Collaborations across global institutions, Culture of Implementation at State level and an emphasis on innovation are critical for NEP implementation in India
The U.S. Consulate Hyderabad and The Indian School of Business partnered together to organize a successful three session U.S-India International Dialogue Series on India’s Education Policy specially focusing on different aspects of India’s National Education Policy 2020. The series culminated today with an involved discussion on creating a robust research ecosystem. The earlier two discussions focused on a roadmap for internationalization of higher education and how federal states could lead the implementation of NEP-2020.
The objective of the series is to understand different nuances of the National Education Policy especially in the Higher Education space and to come up with a roadmap for implementation of the policy.
The first dialogue held on September 24, 2020 focused on internationalization of higher education and the panelists emphasized that NEP has opened newer avenues for greater collaboration among educational institutions across the world. They called for the need for quality at all levels of education and in this context, internationalization helps in elevating the standards. However, the panelists also cautioned and opined that the internationalization of higher education must be organized in a very planned manner. The panelists who shared their valuable perspectives were – Consul General Joel Reifman, U.S. Consulate General Hyderabad ; Smt Anju Sharma, IAS, Principal Secretary Higher Education, Government of Gujarat ; Prof Rajendra Srivastava, Dean ISB; BVR Mohan Reddy, Executive Chairman of Cyient and Chairman of CII National Committee on Education; Prof Uday B Desai, Founder Director IIT Hyderabad and Chancellor, Anurag University; and Professor Suresh Kumar, Member UGC and Vice Chancellor, The English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU). Govindraj Ethiraj, Founder, IndiaSpend and BOOM, moderated the session.
The second dialogue held on October 16, 2020 focused on how State could lead and implement the intent of National Education Policy. Here the panelists stressed that technology is not the only factor for implementing NEP at State level. What is also required is to create the required cultural values and behaviour to implement the intent of NEP. The key panelists were – J M Balamurugan, IAS, Principal Secretary to Governor of Punjab; Ms Leena Chandran Wadia, Senior Fellow, Observer Research Foundation and a Draft NEP Committee member; Professor Nandu Nandkishore, Practice Professor of Marketing, Indian School of Business; and Professor V Venkata Ramana, Vice Chairman, Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE) ; Ms Meeta Sengupta, FRSA, Founder of Centre for Education Strategy moderated the session.
The third and final dialogue held on November 05, 2020 focused on creating a robust research ecosystem and the panelists pointed out that the future economies are
knowledge economies, which can only sustain in a robust research ecosystem. International research collaborations, a strong industry-institute interface and creating future oriented institutions are critical to create a robust research ecosystem as envisaged in the NEP. The key panelists were – Ms Vanitha Datla, Vice Chairperson & Managing Director, Elico Ltd.; Professor K Hemachandra Reddy, Chairman, Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE), Government of Andhra Pradesh; Professor Rajendra Srivastava, Dean, ISB; Professor Charles Dhanraj, Professor of Strategy, University of Denver; and Professor Patrick McNamara, Director, International Studies, University of Nabraska Omaha; Sriram Karri, Resident Editor, Deccan Chronicle moderated the session.
During the third dialogue, ISB Dean, Rajendra Srivastava said, “NEP2020 charts out too many critical interventions and in this context it is indeed important to have an implementation strategies at various levels. The international dialogue series on NEP of this nature are important initial steps. ISB would like to thank and congratulate the U.S. Consulate General, Hyderabad for partnering with us for such engaging dialogues. Technological and behavioral changes are important to implement NEP and in this regard, the faculty and students will have to relearn and unlearn ways of engaging with each other, conducting research and working with industry and government to develop solutions on problems worth solving”.
Overall the international dialogue series was received and were able to touch upon varied issues involving implementing the intent of NEP and to integrate international players into the domestic education systems.