digitalLEARNING-June-2011-[42-43]-leader’s say-Ashok mittal

Page 1

higher education

leader’s say Ashok Mittal, Chancellor, Lovely Professional University, talks about the modern day needs, challenges and solutions in higher education

What are new-age challenges in the higher education sector? The challenges in the Higher Education Sector vary from country to country. The problems being faced by the Indian Universities are different from the ones faced

education. To do this effectively, education planners, principals, teachers, and technology specialists must make many decisions in the following areas: technical, training, financial, pedagogical and infrastructure requirements. This section looks at the tools themselves, from the satellites that link nations, to the machines that students work on in the classroom. It is intended to help educators, policy makers, planners, curriculum developers and others find their way through the often confusing maze of ICT tools, terms and systems. India’s emergence as one of the fastest growing economies on the globe, with the possibility of a double digit growth rate, poses a critical challenge of its preparedness to capitalise on opportunities on the horizon for its massive and growing work-force. More importantly, is the country looking towards creating new ways to

42

www.digitalLEARNING.in

by that in US and UK. The expectations from the Higher Education Sector are immense due to its role in producing Human Resource for the industry depending on their requirements. India being predominantly an agricultural and service sector based economies, their needs and requirements change very fast. The biggest challenge faced by the higher education sector in India is to keep pace with the same. Therefore the Universities are expected to update the curriculum as per the latest changes and also adopt a futuristic approach for the same. The other challenge which the Higher Education Sector is facing is that of availability of quality faculty members. Education was not looked as a very lucrative career and hence very few entered into it. With the setting up of the sixth pay commission, there has been a considerable change in the thought process and people are adopting this career but there is still a

big gap between the demand and supply. With 100s of colleges opening every year, we need to look at the supply to meet the growing demand. The youth too is not very seriously considering the subjects as per their interest for higher education. They are usually selected due to the peer pressure or herd mentality only for the sake of obtaining a degree. There is gap between theory and practice, combined with fragmentation of ideas of knowledge, leads to confusion that our system of higher education is suffering from. How universities can overcome with this situation? Traditionally the Universities focused more on the teaching aspect and less on the practical learning. With the industries raising concern on the product coming out of the Universities, they started

Economic growth, productivity improvement, innovations, job creation, poverty alleviation and social opportunities are interlinked and can be achieved only through entrepreneurship harvest this promise of growth through appropriate educational and training infrastructure. In this overview we will look at the emerging prospects, the current status of India’s higher education system, growing role of private institutions and challenges to emerging as a knowledge economy. One of the drivers of India’s growth, going forward is how well the professional class adapts to emerging opportunities in the new India. Historically, In-

dians have been reasonably risk-averse, preferring salaried jobs rather than take the plunge into doing something on their own. These days, the IIM graduate taking the entrepreneurial road is still the exception than the rule. The reasons why so few of our qualified people take the plunge are manifold. First, there is the issue of financial safety. Most of us who come from middle class backgrounds simply do not have sufficient funds to take risk, particularly


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.