IITs to provide more multi-disciplinary courses; says Dharmendra Pradhan

Premier engineering institutions such as IITs will work towards providing more multi-disciplinary and holistic education with the inclusion of more arts and humanities subjects. Students of Arts and Humanities will learn vocational as well as soft skills, Union Education Minister said.

Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said that engineering institutions such as IITs will work towards providing more multi-disciplinary and holistic education with the inclusion of more arts and humanities subjects.

Pradhan was speaking at the three-day-long World Universities Summit 2021 on “Universities of the Future: Building Institutional Resilience, Social Responsibility and Community Impact” organised by O.P. Jindal Global University inaugurated today virtually by Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu in the august presence of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The event was also attended by the Professor (Dr.) D.P. Singh, Chairman, University Grants Commission (UGC), and Naveen Jindal, Founding Chancellor, O P Jindal Global University.

While speaking at the Summit, the Union Education Minister emphasized on need to upskill the youth and making them future-ready. "The higher education system we have inherited after independence was designed and established during colonial times. In today’s date of globalization and liberalization, we must reform the education sector and ensure that we achieve goals that are aligned with the development and growth of the nation. It is a diverse and complex landscape. India has re-imagined the transformation of its education landscape to adapt to these times and introduced the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020," said Pradhan.

"NEP 2020 has given growth to new imagination to Indian Higher Education. It indeed outlines the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make India 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'. The PM has repeatedly mentioned that India has a moral obligation to not only produce responsible citizens but also global citizen. The four pillars of NEP 2020 make it adequately clear the quality, equity, accessibility and affordability are the foundation on which new India will lead us. India’s innovation and research will directly impact the society and global community. Future institutions should have synergy, seamless integration with global norms that will turn our human resources into human capital," he said.

While speaking about the MERU, Pradhan said, "with the concept of multi-disciplinary education and research University (MERU), our youth can explore their talent and pursue higher education to maximize the gain based on congruence between liking and aptitude. The options have been multiplied, the windows of opportunities opened, the holistic multi-disciplinary education in local regional languages with an aim to develop all capacities of human beings, intellectuals, aesthetics, social, physical, emotional and moral in an integrated manner."

The education minister emphasized that no one should suffer due to lack of language limitations or regional, linguistic constraints.

"Even premier engineering institutions such as IITs will work towards providing more multi-disciplinary and holistic education with the inclusion of more arts and humanities subjects. Students of Arts and Humanities will learn vocational as well as soft skills. The establishment of the National Research Foundation will be instrumental in creating a conducive environment and engraving the culture of research and innovation in the country. An elaborate Budget of Rs 15,000 crore has been earmarked for the next 5 years for this domain," he added.

"An academic Bank of credit has been established to digitally store the academic credits from the various recognized higher education institutions so that the degrees from higher education institutions can be awarded taking into account the credit points. This will help our education system to integrate and establish global practice and will also attract a larger number of internationals students to study in India and vice-versa. We have to promote India as a global study destination, providing education at an affordable cost. This will help in Indian Universities to set up their campuses globally. Similarly with global universities setting their campus in India will help students to study here itself. Our aim will be, to encourage students to ‘Study in Inda, Stay in India’. Education is not only the accumulation of facts and knowledge but the ability to teach the human mind to think. The future education system will be based on making students know how to think. New age technology will enhance the learning outcome and capacity building of all stakeholders," the education minister said.
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