The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Holistic education `is needed'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 04, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Holistic education `is needed'

Special Correspondent

Palani Periasamy calls for inter-disciplinary approach to transfer of knowledge

INSTITUTE - INDUSTRY INTERACTION: S.P. Thyagarajan, Madras University Vice-Chancellor, and Palani G. Periasamy, industrialist, at the inauguration of lecture series. — Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

CHENNAI: Engineering and medical education are becoming like individual boxes. There is no interdisciplinary approach that straddles the engineering and medical curricula, said Palani G. Periasamy, an industrialist who runs a group of educational institutions.

There can be institutions providing education in select disciplines but they have to be part of a larger framework facilitating the enhancement of knowledge transfer.

"Knowledge is not divisible. You cannot segment it," he said, delivering a lecture organised by the Madras University's Department of Anthropology.

Umbrella organisation

Responding to an observation made earlier by M.A. Kalam, Professor and Head of the Department that social sciences and humanities were not given the attention they deserved, Dr. Periasamy, who taught in the United States for some years, said that the situation in the U.S. was different.

"An interdisciplinary approach is what we need," he emphasised, suggesting that the Madras University play the role of an umbrella organisation under which various institutions of higher education come together and ensure knowledge transfer in a holistic manner.

Many projects incomplete

Inaugurating the lecture series, S.P. Thyagarajan, Madras University Vice-Chancellor, said that the University was engaged in building up its physical and human infrastructure in many areas with several projects expected to be completed next year.

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