Many thanks for some critical reflections that you all shared. I have to get into this ‘blogging’ discipline more efficiently.

In the first week of July, 2009 UNESCO hosted second world conference on higher education on the above theme in Paris. Of course, there was a sub-theme—Societal Change & Development. I was invited to Chair a Panel on Community-University Partnerships, something that we have been promoting in PRIA for several years.

Of the 1600 plus delegates, most were officials, ministers and bureaucrats; some were educationists, vice-chancellors, academics; a very small number of delegates from the private sector and civil society. Long speeches were made, mostly to argue how important higher education is for societal development. But there was hardly any discussion on what is societal development? What kind of development we want to see for our grandchildren? What is the contribution of higher education to addressing the challenges of poverty, exclusion, deprivation, violence and environmental degradation?

It was generally presumed that higher education is a good thing for each country; it was also presumed that higher education institutions do research and teaching; and, hence such institutions are the sacred sources of knowledge. But we know that a lot of knowledge resides outside such institutions; knowledge is learnt through daily struggles for survival; it is discovered through reconstruction of a just and sustainable society; many media houses are the new knowledge creators; taking care of our own health is based on our implicit knowledge; taking care of our ecological habitats is done through our shared oral knowledge.

But these sources and trajectories of knowledge were not even acknowledged in Paris; the ideas and methods of ‘co-creation’ of knowledge were alien to those who were engrossed in the UNESCO conference; higher education institutions were assumed to be universities which provide certificates and degrees of knowledge; sharing knowledge for transformations of societies was assumed to be done through publications of research papers.

I was disappointed to notice the absence of serious Indian intellectual contributions in the conference; most ‘official’ representation was limited to ‘lofty’ Ministerial proclamations about how well India is doing ( and about to do again?)! Ancient institutions of higher education in India— Taxila and Nalanda— had a societal purpose to higher education—the good of all the people. Its curriculum and pedagogy was rooted in the communities from where students and scholars came; that was ‘engaged scholarship’; the learning communities in those institutions had a global character and global perspective in seeking and sharing knowledge.

Many of you have been to such excellent institutions of higher education; would they stand the test of contributing to social transformation as you would like?

Let’s carry on the conversations!