Prepare students to respond to industry needs, says Prabhu

NEW DELHI: Union Commerce, Industry and Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday urged that the education fraternity to recognise the challenges of higher education and respond to the requirements of the 4th industrial revolution so that students of the future can live a life to face the world.

While speaking at the 14th edition of FICCI’S Higher Education Summit 2018, Prabhu said, “It is important not just to know how to learn, but more importantly how to unlearn. This will come about by keeping minds open and having an attitude towards continuous learning.”

“With the rapid changes in technology, obsolescence is the order of the day. While knowledge is becoming obsolete, it is wisdom that will prevail,” he said, adding that education will flourish where innovation is not stifled and respond in a way that helps society.

The minister also called for partnerships and collaborative efforts of all stakeholders as education cannot be designed only in the universities.

While outlining the fundamental principles on which the universities of the future would

‘It is important not just to know how to learn, but more importantly how to unlearn’

rest, Higher Education Secretary R Subramanyam said, “Students of the future would need to develop critical thinking to conceptualise, analyse and find solutions to societal problems. Creativity was the key to thinking out of the box as the problems were becoming far too complex to be dealt with in the traditional ways.”

Collaboration between students and academia would create new knowledge and two-way communication and developing a conceptual understanding of a wide-range of issues would flow from academic liberty and the pursuance of liberal education, Subramanyam said.