A Letter to Vice-Chancellor of Central University of Panjab

Recently, there was an advertisement in The Tribune on Sunday, 8/3/2009 from the Vice-Chancellor of the proposed Central University in Panjab about the possible courses to be introduced in the new campus. I sent one to the VC which I am sharing with my readers.

Dear Mr. Vice-Chancellor,

It’s a bit appreciative that you have asked for suggestions for the courses to be introduced in the proposed Central University in Punjab. I don't know about the extent of your seriousness or the possibility of implementation of such suggestions but I do feel that being a part of academic community, it's my duty to suggest something which I feel very strongly. Dear Sir, I am a researcher as well as a lecturer based in Ludhiana. I have serious interest in international relations, theory of money and the phenomenon of globalisation as such. I'm feeling the disenchantment taking roots among serious intellectuals from the prevailing scene of Indian academics. I have seen the decline of social sciences as a general trend of “decline in theory” and the rise of commercial and applied disciplines. This kind of development is not a good promise for the future of education because all knowledge should proceed through marriage of theory and praxis. In order to address the gap between the two, I suggest a course “Masters in Global Money” that should undertake the convergence of four following areas:

1.      Global Political Economy

2.      International credit and banking

3.      International relations theory

4.      Monetary theory

This particular course should be a part of a centre of learning that is focused on the study of globalisation as such. This centre may be called the “Centre of Globalisation Studies”. There is a special reason to propose such a course. First, in this part of country, there is rarely any institute which is focused on the study of globalisation as such. Second, the region is trapped in a poor choice between commercial knowledge and non-practical theoretical knowledge. Thirdly, this region doesn't have any serious global ambition except sending its youth to foreign lands. Fourthly, this part of the country is not a very well respected educational hub leaving certain exception of a few disciplines. That's why I feel that we need to build an institute where purely innovative courses can be established unlike the so-called separate boxes of knowledge of commerce, economics, political science, history, sociology etc. I hope you will take this suggestion seriously. In future, if possible, I might like to contribute towards the curriculum development of this course.

Sunil Aggrarwal