WHY STUDY LIBERAL ARTS
Pramath Raj Sinha, co-founder, Ashoka University, on the relevance of a liberal arts degree
Pramath Raj Sinha is a busy man. Founding dean of Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, co-founder of Ashoka University at Sonipat, Haryana, the former McKinsey man is also founder of Vedica Scholars Programme for Women in Delhi, an alternative masters in business administration (MBA) programme and all-women residential programme that tries to address the problem that there are far more women graduate from high school than men, but get left behind in careers. Alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, with a PhD in applied mechanics and robotics from the University of Pennsylvania, US, he knows the power of a good education. Here Sinha, who continues to edit his father’s Patna-based Hindi paper Nai Dhara, talks to KAVEREE BAMZAI about the virtues of a liberal arts education. Excerpts from a conversation:
Ashoka University is now in its fifth year. Why should a young person pursue a liberal arts education?
As I see it, it’s a way of educating. One should have both breadth of perspectives and depth in a subject. Students should be able to choose their majors. There should be flexibility in exploring multiple subjects. In the 21st century, no one will have just one career for life. How do you prepare students for this? Liberal education ensures students develop critical thinking, which allows them to identify problems, disaggregate them and solve them through a collaborative process, regardless of the subject and prior knowledge. They need communication skills which enable them to translate thought into action. They need self-awareness, recognising their strengths and weaknesses, having a sense of purpose. With a gross enrolment ratio of 20 per cent, and 1 in 5 young people getting into higher education institutions, college students are privileged and cannot ignore their obligation to society. They need to be committed to public service and to being the kind of leader the world needs today. At Ashoka University, we encourage our students to have a sense of
optimism about the world but ensure they don’t live in a bubble.
How do we ensure the children of today have empathy?
It arises from increasing self-awareness and engendering a sense of purpose in students. At Ashoka, we ensure it through diversity, choosing students from all walks of life, and in particular we are committed to supporting students who would not be otherwise able to afford a high quality education. You then expose them to the real problems in our communities, our societies, our country and our world. You teach them to question and challenge, but constructively. You inspire them with the experiences of others’ lives that have been well-lived, purposeful and giving. And, of course, you give them strong academic grounding, that is not coloured by opinions, delivered by inspirational teachers. As our new vice chancellor Pratap Bhanu Mehta recently said: My role as a teacher is to present in the most generous manner the work of others. Then you leave it to the students to connect the dots.
What is the biggest challenge you faced?
Our biggest challenge is to convince parents to send their children to a young institution. A lot of our time as founders (Ashoka University was established by a set of founders including Sanjeev Bikhchandani of naukri.com, Ashish Dhawan of Central Square Foundation, Vineet Gupta of Jamboree Education and Sinha) was spent in evangelising to parents. Now that the first batch has graduated, the world can see the outcomes. All of us put our personal credibility on the line. A second challenge is to attract and retain high quality faculty. In most institutions in India, students are treated like non-entities. But everybody needs a champion. In my own case, my stint at IIT Kanpur was academically a disaster. It was only when one of my professors noticed me and helped me get into University of Pennsylvania that I could make a fresh start.
So how do we transform higher education in India?
We have to start by creating a tiered structure for institutions. Apart from institutions of excellence for those who wish to learn, research and specialise, we need a second rung of institutions that feeds the economy, like the booming IT, retail, banking, pharma sectors. We also need institutions with focus on minimum social commitment to build skills on the lines of community colleges and vocational colleges. Each of these tiers needs to be governed differently. Currently, we have a system that is administered by the lowest common denominator where a leader like an IIM Director is expected to work for an annual salary of `25-30 lakh. We need to remove the huge barriers to entry.
What about teachers?
We need a National Mission to get people to teach. If countries can have a compulsory national service to serve in the armed forces, why can’t we have a year-long national service of teaching for everyone who goes to college? Or individuals volunteering at least three hours a week to teaching in the local college or local school. Technology can only help educate the already educated. We will still need live teachers in the classroom if we have to give our children their due on education.
“IN THE 21ST CENTURY, NONE OF US WILL HAVE JUST ONE CAREER ANYMORE. HOW DO YOU PREPARE A STUDENT FOR THIS? USING LIBERAL ARTS AS A METHOD WE HAVE TO ENSURE STUDENTS DEVELOP CRITICAL THINKING”