view in one page and print

(Forwarded by Aviral Srivastava, B. Tech.-Part II, Mechanical Engineering. Email: avirals1@hotmail.com)

A one day seminar on "Higher Education: Global Perspectives and Indian Vision" was conducted on 12^th October, 2009 at Senate Hall, Swatantrata Bhawan, BHU as a prequel to International BHU Alumni Meet 2009. The Chief Guest was Prof. B. M.  Shukla, ex-Vice Chancellor of Gorakhpur University and former Minister to Russia.

Dr. P.K. Singh brought the seminar to a start by raising the question of the role of higher education in today’s context.

The first speaker, Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Prof. Virendra Singh, highlighted the need of more universities in India, considering that many are denied education opportunities. He remarked that singly Cambridge lab alone has produced 9 Nobel laureates to date. Now that the world has shrunk to a global village, Indian universities should strive for a better system to improve the quality and outreach of Indian education. He envisioned that moral values, ethics and usefulness to society, which are the hallmarks of the Indian vision of education, will go a long way in promoting humanism, tolerance, progress, search for knowledge and search for truth.

The next speaker, Prof. Tripathi, acknowledged the need of the seminar and government initiative of inviting foreign universities to establish campuses in India. He suggested that one should seek opportunities to integrate Indian and western visions to improve delivery models of education as ancient wisdom and methodologies can go a long way in strengthening the western model.

Prof. Pandit made an impacting presentation on global education from a pharmaceutical perspective, emphasising the 4 key players in education: academicians, industry, government and professionals. He stressed that people must be sensitive to the ethical and social component of higher education.

Dr. Debashish Khan then made a presentation drawing parallels between science and spirituality. Emphasizing the element of faith in modern science and quoting several Nobel laureates, he highlighted the need to increase awareness towards the synthesis of science and spirituality.

Prof. M.K. Ghosh held everyone’s attention with his flamboyant style and crisp presentation. Getting straight to the point, he admitted that higher education was not getting its due status and raised the question, “What went wrong and what can be done?” Globalisation and information flow have transformed the higher education scenario in India with wide-reaching consequences in the economic, knowledge and societal fronts. Technological innovations and changing pattern of trade and competition have deeply impacted the economic situation in the country.

Exponential growth in knowledge and contemporary social issues like democracy norms, gender equality, RTI Act, Corporate social responsibility etc have also necessitated the reframing of Higher education policies. Speculating on the reasons of failure, he said that the lack of sincerity in monitoring and implementation and the lack of dynamic approach with changing requirement are likely causes. He suggested that higher education should include basic knowledge and understanding of commerce, economics, costing etc and advocated reframing of the curricula with respect to flexibility and continuous revision and introduction of new courses.

Dr. Mohan, from the Department of Civil Engineering, lamented that we were still following McCaulay’s education system which was designed to subjugate and enslave Indians and quoted McCaulay in this very context. He countered that why not enrich the Ancient Indian education system with elements of western model instead of the other way around! Praising Malviyaji’s vision and objectives for establishing Banaras Hindu University, he stressed the importance of Guru-Shishya parampara, character building, ethics and purpose of education and research in arts and sciences.

Director of IT-BHU, Prof. S. N. Upadhyay beautifully summarized the previous speakers and stated that India needed to overcome her complex of the Western civilization. He advocated using indigenous examples in teaching, quoting brilliant cases like the Samudra Manthan and yoke of a bullock cart!

The final speaker, coincidentally a teacher of Director himself, Chief Guest Prof. B. M. Shukla enamoured one and all with his anecdotes. Drawing on his wide array of experiences, he highlighted the deficiency of our regulatory bodies. Whereas 44 deemed universities were set up in India from 1947 to 2004, 49 were set up soon after in a span of just 5 years! He reminisced about the Indian freedom struggle and expressed disappointment that patriotism and the fire within were lacking in today’s generation.  Acknowledging that Mahamana’s vision was both global and societal, he stated that 7 attributes were required at the global level: Vidya, Tap, Gyaan, Daan, Sheel, Dharma being among them.

 

Leave a comment

(if you having troubles, try posting your comment on this page or send an email to chronicle @ itbhuglobal.org)

Name
Email Address
URL
Remember personal info?
Comments
(You may use HTML tags for style)