: Leading academicians on Tuesday called upon policy makers to adopt a liberal approach to permit institutions to effect academic reforms on curriculum, teaching, and learning methods.
Inaugurating a two-day conclave on academic reforms held at National Institute of Technology-Tiruchi here, Baskar Ramamurthi, Director, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, said expectation on producing talented students by the institutions had gone up over the years.
Institutions must rise up to the occasion. Continuous reforms based on ground realities and future requirement were the need of the hour. Policy makers must assess the quantum of flexibility that each institution could afford. There was a need to revisit the entire gamut of education so as to provide holistic and high value education.
Emphasising the need for exploring the possibilities of introducing co-curricular and extra curricular programmes, Mr. Ramamurthi said it could provide opportunities for students of varied interest to make a good beginning in their career.
Touching upon the global ranking system of institutions, Kumud N. Srinivasan, Chairman, Board of Governors, NIT-T, said Indian institutions had not still been able to scale up their rankings. The parameters of ranking system had to be studied and analysed in detail. Reforms could be initiated to match the parameters. Partnership with global leading institutions could make a change.
S. Sundarrajan, Director, NIT-T, said innovation was an important key for bringing qualitative changes. Institutions must be prepared to follow innovative curriculum to meet the expectation of industries and employers.
Strongly advocating the need for functional autonomy to the institutions, G. Viswanathan, Chancellor, VIT University, said affiliating system was actually hampering the growth of progressive institutions.
More institutions should be made autonomous. They must be allowed to take decisions on various aspects of curriculum, co-curriculum and others without unnecessary control measures by affiliating universities.
Academic flexibility could enable institutions to follow well acclaimed methods to provide high standard education. It was stated that the current pedagogies would be outdated sooner than later. The institutions should be prepared for bringing changes accordingly.
S. Vaidhyasubramaniam, Dean (Planning and Development), SASTRA University, Thanjavur, said that there was no need for the Indian institutions to read too much on world ranking.
The institutions should address the local, regional, national and social needs through their academic programmes. No university could be complacent about its success rate. The country was poised to attain a greater height in the near future. Hence, the institutions should be prepared to take reactive measures.
