Contextualising the Developmental University in India

C Shambu Prasad XIMB - KICSResearch Meeting on “Rethinking Universities in

India: Intermediaries for Socially Inclusive Development”

JNU January 8-9, 2013

Contents

• South Asia and UNIID• Indian network on UNIID• Overview of spread of higher education• Envisioning Development? Universities role

beyond Research and Teaching.• Educational innovations outside formal spaces• Towards innovation for Inclusive Development

Colombo Meet UNIID eb 2-4, 2012

Sectoral Issues

Operational

Epistemology

Strategic

Network Building &Management

UIID Research with Communities

Communication & Diffusion

Capacity building/Institutional Devt

Policy & Advocacy Curriculum

Development for IID

UNIIDKnowledge Areas

TertiaryEducational Institutions

Research Councils/ Institutions

Community OrganizationsNGOs

Think Tanks

Government

Industry

UNIID Program Components

Partners

INDIA SRI LANKA

PAKISTANBANGLADESH

Donors

Social Movements

Goals of UNIID South Asia ProgramAIM• Reorient institutes of higher education and research towards IIDGOAL:• Contextualize and build the field of IID in South Asia • Shape higher education policy, research and curricula to encourage innovations

for inclusive development • Enable marginalized communities to participate and shape knowledge creation

and innovationsINDICATORS:• Institutionalization of IID in South Asia

– Increased number of universities/faculty/students engaged in IID– Increased research and publications on IID in universities

• Increased participation of marginalized communities in innovation projects• Improve livelihood of marginalized because of innovation initiatives

Discussion Papers on ideas, themes etc… Engaging on social innovation … beyond current management and science policy interests. www.uniid2012.tk

Developmental University

• Developmental Universities: A Changing Role for Universities in the South. IDRC note RoKS 2006– To increase their contribution to development through the

production and distribution of knowledge, universities in developing countries need to transform themselves into “developmental universities.”

• Local needs must be included in research agendas. • New assessment methods that encourage research

on local needs….Does this make sense in the Indian context?

“Contextualising the developmental university in India: A preliminary mapping exercise”

• How do India universities (higher education institutes in general) look at their relation to development? How is this articulated?

• How does this associate with social inclusion (and exclusion) and / or inclusive innovation?

• How are concerns of development articulated in spaces outside formal universities?

• Can universities learn to recognize the knowledge generated by artisans, craftsmen, farmers and others in the informal sector?

• How can these initiatives in the non-formal spaces add to the imagination of the idea of the universities?

Universities in India – An overview• 150 + yr history• State Universities (297,

47%)• Central Universities (43,

7%)• Deemed universities (125,

20%)• INIs (16 IITs, 13 IIMs and

other institutes, 125, 20%) • Private Universities (100,

16%)...

About 10 of 350 universities located in rural areas. In addition a rural student has to learn two languages in addition to mother tongue to get into higher education, this increase to three in the case of adivasis. “Cutting across lines of caste, tribe, and religion or gender a –person born in Indian village is likely to be deprived of any reasonably decent education” – Ganesh Devy….

Overview of Developmental Role of Universities

• High focus on excellence, global competitiveness in knowledge production and dissemination (research and teaching).. Articulated differently

• Not much attention to inclusion, development, equity, justice…

• Several initiatives though within the universities on this…

Vision and Mission statements of Universities

• Three oldest universities Calcutta ( January 24, 1857)http://www.caluniv.ac.in/index.html

Madras (5th September 1857 ) http://www.unom.ac.in/index.php?route=university/university

Bombay (1857)http://www.mu.ac.in/index.html

Have no vision and mission statements in their websites. Except distance education there is no outreach program…. Yet interesting initiatives likes GVS

The University of Hyderabad

a premier institution of post graduate teaching and research in the country, was established by an Act of Parliament (Act No. 39 of 1974) on 2nd October, 1974 as a Central University, Wholly financed by the University Grants Commission.

The "objects of the University" as envisaged in the Act are:" to disseminate and advance knowledge by providing instructional and research facilities in such branches of learning as it may deem fit and by the example of its corporate life, and in particular to make special provisions for integrated courses in humanities and science in the educational programmes of the University and to take appropriate measures for promoting inter-disciplinary studies and research in the University."http://www.uohyd.ernet.in/

Developmental role not clearly articulated

Newer univs… Central University of Orissa, Sikkim Univ

• CUO will be a nationally prominent research university recognized for the excellence of its faculty and the balance they strike between teaching and scholarship; for its students' engagement in scholarship, leadership, and economically relevant education; for its extensive network of partnerships; for its diverse and inclusive campus; and for its commitment to addressing tribal society's educational, economic, and cultural challenges.http://cuorissa.org/dorun/index.php

• The Sikkim University is being designed in such a way so as to make it known for academic excellence and research, for its all inclusive institutional character and a strong instrument of regional development and cross-border integration.

Azim Premji University & CUTMTwo key principles guide the University’s continued evolution. Firstly, the

University exists to make significant contributions to education in a manner consistent with social justice, equity, humane values and sustainability within the framework of a secular and democratic Indian polity. This commitment to a specific value orientation is not to be interpreted as a narrowly utilitarian view of the University and is at all times, consistent with academic and institutional autonomy and excellence.

A globally accredited human resource centre of excellence catalyzing sustainable livelihoods in the less developed markets across the globehttp://www.cutm.ac.in/about/

Several initiatives outside formal spaces

• Adivasi Academy, Vidyaashram – Multiversity• Collaborations with CSOs and univs .. Small but emerging• Gap Year College, Social Transformative Learning• Newer research networks (MANTHAN..), UNSAID!• Can we work the UNIID agenda India bottom up, from diverse

and creative experiments to univs through research and dialogue?

• How do we deepen this engagement with inclusive innovation and communities? What does this mean for content (not university reform) of teaching and research?

• Do ‘intermediaries’ / civil society organisations have a role?

Thanks for putting together this initiative professor. Is the objective to form a new university covering south asia or form a consortium of existing ones to tailor the subject? Also, is there a way to get involved with the curriculum in entrepreneurship? Am interested in volunteering for it…. Facebooking UNIID