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Ahmedabad: Universities need to leverage their autonomy, says Rakesh Basant

A classroom at Ahmedabad University on Friday evening was packed, not by students, but intellectuals and academicians from across the city who had gathered to attend a session on 'The Idea of a University' and academic freedom.

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A classroom at Ahmedabad University on Friday evening was packed, not by students, but intellectuals and academicians from across the city who had gathered to attend a session on 'The Idea of a University' and academic freedom.

The session was conducted by professor Apoorvanand from the University of Delhi and revolved around his book 'The Idea of a University', along with professor Rakesh Basant of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and professor Pankaj Chandra, Vice-Chancellor of Ahmedabad University.

Speaking about the importance of academic freedom, Apoorvanand said, "Universities are democratic institutions. There is no single voice. All of us have our own voices. So the idea of a university is to help develop these voices. But if you decide what that voice is, the foundation of a university will weaken. For us to survive as democratic agents, to be able to form our opinions and then be able to express them, we need that freedom."

Giving more insight into the current situation, professor Basant said, "What worries me is our inability to utilise the flexibility, autonomy and academic freedom we have. Why do we not leverage what we have? If we are not willing to use academic freedom on a regular basis, I do not think we should crib. We need to use what we have."

Further, Basant shared four issues that prevail in present times — learning vs livelihood, standardisation vs flexibility, technology vs personal interaction and the issue of governance. He said, "To me, a critical question would be how do we make all these tensions co-exist? Can we do something with the given autonomy and flexibility to deal with them in a manner that can create learning opportunities so that we don't get bogged down by these instances, where we feel that academic freedom has been curtailed?"

The 18 essays that make up the book, 'The Idea of a University', shed light on recent controversies including, the JNU 'anti-national' accusation, government appointments, Rohith Vemula's suicide, etc. apart from academic principles, institutional autonomy, good governance and scientific responsibility.

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