Tamil Nadu   

The vision for excellence

Vani Doraisamy

Here's what three former vice-chancellors have to say about the future of university education

150 YEARS OLD: The Senate House of the University of Madras, Chennai, after renovation. - Photo: R. Shivaji Rao

THE SETTING could not have been more appropriate. Inaugurating the 150th year celebrations of the University of Madras, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam laid out a roadmap for the university's future that would perhaps generate enough debate throughout the yearlong celebrations.

In essence, President Kalam's speech focussed on a few crucial aspects: prioritising the student in all aspects of university life, granting functional autonomy to universities and the challenges of a networked era.

The President's speech, `University System for a Knowledge Era', dwelt at length on the `the capacities which are required to be built in students by the university': "The Madras University with its 150 years of heritage and its forward-looking abilities in arts, science and technology can sow the seeds of capacity-building among the students.

A good educational model is the need of the hour. The university will have to continuously innovate making use of modern technology.

The capacities, which are required to be built, are research and enquiry, creativity and innovation, use of high technology, entrepreneurial and moral leadership.''

Infrastructure

Neither material nor human infrastructure could be overlooked: "Universities should equip themselves with adequate computing equipment, laboratory equipment, and Internet facilities... the teacher will become even more important and the whole world of education will become teacher-assisted and would help in `tele-porting' the best teacher to every nook and corner of the country and propagate the knowledge. The virtual university created between Universities of Madras, Mumbai and Kolkata is a good step forward in this direction for knowledge sharing and outreach in the remote areas.''

"The power of networking can definitely be used for providing quality education to students located in different parts of the State. In the world of virtual universities, the equitable access to all its participants to the best resources — be it teachers, library or laboratory — is the primary goal.

As bandwidth becomes cheaper and available in abundance, universities should be able to run remote instruments and facilities as complex as NMR to wind tunnels.

These are applications that can make a difference in how we engage in teaching, learning, and research in higher education,'' the President said, adding: "It is essential for Tamil Nadu Government to integrate all the other universities of the State to become partners in the extension of the virtual university.

Assessment

Also for promoting excellence and innovation, the universities may be empowered with adequate functional autonomy. This will help the higher education system to generate the human capital needed for the knowledge era.''

Education Plus spoke to a few academicians, including the varsity's former vice-chancellors, to assess how the University of Madras can live up to the President's vision, especially on the issue of autonomy.

S.P. Thyagarajan, former vice-chancellor, University of Madras

The university has already gone in for an overall quality upgradation and five benchmarks have been set for the future: quality in teaching, research, educational ambience, governance and accreditation of affiliated institutions.

Building quality human infrastructure would be the biggest challenge as there is an inbuilt resistance to innovation and a feeling of academic saturation within certain sections of the university community.

An attitudinal change is needed everywhere.

Accountability-linked autonomy is the need of the hour as that would encourage initiative and innovation. All of this should essentially be linked to performance-linked productivity and enhancing the employability of students.

M. Anandakrishnan, former VC, Anna University

The President had rightly emphasised on giving students a participatory role in all aspects of university life as there is a feeling that students are being made into a sideshow in university affairs.

University systems in the State are now highly politicised, especially when it comes to appointments and hence it is highly appropriate that the President drew attention as to how intellectual achievements are possible only with a degree of autonomy.

Autonomy would ensure a quality control in the system.

S. Sathikh, former vice-chancellor, University of Madras

The time is right for the University of Madras to delegate the affiliating initiative to a component university, which can be referred to under the same name, and go back to academics and research. College autonomy should precede university autonomy.

Autonomy

Autonomy means strengthening colleges and developing good teachers. Unless the quality of teacher material is improved, excellence through autonomy cannot be enforced.

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