Visited four universities in Singapore last week: NTU, NUS, SUTD, and SMU and met their leaders. At NTU, had one to one meetings with most of their top team: President, Provost, Vice President (International), Deans of different colleges. Met President of NUS, Provost of SMU and Head of Pillar at SUTD, etc. What is one common thing I experienced? Without exception, every one was passionately wanting his/her university/ college to do better...to go into a much higher orbit. Everyone had a plan to take them higher.. It was like all members of the football team (senior administrators in the same university) being passionate about winning, and all the teams (all the universities) passionate about competing with rest of the world (as well as friendly competition with each other).... Do we see similar passion in the Indian academia... for doing better, improving things and going higher...having specific plans we believe in... When we do see such a passion, do we see it in a few odd persons or in the entire team? Do we ever see several universities located nearby ... friendly with each other and yet wanting to do better. Can we win the game if only 3 players (out of 10 or 12) in a team are talking of winning, while the rest are reluctant players (e.g., I do not like administration...it was forced on me!) or sceptical about winning (e.g., nothing can be done with so much constraints!). Can we win if only one team (one university) is preparing for the international competition? There is so much opportunity for us to do at the university level..on our own....within the existing system....can we exploit what we already have? We must stop talking of constraints, and only talk of opportunities!
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 05:14:12 +0000
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