Higher Education should be driven by market opportunities and entrepreneurial zeal: Syed Saad Andaleeb

In a growing country of 1.2 billion people, home to a third of the world’s poorest, education-- or the lack of it-- can make an enormous difference to people’s lives. Faced with this growing appetite for learning, the higher education system in India should provide a world class education wherein the first priority should always be to make you market ready and imbibe the ability to perform.

Talking to educationbiz on the same, Dr. Syed Saad Andaleeb, a Bangladeshi-American academician shared his views on the growing need of the Educational institutes today.

Dr. Syed Saad Andaleeb, is the Vice Chancellor, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Before joining BRAC University Professor Andaleeb was Distinguished Professor of Marketing at the Sam & Irene Black School of Business, Pennsylvania State University, Erie, USA

The Real Challenge

Dr. Syed was of the opinion that,” Our students have to develop some fundamental skills like communication, problem solving because at the end of the day we are trying to build human assets, we are trying to build people who are ready for the market and be able to perform.” Coming in terms with the industry’s notion he further continued,” The notion that the industry has coincides with developing the basic skills first. So when the Education industry tries to give the basic skills to them, they are not required to give the very specific skills, just broad based basic skills and empowering them with the same.

Skills come First

India’s huge pool of young people might be considered its biggest strength. Unfortunately, India is far from having its act together when it comes to figuring out how to educate these young people. Government data suggests that only one out of every seven children born in India goes to college. What’s more, the nation suffers from both a crippling quantity, as well as a quality, challenge when it comes to higher education.

Pointing towards the values of inclusiveness, values of being true to our thinking, Dr. Syed said,” I think some of these fundamentals are not insisted on our higher education system. We need to include these values n addition to the skills because skills alone will not do the needful. Understanding the core values has become very important today.”

Dr. Syed wants to see the development of skills among Indian students and he concludes with a thought provoking idea that he insists, every human being should imbibe within themselves to make it big in the higher Education system in India.

The Four Spells

“A human being is complete if they are physically complete, cognitively complete, emotionally complete and spiritually complete. If you combine these 4 things, you have a great human being put forward by the education institution”, said the great academician.