The visionary leader spoke to THE WEEK about how Indian universities can improve. Excerpts:
Q/ Indian universities do not feature in global top-100 lists. What more needs to be done to improve the standards?
A/ Indian universities must create a plan to improve their own institution in [relevant] criteria—whether it is patents, papers in reputed journals, the kind of jobs that the students get, and the quality and the number of PhD students passing out each year. I have always believed that competition is the best management guru. Therefore, Indian universities must study their competitor universities which are in the top 20 in the world, find out what is it that they do to be in the top 20, and start doing it.
Q/ It is said that AI could replace certain jobs. What kind of courses should students choose to get jobs that will stay relevant? What changes should universities effect to enable this?
A/ We should use these technologies in a human-assistive mode rather than in a human replacement mode. Therefore, our universities, particularly the technical ones, will have to frame the curriculum for their courses on new technologies like ChatGPT, AI and other new technologies to teach the students how these technologies can be used in a human-assistive mode. They should teach how these technologies, used in such a way, have improved the productivity and progress, how they have reduced the cost, and how they have improved entertainment and comfort. Once the universities do these things, the students will become more useful to the industry, and they will automatically get jobs.
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