A curriculum intended to transform an academic institution rested on three pillars — head, hand and heart. But it was not working, an eminent academic has said.

“Many curricula have enough of the head, little of the hand and almost none of the heart,” Prof Rajeev Sangal, Professor Emeritus, Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderabad, said while delivering a lecture on ‘Transforming Academic Institution’ at Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan recently.

Prof Sangal said his experiment to reverse this process by putting practice before theory had led to remarkable success at IIIT Hyderabad.

“In many institutions, students are taught theory first, followed by a bit of practical. They mugged the material to pass the examination without internalizing the teaching,” he said.

Prof Sangal, who served as Professor at IIT Kanpur, Director, IIT BHU, Varanasi, Director, IIIT, Hyderabad and Vice-Chancellor, BHU, said, “For any education to be successful, the first quality a learner must possess is an intense desire to learn.”

“But unfortunately, such intense desire is fading away,” he said.

Discussing the subject of how to make an institution great, Prof Sangal focused on three aspects — a layer of process and system and a layer of cultural openness striving for excellence below it. Finally, there should be the most important layer of universal human values which should form the core, he said. 

Prof Sangal was introduced to the audience by Prof Pradipta Kumar Nanda, Vice-Chancellor of SOA, while Prof Jyoti Ranjan Das, Dean (Students’ Welfare), welcomed the guest. 

Prof Damodar Acharya, Chairman of SOA’s Advisory Board and former Director, IIT Kharagpur, spoke about Prof Sangal’s pioneering effort in advocating the inclusion of universal human values in the engineering curriculum. 

Prof Nachieketa K. Sharma, SOA’s Director, University Outreach Program, proposed the vote of thanks. Deans, faculty members and students from SOA’s various institutions attended the lecture.