The Hindu Huddle 2025: ‘Inter disciplinary liberal education is the way forward'

The Hindu

09-05-2025

From the changing purpose of education to India's historical relationship with liberal education and the impact of technological advancements are the topics that took centre stage at the session, 'Well- Rounded World View: Finding a Place for Liberal Education,' at The Hindu Huddle 2025.
Discussing the role of education in a world that is undergoing tremendous geopolitical change, accelerated technological change and a change in nature of work and employment, the panelists expressed that education should let students pursue knowledge through different perspectives and encourage them to ask questions to gain knowledge in a comprehensive manner.
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'When we say liberal education, we are looking at something that does not have any indoctrination. Learners presume that education should give them a degree which then leads them to a particular career. But, the education that one receives should be for the purpose of social being – a refinement of an individual and how they perceive the world around them,' said Bhavani. S., Dean of School of Humanities and Performing Arts, CHRIST University.
Adding on to this, Jonathan Gil Harris, professor, Ashoka University emphasized on the focus of education moving away from 'training' to a 'means to lead oneself out'. 'For the longest time, education has largely meant training which is something that has been inherited from colonial times. It should be a means to problem solving which does not mean arriving at a final answer. It is about learning how to ask better questions.'
He also recalled how the best liberal education he has received in India has been in the bazaars of the cities than in any universities. Making a reference to how liberal education has always been a part of India, he said, 'Even though liberal arts as a phrase might be a relative newcomer [in India], when we look at the early Buddhist educational institutions, there is an emphasis on knowledge procured through shastras, discussions and arguments. We have long been aware of the fact that education is not the reproduction of what teachers say, but questioning everything. We can try to implement the globally best practices while also tapping into the traditions here. The subcontinent can teach the world about the liberal arts.'
Sudheesh Venkatesh, Managing Editor, Azim Premji Foundation highlighted that liberal education should be guided by the inter-disciplinarity of issues. 'In liberal arts education, you want dialogue and for people to appreciate another point of view and accept it. If people come in with a disciplinary loyalty, then it is a recipe for disaster. The problems of today are interdisciplinary in nature and inter-disciplinarity is the way of life and that was the idea behind the establishment of our institution.'
The session was moderated by Srinath Raghavan, professor, Ashoka University who made the interesting observation of how the emergence of liberal arts programmes in India coincided with the rise of philanthropy. When he asked the panelists about the need for liberal arts education institutions to deal with many stakeholders, Prof. Harris spoke about the advantages that comes with the philanthropy model where multiple votes can create an ethos of discussion and conflict resolution. Mr. Venkatesh however, batted for the stability that comes with a single investor.
Can AI be the undoing of liberal education?
Ms. Bhavani noted how with the easy access to information, the ability to read, process and reproduce information has come down. 'When we read something, we have our own ways of reproducing it and expressing it. There is going to be a lack of this ability in the future as AI does the reading, puts information in different formats and essentially does not allow one to think. We might lose some cognitive abilities due to our dependence on technology. There is an existential angst and anxiety among students due to this gap in thinking as when we fail to think, we fail to produce new knowledge.'
The educators agreed that there are no defined solutions as of now to the problems created by AI in the educational space.
'Initially, the concerns were how to control plagiarism and related things. Now, with AI being able to create almost everything, the teachers are facing challenges around how to assess students, how to set tests in the times of AI etc. We are still figuring it out,' Mr. Venkatesh said.
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