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Reshaping universities - Coggle Diagram
Reshaping universities
Need for reshaping
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What is working well?
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Keeping large population of young people busy for long years even when they know that at the end of degree, no jobs will be available and no useful skills will be learnt
What is not working well
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Mismatch between what students need and what they get: rigid structure of degree programs with no choice to choose specialization or courses in most univ. IIT students stuck in Biomedical or Metallurgical Engg. because of their ranks and not interest in the specialization. Also, those enrolling in engg. or medicine not even sure why they want to get into these degree programs except that they pay well or are prestigious compared to so called lower ranked choices like B.Sc., B.Com, B.A. etc.
Hardly any impactful engagement with larger community including with city planners, policy makers, citizens, environment.
Degree does not have any intrinsic information. Entrance examination rank does. IIT vs second rung engg. colleges; IIM grad vs second tier MBA colleges. Non-MBAs running businesses (entrepreneurs).
Focus of this article: Only on teaching and learning aspects, with minor focus on research and community engagement.
What is, and what could be done?
Present model: Enter univ. and stay for 3, 4, 5 yrs (depending on nature of degree-BA/B.Com/B.Sc. vs Engineering/Architecture vs MBBS/Law)
Focus on theoretical understanding with little real world exposure (except via short duration internships). Lab work does happen but stays disconnected from how things work in not-so-ideal lab conditions.
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Taking lot of courses forcibly which are not related to individuals' interest, nor is their relevance apparent to them. Hence, they pass them only because they are forced to, wasting scarce resources and a lot of time and effort. Environment Studies was one such subject in our days. There are better ways to instill the understanding and sensitize students to these issues than packing everything in a course.
Assumption: Anything of value can be learned only in a well-packed curriculum. Claim to promote lifelong learning but univ. not spaces for such learning since they force people to finish in one go in 3-4-5 years.
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