The Idea of a University: A Sociological Study of a National University in India Nagaraju Gundemeda Department of Sociology, School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Central University, 500046, Hyderabad, India Senior Research Associate, Department of Sociology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa Telephone: 04023133263 E-mail: ngss@uohyd.ernet.in KEYWORDS University. Diversity. Inclusion. Social Mobility. State Policy ABSTRACT What is the role and relevance of universities in the contemporary Indian society is the fundamental question that bothers students, intellectuals and policy makers. A brief review of literature on university education reveals that universities are in a transition phase and undergoing a crisis across the nation states including India. The primary aim of the paper is to analyse to what extent the universities in India reflect the centre of universal teaching and research. It also aims to map the expectations and experiences of students in a university. This paper is broadly divided into two parts. The first part presents the broader debates on the idea of a university, critically examining the current status of university education in India. The second part captures the demographic composition, personal experiences and ideological convictions of students on the role of a university in nation building, social transformation and social and economic mobility. INTRODUCTION The reflections of Sen (2011) on the legacy of the Nalanda University in ancient India, New- man’s (1908) ‘the idea of a university’, the Hum- boldt ideal of the modern university as a replica of the unity of teaching and research; inform the university as a centre of universal learning. In- tellectual articulations of Visvanathan (2000), Guha (2007) and Beteille (2010) present a wide range of meanings and debates associated with ideal goals and ideological contests on the ideas of an ideal university in India. The history of India’s higher policy since 1947 to the latest Na- tional Knowledge Commission (NKC 2009) was aimed to prepare Indian youth for the knowledge economy. The Idea of a University In this paper an attempt has been made to map out the ideological divergence in approach- ing the idea of a university and its relevance in the context of India. In this paper Newman’s idea of a university has been accepted as a concep- tual category for sociological examinations. If I were asked to describe as briefly and pop- ularly as I could, what a University was, I should draw my answer from its ancient designation of a Studium Generale, or “School of Universal Learning.” (Newman 1908: 6). The Idea of a University: Defined and Illus- trated (1908) by Newman remains a scholarly piece on the study of the origin and functions of a university. According to him, the university should be the seat of universal learning. His idea of university implies the assemblage of students and faculty from all parts of the world in one spot. It should represent the diversity in schools of knowledge and ideologies. The essential fea- ture of a university is to provide a mechanism for circulation of thought in everyday intellec- tual life. The university should be able to trans- form ordinary students as an intellectual com- munity. His idea of a university implies the culti- vation of knowledge, wisdom and critical thought which allows the student to lead a bal- anced intellectual and social life. However, a crit- ical reading of the history of the idea of a univer- sity reveals the clash of epistemological tradi- tions on the lines of universal versus special- ised learning, excellence versus equity, univer- sity for knowledge versus the market and social versus personal good (Beteille 2005). These are some of the major concerns confronting the very idea of a university in the era of the privatisation of education and employment. Globalisation as an economic and epistemological system posed a fundamental challenge to the very idea of uni- versity education across the developed and de- veloping countries. A wide range of conceptual © Kamla-Raj 2015 J Sociology Soc Anth, 6(1): 99-112 (2015)