Experts call out Bengaluru students to pursue Indian education system as first preference

It is time students began looking at India as a land of opportunity and parents began checking out the Indian education ecosystem with the same seriousness with which they look at the world outside, said experts at the second edition of 'India Rising: Aspiring Undergrads Summit' hosted by Vidyashilp University on Saturday.

The summit, intended to guide students and families to decide on where to study for undergraduate courses, witnessed academicians and policymakers appeal for a shift in mindset.

Vidyashilp University vice-chancellor PG Babu asked students to "think fearlessly, think about the greater purpose of their education, and view India as a land of unlimited possibility.". Urging a reform of the curriculum, he further said: "We must harness the National Education Policy's vision of actual multidisciplinary mobility to place mathematics, data literacy, and economics' language at the centre of every programme, while creating versatile routes through law, liberal arts, engineering, and design. Employability will not increase by accident; it increases when curricula impart the grammar of contemporary existence — mathematics, data, design thinking — within a multidisciplinary context. Autonomous, facilitatory regulation and more school-university-industry connection can convert today's ambiguity into opportunity, making higher education a first-choice goal in all of India and drawing talent from the globe."

Partha Ray, director at the National Institute of Bank Management, delivered a keen insight into the economic and geopolitical changes that shape higher education decisions. "India stands at an inflection point — economically, socially, and educationally. Indian higher education has the ability to become a global center for affordability, innovation, and access, as long as we align our institutions with the skill sets and industries of the future."

While demystifying the question of 'where to study: India or abroad?', a panel discussion with subject matter experts Vishnuteerth Agnihotri, Sajan Poovayya, Namita Mehta, and Chandan Gowda concurred that India's higher education landscape has come of age and has globally competitive programmes in law, liberal arts, and STEM. Parents must analyze education prospects in the country, they opined.