A model for collaborative Higher Education - our visit to KREA University

Last month, we were generously hosted at KREA University in Sri City, about 90 minutes’ drive from Chennai. We had heard a lot about the University: it is viewed as one-to-watch in the sector at the moment. It has attracted international interest, including for its standards, and the development of a liberal arts programme, an approach taken by at most a handful of Universities in India. Its name is well known across the country as a result of the reputation of IFMR Graduate School of Business (the Institute for Financial Management and Research), the much older entity from which the University has developed.

The recently arrived Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nirmala Rao, is well known to us and hosted us personally and generously.  She is a tried and tested leader in two national environments, including most recently as leader of the Asian University for Women in Chittagong, Bangladesh, where she spent five years building capacity and profile.  Prior to this she held leadership roles in the University of London at both SOAS and Goldsmiths, colleges known for their arts and social sciences, and with reputations for activism and occasional unruliness. Upon arrival we were immediately struck by the enthusiasm she has rapidly developed for KREA and its potential.  She feels to be in her element.

Wider family

The University sits within a family of research and educational activities. A number of distinguished research institutes have been in existence for some time, dotted around India, with interests spanning several areas. Amongst these institutes is the South Asia home of J-PAL (Jameel Poverty Action Lab) that is headquartered at MIT in Boston; the Centre for Digital Financial Inclusion; and, the Sapien Labs Centre for Human Brain and Mind. Combined external funding for these centres is around 100 crore per year.  A number of younger interdisciplinary centres make up the family. 

IFMR Graduate School of Business, previously located in Chennai, and with a core base of activity still in the city, has been going since 1970 and has enjoyed many years of strong rankings performance, with a reputation for excellence in finance.   

The campus and culture

Even before you arrive at the campus, you are struck by Sri City.   As a young development it is well laid out, with new smooth roads and colourfully flowered road reservations.  When you turn in at the main gate, this sense of order and attention to detail is only strengthened, and ahead of you is an elegant campus of young buildings, with neatly landscaped grounds.  In a muted sense, it is not far short of a walled paradise.

And as soon as you are out of the car, the warmth and collegiality of the campus is immediately palpable. Students, academics and staff alike are nearly always smiling. They could not be more welcoming.   We arrived on the day before mid-term break was due to start and there was a buzz around the place that was added to by the enthusiasm of MBA students, many of whom had freshly heard news of their work placements. 

The campus has been operational since 2014, when many of the IFMR students re-located.  There has been a lot of expansion over recent years, and there are currently around 900 students but significant growth is planned.  Since 2019, undergraduate numbers have grown through liberal arts via the School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences. 

Interwoven

The liberal arts initiative at KREA is one of the most fascinating aspects of the place.  Over dinner we met a group of academics, coming from disciplines spanning economics, environmental studies, history and philosophy, who are all collaborating in developing and delivering the interwoven programme.  All undergraduates are required to take broad-based courses across arts and social sciences, with alluring titles such as Creative Expression, Scientific Reasoning and Philosophical Perspectives Across Cultures.   Alongside these are basic skills programmes including Writing and Oral Communication, Data Analytics and Design Thinking. In their second year, they choose the major that they will focus on, but there are still opportunities to take a broad path right through to the end of their degree.  There is a core focus on grand challenges across the course, with an emphasis on problem solving and reflecting on issues such as human rights, sustainability and global development.  

Many of the academics at the heart of the interwoven programme arrived in 2018, and spent the first months collaborating to bring together the curriculum. The first students arrived in 2019, meaning that the first full cycles of degrees are coming to completion.  We were struck by the energy and team-ethos that the academics we met expressed.  Rarely have we seen a team of academics, with such different backgrounds, working so well together.  It is normally assumed to be not in their DNA.  Professor Rao referred to it as a “husky compact”.  Speaking to one who had worked in a number of other institutions, both public and private, we heard that there is huge commitment to the project, and he told us that without doubt his work at KREA was the most enjoyable spell of his career to date.  

We were also struck by the honesty. There was no puffing up of the chests or arrogance about the project, simply an energy and commitment to carrying it forward. A healthy-culture of self-criticism and continuous improvement is very clear.  “We are not interested in believing our own PR”. 

Students

Students seem positive about the programme, some extremely so. They talk about the breadth they gain and enjoy the encouragement towards critical questioning that is at the heart of the programme. Consequently, there is a growing activist spirit on campus, with students writing and performing in plays related to social issues of the day, and engaging in the life of the University.

At the heart of the campus is an amphitheatre where Professor Rao had held a town hall meeting for all students.   Topics had ranged from floodlights for the cricket pitch and library opening hours to some more personal issues.   Everything was on the table, and there is a clear openness and willingness to listen and work together. 

Working together

In our view, one of the key ingredients for how KREA is developing is its governance. There is a high powered board including the likes of Aditya Mittal and Sajjan Jindal, and a subset of members comprise the executive committee that does the heavy lifting of governance. A key figure is Kapil Viswanathan, who is President of the sponsoring body of KREA University.   Viswanathan invests a great deal of time and energy in the project, and has been involved from the start.  He is a vital part of a collaborative approach to developing the institution that is unusual in a private University. Consequently, a project such as the liberal arts programme is one that is shared and invested in by people at all levels, not just driven from the top. 

Concluding

KREA has ambitions for significant expansion. Behind the current campus, there are many acres of land set aside, and plans to grow student numbers, perhaps to as much as 20000. New schools in law and public health, and programmes in cultural studies / museology and conservation are in the prospective pipeline.  

At the moment, the student body is drawn from all over India. The state government in Andhra Pradesh is proposing to introduce the law that 35% percent of all students need to be from within state. This will pose some challenges for the institution, as it has for some private Universities in other states where the rule has been brought in, such as Haryana.  This will be something that will require careful navigation, particularly in the context of a liberal arts approach which can jar with some of the more traditional family emphases on applied subjects such as engineering or accountancy, and consequently may require a wide casting of the net.   

We reflected on two other possible challenges for the University as it develops. One is around research. There is a definite and growing culture of scholarship which will continue to emerge, and a proposed doctoral school will build on this. We wondered if there are opportunities to develop richer relationships with the research centres which currently operate quite independently even while sitting under the same canopy. 

Another concerns the overall growth of KREA. At the moment it is a friendly village. Pretty much all the students, staff and academics know each other, and there is something very special about the place. We wondered which bits of the baby might be lost as the bathwater swells up around it over coming years. 

Overall, KREA is clearly a wonderful place. We can recommend it to potential students and their parents, and to academics who think differently, enjoy challenging but fulfilling engagement, and are looking for a distinctive home wherein to build their career. We hope to stay close to the University over the coming time, and are looking forward to hearing directly from Professor Rao as her tenure develops.