The job market may have begun to lean towards a candidate who has a breadth of knowledge rather than single-minded specificity. But until this is the norm rather than the exception, students with diverse interests could continue to feel that they have to pigeonhole themselves to succeed.
Soon, however, they will have the option not only to pursue these distinct paths, but perhaps find meaningful overlaps. Krea University, an upcoming institution at Sri City, will place ‘interwoven learning’ at the core of all its four-year B.A. and B.Sc. honours degrees. This means, stitching together threads from various disciplines to form a cohesive fabric, applied to solve problems in real-world settings.
R. Seshasayee, chairman, IndusInd Bank, is the chairman of the university’s executive committee, and a member of the university’s governing council. He discusses the gap in higher learning that Krea could potentially fill; why interwoven learning was made a priority, and how it can shape leaders of the next generation.
Higher learning
What the real world requires from those coming out of higher learning institutions is diverging more from what institutions can cater. We have to address this — create something that is more appropriate for the 21st century.
There are many of us, including N. Vaghul, and Raghuram Rajan, coming together for Krea University, because we believe something needs to be done in higher education to prepare the right kind of leaders for the future. Education is central to anything we dream about.
In the U.S., liberal arts and science colleges give you access to a multiplicity of disciplines. So, you can opt for two or three subjects you are interested in. For example, economics and theatre studies. But merely pursuing these interests separately isn’t what society requires of graduates, and isn’t what would bring out the best in them. So we thought of interwoven, or interdisciplinary learning. The threads from different subjects aren’t just left as loose strands; they’re woven together to produce a pattern and a fabric. This is reflected in the university’s logo too. It is about multiple disciplines coming together for a purpose — to solve problems, or address an opportunity — not just to satisfy curiosity or interests.
Working backwards
We first examined 10 problems each in the fields we wanted to teach. When taking social science, for instance, we considered communal harmony. Next, we thought of the kind of learnings that one needs to address it. It could involve history to tell us which periods in India’s past had communal harmony. What do we need by way of data analytics? What about taking into account ethics, or social impact to make the right choices? It isn’t just a random choice of subjects; interwoven learning brings together relevant knowledge from different domains — it could be data science, political science, or social science
For the first year, students opt for core and required courses, and then choose a specialisation. But even after that, interwoven learning plays a big part. To make this more relevant, we will pick around 20 careers, examine the dominant issues in each of them, and decide what will equip the students to become competitive in that career. This is not abstract or open-ended because in India, students have to be able to take on a career when they come out of an institution. We will have corporates and social institutions partnering with us to facilitate placements. They will be our partners right from the start, involved even in tweaking the curriculum, in order to get the right kind of output from the institution.
Next-generation leaders
Leadersneed to be problem-solvers . Second, they must have an understanding of the major influences shaping the 21st-century. This includes keeping abreast of developments in technology, such as human-machine interfaces or artificial intelligence. It wouldn’t be about just learning C++, but knowing what tools in data analytics or technology are available to solve a given problem. The third aspect,is the most important. Everything is to be anchored on an understanding of ethics and social impact. Not just a moral class, but debating the ethics of the choices that we make to solve a problem.
We have an illustrious academic council. Some of them, like Srinath Raghavan and Gaurav Raina, will be teaching too. They have a huge network of faculty who have worked and trained with them that we may be able to tap into.
Wedon’t want students to take just another exam. We will consider their past scholastic records, but our intention is to look at the candidate as a multi-dimensional person. The admission process is still being designed, and we plan to keep the student-teacher ratio tight. Admissions for the first batch will be opening later this year. www.krea.edu.in .
