Sitting in my lawn recently and scrolling through the day’s news, I was drawn to reports of university examination results. The poor pass percentages at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels left me with an uncomfortable question: What is happening to our higher education system?
The question assumes greater significance in Northeast India. The region is home to institutions of distinction, yet many colleges and universities continue to struggle with poor academic performance, declining enrolment, student dropouts and weak classroom engagement. The problem, therefore, is larger than examination results.
Whenever students perform poorly, the familiar explanations quickly follow: students are not studying, students are irregular, students are not serious, students lack discipline. There may be truth in some of these observations. But if we place the entire burden on students, we avoid a more difficult question: What responsibility do educators and institutions bear for the academic culture we have created?
I was reminded of this while reading Dr. Kishore Paknikar’s thought-provoking article, “The Invisible Campus.” It prompted me to think about what may be called the “education culture” of an institution—the invisible habits, attitudes, conversations and professional practices that shape academic life but rarely appear in official reports.
Policies can reform structures, universities can revise curricula and regulators can establish standards. But no notification can create a culture of learning. That culture begins with educators.
Do We Read Enough?
We constantly tell students to read, think critically and engage with contemporary scholarship. But these expectations become meaningful only when students see the same intellectual discipline in their teachers.
Teaching cannot remain static. A lecturer who relies on notes prepared years ago, without revising or contextualising them, risks turning education into repetition. Disciplines evolve, scholarship advances, technology transforms knowledge, and students themselves change. Our teaching must change with them.
Preparing for a lecture should therefore involve reading, questioning, updating and reorganising knowledge. A good lecture is not merely the transfer of information; it is an intellectual encounter.
The uncomfortable question is simple: How many of us study for the lecture we are going to deliver the next day?
The answer may tell us much about the academic culture we are creating.
Research Is More Than a Requirement
The same principle applies to research. In contemporary academia, publication is often associated with promotion and career advancement. These are legitimate considerations, but research should never become merely a box to be ticked.
A teacher who genuinely researches brings curiosity, critical inquiry and intellectual energy into the classroom. Research teaches us to question assumptions, examine evidence and recognise complexity. Students can sense the difference between a teacher who is intellectually engaged and one who is simply repeating yesterday’s lecture.
If we expect students to become intellectually curious, we must first demonstrate curiosity ourselves. Reading and writing are not burdens added to teaching; they are integral to the profession.
Students Need Inspiration, Not Just Motivation
We frequently speak about motivating students. But students may need something deeper than motivational speeches: they need inspiration.
A teacher who continues to read, research, write, attend academic discussions and engage seriously with students becomes an example without having to deliver a motivational lecture.
When students see their teachers reading books, discussing ideas and engaging with contemporary debates, they begin to understand that education is not merely a route to an examination or a degree. It is a way of life.
This is where the invisible campus becomes visible.
The Problem of Professional Attitude
Academic culture is also shaped by how educators treat one another. Differences of opinion are natural in any institution; what becomes destructive is personal hostility, rivalry and the unwillingness to recognise another’s contribution.
A younger teacher’s achievement should not be regarded as a threat. A colleague’s research should inspire another colleague to write. Good teaching practices should be shared, not guarded.
We need an academic culture based on professional generosity, collegiality and humility. Intellectual disagreement should be encouraged; personal hostility should not.
Beyond Blaming the Students
None of this absolves students of responsibility. They must attend classes, read, prepare for examinations and respect academic discipline.
But responsibility must be shared.
If students are absent, we should ask why. If enrolment is declining, we should ask why. If students are dropping out, we should examine the institutional and social factors driving them away. If classrooms are uninspiring, we must ask whether our teaching methods have kept pace with changing needs. And when examination results are poor, we should examine not only student preparation but also curriculum, pedagogy, assessment and institutional support.
The easy answer is: “Students are not studying.”
The difficult question is: “What kind of educational environment have we created for them?”
Reform Must Begin at the Ground Level
Educational reform is often discussed in terms of governments, universities and regulatory bodies. Their responsibilities are undeniable. But education is ultimately experienced in the classroom—in the interaction between teacher and student, in the library, laboratory, seminar room and faculty room.
That is why reform must also be bottom-up.
A new policy cannot force a teacher to read a book. A revised curriculum cannot automatically make a classroom intellectually stimulating. Infrastructure alone cannot create an academic community.
Institutional culture must change, and culture begins with people.
For the Northeast, this is particularly important. The region possesses immense intellectual potential, cultural diversity and a young population. We should aspire to produce more than graduates. Our institutions must produce readers, researchers, thinkers, innovators and socially responsible citizens.
We need libraries that are used, seminars that generate debate, research that addresses local realities, classrooms that encourage questions and teachers who regard themselves as lifelong learners.
The Northeast does not lack talent. What it needs is an educational culture capable of nurturing that talent.
The Uncomfortable Question
Perhaps every educator should ask:
Do I revise my lectures? Do I read beyond the minimum requirements of my profession? Do I engage in meaningful research? Do I discuss ideas with colleagues? Do I encourage younger teachers? Do I genuinely listen to my students?
And perhaps the most difficult question is this:
If we are not setting high academic standards for ourselves, on what moral authority do we demand those standards from our students?
These questions are not accusations. They are invitations to introspection. Every educator, myself included, must be willing to look inward.
The crisis in higher education cannot be solved by blaming students alone, nor by blaming governments alone. It requires a collective examination of the culture we have created.
We need educators who read, write, research, listen, collaborate, encourage and continue learning. Teaching is not merely a profession; it is a responsibility to shape the intellectual and moral character of the next generation.
The warning attributed to Daniel Prelipcean—that the collapse of education can lead to the collapse of a nation—may sound dramatic, but it carries an important lesson: societies decline not only when economies weaken or institutions fail, but also when their culture of learning disappears.
The real rescue operation, therefore, must begin from below.
It begins with the teacher preparing tomorrow’s lecture tonight; with the professor opening a book not because an inspection is coming, but because curiosity demands it; with colleagues discussing ideas rather than merely discussing one another; and with institutions celebrating learning rather than merely celebrating statistics.
Ultimately, we must ask whether we are merely teaching students—or becoming examples worthy of being followed.
Perhaps then students will not study merely for examinations, but for life. They will not seek only degrees, but knowledge. And years later, when they become teachers, researchers, administrators and citizens, they may carry forward the academic habits they learned from us.
That is the true education culture. And that is where meaningful educational reform must begin.
Imtinungkum Ao
Friday, August 21, 2026