“For education is also about necessities, it is about values and meaning, about stepping back from the urgent present, to see it clearly and correctly and thus to be able to imagine a world that is different.”
This is how Drew Gilpin Faust, president of Harvard University and Lincoln
professor of history, spoke about the 'Challenges of Higher Education' at Mumbai University’s Convocation Hall on Friday.
Faust, who is on her first visit to India, spoke about Harvard University’s interest in South Asia and India. “In 2010, 3.7 million students travelled outside their home countries to pursue higher education. At the same time research collaboration between and among faculty continued to flourish.”
Speaking about international academic collaborations, Faust said that in 2008, more than three-fourth of the scientific articles published in international journals were a product of at least two institutions.
In Harvard University, more than 200 management students are researching projects on rapid urbainisation in Mumbai, said Faust. Faust also spoke about the Murty Classical Library of India, a Harvard University Press initiative aiming to transcribe 37 classic texts from several Indian languages such as Urdu, Pali, and Bengali and make them available in English.