Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Sep 11: S P Thyagarajan, ex-vice-chancellor of Madras University, has exhorted institutions of higher education in the country, to offer learner-centric education process to students, in which the students are allowed to study at their pace. Such institutions should together adopt an inter-disciplinary approach to learning, by using the expertise available in all these institutions, in addition to their own faculty, he felt.

He was in the city to deliver the Foundation Day lecture at Mangalore University on Wednesday September 10.  He pointed out that the institutions of higher education elsewhere in the world follow the choice-based credit system.  Under the scheme, students are given the liberty to opt for subjects and courses of their choice in addition to core subjects of their programme and the system basically encourages cafeteria kind of learning, he said.

This system allows students to learn as many subjects as they like and get value-added courses and credits for all the subjects that they gain knowledge in.  The students are allowed to get knowledge and skills in the fields of their interest and their knowledge is evaluated through a system of continuous participatory teaching, learning and evaluation process, he explained.

He exhorted teachers to make learning a two-way process and provide more time for interactive sessions and group discussions besides undertaking case studies. The teachers should make use of modern gadgets like internet to be more affective, he added.

University vice-chancellor K M Maveriappa who presided over the programme, said that the present-day teachers are faced with the challenge of ensuring that the knowledge they impart to the students is relevant and suitable for their prospective employers.