Gurugram: The Apeejay Stya University (ASU) recently launched a Centre for Liberal Arts Education at its Campus and organised a two-day workshop on Liberal Arts for its academic and non-academic staff. The uniqueness of the Liberal Arts structure allows students to strengthen the discipline of their choice while at the same time, pursue their interests in various other fields and skill domains. The objective behind the opening of the Centre is to provide value addition to students’ skill enhancement initiatives along with ensuring better industry- academia linkages.
One of the key operational areas of the Centre would include providing students a broad spectrum of knowledge and skills which promote critical thinking, critical reading, analysis and effective communication. The Centre would be using the Liberal Arts approach in designing and teaching of courses in all the schools (departments) of ASU.
Besides, the Centre would provide students with opportunities to do research and internship in industries, organisations and related institutions. On the other hand, it aims to have close interactions and partnerships with industries and organisations in order to involve them in academia.
Inaugurating the Centre virtually, Mrs. Sushma Paul Berlia, Co-founder and Chancellor, Apeejay Stya University, highlighted the essence of Liberal Arts in Higher Education. “When we are talking of Liberal Arts we are not talking about specific subjects. All knowledge is actually one. Any process involves a number of domains which come together to make it happen. There are dimensional aspects to knowledge. Liberal Arts is all about understanding all the dimensions,” she said. Aditya Berlia, Pro-Chancellor, Apeejay Stya University, said, “Many think that Liberal Arts education is for people who are not looking for jobs. This is for the elite and for people who have too much money. But, this is what companies want.” He added, “Top CEOs want people who can walk into a room full of engineers, marketing experts and people from other domains, understand their perspectives and then weave everything together to innovate and do something extraordinary. That’s the low-hanging fruit of liberal arts.”
The inaugural ceremony was followed by a workshop on Liberal Arts for the teaching and non-teaching staff of the University which continued for the next 2 days. At the beginning of the workshop, Prof. Joel Rodney, Dean Academics shared his views on the ASU’s approach towards Liberal Arts education. He also showcased interviews of US employers depicting the value they give to Liberal education for offering jobs.
Other important delegates who graced the occasion and mentored at the workshop included, Prof. R.S. Dhankar, Vice-Chancellor, ASU, Prof. Vimala Veeraraghavan, Prof Emeritus Psychology & Education, Mr. Nagendra Prasad, Director, HR and Dr. Varuna Tyagi, Dean Academics at ASU.
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