Varsity tries to be in tune with industry

Private varsities today are aiming to gain a foothold in the industry by trying to be in touch with business realities.

While the traditional universities have fallen short of meeting the demands of the constantly-changing needs of the economy and industry, private varsities with their inherent nimbleness, because of their size, change much faster with the needs of the market.

The higher education has today found to be wanting. The state universities and the much fewer central universities have failed to keep in tune with demands of industry and have been slow in responding to industry needs. Its often a case of too little, too late.

They take very long to change their syllabi. Meanwhile, the private varsities have been moving forward and expanding fast while adding on new in-demand courses aimed at keeping with industry demand.

The success of the model would depend on the ability of a trainer to predict future demands. Says Anand Sudarshan, MD and CEO, Manipal University:“We try to assess the needs of industry a couple of years in advance. We are always scanning to find the future sunrise sectors. We take the manpower requirements predicted by analysts and reduce it by half or more and we come to a more realistic figure.”

Many of the emerging and growing sectors are struggling to find talent. Take the case of aviation MROs (maintenance, repairs and overhaul) or nano-technology or biotechnology. Manipal has been starting courses in BFSI, IT/BPO, telecom, media and infrastructure for employment in sunrise sectors.

The Rs 1,100-crore education group makes its own analysis after interactions with industry and analysts. Said a retired professor who teaches students for competitive exams: “But, the efforts of private varsities only have profits in mind.”

With constraints in getting talented teachers, the varsity has found its own way round it. It uses videoconferencing to get teachers from anywhere to give lectures remotely, with only a junior teacher being needed to guide the students in the classrooms.

Hence, a good number of students are able to benefit from lectures of subject experts who are very few in number.