In an interaction with Higher Education Review Magazine,Suhas Joshi, Director at IIT Indore , shared his insights on various aspects of the pertaining to National Education Policy 2020, what are some of the expected outcomes and long-term benefits of implementing NEP 2020 in the higher education sector, challenges and potential roadblocks in implementing NEP 2020 reforms in higher education and more. Suhas Joshi holds 24 years of professional experience. Prior to joining IIT Indore, he served as the Dean of Alumni and Corporate Relations and the Head of the Mechanical Engineering Department. Dr. Joshi obtained his Ph.D. from IIT Bombay in 1997 and worked with the Engineering Research Centre of Tata Motors, Pune.

How does NEP 2020 aim to promote research and innovation in higher education institutions in India?

The National Education Policy-2020 (NEP-2020) envisages inclusive and equitable quality education and promotes life-long learning opportunities. In all, it aims to provide universal access to quality education, a key to India's aspiration to restore its role as a Vishwa Guru. Over the last decade, due to extraordinary advances in the science and technology, including arrival of artificial intelligence, coupled with changes in the world-wide climate and energy scenario, dramatic changes are envisioned in the knowledge profile of graduating students. This requires them to be conscious of their responsibilities towards society besides being a well-rounded personality with a good sense of Indian arts and culture.

With the increasing scope of knowledge requirements, it is becoming increasingly critical that a student learns to think critically, solve problems and being creative and innovative. Education thus needs to be more experiential, holistic, inquiry-driven, flexible and satisfying to the learner. Apart from skilling the student for employment, education should also build character and imbibe the most important human qualities of being ethical, rational, compassionate, and caring.

In your opinion, what are some of the expected outcomes and long-term benefits of implementing NEP 2020 in the higher education sector?

The NEP 2020 advocates that education is a great leveler through which economic and social inclusion can be achieved. Further, it emphasizes that education should help identify and foster unique capabilities in an individual student. Overall, NEP aims to impart opportunities for nurturing creativity and critical thinking leading to innovation and decision making during education. It considers outstanding research as one of the fundamental cornerstones of higher education. NEP 2020 envisions addressing some of the key challenges in the existing education system of the country by including:

• Holistic Education
• Revamping curriculum and pedagogy for enhanced students’ learning experience
• Multi-disciplinary undergraduate education
• Establishing Academic Bank of Credit to digitally store the academic credits earned by a student.
• Enhancing access, equality and inclusion in education using several innovative means
• Providing support to underprivileged as well as physical challenged students using philanthropic as well as corporate social responsibility provisions
• Offering life-long learning opportunities using on-line as well as distance learning opportunities for wider inclusion
• Nurturing entrepreneurship in academia by formal education as well as by providing technology development and incubation support centres
• Exploring greater industry-academia collaborations to undertake meaningful research

What are the challenges and potential roadblocks in implementing NEP 2020 reforms in higher education, and how can they be overcome?

National Education Policy (NEP 2020) conceptualizes an education system with a foundation in Indian ethos to transform India into equitable vibrant knowledge society. It also advocates contributing to the life of a student by imparting foundational cognitive capabilities besides critical thinking and problem solving, instilling a sense of social responsibility and emotional stability.

To implement this, we must have a strong NEP implementation at the primitive stage i.e. at the school level. Special attention to Early Child Care and Education (ECCE) to enhance, flexible multi-faceted activity-based problem-solving approach will help complete development of child. Multi-faceted play-based education not only focuses on developing logical thinking, problem solving and arts, but also lays equal emphasis on developing social capacities, sensitivity, good behavior, ethics and teamwork.

We also need a robust system wherein higher education is easily accessible to our population. Students should not suffer due to poverty, gender discrimination, lack of infrastructure and lack of knowledge. All the Institutions are required to revisit their curriculum and assessment system to ensure that the learning should enhance their skill sets. Similarly, the employers which mainly consist of Government, PSUs, Companies and Industries, need to revisit their placement methodology to observe the skill sets possessed and required.

One of the major thrust areas of NEP-2020 is research and innovation. This requires a lot of support primarily through infrastructure, equipment and funding. World class Research and Development facilities should be developed to conduct seamless and fruitful research activities.

NEP 2020 encourages the use of technology in education. How will it impact online learning and digital resources in higher education?

Online learning and digital resources were and will remain part of the use of technology in education. The only change which will occur will be the content and reach. Digital India Campaign is helping to transform the entire nation into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. In this, educational technology will play an important role in the improvement of educational processes and outcomes. Extensive use of technology in teaching and learning will remove language barriers and provide access of knowledge bank to all the users thus increasing the reach.NEP advocates Disruptive technology in all the fields especially in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).

Maker Space provides a new avenue for our students to hone their Do-it-Yourself (DiY) abilities. Here, the students are involved in designing multidisciplinary products or prototypes including its fabrication. Thus, instilling the concept of system integration and testing while they develop the product or prototype.

Students can take interdisciplinary B.Tech. Projects to work in projects in their areas of interest during the 7th semester of coursework. They have now several avenues to convert their ideas into reality by using Maker Space and Tinkering Lab facilities.

Therefore, it can be summarized by saying that whilst, technology, online learning and digital resources will play a crucial role in the shaping the skill sets of any learning, true skills can only be honed by doing-it-yourself and having critical thinking, problem solving abilities, social responsibility and emotional stability.