Looking Ahead – 2025: The Time Is Right For Universities To Lead Change

Universities in India - like those across the world - are functioning within a volatile and fast-paced matrix of technological transformations, socio-economic reconfigurations, geopolitical realignments and the imperative of climate change. In such times, universities and institutions must steadfastly focus on one goal: through education and research, to contribute to creating a future that maximises the potential benefit from these changes and minimises harm.

This is a tall order. In 2024, we saw some noticeable changes in these directions. For example, universities globally are more directly engaged in climate change. The focus on skills and employability has taken centre stage. Several national missions to build curricula around climate, skills, and new technologies such as AI and Quantum are now in place in India.

On the other hand, international partnerships between universities have advanced considerably. All the way from dual degrees and joint degrees to entire new campuses in the country, students now have many options.

These enablers can take India’s higher education story quite a bit further in 2025. Several strategies can be implemented towards that vision.

Convening students from across the globe: Home to over 1,200 universities and around 50,000 colleges, India can be an ideal host for gatherings of university students from across the world. Events like global hackathons can be good catalysts for this purpose due to the huge student interest. However, such gatherings should not be limited to STEM disciplines. We must bring together humanities, social sciences, sciences, engineering, and technology to foster thinking about our grand challenges. Needless to say, India should see more international students in classrooms to make the exchanges of ideas across borders more systematic and seamless.

Forging the right partnerships: Universities are positioned uniquely to find solutions to complex problems as they have expertise in research, broad multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary capacities, and a passion for solving complex problems. However, this process needs partners that span continents, disciplines and sectors, and most importantly, the public and private sectors.

Knowledge cities and education hubs: To achieve concrete goals, partnerships need structures. If carefully organised, such structures can help universities and their stakeholders better understand each other's needs and find holistic solutions. Knowledge cities and innovation hubs have seen some success, and now, by utilising technology, many new kinds of partnership structures are possible.

Responsible AI: If there is any realm in which universities cannot be passive bystanders but must take an active lead, it is this. Universities need to convene the broadest range of stakeholders to agree on how AI should evolve. The broader ethical frameworks and the continuous, careful evaluation of the impact of AI are responsibilities universities must assume. And for this, business as usual, will not suffice. True, as universities, we are not comfortable with business 'unusual'. But that luxury is gone. If our core business is to shape a future that maximizes benefit and minimizes harm, then this is our time to lead.

Developing our future leaders: Future-focused leadership in universities is the need of the hour. At Shiv Nadar University, we are honoured to be part of the National Future Leadership Program of the Ministry of Education - a massive national mission for training faculty leaders. The synergies created by these programs on university campuses across the country will advance us considerably towards the future we want.  

Dr Ananya Mukherjee

Guest Author Dr Ananya Mukherjee, Vice-Chancellor, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, Delhi NCR