Higher Education Mascots in COVID Times - India’s Private Universities

In the recent times, Indian Higher Education sector has seen it all. From a sudden closure of various academic semesters, vacating of hostels, suspension of classes, & a grappling scenario with institutions trying to figure out how to finish the syllabus & the semester. The biggest task was how to evaluate the students in the current semester.

While IIT’s & NIT’s with several other centrally funded universities & state government universities were trying to figure out what to do and where to proceed from in COVID Pandemic situation. A beacon of light and hope came from several Private universities of India.

There is an ancient proverb, “A stitch in time saves nine”. This was true for these several higher educational institutes as they wasted no time and jumped right into action by delivering the quickest response possible. DIT University Dehradun, O.P. Jindal Global Law School Sonipat, Ramaiah Medical College, Bangalore and several other well-established private universities came out as the shining mascots of higher education in COVID times.

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, not the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change” said Charles Darwin. Interestingly, the private autonomous universities started their action process within weeks of lockdown and resumed their semester online. DIT university, Dehradun started Online classes as early as 26th March 2020, just 4 days after lockdown on LMS Moodle Platform and further introduced MS Teams next month to have alternative platforms for higher flexibility for class conduction. They even made sure that their students in lower bandwidth areas are taken care of with separate study material designed for them in small sized files easily downloadable via mobile internet. The examination was conducted by a third-party examination conducting agency. Whereas, O.P. Jindal Global Law university outshone its contemporaries and took the lead in Tech adaptation with launching Online classes in the third week of March itself, just before the Lockdown was announced. They also used MS Teams portal for conducting Online classes. Same is the case with Ramaiah Medical College, Bangalore. These three and several other private Universities were completely Tech ready to face the COVID scenario and were also recognized for their efforts by the International QS Ranking platform in collaboration with I-Gauge.

With the National Education Policy embracing a new era in Indian Higher education system by welcoming a more flexible education system, it’s time India drifts away from its obsession with a conventional college education and step into the new flexible education scenario with limitless possibilities and a much wider spectrum. In the words of world-renowned physicist, Stephen Hawkins, “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change”.

The country is witnessing a magnum opus shift from rigid obsolete education systems to a very dynamic teaching learning environment. Yes, there are challenges ahead but that is what adaptation is for! Right?