By OUR STAFF REPORTER
Dehradun, 15 Nov: UPES hosted its flagship conclave, ‘Education Tomorrow’, in New Delhi. The conclave focused on the future of education and its transformative power to impact the world. UPES aimed to address pertinent questions regarding the need for preparing students in tune with evolving educational scenarios through this conclave. The event was driven by the UPES academic team and witnessed the presence of Dr SJ Chopra, (Chancellor, UPES), Dr Sunil Rai (Vice-Chancellor), Dr RamS harma (Pro-Vice Chancellor) along with Manish Madaan, Registrar, and Deans from across UPES schools.
With themes that delved into the disciplines of Computer Science, Media, Legal Studies and Design, ‘Education Tomorrow’ emerged as a progressive thought leadership platform.
The conference featured industry pioneers such as R Venkataramani (Attorney-General of India), Rohit Saran (Advisor, India Today Group and former Editor-in-Chief, Times Internet), Vivek Gupta(Country Head & Senior Director India, Oracle), Berges Malu (Senior Director, Public Policy, Sharechat), Ranjeet Pratap Singh (Co-Founder and CEO of Pratilipi), Saurabh Singh (Head of Design, Maruti Suzuki India), Shaili Chopra (Founder- Gytree and SheThePeople), Prof Karmeshu (Chairman, Scientific Computing Panel Naval Research Board (NRB), DRDO, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award winner) among others. Compelling conversations were held during the sessions on topics such as Industry-Academia convergence: Plugging the skills gap, Digital Transformations: The Road Ahead for Content Creators, Designing for sustainability transformation and Legal Education in the Digital Age.
AGI R Venkataramani said, “Education is not only a public good but also a private good. In order for it to be meaningful, education must be easily accessible to all as it holds a fundamental value to any civilised community. The whole idea of a university is undergoing a change and it is crucial for a university to adapt to the evolving educational environment and make education accessible to the larger section of society.”
“Change is a constant factor and it is crucial for us to understand the importance of embracing it while educating the students,” added Sharad Mehra, Chairman, HERS, UPES. He added, “The purpose of education is to create a better tomorrow and prepare the students for building a better world. It will be vital for universities to adopt a non-conventional approach towards education, be creative and futuristic to truly become a ‘university of tomorrow’.”
The discussions touched upon topics like ambiguity about tomorrow with rapid digitisation, metavarsities replacing universities, steps that can be taken by educationists to foster a conscientious society, promoting unconventional thinking among students and teaching pedagogy.
