Authored By Dr. Paul Wilson.

India’s higher education landscape is indeed vast and dynamic, making it a significant force globally. With over 58,000 institutions, the country’s system is the second largest in the world, providing a diverse array of educational opportunities. The concentration of student enrollment in states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, and Rajasthan reflects demographic trends, as these regions host a large proportion of the population in the key age group of 18-23 years.

However, the post-pandemic scenario has prompted a paradigm shift among tertiary education space. Most of the undergraduate programmes associated with Mathematics and Basic Sciences have witnessed a gargantuan regression in enrollment for past few years. Admissions for the year 2024 in Tamil Nadu not only have raised the eye brows of educationists but also to capricious administration of the closure of the endangered programmes. The questions as to whether the time-tested basic sciences and mathematics would not prospectively be offered in isolation as degree programmes or would these domains emerge into interdisciplinary domains as a measure of appropriation, appealing to the millennials to be perceived from multiple perspectives curating it from the stakeholders. While there could be various reasons ascribed to the trends in enrollment for basic sciences and maths, it is observed that many higher education institutions flounder for the lack of premeditated designing of the Programme matrix to investigate the conflict of interest prior to introducing new programmes. Consequently, it is imperative to employ design thinking framework to curate the end user’s perspective and to design curriculum and pedagogy so as to empathise with the demography.

There are intrinsic and extrinsic determinants that play a vital role in designing academic programmes and courses for the institution. The fact that there are common stakeholders for a few programmes for enrollment is not to be over-looked while introducing new programmes. If an institution introduces new programmes based exclusively on supply and demand model without considering the impact it would make on the existing programmes, the Curriculum design would not be sustainable.

Secondly, the regional labour market demand for human capital, with a special reference to geographical or occupational mobility and placements associated with the domain plays a pivotal role in designing the programmes. Designing a constant feedback loop inherent to the educational administration through engagement with the market place stakeholders would render sensitivity to be resilient with change in context.

Thirdly, the perspectives of employers as stakeholders on reducing the training cost towards human capital has led to the integration of professional certification courses benchmarked with the occupational standards as value added programmes to be reckoned as a critical factor in curriculum designing of programmes. Irrespective of the programmes of their choice for pursuit in the college, millennials seek professional certification courses for their career planning. Institution’s agility to redeem swiftly to integrate such courses as part of the curriculum will render sustainability.

Fourthly, the changing demographics of the student population necessitates facilitating knowledge construction rather than instruction through Hybrid Flexible (HyFlex) models, which blend synchronous and asynchronous modes of learning thus liberating it from time and space. The growing perspective of millennials towards marking of attendance in higher education space would progressively be moving towards the assessment of learning outcome than mere physical presence in the class. This flexibility allows institutions to cater to diverse learning styles, preferences and schedules, potentially reducing student attrition rates.

Sixthy, the contextual educational management should be designed by enhancing the immersion components predominantly to engage them through personalized and inclusive learning. Millennials prefer internships and are willing to defer even a semester in pursuit of such experiences to build their portfolio. Being digital natives, they proactively scrutinize the curriculum seeking for UG projects/internships integrated as part of the programme to make informed decisions prior to enrollment.

Fifthly, value for money has been deemed to be a determinant by the present end users while seeking admissions. Apart from traditional academics, if the institution designs its academic fabric by offering immersions into the world of work for students through community engagement, skill development, social learning through clubs and societies, or access to entrepreneurship ecosystem as a value for money, the enrollment is liable to be conserved.

Sixthly, millennials are disposed to integrating different knowledge systems in facing complex problems in their careers or society. This insinuates that their proclivity towards cognitive crossovers and the capacity to spanning boundaries should be adopted in designing programmes and courses. Thus, it needs to be inferred that interdisciplinary nomenclature and content of the programme by design would be much sought after in the present dispensation. Designing a programme by integrating any two domains having common stakeholders would be a common sensical approach for conserving enrollment.

In essence, establishing a dynamic curriculum and pedagogical design and a constant stakeholder engagement by the tertiary educational landscape navigated through a continuous feedback loop will lead to perpetual resiliency and agility of the higher education space with the changing context.

The author Dr. Paul Wilson is currently serving as the Principal and Secretary of Madras Christian College.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETEDUCATION does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETEDUCATION will not be responsible for any damage caused to any person or organisation directly or indirectly.