Cluster universities:
Hope for broader, dynamic curriculum
UNIVERSITIES NEED TO BE FREE OF OBSCURANTISM,
A PLACE WHERE YOUTH ARE TAUGHT TO THINK FREELY TO MAKE THE WORLD BETTER
Reading about the start of admission to Dr Homi Bhabha University,
Maharashtra’s first such ‘cluster’ educational institution made me want to turn
the clock more than four decades when I was in college.
My first
choice of academic stream then was engineering. But having soon realised that
my aptitude in mathematics and physics was not quite as formidable as I had
imagined, I was in turmoil.
Medicine was
not my interest, nor chartered accountancy, catering or fine arts. I enjoyed
history, politics and English, but was also very fond of biology and chemistry.
But there was no way to marry these because the facility just didn’t exist. I
settled for a degree in economics, then studied law, and both have been
enriching experiences.
But every
now and then I regret the absence of streams that would have permitted pursuit
of streams that were not so strongly typecast.
University
education in the 1970s was rather straitjacketed. Degree courses were
restricted to arts, science and commerce, and ‘professional’ courses, largely
to those mentioned earlier. For those who had wider interests, the Indian
educational system was not interested. It was distressing, but the predicament
had no solution, as anybody of my era or earlier, and even till very recent
times will testify.
The nature
and scope of college education started changing about a quarter of a century
back after India became part of the globalised world and transfer of
information became swifter. Globalisation impacted growth of knowledge, changes
in lifestyles, opportunities for livelihood. This created a demand for more
broad-based and dynamic curriculum — sometimes even in highly-specialised
courses — from that which existed.
Progress in
this direction, however, has been tardy. Universities are hardly nimble for
logistical reasons, but more so for stifling bureaucracy or bloated sense of
importance: the bigger, the more averse to change, like Mumbai University. In
fact, over the past three to four decades, this once-world-renowned university
has been virtually reduced to shambles, with quality of education being
diminished, and engulfed in controversies galore.
In this
context, setting up the Dr Homi Bhabha cluster university is a step in the
right direction. And long overdue too, particularly since it involves stellar
governmentrun colleges like Elphinstone and Sydenham (plus Institute Of Science
and Secondary Training (Bed) colleges) that had lost their lustre.
One
understands that another city-based cluster university – with HR, KC and Bombay
Teachers College – is in the pipeline. While all these colleges will lose their
affiliation with Mumbai University, they will not lose significance.
In fact this
could be enhanced if the cluster universities live up to the promise and
potential that vice chancellor Suhas Pednekar has espoused: of making mobility
between elective subjects they desire easy for students.
There are
inherent, built-in advantages for the Dr Bhabha University (and the other
cluster too when it starts): of proximity with each other, sharing of faculty,
research facilities et al.
The
challenge is in recruiting faculty of the highest quality (or reskilling them)
for the new direction that the university hopes to pursue, but most
importantly, how knowledgefriendly (vis-à-vis ideologydriven) the curriculums
designed will be.
Universities
in India are coming under duress, unfortunately. Where the world is looking to
conquer new frontiers, in the sciences and humanities, we seem to be stumbling
against obstacles. No study or knowledge, of course, is perfect or complete.
This is the fundamental premise in search of knowledge. There have and will be
revisions, new findings etc. But these must adhere to robust methodology and
processes to be ratified otherwise it can set us back.
For instance
bigotry can become history (Nathuram Godse was a deshbhakt, said an electoral
candidate) and bizarre theories circumventing scientific principles to promote
superstition can be assigned undeserving truthvalue to fit a particular
ideological narrative. And so on.
Universities
need to be free of obscurantism, a place where young men and women are taught
to think freely, come up with ideas to make their lives, the country and the
world a better place.
Source | Hindustan
Times | 17th May 2019
Regards
Mr.
Pralhad Jadhav
Research Scholar (IGNOU)
Senior Manager @ Knowledge
Repository
Khaitan & Co
Mobile @ 9665911593
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