| |9 APRIL 2023HIGHERReviewNow, both the central and state governments are encouraging such programs. Cross major electives can also help students to hone their latent skills and explore more opportunitieswhat are some of the most innovative teaching pedago-gies Indian higher education institutions can adopt to in-crease the employability of their students? Offering more activity-based learning is the need of the hour. This will help the students to gain valuable hands-on training which many higher educational institutions in the country fail to offer. Give them opportunities to apply what they have learned in the class room and this will not only help them get practical training but this will also help the teachers to create a more interactive learning environment. Another unique initiative is - learner-designed courses which allow students to explore more opportunities and gain more knowledge in an area which they are interested in. We at Women's Chris-tian College have been experimenting with this for a long time and it has helped many of our students to gain knowl-edge in different subjects which, in turn, makes them more versatile. The importance of student-centric learning programs still gets overlooked in many Indian higher education institu-tions. How can science colleges deal with this issue? For undergraduate students, asking them to submit online assignments or prepare effective power point presentations will help them to gain basic technology skills and understand how to prepare a proper paper. Both these are skills which many students lack now and with ample support from the teachers, they will be able to acquire these skills. Also, at present, in many college classrooms in India there are 70 to 80 students but when we look at western higher educational institutions we will see 20 or fewer students in a classroom. Having less number of students mean that the teacher will be able to offer a much more personalized learning experience to the students. Classes with fewer students will also pro-mote individual participation from each student which makes classes more engaging and interactive. For this to happen in India, more private colleges offering top-notch science edu-cation should come up. This will also help in enhancing the overall quality of science education in the country. Lack of research has been plaguing the Indian higher ed-ucation realm for many years now. Taking this into con-sideration, how do you view the growing importance of experimental research at an institutional level and how can science colleges in the country nurture the culture of research in their campus? I believe that improving the quality and increasing the inter-est of teachers in taking up research projects will go a long way in nurturing the culture of research in a campus. Educa-tional institutions should give incentives to teachers for good research projects and this can have a positive influence on the students and motivate them to take up research projects of their own. After completing their PhD, many believe that their research work is done. People should change this mind-set and view research as a lifelong activity. I take part in mi-nor projects regularly and I involve my students in it as well. This has made many of my students keener on doing research works of their own. Lack of funding has also been adversely impacting research in many higher educational institutions in the country and we need more funding to improve the research infrastructure in campuses. What are some of the major changes that you foresee hap-pening in science education in India in the future and how can educational institutions prepare themselves for these changes? Industry-institute partnerships will grow in the coming years and companies will encourage more research projects done by students. More educational institutions would start prioritizing on research and innovation and I believe that the New Education Policy will accelerate this trend. Better industry-institute tie-ups will also help the students to gain more hands-on training and increase their employability. Nurturing students with a global perspective will also be-come more significant in the coming years.
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