After Beijing,University of Chicago plans centre in Delhi

UChicago centre will not immediately hand out certificates and degrees.

Among the first of the A-list American universities to come to India will be the University of Chicago. Since early this year,University of Chicago has been engaged in talks with university professors,experts and even real estate agents,as it gets ready to establish a centre in the heart of New Delhi.

A prestigious university,with a well-established academic reputation for South Asian studies,UChicago will not immediately be handing out certificates and degrees.

We are keen to not give the impression that any dilution of standards is being done,so we will approach the degree and certificates question slowly. But we hope to first use the strong academic tradition of Chicago,and be able to stage many different conversations between our faculty and students in Chicago and those in India, said Professor Dipesh Chakrabarty,distinguished professor of history at UChicago who is leading the project in India.

Along the lines of what the newly-established centre of UChicago in Beijing hopes to achieve,the proposed centre here will serve as a bridge to also be able to pursue ideas for the sake of ideas. Academics like Prof Chakrabarty feel that this pursuit,and a push for the study of languages and Humanities,is vital to allow democracies to flourish and grow.

The growth of China and India has a lot to do with developments in the knowledge sector,and we want to also be there while those developments take place, said Prof Chakrabarty.

While the search is on for a suitable site for the centre,the University of Chicago is planning a two-day closed seminar in New Delhi on March 21-22,where Martha Nussbaum,renowned Professor of Law and Ethics at Chicago,will present a paper on the importance of Humanities. Other than Prof Chakrabarty,the president of the University of Chicago,Robert J Zimmer,is also scheduled to be present. From India,physicist Dr Shobhit Mahajan and historian Dr Shahid Amin would present a paper each on what is wrong with the Indian education system and what its needs are.

What is good about the proposed centre is that unlike a teaching shop,it will focus on using the immense resource base in India of undergraduate teachers and help them to renew skills and research opportunities,by allowing them to continue in their jobs and not necessarily physically relocating them, said Amin,who has been part of the brainstorming team for the centre.

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This is especially important at a time when there is an attempt to try and fast-track reforms without understanding where the problems really are. The University of Chicago wants to begin by understanding the problems rather than coming with ready-made solutions, he said.

While this is to be a centre which will allow students and teachers from Chicago to understand developments in India and vice versa,across disciplines,the real push came from the Chicago alumni in India of the Booth Business school.