Why India Should Stop Treating University Students Like Schoolchildren |
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For decades, Indian universities have struggled with a crisis far deeper than infrastructure shortage or funding gaps. The real crisis, perhaps, is more fundamental: the complete failure to understand what a university is actually meant to do. Take, for instance, the latest proposal from Uttar Pradesh to introduce uniforms in colleges and universities. What better example can there be that exposes this confusion with remarkable clarity.
The policy, pushed by Governor and Chancellor Anandiben Patel in the name of “discipline” and “uniformity,” may appear harmless at first glance. Supporters will likely argue that uniforms reduce visible inequality, encourage seriousness, and create a better academic atmosphere. But beneath this seemingly administrative decision lies a profoundly troubling question: What exactly do we think higher education is for? If universities begin to function like schools, they will only produce compliant subjects and not citizens. And what a tragedy that would be.
What makes it so difficult for our political class to understand the distinction between schools and universities? Surely, they are not interchangeable institutions. Schools are spaces where children are introduced to structure, supervision, and foundational discipline. Society accepts this because children are still developing intellectually and emotionally.
A school uniform, in that context, is often justified as part of a collective learning environment. A university, however, is supposed to represent something entirely different. It is the space where an individual transitions into adulthood. Higher education is not merely about acquiring degrees or employable skills. Its larger purpose is to cultivate independent thinking, intellectual confidence, ethical judgment, and the capacity to question authority itself.
A student checks documents before casting her vote during the Patna University Students’ Union (PUSU) elections, at Patna Women’s College, in Patna on February 28, 2026. Photo: PTI.
The great German philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose ideas shaped the modern university system, argued that universities must nurture the free development of the individual through unrestricted inquiry. Knowledge,........