then that no Indian university finds a place among the top 200 in the world.     

The change that we are seeking must start at the top of the ladder. This calls for the Prime Minister to take the lead to regularly interact with scholars and “thought” leaders. Such scholarly interface will send the right signals to the bureaucracy, political class and society.     

The time has come to change the nomenclature of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) back to the “ministry of education”. We need to club “culture” with “education”, as it plays a vital role in promoting knowledge traditions. It is also necessary to make a long-term investment in all the institutions of higher education. It must be given top priority in fund allocations (apart from secondary and tertiary education). If we invest in only 20 institutions, the prevailing decay and mediocrity in others will endanger such islands that we seek to create. Thus the Central and the state governments not only need to play a vanguard role for educational infrastructure, but also promote genuine private universities to build centres of excellence. We need to ensure that key advisory positions within the governmental apparatus are manned by outstanding scholar-professionals. When we seek the universities of tomorrow to stand tall in the global knowledge league, they need to be provided with genuine autonomy, excellent infrastructure and funding; all unimpeded by any bureaucratic and political interference. 

Along with a robust architecture for a new Ministry of Education and Culture, as part of the agenda for “reform of UGC”, we need to give a decent burial to the UGC and replace it with a forward-looking, highly professional regulator that may be called “Bharat Action in National Yearning for Advancement of Knowledge (BANYAN) Aayog”. In fact, the entire rejuvenation effort needs to be carried out under the umbrella of the “National Mission on Excellence in Higher Education” (2018-2028). We need to gravitate towards institutionalisation of a robust process and tradition, wherein irrespective of the party in power, only the best scholars are entrusted with heading our universities, IITs, IIMs andinstitutions of national importance. 

The Prime Minister needs to take an initiative as Chairman of NITI Aayog to sit with all chief ministers to discuss and work out a mechanism for a new culture for universities to excel and desist from political interference in the appointments of Vice-Chancellors and heads of institution. It will save the universities from being vandalised by people with political patronage and provide us the first building block for realising our dream of world-class universities. 

If we are desirous of catching up with the best in the world, we cannot invest in, and set free, only a handful of universities from regulatory control, as such islands would be engulfed by mediocrity. It is time the Prime Minister gives personal attention to lay the ground work for a crucial knowledge base, not only for societal progress (“vikas”), but also provide a robust basis for India to sit on the global high table. Thus, uplifting India into the global knowledge league must become part of the vision and institutionalisation of a culture for “New India”. It is a knowledge-based society that will liberate us from our current ills. It will also place India in the global orbit to promote international law-based order as well as become part of a global solution provider.    

The writer is Chairman of Centre for International Legal Studies, JNU