Do Good, Be Kind !

So in Lesson-1 of the series , we saw how 3 students who Majored in Biology, ended up in quite different career / academic pathways. Clearly that has got something to do with their interest and the Curriculum they went through. What could be the factors? Let us explore: A Liberal Education programme structure will have typically the following components.   MAJOR | MINOR | COMMON CURRICULUM Programme Structure of 4-year Honours offered at Azim Premji University   A-    Depth of Major :   All of them did solid Biology and have the sensibilities and academic readiness of a Biologist. What we mean here by depth is that all of them can read biological texts, skills for conducting experiments, know data analysis and visualization techniques , and understand how knowledge is created in the scientific discipline. [Students can also pursue a year long Research with a faculty guide as per the new 4-year Curricular structure]   B-   ...

 When I heard the term Liberal Education in 2013, I wondered what’s so Liberal about Liberal Education. I will be writing about this, as a series in my next couple blogs. This is not an Academic enquiry into the idea of Liberal Education but a viewpoint of what I have observed during the last decade in my various roles at Azim Premji University. When my colleague said, Liberal Education – “To Liberate you from the clutches of other forms of higher education”- I did not quite appreciate it. Presenting today are the career pathways of classmates who went through a Liberal Education programme.   All of them Majored in Biology but what is interesting is what they chose to do after graduation: First student N was deeply interested in Biology and enrolled for a PhD programme at National Centre for Biological Sciences  ( NCBS ). The   second student R was in love with   data analysis and went ahead to pursue a postgraduation in Bio-Informatics. She is now wo...