“Learning can happen when you want to learn,” says Dr. Madhur Gupta, Dean, St. Francis Business School & Director, St. Xavier’s College, Bengaluru in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm – Higher Education and Edtech Conclave & Awards 2022’ #HEETbengaluru
As we have seen and witnessed from last two and a half years how the education industries has totally evolved. How has your organization or institutions responded to this change?
So, I’m looking for two institutions St. Xavier’s College and St. Francis Business School, last two years are quite historic years I would say how we have changed from students sitting in the class and at their home, it’s really different and first time we all were experiencing and learning it all together. It was a big learning for the management, professors, learners who are in the home they are more comfortable, they were more free, disciplinary issues were less but there was a connect missing what I found and for that we have reduced theoretical portions we have given them lot of hands-on tasks, we have also increased lots of industry interaction, hands-on learning. We have given them very simple assignments which they can do by their own where a lot of innovation creativity is there. We have given them very simple things how being at home, simple gardening can be connected with your life, how you can be very happy by not going out, talking to your friends physically, partying out what are the different ways you can feel peace and happiness and still you are learning at home. Because I feel learning did not much happen in the closed cage classrooms, it happens with the very hard ways in life and when you really learn it means you are grown up. So most of us have learned the big lessons of our life where we have come outside of the institutions so last two years students were not in the institutions physically and we are trying to make them a balanced life giving them very less assignments to write more ideas to produce because there was enough time and most of the students were on online social media. They were talking about what is going on and also, we have learned how to come out of certain things which we were not at all prepared so this is a lesson of life we can get into any trouble don’t worry things will be there we can come out and this was something none of us were really prepared so we were shifting from our technology lot of technologies have been learned together. Our professors were also learning students were also learning so nobody was kind of an upper side or lower side. Some of our students were so smart they were helping us to learn this new technology how to connect, how to login, log out, how to create certain classrooms, how to upload notes so this is a very good environment happened in our institution where we were happily learning from our kids from our students and everybody was helping each other. Another thing we have learned what is an emotional support because when we were not going out so a lot of pleasures were not there, so we have learned how to connect with our family members, again we have learned how to cook together we have learned how important it is to be at home and that also whatever was available because lot of helpers were not there a lot of pleasures were not there. So, it’s a good time and now students are back, institutions were kind of lifeless without students, life is back but still this learning mode which we have learned is very important. If you are working, if you are not able to attend an institution we have learned a new way. Learning can happen when you want to learn.
How skill plays an important role apart from the regular academics and the curriculum?
It’s a very good question I always underline this, skills are very important all the skills which define us in our life, be it cleaning, cooking or technology we need to upgrade our skills we need to appraise our skills we need to understand not the theory studying in the class is important but the skills which we develop and there are interpersonal skills how you treat with people, are you really smiling enough, are you really so approachable that people would like to come and talk to you or they would like to ask help from you whenever they are in some trouble. So, these skills will always help you to work in a team because everybody would not sit on a laptop and work, there are few IT coding people other people will have to work in a society, in an interpersonal skill. So please develop your skills go out talk to people learn humanity, humility learn how to be grounded, down to earth it doesn’t matter how you are, how you look, what you wear, what position you carry, which chair you sit. How you make people feel when they talk to you is only important that’s why people will remember you.
Today is also a very special day for ArdorComm Media as we are celebrating our one year of existence and we are celebrating our anniversary, any message would you like to give for ArdorComm Media?
First of all, a huge congratulations to you Mr. Chandan and it’s such a happy day today, ArdorComm Media is a one-year-old baby and I wish you, your company, your teammates, everyone a very very successful long journey and I would like to meet you again on an international platform like this very soon where I would like to see ArdorComm in the whole world connecting leaders, educationist, students together. This is a very noble cause, this is a social cause which you are working and I would also like to see you connecting with the roots. Doing events in the cities are connecting with people but I would like you to also to go to certain cities which are not that much familiar for having these kind of events, connecting with the root people, connecting with some different people, those are working on gurukul concepts or even working on the Sanskrit or working on the progressive institutions, not very formal ones like what we are doing so that will bring a new insight to the whole world how Indians are really working a lot. So I wish again a very happy anniversary to you because you know and in one year you people have done a wonderful work because I’ve been connected with you for past seven eight months and lot of good webinars, insights people have come up and it’s not easy you know in the online kind of world, connecting people who are quite high-headed many of them they pretend or they are really busy I don’t know and in that also connecting so many people together under a roof it’s such a incredible work.