The role of our educational institutions such as various universities and colleges in being the temples of learning for the young and the learning minds has long been established, where since ancient times the tradition of young lads going to gurukuls for their all round development including formal education has been the cornerstone of Indian culture and ethos. Juxtaposing this to the present times, where a number of universities, some of them really top class and a large number of them being just average or below average are playing a pivotal role in fostering the youth of the nation in building their beliefs, ethics and minds so that they become fully equipped to face the challenges posed by the current and lightening fast paced age of information. While the World Wide Web has played the role of a tremendous leveller in making available the required information and data to one and all, the ability of utilizing this data and information and transforming this into knowledge and wisdom has been the forte of just a few percentage of the population. In addition, while learning on the web can be an enriching experience, however, it is wide exposure that the students and youth of today require to understand and suitably react to the complex social dynamics that plays all around them, and to tackle this is a key constituent for a successful and an impactful education. It is here the role of good universities comes up in the current age of information, where they act as torch bearers in shaping up and sculpting the minds of our youth, still impressionable to a large extent, and sadly, most often vulnerable to tactics such as peer pressure and social engineering.

It is in this context that good universities should act as catalysts in order to ignite the young minds in a positive fashion, and this can only be achieved with minimum intervention and help extended with a right spirit and intention of aiding the learning process of the youth, wherein a helping hand is always present whenever any individual is about to lose his or her way in the forms of various temptations, that may result in students getting misguided. Be it any university, concerning with arts, sciences or commerce, such institutions are duty bound to provide a stimulating atmosphere to the students where they are encouraged to explore the world in its entirety, with least number of barriers in the form of checks and balances, and encourage them to not only learn about their own subjects, but to gain at least an exposure to a cross section of a multitude of disciplines in a variety of ways.

In the Indian context, such a widespread scope of providing quality education to the youth becomes really a herculean task, given the constraints of resources, both human and capital, and also given the level of exposure that the youth are already exposed to, and hence the duty of professors and teachers becomes really challenging so as to establish conditions and conduct so that the minds of the youth get diverted to the right direction, where ‘what is right’ can only be established only through a meaningful dialogue between the professor and the student, and where the position of the student is dominant, and the professor only plays the role of a catalyst to stimulate the minds of his or her students. Even if such kind of an approach is Utopian in nature, no wonder, even if the universities and colleges are able to foster such a kind of environment to a certain extent, the future of youth is secure. Thanks and stay safe, comments as usual are welcome.