The Apeejay Stya University is a seat of learning that aims to bring about transformation of society through value-based education, man-making and nation-building, and by blending together the dual identities of a technology and research-based university with a liberal arts institution. Sushma Berlia, president, Apeejay Stya Group & Svran Group, and co-founder & chancellor, Apeejay Stya University, in an interaction with FE?s Vikram Chaudhary, shares how the young university aims to provide students not only ?education for living and livelihood? but also ?education for life?. Excerpts:
In India, it is the government sector that is known for providing quality higher education, think IITs, IIMs, JNU, etc. How are private universities catching up?
It is not true that it is only the government institutions that are providing quality higher education in our country. There are good institutions in both the public and private sectors, as well as not-so-good institutions in both sectors.
The inherent malady of the higher education system is not clearly visible simply because there are small isolated pockets of excellence, a huge reservoir of gifted and talented young people, and an extreme competition in the admissions process. Though the country is proud of the global standing of its IITs and IIMs, a handful of these world-class institutions should not make us complacent, as these are not sufficient to lead us into an emerging knowledge society. In addition, the difficulty in attracting quality faculty by institutions of higher education is one of the main constraints in expanding higher education. One of the reasons for such a situation is the lack of investment in higher education. Our HRD minister has emphasised that the private sector?s participation is vital to boost access to higher education. But though the expansion of private universities and institutions in recent years has been rapid, only a few have maintained quality.
So what should be done?
I think the government should create a support system for quality private higher education institutions to ensure equity of access with quality. The government should also encourage private investment in improving the quality of state universities, initiating skill development courses and capacity development of faculty. A clear policy for inviting private sector investment in higher education should be formulated that is non-intrusive and institution-friendly.
How do you aim to bring new globalised trends in education to India?
Bringing new globalised trends in education to India is not necessarily an objective in itself. Our objective is to look at the entire education scenario in India and abroad with a view to see and understand its ?best practices? in the education fabric. Hence, the priority is to bring in the best practices here, study them comprehensively in order to understand them, and then adapt and adopt them into our institutions.
You recently said ?Innovative governance plays a pivotal role in nurturing a world-class university …?
At the recent Ficci Higher Education Summit, I had said that favourable and appropriate governance and management processes at the national and institutional level that encourage autonomy and academic freedom play a crucial role in cultivating a world-class university. What I meant was that there are two complementary perspectives that need to be considered: external and internal. In the external context, the government has to look at different ways of reaching good governance. We have seen an example of this in the case of industry. Governance is not carried out through an instrument of control and supervision; in fact, governance can be far more effective when it is carried out through a measure of accountability with transparency. While in the internal context, it has to do with the individual institutions themselves and the necessary evolution and steps they need to take to elevate themselves.
What are the initiatives being taken up by Apeejay to reach global levels?
Apeejay has waited for a long time before starting its university. However, even prior to the establishment of the university, we had made a unique identity in globalisation in different ways through our schools and institutions of higher learning, including having collaborative arrangements, student and faculty exchange programmes, joint research initiatives, joint publication of research journals, field visits, continually changing curriculum and the way we look at our pedagogy. Why we took a long time to set up a university is because we wanted to ensure that we had the right foundation in place from day one to create a world-class university.
Lastly, what were the learnings you took home from the India-US Higher Education Summit?
This summit provided a platform for meaningful collaboration among academia, private sector and government on both sides. During the summit, I was able to understand the latest trends/ challenges in education faced by both the countries and learned more about successful models in education globally.