A university may produce a successful professional. But does it also produce a responsible citizen, an ethical leader and a compassionate human being?
This is one of the most important questions facing higher education today.
A degree can secure employment. A professional qualification can open doors. A prestigious institution can provide a young person with a valuable network. But none of these, by itself, guarantees integrity, resilience, empathy or sound judgement. These qualities become most visible when a person faces failure, exercises authority, encounters injustice, or must choose between what is convenient and what is right. That is where the larger purpose of education is tested.
Addressing the ETEducation Chancellors’ Conclave 2026 in Goa, I urged university leaders to look beyond conventional measures of institutional success. My message was simple: universities must prepare students for life, not just livelihood.
This is not an argument against employability. Preparing young people for productive careers is an essential responsibility of higher education. But employment cannot be the finish line. Universities must equip students to navigate uncertainty, manage relationships, make ethical decisions, accept responsibility and contribute to society.
My first appeal to chancellors and vice-chancellors is to make leadership visible where education actually happens.
Institutional heads must not become distant from classrooms, teachers and students. They should regularly visit classrooms, observe teaching practices, interact with learners and understand the challenges that administrative reports may not fully reveal.
During my years in policing, visits to police stations helped me understand operational realities directly rather than depending entirely on reports reaching headquarters. The same principle applies to universities: leadership must see the ground reality before deciding how to improve it.
Confidential student feedback systems and regular town hall meetings can help institutional leaders identify concerns, improve teaching and create a culture in which students feel heard.
Rankings, research publications, placement figures and alumni achievements are important indicators of institutional performance. Yet they cannot tell us whether graduates will act honestly when dishonesty offers an advantage, exercise authority without arrogance or treat people with dignity regardless of their social or economic position.
A technically brilliant individual without ethical grounding can misuse knowledge. A successful professional without empathy may overlook the human consequences of decisions.
My experiences in policing, prison reform and educating underprivileged children, including children of prisoners, have reinforced my conviction that education can be a powerful instrument of social transformation and crime prevention. It can expand opportunities, restore confidence and help break cycles of disadvantage.
Character formation must therefore be intentional. Integrity, self-discipline, resilience, empathy and respect for others should be cultivated through mentoring, practical experiences, institutional expectations and the everyday culture of the campus.
Students cannot understand the world entirely through textbooks, lectures and examinations. They must encounter its realities. Universities should build structured partnerships with government departments, industries, public institutions, civil society organisations and local communities. Field visits, internships, community projects and practical assignments should form an integral part of learning.
Universities must nurture a culture in which individual rights and collective responsibilities reinforce each other.
Students should understand their rights, but also their duties towards fellow students, teachers, their institutions and society. Freedom without accountability can become entitlement. Responsibility gives freedom direction and purpose.
I advocated addressing both rights and duties during student induction. Institutional leaders and faculty members must equally recognise their obligations towards learners. Universities should help students learn to disagree without disrespect, compete without compromising integrity, exercise freedom without disregarding others and pursue personal ambition without becoming indifferent to society.
The next challenge is to translate this philosophy into institutional practice.
Alongside academic performance and employment outcomes, universities should review the quality of classroom engagement, student feedback, mentoring, experiential learning, community participation and opportunities for ethical leadership.
A university cannot credibly teach responsibility if its own systems are unresponsive. Nor can it promote ethical leadership if integrity is celebrated in speeches but neglected in practice.
The ultimate legacy of a university is not measured only by the number of graduates it produces, the salaries they command or the positions they occupy. It is also reflected in the quality of their decisions, the integrity of their conduct and the contribution they make to the lives of others.
Every chancellor should ask a fundamental question: When our students leave our campuses, will they be equipped only to make a living, or will they also know how to live responsibly, lead ethically and serve society? The answer must shape how universities teach, how they lead, how they evaluate themselves and how they engage with the world beyond their gates. Higher education must combine competence with conscience, ambition with empathy and individual achievement with the public good. Our universities must not merely prepare young people to find their place in the world. They must prepare them to improve it. That is the larger purpose of education. Let us prepare our young people for life, not just livelihood.
(The writer, India’s first female IPS officer, is former lieutenant governor of Puducherry)