Challenges Faced in Transforming the Data in Fast Changing World Towards Meaningful Higher Education

The present-day world is characterised by an increasing population and increasing interdependencies among nations.These increasing interdependencies have resulted in the need for improving bilateral and multilateral transactions, which have generated vast amounts of data.Further, the increasing interactions among people through multiple communication channels worldwide have resulted in an explosion of data.Since data is the raw material for getting meaningful and actionable information and recognising the differences in emerging patterns, constant association and sharing of the past, emerging and future data is essential to arrive at the hidden patterns of changing trends.Tracking the changing trends is very much crucial for making higher education meaningful in terms of character-building and developing relevant skills.The present work was taken up in this context and attempts in this direction by addressing the research question of 'what are the challenges in linking the phenomenon of flooding of data and transforming the same into meaningful information necessary for making our higher education system purposeful'.The research adopts the approach of multiple research methods, viz., collating experts' opinions through Delphi technique iterations, interviews with associated professionals, and a purposeful literature review.Based on the research, it was concluded that more interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary interactions with open-mind are necessary to make the Indian higher education system more skill-oriented and sustainable.Based on the study, suggestions and recommendations were listed.