Martin Luther Christian University has come a long way in seven years, says Aafaque Hussain
SEVEN YEARS on, at this germinating stage, Meghalaya’s privately-run Martin Luther Christian University (MLCU) has found its unique spot on the educational landscape of India. When a news and entertainment magazine handed out the second edition of its Achievers Awards 2014, the university backed the award as the leading contributor in the field of education in India’s northeast.
So, is MLCU the real achiever? There are relative achievement points and unique features that have caught the eye of the jury and the university’s products stand as living proof sans the award or better with such backing.
What makes the university the achiever and for what? MLCU has prioritized ‘a student first’, giving due attention to an individual student. Matching its age, there are seven learning bonuses cutting across dozens of disciplines. A student of any discipline becomes a common benefactor of these seven essentials. These are:
Communicative English: Taught by trained English communicators, this prepared the ground for students to go global and stand their ground in job interviews.
Career guidance: MLCU takes career guidance seriously, since it believes it will help a learner plan life and connecting student’s interests to the job-in-waiting.
Life skills: It teaches life’s values and builds the confidence of students. MLCU offers only job-oriented courses. Most Indian universities offer conventional degree programs which churn out knowledgeable graduates who do not have marketable skills, therefore, remain unemployed. Life skills sessions contribute hugely to this.
Continuous formative evaluation: A non-competitive space that minimises exams by maximising experience. The university had formulated a competency-based curriculum that emphasizes the acquisition of hard and soft skills that will turn students into productive professionals who will immediately be absorbed into the workplace. MLCU is probably the only institution in the region that took a gutsy decision to de-emphasise examinations and ranks, choosing instead to focus on the individual learning needs of students.
Teaching: The teaching floor in this university is interactive, student centric and learning is a lifestyle not a forced effort. Teaching happens on campus, off campus and anywhere where the opportunity arises.
Experiential learning: It is very much part of the university’s DNA. Experiential learning enhanced learning through hands-on community engagement and industry tours. From several surveys in the rural areas using tools such as participatory rural appraisal to determine priorities for local development, the university was able to carve a name for itself on the experiential learning front.
Entreprenuership: At MLCU the business mindedness of a professional-in-the-making is considered important. It is not good enough to know how to deliver, a professional needs proper marketing know-how to finish the race and close the deal and the entrepreneurship sessions are training him to be just that person.
It took some guts to decide to be different, and MLCU six years ago had decided that none of its graduates should be unemployed; they should enter the job market with skills that are in demand. In some ways, those wishes are coming true – judging by the number of budding entrepreneurs, alumnae who are employees of national and international organisations – this young institution has passed many tests. While on one hand you have the problem of unemployment, MLCU with its thrust on employability arrived on time with its academic solutions to the problem.
MLCU is the first private-university in the Northeast, having been created by the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly in 2005 and gazetted in 2006. Today, it is a household name in the field of education – not gentle stepping anymore but gradually arriving as a contributor to nation building.