AI, design, field work: How summer schools are introducing children to liberal arts, universities

NEW DELHI: Private universities ushering in liberal arts education into the mainstream have found a way to make school children and their parents aware of it and their own institutions – summer school programmes.

Ashoka University, Alliance University, Shiv Nadar University and others have been running summer schools for school students for some years – a major part of their outreach efforts. This year, Krea University in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, and Anant National University in Ahmedabad have also launched summer schools.

The programmes typically last between a week and 10 days during the school holidays. They usually follow a theme, such as artificial intelligence or design, and engage high school students in learning activities, field immersions, lab work and more.

They are also a means of familiarising school students and their parents with the new university, its campus, and with liberal arts education itself. Most importantly, it creates a channel for admissions. Every year, 5% to 30% of the undergraduate batches come from the summer school route.

Anant National University opened applications for its Anant Summer Iscool 2024 in March and within three days, had received an overwhelming response. Similarly, Alliance University, in its third year of organising the Young Leaders Alliance Summer School programme, conducted two rounds of the programme this year due to the abundance of applications.

Summer schools: Not just marketing

Ravi Chakraborty, director of communication for liberal arts, Alliance University, said, “It is a marketing exercise but the main motive has always been that students should get the broadest experiences on different disciplines and activities.”

Private liberal arts institutions offer programmes in diverse areas and allow students to choose from a range of courses and disciplines, making unusual combinations of minor and major degrees possible. It is an unfamiliar system in domestic higher education and the summer school offers a handy entry point.

“It’s the spirit of liberal arts that provides the freedom to choose and combine courses with majors and minors. While many students and parents in elite schools are already conversant with this idea, in many other schools, they tend to choose certain subjects due to peer pressure and other societal norms. However, here we offer a bootcamp, diverse and vibrant, where students can reconsider their choices,” added Chakraborty.

Anant National University, primarily a design and climate-focused university, launched a summer school programme for students as well as educators. And it wasn’t just to create a channel for admissions. “There are other ways through which one could do outreach and marketing and there was no need for us to put in extra effort for admissions. However, in response to the recommendation of the National Education Policy to introduce design thinking at school, we thought of introducing the summer school initiative as a pilot and received an overwhelming response,” said Anunaya Chaubey, provost.

“We wanted students and teachers to understand different design disciplines, including creativity, reason, mathematics, architecture, science and technology. These all work together in an approach to solving a problem,” added Chaubey. The first round was attended by 75 students and six to seven teachers; in the second round in June, a few principals also joined.

Similarly, Vinnie Mathur, chair, Young Thinkers Forum, Shiv Nadar University, explained, “Because there are so many opportunities in the market, we don’t want children to be stuck with their choices but rather get comfortable. Through summer school, students work in the physics lab, with economics professors or PhD scholars, further gaining confidence.

“It’s also a great networking place for students because they come from the south, east and west and they make friends. These are the real benefits of going to a summer school where students are constructively engaging in activities, learning new concepts, meeting new people and enjoying at the same time.”

Every year, around 25%-30% of admissions in Shiv Nadar University’s undergraduate programmes come through the summer school, she added. Shiv Nadar University offers two programmes: an internship programme for Rs 18,000 and a summer camp for Rs 35,000, inclusive of food and stay for seven days.

Prithvi Datta Chandra Shobhi, dean, School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences (SIAS) at Krea University said the summer school helps with brand-building and introducing the institution to students. “Krea Summer School is part of an outreach programme whose objective is to build a brand of Krea, but partly, it is also to give students a flavour of university life and particularly of the liberal arts approach to university education,” he said. “We keep summer school open for everyone. So there are no restrictions on public or private schools, boards, and the state.”

The first batch had about 25 students for seven days with two or three programmes for school students from Classes 9 to 12.

Summer programs: Rising demand

Many universities are seeing interest in summer schools rise.

“This year we are doing two batches because we get so many applications,” said Chakraborty of Alliance University. “Many students have continuously attended summer schools and many will be joining again this year.” Around 5%-10% of students joining the undergraduate programmes come from the summer school every year. The programme is for students from Classes 9 to 12 and costs Rs 15,000 for 10 days.

Anant National, despite running it for the first time, received more than 500 applications for its summer school programme. “We started the outreach in March as a pilot programme. We had no idea how it would turn out and had just sent out invitations through social media. But within three days, we didn’t expect the response to be as overwhelming. We had room for about 80-100 students but we got more than 500 applications. Many principals, teachers and students reached out to us,” said Chaubey.

The university has received applications from 24 schools across 13 cities and this year it is offering the programme free of cost for everyone.

Even Shiv Nadar University’s summer school programme received more than 500 applications this year and 90 students joined. This is their fourth year.

Shift in mindset

Chakraborty strongly believes that through these summer programmes, students who were earlier pursuing only traditional engineering, medical, law and business-focussed courses, are now diversifying into different areas.

He explained: “In school, there are so many who are natural debaters but they don’t pursue it further; most see it as an extracurricular activity. Students don’t realise the value of liberal arts courses, that if someone takes up philosophy, debating becomes an essential skill and they get to sharpen their [understanding of the] course. Focussing on these diverse interests, we have classes on the art of debating, filmmaking, design, pottery, culture, and others, along with hands-on activities, making it as holistic as possible.”

Because students have visited the campuses numerous times through these school programmes, they join the university for undergraduate education. “We have seen students come for eco-finance, BMS history, and English. Despite being a marketing initiative, the idea is to bridge gaps between schools and universities. Even parents want students to make informed choices,” said Mathur. “We also get parents who want to send their children in Classes 8 and 9 to make informed choices for Class 11, whether in humanities or commerce, which wasn’t a norm earlier.”

Chaubey said summer schools offer diverse courses like artificial intelligence, design thinking, entrepreneurship, creative and critical thinking. “It’s our current education system that is indifferent to creative and critical thinking or curiosity and stigmatises failure. And we at Anant National University have set up a Centre for Design Education for Schools whose mandate is to sustain and get students for summer, monsoon and winter schools and, in between, focus on design thinking curriculum in different schools,” he added.

Krea’s summer school programme aims to orient students in two or three related disciplines. “This year, we focused on two themes: mathematics, computer science, and data sciences in one stream, and history, politics, society, and psychology in another,” said Shobhi.

Summer schools: Inclusivity, attrition

Most such summer schools have only private school students participating but some universities are trying to make their cohorts more diverse. “We have reached out to Navodya Vidyalaya and are keen on reaching out to communities that get left out. Our objective is to create a truly inclusive education,” said Chaubey.

Then, this year, Shiv Nadar University gave 60% scholarships to candidates from VidyaGyan schools in Bulandshahr and Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh. These schools are run by the Shiv
Nadar foundation. “This year onwards, we have started to involve students from other schools and shall continue,” said Mathur.

A large section of students also opt to go abroad after school, picking foreign universities over domestic private liberal arts colleges. “While many come back, every year a few students also leave for foreign universities due to better scholarships and brand value. Indian private universities are yet to gain a strong holding in liberal arts and these summer camps help in spreading information about the programmes,” said Divya Malhotra, programme head, Alliance School of Liberal Arts, Alliance University.