Lot of Imaginations that can take us into New Dimensions!
By Dr. K. Sankaran
The world of uniformity of thinking, right versus wrong, clear demarcations of self and the other, role models, one right answer etc. etc. are all over.
These are terribly confusing times, what in the Western world is called the post-truth world! There are no more truths; only points of views and paradigms. If renaissance was about the death of the “unscientific temper”, the current times are about the death of the “rational ways”. What would replace the “rational”?
Unless we collectively design a new world of post-rationalism in a mindful manner, we are bound to be plunged into utter irrationality; Terrorism, Obscurantism, Environmental backlash, Mutual distrust etc. The new world order that is being called for fits beautifully with the Indian ethos of unity in diversity, eclecticism and tolerance for ambiguity. We only need to redesign organizations and regulatory systems that align with the deepest Indian ethos.
The need for the “post-rational” is perhaps most acutely felt in the higher education sector. Here is where the superior minds are fashioned. The task today is the align the mind with the needs of the times. This would require a new world order of independent thinking, “self order” and creation of individuals who can at once bring themselves success and also social good; who can think and act in an autonomous fashion while at the same time serve social and ecological causes creatively.
To achieve the above it is time that Higher Education freed itself from controls and bureaucratic fiats. The single most important requirement is to empower the academic class. Their task is to generate intellectually smart, caring and creative students. Trust between the taught and the teacher is paramount.
Excellence can be nurtured through creative institutional interventions. The role of the government is to enhance such an atmosphere in the academia.
The current system with its roots in British hegemony has to be questioned. This can be done if the regulator and regulated can adopt “self regulation” and “social entrepreneurship” as worthy anchors for designing new systems.
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K. Sankaran, BTech Hons (IIT Kgp), PGDM (IIMB), PhD (Kent State)
Director
Justice KS Hegde Institute of Management
Nitte – 574110, Karnataka, India
www.nitte.ac.in/jkshim
sankaran@nitte.edu.in
Tel: (work) +91 8258 281265
Tel: (Mobile) +91 9740372559
Google Scholar Profile: https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?hl=en&user=gQuW_ewAAAAJ
Blog: https://sites.google.com/site/sankaran99999/home
Author “The Quadrant Puzzles”
https://notionpress.com/read/the-quadrant-puzzles
Linkedin Posts:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/k-sankaran-0387053/detail/recent-activity/posts/
Knowledge resource in Indian Higher Education Governance:
http://www.vidyagateway.org
“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” Albert Einstein
We congratulate Dr. Sankaran for such a spectacular contribution. Absolute empowerment of the academic class is the need of the hour. The task is to develop intellectually smart, and creative students with right mindset to accept responsibilities of new-age emerging business with much of confidence and pride.