Page 46 - EW May 2023_Neat

Cover Story

INDIA’S MOST ADMIRED PRIVATE

MULTIDISCIPLINARY UNIVERSITIES

With the National
Education Policy
2020 mandating the
transformation of all
colleges and universities
into multidisciplinary
institutions by 2035, they
are the flavour of the
season

ultidisciplinary univer-
sities are the flavour
of the season. The new
MNational Education
Policy (NEP) 2020 has mandated
that all specialised or single stream
colleges and universities including Amity’s Dr. Atul Chauhan: brand building mastermind
undergrad colleges, should begin the
process of transforming into multi- stream, and combine it with minors Kasturirangan Committee which
disciplinary universities and com- from other streams to acquire well- prepared the Draft NEP 2020 was
plete it by 2035. The Kasturirangan rounded higher education. Thus an well aware that if Steve Jobs had not
Report (2019) which was substan- engineering student can study busi- attended the multidisciplinary Reed
tially translated into NEP 2020 made ness management simultaneously. College, Portland (USA) in which cal-
a strong case for multidisciplinary This would avoid wastage of time and ligraphy is/was an elective subject,
universities. learning involved in their first com- Apple Inc would not have blossomed
Somewhat belatedly it advocated pleting a four-year engineering pro- into the world’s most admired and
that India’s large number of engi- gramme and subsequently signing up highest market cap transnational
neering and technology undergrad for a two-year MBA programme with corporate enterprise.
colleges which because of their high a B-school as is the current practice. In the suddenly fashionable
quality of education have been con- It’s not uncommon for duly qualified category of private multidisciplinary
ferred university status, should begin engineers to transform into market- universities which have drawn inspi-
the process of introducing liberal ing managers of consumer goods who ration from the globally renowned
arts, science and commerce and don’t put their engineering education private Ivy League universities of
other study programmes (business to any use at all. America (Harvard, Yale, Boston
management, law, medicine etc) and Alternatively, a large number of among others), Amity Univer-
small, single stream, colleges in a engineers become ‘tunnel-vision sity, arguably the most intensively
given area could “cluster” to coalesce techies’ with no awareness of the advertised education institution on
into universities. Constitution, history or liberal arts television and social media globally,
This makes good sense as a subjects. By mandating transforma- rules the roost. Although academic
university by definition should offer tion of all higher education institu- dons tend to disparage marketing of
access to a whole universe of higher tions (HEIs) into multidisciplinary education institutions whose deeds
learning making it easier for students universities, NEP 2020 addresses should speak for themselves, Amity’s
to select a major from a particular this problem. Undoubtedly, the media blitz masterminded by nexgen

46 EDUCATIONWORLD MAY 2023