In an exclusive interview with EdexLive, Prof. Dishan Kamdar, Vice Chancellor at FLAME University, discusses the relevance of degrees, the shift towards flexible learning paths and what educators are learning from the current crop of students.
Having taught multiple generations of students over two decades, what is the single biggest shift you’ve noticed in today’s Gen Z and emerging Gen Alpha learners?
The biggest shift that I see today is that students today are increasingly purpose seekers, not merely degree seekers. They want to understand how their education connects with their identity, personality, who they are, what they care about, and the kind of impact they want to leave in the world. I also see a much more dialogic classroom. Students are more willing to participate, question, and contribute to the learning process. This means that the faculty member is no longer simply a disseminator of information. Our role is increasingly to co-explore knowledge with students and learn alongside them.
How do you balance maintaining academic excellence while responding to a generation that expects greater flexibility, inclusivity, and personalisation?
Providing greater flexibility to students does not have to come at the expense of academic excellence. In fact, a well-designed curriculum can achieve both. The idea is to give students the freedom to personalise their academic pathways while still holding them accountable for demanding intellectual standards. Inclusivity is equally important to academic excellence. When institutions use merit- and need-based scholarships to bring together students from diverse backgrounds, they widen the talent pool and enrich classroom conversations. And today, those conversations are increasingly at the centre of learning.
If Gen Alpha enters universities with AI as a default learning companion, what should institutions begin preparing for today?
The first step for institutions is to embrace AI rather than resist it. Faculty and educators need to become confident co-learners with AI if we are to meaningfully guide students who will grow up with it as a natural part of their lives. AI fluency should become a foundational literacy across all disciplines, not something restricted to just computer science or technology programmes. At the same time, as machines become better at managing information and data, universities must place greater emphasis on what machines cannot easily replicate: empathy, ethics, critical thinking, and systems-level thinking.
Your research has extensively explored workplace behaviour and employee voice. Do you see today’s students becoming more willing to question authority than previous generations? Is that healthy for education?
Absolutely. I have always believed that one of the differences between a manager and a leader is that leaders are not afraid to ask difficult questions. The same principle applies in education. When students question authority respectfully, it can be profoundly healthy. It tests ideas, surfaces blind spots, and creates a self-correcting institution. But student voice also needs purpose. We should encourage students to challenge ideas with evidence, logical reasoning, and empathy, and not contradict just for the sake of contradiction. The ability to question is valuable; learning how to question well is even more valuable.
You led a major curriculum revamp at leading Universities and Business Schools . If you were redesigning a university curriculum today purely around how Gen Z learns, what would change?
I would put “learning by doing” right at the forefront. At a time when students are increasingly AI-native, education must create opportunities for them to engage deeply with the real world. This could mean shorter learning modules, project-based work, and collaborative platforms, but also much deeper experiential learning, such as NGO immersions, field research across the country, and meaningful internships. These experiences expose students to situations that cannot simply be solved by looking up information. They also help develop skills and values that education must continue to nurture: empathy, ethics, judgement, and the ability to make decisions in the real world.
How should universities evaluate learning in an era where information is available instantly?
In an AI era, learning evaluation and assessments need to return to first principles. The question is no longer simply, “Does the student know this?” but “Can the student apply it, synthesise it and create something meaningful with it?” We should also assess how students reason when there is ambiguity, particularly when they encounter moral dilemmas or difficult ethical choices. Finally, assessments should increasingly reflect the realities of the workplace: collaboration, adaptability, continual learning, and the ability to incorporate feedback. If information is readily available, education must place a greater value on judgement.
