Named after the founder-chairman of the Hero Group, Dr. Brijmohan Lall Munjal (1923-2015), BML Munjal University, Gurugram (BMU, estb. 2014) provides its 2,700 students a world-class and innovative teaching-learning and research environment. Promoted by the Hero Group — the world’s largest producers of bicycles and automotive two wheelers (scooters; motorcycles) whose various CSR initiatives have educated and empowered over 200,000 Indians — BMU is a non-profit initiative which offers 11 undergrad, postgrad, doctoral and executive degree programs (engineering, law, business management, economics and commerce) supported by compulsory industry internships. BMU also offers up to 100 percent scholarships to students for all its programs. Over the past near decade, BMU has achieved several milestones and won plaudits and encomiums for building a formidable reputation in research, innovation and hands-on and cross-disciplinary learning. The globally top-ranked Imperial College London came on board as academic mentor in 2013 following which BMU launched its School of Engineering & Technology and started offering its degree programs, along with specialisations. A number of centres of excellence have also been established over the years in partnership with industry. Till date, BMU has signed agreements with over 17 foreign universities. In 2014, BMU launched its School of Management followed by School of Economics and Commerce. In 2019 it launched its law school and four years on, its School of Liberal Studies will begin operations in the academic year 2023-24. The demand for liberal arts education in India has been gradually building steam since the early 2000s (Godwin 2015). This trend is perhaps most evident in the rise of private universities like FLAME, Krea, Ashoka, Jindal, and BML Munjal University, which offer undergraduate degrees in liberal arts. However, many HEIs are adopting liberal arts approaches without explicitly labeling them as such. At Ambedkar University, Delhi, for example, the interdisciplinary liberal arts framework is woven into the undergraduate program and has proven to be a model for such experiments in the public university system. The Central government, for its part, has embraced the move towards liberal education, calling on schools and HEIs to adopt “holistic and multidisciplinary” curriculums that will prepare students to meet the demands of a rapidly changing economic landscape (NEP 2020). Policymakers worry that college graduates are entering the labour force without the skills they need to succeed professionally, and this concern is not without merit. According to the 2021 India Skills Report, less than 50 percent of all college graduates for that year were considered “employable”. If the India Skills Report is accurate, this means that millions of new degree-holders could find themselves unemployed in 2023. A Liberal Arts education trains students to think critically, creatively, and compassionately about the world and themselves. The most pressing issues of our time — climate change, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, social inequality, public health, urban growth, rural development, and challenges to democratic institutions — cannot be addressed by any one discipline alone. That is why a Liberal Arts program aims to equip students with disciplinary training as well as a…
