Bridging learning and employability

A university graduate must have command over a basket of skills and a deep understanding of fundamentals.

“Employability and deeper academic learning are in fact inseparable.” In conversation with The Pioneer, Ananya Mukherjee, Vice-Chancellor of Shiv Nadar University, Delhi-NCR, unpacks the real challenges facing Indian higher education today. She breaks down why colleges urgently need to ditch the fake divide between hard skills and traditional schooling to survive the AI era

Indian higher education is undergoing rapid transformation. What, in your view, should define a world-class Indian university today?

There are many factors, but let me focus on two that I believe are the most important. World-class universities can only thrive if the larger ecosystem is conducive to them and if they are valued by society at large. The second factor is collaboration. Universities must collaborate, and collaborations must be incentivised and recognised, both in teaching and research.

Artificial intelligence is transforming almost every profession. How should universities redesign their teaching and curricula for the AI era?

There is no single way in which teaching and curricula can be redesigned for the AI era. We need to do in-depth work to explore what changes are required in different domains of knowledge. But, in general, teaching in the AI era should become more experiential, more interactive and require more teamwork. These skills need to be prioritised.

Parents and students today are increasingly focused on career outcomes. How can universities balance employability with deeper academic learning, creativity and critical thinking?

Actually, employability and deeper academic learning are not incompatible with each other. They are, in fact, inseparable. However, we have created artificial distinctions between ‘skills’ and ‘education’, and ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills. The coming of AI shows that these distinctions need to be overcome — a university graduate must have command over a basket of skills and a deep understanding of fundamentals.

How exactly this combination is to be delivered in India is our challenge, as these goals have to be approached at a huge scale and with enormous speed. Each university or college alone cannot do it. We have had several mission-mode approaches for AI. These can be designed with greater depth for the different disciplines and for multidisciplinary programmes; execution manuals can also be developed. AI diffusion can then be initiated across the country in a systematic, non-threatening way that stokes the impulses for innovation and curiosity rather than fear.

India wants to become a global innovation and research powerhouse. What needs to change in our higher-education ecosystem to significantly strengthen university-led research?

First of all, research needs resources. I am not going to minimise the need for resources. However, resources alone will not move the needle in a sector as large as India's. A combination of research culture, research training and resources is required. Another extremely critical component is PhD training. There are some excellent global models of PhD training. We can draw upon these models, combine their best elements with the best practices in India and establish new benchmarks in doctoral training.

How important is collaboration between universities and industry in preparing students for emerging sectors such as AI, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, biotechnology and clean technology?

In the case of these emerging industries, industry-academic collaboration is non-negotiable. I have two observations here. First off, these collaborations must be fully structured, rigorously designed and conducive to deep learning. Second, students need to learn about the social and political dimensions of these emerging technologies as well.

For example, over 500 million people do not have access to electricity, and another 2 billion rely on polluting fuels for cooking. Clean technology can be life-changing for such populations. However, technology alone cannot deliver the societal or human impact. So, it is important that universities teach about technology within its social, political and human contexts.

What qualities and skills do you believe will distinguish successful graduates over the next decade, particularly when technology itself is constantly changing?

Four things: resilience, decision-making ability, systems thinking, and the ability to learn continuously. Some may call these ‘capabilities’ rather than skills. However we see it, it is critical that all educational institutions develop these capacities in their graduates. This will also require a new approach to assessment structures. Examination-based approaches may not be able to assess these capabilities.