Prospects for Anglophone Studies: Comparing Indian and British Programmes and Methodologies

This two-year networking project will examine the content, curriculum and pedagogic practices of what we call 'Anglophone Studies' or AS (including English language and linguistics, literatures in English, and Anglophone culture studies) as they support students in the current globalising social and economic context. In the first phase we will explore the issues in contemporary Indian Higher Education (HE) programmes; in the second stage, the situation in this regard in India will be considered comparatively with that in Britain. We expect the investigation to model and foster change amongst the AS academic community. Funding is sought to develop our network, drawing staff from centres in three universities in Delhi - English Department, Delhi University (DU); Modern Languages School, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) [both listed as 'centres of excellence' in the Arts and Humanities Research Mapping, India report, June 2010, Research Councils UK]; English Department, Jamia Milia University (JMU) -- and the English Department, The Open University (OU). This network will clarify the terms/remit of discussion, consider ways of expanding its membership to national scales, and identify areas for further investigation through a series of meetings and three workshops in India and Britain.

In a broad way, we expect this project and the consequent future programme to: (1) lead to reconsideration of and, where necessary, reform of the AS curriculum and pedagogic practices in Indian and British HE; (2) clarify the relationship of HE AS to employment in India, and intervene in policy and practices pertinent to this; (3) similarly throw comparative light on this relationship in the UK; (4) understand the success of Indian graduates in the national and global (with the UK case in focus) employment marketplace; (5) provide information to employers in sectors anywhere who wish to be appraised of developments in this area; (6) and foster collaboration and research between Indian and British academics, policy-makers and industry. Thereby we expect to fill significant lacunae in the current research context while engaging with important social and academic trends.

The workshops will involve Indian and British AS academics/researchers and education policy-makers, and representative employers outside academia, i.e. media and arts industries, firms providing/using Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services, publishing and education/training enterprises. Bodies and organizations representing different AS disciplines, government and education policy, and employers have been approached by the applicants and collaborators of this project already, and have been given assurances of participation. The first two workshops will take place in Delhi, focusing on 'Employer Expectations and Indian AS Graduates' first, and then on 'AS Curriculum, Pedagogy and the Market'; the third will be in London, on 'AS Programmes and Graduate Destinations in Britain and India: Comparative Perspectives'. The core group of organisers will also meet thrice as a planning committee before, between and after the workshops, to plan them and realise reports and published outcomes, to arrange publicity and dissemination, and to plan a follow-on research programme. Within the project period three reports will be prepared and circulated and a co-edited scholarly volume prepared for publication. A text-based, public-access project website will be used to profile events, place reports and provide a common forum for the network.

By this project's end the applicants will have planned and started lobbying/applying for support for a large-scale (extending to the national level in India and Britain) programme involving original data-collection, research publications, and ongoing production of reports/analyses for HE policy/academic bodies and employer bodies.

Overview:
The impact of the Network stage of this project will be to raise the profile of the relation of Anglophone Studies (AS) and employability in Higher Education in the UK and India. Overall, the project aims to make proposals to refigure AS to enhance its role in education for participation in modern globalised and industrial society.
The comparative element in the project enhances impact in the UK, by offering the model of Indian HE where AS have always had a substantial vocational dimension and value for students.

Outcomes and Impact:
The reports listed in the Case for Support will demonstrate possible impacts by including assessments of present effectiveness in the following areas, together with indications for change to be pursued in the next stage of the project:
1. the vocational value of study of AS at tertiary education level
2. syllabus, assessment and learning outcomes (particularly transferable skills for managers and administrators)
3. the role of creative writing (in relation to the creative industries and writing more generally)
4. resources (text books, online publications) that support change

Beneficiaries:
The outcomes of the Network project will be in the form of position papers, 'alerts', and conference presentations, as a preliminary to more extensive outputs from the follow-on programme. We expect beneficiaries to include:
>> Government and Policy-determining bodies (e.g. UGC, HEFCE, SFCE, British Council);
>> Employers organisations (e.g. FICCI, NASSCOM )
>> University managers (at VC, PVC, Dean level in collaborating universities)
>> Text book and online content providers (Longmans, OUP India, Blackwells, Hodder UK).
A fuller range of beneficiaries are listed, and how they will be approached outlined, in the Pathways to Impact statement.

Commentary:
The project envisages that its work will have an impact in both India and in the UK. Our initial focus will be in India where it will fit well within the policies for HE in the Government's XIth Plan. These target a substantial increase in participation but linked to the economic development of society. Our hypothesis is that the modern (and particularly vocational) value of AS in Indian HE has been underestimated and underconsidered. 'Vocational' AS is seen in terms of a lowest common denominator 'Microsoft' language, rather than a subject which is beneficial to the economy because it teaches high level communication and problem solving skills which are relevant to trade, the commercial and financial sector and management generally.
The second element in the project is then to take the situation in India as an exemplar and turn the focus back onto the UK situation where English remains one of the most popular choices for students in HE. In certain ways (focus on learning outcomes, skills development) UK HE is in advance of Indian HE, but there remains a problem in engaging students in AS with the world of work, and doing so in ways that benefit from the values and skills learnt within the subject and in engagement between the subject and the culture of work.
We see this project as laying the ground for change which has the potential to impact on the nation's health, wealth or culture, through the developing of analyses, case studies, and exemplars for change. The core group of staff working on the project will be drawn from AS. They are marked already by an interest in the nature of AS and its future development. The workshop structure of the network stage of the project will bring together a core group from academia anxious to consider change with interested parties from outside HE in targeted reflections on curriculum design and pedagogy, the conceptualising of the role of education, and particularly of the relation of HE and business and economic development.