Higher education in post-Covid India

The ongoing Covid-19 crisis has changed life as we know it not just for every human being around the world but for all educational institutions too.

Whether it is our health systems, our governments, our economy, or our own personal lives — everything is now different. Ordering food, banking, paying our taxes, receiving scholarships, entertainment, tourism, acquiring information, processing it — everything has altered.

More importantly, the crisis has also left a generation of people feeling insecure, uncertain and inadequate in how they have managed themselves, institutions and countries.

Mankind has never felt more vulnerable, unsure and incompetent to this extent ever before. Skills that we had acquired over decades, knowledge and experiences of people and institutions have all been rendered irrelevant. All of a sudden, we are now being exposed to a growing demand of acquiring new skill sets, new knowledge, new ways of interpreting the acquired knowledge — all of this in time frames that are highly condensed and capsulated.

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Existing institutions of higher learning can no longer be seen as relevant if they continue to prepare the next generation of students with skills that are both fossilised and inadequate. We need a new generation of thinkers, academicians, sector leaders, and administrators to ask themselves the difficult question of how to operate in such a dynamically altering system.

The higher education system is struggling to deal with the demands of the students that are constantly increasing in a situation where the capacities of academicians are not proportionally expanding. Balancing the budgets is an ongoing nightmare. New regulations emerging by the day only drive more bureaucracy into the system.

One needs to see the current Covid-19 crisis not just as a challenge to be grappled with, but as an extraordinary opportunity that has presented to all of us. Students now need to prepare themselves for a world that is not just demanding newer skillsets but a completely new mindset — a mindset that allows them to acquire newer knowledge in different forms, applying it in situations where they've never been tested before, and ensuring that their knowledge and skills are socially useful and financially rewarding.

They need to appreciate that despite the novelty of tech-driven education, the relevance of physical environments, immersive experiences and transacted classroom learning can never be totally dispensed with. Social networks and social skills that one builds in university settings are for life and their value is immeasurable.

Academicians and teachers have to discover the content that they can transact both in classroom environments and virtual spaces in a meaningful and hybridised manner. They need to unlearn old habits, learn new technologies, change their own mental models and see themselves, the students, and the academic ecosystems in a new light. They need to demonstrate humility, the eternal quest for learning and adapt to newer demands on a real-time basis.

Administrators and education leaders have to get accustomed to brick-and-mortar facilities being used less and less. They need to balance the expanding technological requirements with ensuring optimal utilisation of existing physical infrastructure. They need to ensure that they can recruit talent that can deliver to today's demands while inspiring trust and confidence in students entering their institutions.

Managing all the stakeholders in this ever-changing environment is going to demand visionary, courageous leadership willing to take immeasurable risks, and drive innovation and experimentation on a sustained basis.

All this is easier said than done. In a country where higher education has been driven traditionally by both the Government of India and respective states, one has to learn how to negotiate, being a ‘conforming non-conformist’.

The good news is the National Education Policy (NEP) — a well-thought-out policy that has come out at the right time. All that is needed is the political will and stability to ensure that this is translated into action soon.

In conclusion, the world is now going to see a new generation of young entrepreneurs and leaders who will redefine the concept and purpose of human development. This will be the generation that will teach everyone how to combine personal aspirations with public action. It is this Gen-Next that will enable us to understand how one can generate private profits while addressing societal needs.

The next generation of Indian universities has to gear up to live a life where hybridised ecosystems are going to be the norm and meet these needs of the youth. Universities that understand and master this will be the ones that will survive and thrive. The rest will have to face an exit.

(The writer is founder & Chairman of GRAAM and is a visiting professor at Cornell University, USA)