Courses of Action

Private universities up the game, introduce new-age, job-oriented courses with a focus on India’s changing socio-economic scenario

In 2011, after scoring nearly 90 per cent in his 10+2 board exams, Siddharth Garg decided to break from the family tradition of a graduation in commerce, seen as a must to join his father’s construction business. Delhi-based Garg opted for a degree course in jewellery design from the International Gemological Institute. Three years later, he started his own boutique diamond jewellery showroom, S2R, in a posh mall in the capital. Garg is not alone. Driven on the one hand by the acute shortage of seats in public universities, and on the other by the multitude of opportunities available, enterprising young students today are seeking out unconventional courses offered by new, emerging educational institutes and universities. These courses are job-oriented, focus on skill development and cater to the requirements of our evolving socio-economic environment.

So if hacking was a dirty word a decade ago, ethical hackers are the new guardians of cyber security, as almost every aspect of modern lifestyle—from governance to business to private communication—has moved online. Likewise, with increased awareness of alternative healing processes, trained Ayurveda practitioners are much in demand. And in a data-driven world, it needs special expertise to make sense of relevant numbers, and that’s the reason data analysers are highly sought after. The private universities that have come up in the past decade are today at the cutting edge on this. So if Manav Rachna International University offers a BTech in railway engineering, Galgotias University has courses in innovative engineering design and analysis or in building design and project management. One of the core strengths of Ashoka University is its focus on the liberal arts. This special feature examines several such emerging and innovative courses and opportunities.