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Updated on: Monday, April 06, 2009

In his earnest assessment of the educational system, this year’s gold medallist and first-rank holder from the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, strikes common ground with the hi-profile Yash Pal review committee on higher education, constituted by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).

Young MBA graduate Shaveen Garg says that even in the top B-schools there are very few options in terms of the courses on offer, and very little diversity. “In the United States the list of optional courses is around 70, while here it is about 20,” he points out. Renowned scientist and academic Yash Pal would agree; and this is perhaps the reason why the committee’s report titled “Renovation and Rejuvenation of Universities” manages to hit the nail right on the head.

The report, in its recommendations, attempts to “recover the idea of a university”, and makes it mandatory for it to be multi-disciplinary. Speaking to The Hindu, on the sidelines of a committee meeting held at the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore, Prof. Yash Pal says that the “fragmentation has to go.” While the report decrees that the rather exclusive IITs and IIMs must expand to provide courses in arts and humanities, it talks of rehabilitating the “isolated sphere of professional education back in the university.” “Things cannot be isolated because both the professional courses — engineering and medicine which have particularly become islands — and the universities suffer. Why should an engineering student not get to learn dance, music or politics as a secondary subject?” Prof. Yash Pal asks. And the suggestion has gone down well with the institutes, he claims.

While a series of meeting are currently taking place across the country to finalise the interim draft release in January, the final draft is slated to be out by mid-April. Significantly, the committee has mooted the formation of an all-encompassing Higher Education Council, a central statutory body to oversee higher education. Further, bodies such as the UGC, AICTE, DCI, to name a few, will be divested of academic functions.
Good response

Apoorva Anand, member of the committee, told The Hindu that the response from the academic community has been good. “People from Kerala to Guwahati are waiting for change, autonomy and freedom. The existing multiple regulatory systems everywhere are not seen favourably,” Mr. Anand said. The HEC will have five wings to deal with academics, accreditation and the work; its role will be fleshed out in the final report, he added.

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Welcome to the freedom movement

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