Liberal Arts Needs to be Given Equal Importance as Science & Tech: President Kovind

While addressing the Higher Education Summit conducted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on November 27th, 2019, President Ram Nath Kovind urged that liberal arts education should be given as much importance as science and technology. He said India needs to change the form of the courses available to meet the ends of the future. Indian universities have made adequate headway in an interdisciplinary approach. Liberal Arts education should be on par with science and technology, he said.

The President stated that he is happy our universities have merged courses in Artificial Intelligence (AI) with animal husbandry and mathematics with music. He further added that additional work is required on this account. Kovind also emphasised on pedagogical amends in the curriculum.

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Tomorrow will be impelled by machine intelligence, knowledge and digital pathways, he added. He asked the people to prepare for this modification and to leverage its endless opportunities in order to be able to reshape the country’s higher education with new courses and extensive research orientation. Innovation, incubation and ideation are the key factors that should be given significance in the curriculum.

This was at the 15th Higher Education Summit and Exhibition 2019 organised by FICCI at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, where Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokrhriyal was also present. Delegates from about 65 countries, including Africa, CIS, Asia, and the Middle East had also participated. The three-day event is aimed at “Creative Economy Nation Building: Higher Education as the catalyst”. President Kovind also announced the FICCI Report on 15 years of journey on the occasion.