NEP Has The Potential To Transform Indian Higher Education Space: Dr Pankaj Mittal, Secretary-General, AIU

The present COVID-19 crisis is not only seen affecting the citizens’ health in the country but is also seen disrupting various industries and shaking them to their roots. The nation-wide lockdown and the ascending health crisis were affecting the students’ education as well, with their universities being shut and their syllabi stranded, till the time the industry decided to initiate a revolution instead. Making a choice to grow even in the time of the pandemic, the universities decided to digitalize the sector. 

To discuss the future of education & future of universities and the ways in which universities and educational institutions are engaging with the stakeholders to implement the New Education Policy, BW Education hosted another episode of its Wednesday Wisdom Webinar Series on 'The Future Of Education And Future Of Universities,' in association with BW Businessworld. The special guest for the event was Dr Pankaj Mittal, Secretary-General of The Association of Indian Universities (AIU) who engaged in an insightful conversation with Dr Annurag Batra, Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, BW Businessworld & exchange4media Group.

Talking about the last eight months, Dr Pankaj said, “The world has really changed from of course the face-to-face to blended and rather right now it is online and in future, it will become blended. There is a lot of change and many of them are positive changes as well.”

Commenting on the NEP 2020, Dr Pankaj stated, “The New Education Policy is a very forward-looking policy which has the potential to transform Indian Higher Education space. Many of the recommendations in the policy are worth being implemented immediately and more than 70 per cent of the recommendations are to be implemented by the universities. They don’t have to look towards the government for implementing those recommendations. They can themselves implement the recommendations at their own level through their own board of studies. 

Dr Pankaj also stressed on the increased role of technology in education space. “One positive impact which the COVID had was that it has taught the Indian Higher Education System to be sort of online and be technology-friendly. But there is of course a digital divide in the country. Every student doesn’t have access to the devices, to the internet, to the required bandwidth. Therefore, the primary responsibility of the universities now would be, seeing this COVID type of situation and seeing that the future is blended mode of education, they have to invest a lot in technology,” she asserted.