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I had some very interesting encounters recently. I was invited to be a Guest Speaker at an Institute of Management in Delhi on its convocation day. This Institute has been set up by some seniors from my alma materâIIT, Kanpur. The convocation ceremony was well-designed, had all the appropriate rituals, and was largely managed by the students themselves. As a young, private Institute, it may not have the âmarket recognitionâ as of now, but it surely is operating on some values that reminded me of earlier days of post-secondary education, where âgraduationâ had some meaning.
The second encounter was as a keynote speaker at a premier Malaysian University in Penang, which had hosted the first Asian conference on âUniversity-Community Partnershipâ. This University had recently been accorded an APEX status by the Malaysian Government, and provided substantial additional funding for its research, teaching and outreach activities. The argument made by this University to secure such a privileged status was its commitment to sustainable development and service to âbottom billionsâ. It argued that this path of exploration was indeed academic excellence.
The third encounter was largely virtual; I just recently read full-page advertisements where a leading Management Institute was offering special recognition awards to ministers and politicians from a certain state, as a ârecognitionâ of their contribution to the nation.
What a contrast, indeed? It is possible for a publicly funded and governed University to demonstrate excellence in emerging concerns of human survival for the poor majority; it is possible for a privately funded institute to âreconstructâ some of the academic traditions lost in most public institutions of higher education in our countries, emphasising values of learning, respect for teachers, and responsibility in âgraduatingâ; it is also possible for a private post-secondary institution imparting professional education to act in a totally unprofessional manner.
So, the critical question about the re-construction of post-secondary education in our society is about leadership. The profession of educationists, and institution-builders among them, is today mired by mediocracy, indiscipline, pettiness and rigidity; there is hardly any innovative and risk-taking type of leadership in view, which is necessary to build institutions of higher education in public and private domains. Intellectual independence, liberal scholarship and rigorous teaching, once hallmarks of great institutions of post-secondary education, have withered away.
It is, therefore, not surprising that many recent applicants for clerical jobs have had engineering and management education; curriculum, syllabus and teaching materials in many institutions of post-secondary education have not been revised for 3-4 decades; teachers and professors have not kept a pace with recent writings and research in their academic domains.
How to catalyse leadership and institution-building in post-secondary educational institutions? How to ensure that a vast diversity of actors are able to work together in this field? How to nurture learning among teachers and their âbossesâ first? Where has all the passion gone? Or where have all those with passion gone?
Rajesh Tandon
December 14, 2009
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