Every professional sector is now expected to function according to standards of international best practice. Global companies depend on well-qualified young professionals to support their domestic and international corporate activities.
Indian companies must compete in an increasingly global environment and must therefore meet or exceed international standards. Furthermore, Indian companies are global leaders in important sectors, especially in digital technologies and IT.
As a result, there is a growing need for Indian higher education institutions to deliver graduates at Bachelors’, Masters’ and Doctoral level who are able to perform in the increasingly competitive global commercial and industrial world.
The new National Education Policy (NEP 2020) in India is formulated to modernise education in India at all levels, from pre-school to higher, vocational and professional education. A central focus is on migrating from teacher-centric to student-centric education, including deploying the methods and techniques that are now widely in use in leading educational institutions across the world. NEP 2020
I have extensive experience in the higher education sector in India. I have taught in high-ranking business schools and universities, as well as mentoring faculty development programmes.
There is an important interface between higher education and professional development and performance. Graduates, especially at Masters’ level and above, must be “career-ready”. International and Indian companies expect the intake of new graduates to be able to perform at high professional standards from day one. But this is only possible if the educational programmes that the graduates have taken are at least adequate for the purpose.
Systematic techniques and methods have been developed for the evolution of international standards in higher education, and their consistent application.
Project-based learning differs from simply “doing projects”. The latter is often a method of testing learning at the end of a course or set of lectures.
In project-based learning on the other hand, the project is integral to the learning process. Students not only acquire knowledge about the discipline they are studying, they also acquire skills pertaining to how to apply this knowledge in complex problem-solving.
Peer-to-peer learning spans from informal discussions in which students can assist their co-students in assimilating information and gaining knowledge, to sophisticated structures of peer-to-peer interactions, customised to be of most benefit in the context of the courses they are engaged in.
Preparing students for life-long learning in their careers
The objectives of the new methods of student-centred learning are to:
Research findings confirm that the methods of student-centred learning contribute towards achieving these objectives and produce results that are significantly better than the traditional lecture-based, teacher-centred educational methods.
Research on student-centred learning using peer-to-peer methods shows that there is a significant increase in average learning retention rates. Learning retention rates of up to 90% are reached by students teaching other students.
I have applied these methods in courses and workshops in leading business schools and universities in India, including faculty development programmes. In the application of student-centred methods, I also draw on my experience in industry-based organisational capacity building programmes. This assists the process of making the learning experience in higher education of best value in the development of professional skills and capabilities.
Subject areas include: