NEP 2020: A Transformative Roadmap for India’s Higher Education and Innovation Culture - Professor Dinesh Singh

One of the finest things to have happened to higher education in recent times is the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Indian universities could not have asked for a more enlightened roadmap with clear and wise pathways. The challenge that faces us is to ensure its implementation does not get bogged down in unimaginative or counterproductive bureaucratic hurdles. We must grant a certain degree of freedom and space to institutions to attract eminent persons as V-Cs who shall then in turn attract and retain genuine academic talent from far and wide. Is that happening in any significant manner? I am afraid that, barring a few exceptions, the situation is disheartening.

The NEP has been hailed in many parts of the world, and has the potential to transform India into a knowledge economy. This is because it entails blending the curriculum around the needs and challenges of the nation and society. It prescribes that the pedagogy be based on solving problems through group-based project work. This also ensures a high degree of creative thinking, with various skills accruing to the learner largely through working on such projects. These are also required to be trans-disciplinary in nature, so that they help foster an entrepreneurial environment akin to what institutions like Stanford, Cambridge and almost every decent university fosters.

Professor Dinesh SinghChancellor of K.R. Mangalam University and former vice-chancellor of Delhi University

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