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Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
I've proved my academic management skill in past 5.5 years: LU VC Prof Alok Kumar Rai
Days after he was appointed as the director of Institute of Management–Calcutta (IIM–C), Lucknow University VC Prof Alok Kumar Rai said that he was selected purely on merit, and not due to some political connection. Reacting to concerns shown by some faculty members of IIM–C on his appointment, Rai cited his accomplishments as LU VC and clarified that the post of director calls for supervising the academic management and not teaching. "I will have to supervise academic management, which I have proved I am good at during 5.5 years of my tenure as LU VC," he told TOI's Mohita Tewari in a free-wheeling interview. Excerpts... You are set to head a top B-school amid criticism from a section of academic fraternity, which call your appointment a political one. They also talk about your non-IIM background, and your lack of experience in handling the IIM system. It's not at all a political appointment but a procedural one. All laid down procedures have been adhered to. Also, as such there is no 'criticism' but some disagreements or differences in opinion, which are always welcomed. I haven't applied for a professorial position there; IIM-C is an academic administration. You will have to evaluate me based on my competence of being able to perform as an academic administrator of the institute. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like How Much Does It Cost to Rent a Private Jet - The Prices May Surprise You! Private Jet I Search Ads Learn More Undo The criteria should be: 'Will I be able to deliver the same way as I have done at LU. One should assess me on the basis of what I can; I have a list of accomplishments as an academic administrator. During your term as VC, there were allegations that despite LU being a NAAC A++ University, it struggled with poor infrastructure, and your achievements were more about marketing. LU has very limited resources. Till date, our priority is to pay salaries to our teaching and non-teaching staff; pay off electricity bills and clear Nagar Nigam dues. Despite facing a severe financial crunch, there has been a lot of infrastructure augmentation. Our second campus revamp gives a feel of a new campus while at our old campus we have also improved our infrastructure with whatever money we had and from whatever sources we could arrange. No system is foolproof. Whenever we track progress, we track it from base value -- where we were and where we have reached. We couldn't work for Lal Baradari and the Canning college building which houses several arts faculty departments. We had plans to revamp it with help of Rs 100 crore sanctioned under Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (PM USHA), but the grant is yet to be received. University Grants Commission (UGC) grants LU a category 1 status, which is given to only those that demonstrate high academic standards and are recognized for their quality and performance. Still, there are allegations that professors are not taking classes, and teaching is dependent on research scholars When I joined LU as VC, there was a system of guest faculty/subject experts who were taking classes in most of the departments due to lack of teachers. They would take one class of one hour someday and skip it on other days. They had no responsibility. This system was changed, and we recruited self-financed teachers after a rigorous recruitment drive. Assistant professors recruited since 2021 are known for taking regular classes. In academic institutions, one can't stand with a stick to make professors teach… What have been the major accomplishments in the past 5.5 years of your tenure? I believe as a VC I have strengthened the academic ecosystem and have done research rejuvenation. Now teachers publish research work they take pride in, communicate to social media, talk about the impact factor to the media. When I joined, most of the teachers were not aware of the H index, a metric used to assess the scientific productivity and impact of an individual researcher or a group of researchers of the university. Today, the H index of LU has increased by almost 50%, which proves that there is a research culture inculcation. Today, when most universities are thinking of implementing National Education Policy, our UG four-year NEP students have graduated, and we are pursuing one year PG under NEP. Today, we have assistant professors who have brought projects worth crores in just one year, teachers with fellowship and awards, which reflects quality recruitment. Also, we have built a highly responsive system, even a complaint on X by a student is attended to and resolved in no time. How do you see your new responsibility in comparison with your present term as state vice chancellor. When are you joining IIM-C? I am supposed to join IIM-C before Aug 15. I am really excited to take up this new responsibility. In comparison to LU, IIM-C will be a place where I don't expect to face trivial issues. The kind of challenges there would be of different nature, like placement records.
The Hindu
26-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
A to do list for the incoming UGC chairman
The University Grants Commission (UGC), as the name suggests, was initially conceived to provide grants to higher education institutions in 1953. It evolved into an organization that is responsible for 'coordination, determination, and maintenance of standards of university education' alongside funding, when the UGC Act was passed in 1956. With medical, legal, and even technical institutions (with varying degrees) out of its purview, the mandate remains truncated in practice with disastrous consequences for the sector. And the courts have only complicated matters. Legislative vaccum The NEP seeks to address this by creating different institutions for standard setting, accreditation (maintenance of standards) and funds under and overarching policy regime. That this demands a gargantuan legislative exercise seems to have been missed by everyone concerned with the result that despite the lapse of half a decade, no movement has been visible on the legislative front. In the meantime, the UGC seems to be governed by letters, policy frameworks, and quasi-legal mandates with conditional funding tied to adherence to policies. Once in a while, a huge judicial battle ensues, like in the case of Deemed to be Universities, an anachronism that still lingers on, despite Viplav Sharma versus GOI. We also have GOI initiatives like RUSA (or is it PM USHA now), that eats into the 'grants' domain substantially. The incoming UGC chairman would operate within this legislative vacuum, where the policy mandates splitting and subsuming its identity and functions into various units, under HERA, while there is no legislative progress on it. The UGC would continue to exist in some form or other, since it remains the core national agency responsible for standard setting and maintenance -- a function it is uniquely mandated to perform. Focus on larger issues In an ideal world, the incoming chairman must focus on larger issues and there are quite a few 'idea bombs' the NEPS throws at higher education. Here are the big four. Equity and Discrimination: This would be his first test. The supreme court has already granted leave to UGC to publish and proceed with the anti-discrimination policy. But the current draft is narrow and leaves the crucial elephant in the room. There are two major issues with the draft. First, it restricts caste discrimination as only happening to SC/ST and an is not broad basing discrimination. Second it does not address the elephant in the room, the other list syndrome'. One of the biggest means of discrimination is on the separate publication reserved list and common list. It is time we found a way to stop publication of separate lists and categories mentioned in any way once the candidate is in the system. Promotion of Indian Knowledge system: There has been a plethora of policy measures on integrating IKS without a deeper discussion on what is IKS and how far it is different on an epistemological scale from other knowledge systems. There exists an Indian way of knowing and an indigenous way of doing. Both have undergone constant changes and evolution over the many millennia and, with the tremendous progress in western epistemology in the last few centuries there is no intellectual assessment of what is left of IKS that is truly unique and has value in the current context. There is current value in many domains like Ayurveda and there is historical value in many achievements of the past. Both need to be evaluated separately and integrated accordingly. That needs intellectual integrity of a very high order, not seen very much in the recent appointments. But if we do not want to be the laughingstock of the world then this exercise is imperative. Recognition of Prior Learning: This is the elephant in the room. As early is 2014, the GOI mandated complete integration of vocational and general education in a credit-based format with appropriate credentialling of prior learning. But very little has moved in this direction operationally. The most important element is integrating skill and knowledge and removing the artificial distinction between the two. The deeply ingrained concept of 'achut' or the graded purity of profession would stand in the way of handling this, but must be addressed squarely. The current draft policy needs a complete overhaul, as of yesterday. Admission fiasco: With its remit increasing by the day, the National Testing Agency is now the premier testing agency in the country. But it is totally understaffed. A recent report claims the agency has less than 15 permanent staff members and relies on private agencies massively to conduct the tests. There are issues of wrong questions, wrong marking schemes, and leakages on a recurring basis. In an opportunity starved nation like ours, this is a travesty. Fixing this must be the chairman's first focus. Though the NTA does not come under the purview of the Chairman, his core test UGC -Net lies with NTA. Getting this right with or without NTA should his prime responsibility. Restoring the credibility of UGC-NET is non- negotiable. In addition to the above four, there are major issues that front the current higher education regime like the immanent abolition of affiliation process, the creation of all universities as mega universities, promoting inter-disciplinary/ trans disciplinary education, creating value in the education process, addressing the increasing corporatization of education and raising cost of education and finally ensuring excellence in education. A tall order indeed! (The author was founder-editor of Careers 360)
