What do engineering students need to know today? Gone are the days when sufficient knowledge of angles and bridge construction would get him or her through. Today, they need to know the economic impact of a project, environmental issues, concerns of the indigenous population, and a host of other things to stay on top.

That is the gap that the upcoming Ashoka University, which is being set up by The International Foundation for Research and Education (IFRE), hopes to bridge.

IFRE was started by a group of businessmen including Pramath Sinha, Chief Executive Officer of 9.9 Mediaworx and Founding Dean of Indian School of Business; CEO of Naukri.com Sanjeev Bikhchandani and Director of Jamboree Vineet Gupta.

Ashoka University, which is likely to be opened in 2014, has tied up with the liberal arts institution Carleton College, US, for development and exchange of curriculum, faculty and students.

Liberal arts education is yet to pick up in the country, but Arjendu Pattanayak, Associate Dean, Carleton College, believes India is ripe for changing gears from conventional, specialised education to liberal education, which he said prepares students not just in pedagogical terms but more importantly teaches them to learn, re-learn and adapt to changes.

IFRE currently runs a one-year residential post-graduate course concentrating on liberal arts under the Young India Fellowship programme, which is a precursor to the Ashoka University. Carleton College would help with the development of curriculum for this programme as well.

IFRE has also been working with University of Pennsylvania for faculty and curriculum support. On the importance of liberal education, Pattanayak, who studied in the University of Delhi, said, “When a country is starting out you may want to focus on technical education — engineering and medicine and so on. But a thriving democracy society requires broadly trained individuals, requires people who have learned to think in multiple ways, who can speak across disciplinary and intellectual boundaries.”

Beyond basic

He added that India is finally moving beyond “roti, kapda, makaan” and the building of society is moving beyond basic needs, making the country ripe for this move from conventional education.

Sinha said, “If you look at the number kids going abroad for that kind of education that’s a good indicator of the fact that people are interested and want a broader education.”

He further said that as an employer specialisations are often a hindrance because he is unable to find people with holistic, problem-solving capabilities.

“I need people who can understand a problem, look at it from multiple perspectives, go out and take charge. I find that people we are recruiting are extremely narrow and specialised.”

Sinha was also a Partner at McKinsey & Company earlier.

Pattanayak added, “When you look at the problems of a society, they are not necessarily economic, or physics-related or have something to do with engineering. Problems don’t recognise disciplines. It’s not a question that comes of the back of this book. Just being sharp at physics doesn’t equip me if I haven’t thought about the economic consequences of what I am doing.”

As a parting note, George Shuffelton, who teaches medieval and early modern literature at Carleton, explained, “Once upon a time, when you got a professional education and ended up doing the same thing for the next 30-40 years that kind of narrow education made sense. But that’s not the way world works anymore. Today, the second job is not going to look like your first job and by the time you get your fifth job you’ll be doing something very different. So, what we are doing is teaching students how to learn. What we teach them is important but it’s equally important how we teach them and encourage them to get used to that kind of flexible thinking.”

> aesha.datta@thehindu.co.in

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