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First TRC Colloquium concluded on July 5​, 2025

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1. Title: The Rise of Illiberalism and the Decline of the University

​Speaker: Prof. Surajit C. Mukhopadhyay

Session chair: Prof. Alak Kumar Buragohain

Venue: Online​

About the speaker:Prof. Surajit C. Mukhopadhyay presently Professor & Dean, Royal School of

Humanities & Social Sciences, Royal School of Behavioural & Allied Sciences and Director, Centre for

Inter-Disciplinary Research at Royal Global University, Guwahati. A PhD from Leicester University,

UK (Commonwealth Staff Scholar) and M.Phil. and Master’s from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU),

he has held senior academic and administrative positions in various institutions and has also been a

member of the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR).  

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About the topic: The global rise of illiberalism and conservative populism has impacted the university as an institution. Pedagogical practices, course curricula, and faculty hiring are all under revision in the light of the political shift. Furthermore, the concurrent rise of market forces and the dominance of metrics have transformed or threaten to transform the university as an institution of higher learning and knowledge production. The signs of a deadly decay and decline are on the horizon, and this lecture seeks to address these concerns.

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About the chair: : Prof. Alak Kumar Buragohain is presently vice-chancellor, Royal Global University, Guwahati. He obtained his PhD from the Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine, London and DIC in Plant Virology from Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine. He was the founder Head of the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at Tezpur University. Professor Buragohain is also the founder of the ONGC Sponsored Centre of Petroleum Biotechnology in the same University.

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