-By Chandan Anand, Group Editor, ArdorComm Media
November 25, 2022
“Being an ISRO scientist, hard skill I will give 70 percent weightage and 30 percent yes definitely required a soft skill, that is the ratio a university leadership has to plan and accordingly students should be groomed,” says Prof. (Dr.) P. M. Udani, Director General, CVM University, Anand in an interview with Chandan Anand, Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad
Would you like to highlight some of the initiatives under your leadership which is happening in CVM University?
See when NEP was rolled out in 2020 and what we have done in last two years is immediately we planned at least 20 to 25 minor degree programs having a capsule of a four courses, one mini project an entire credit structure is 18 to 20 credit and this we have started offering since last one year and this year we are rolling out another 10 minor degrees and few minor degrees are curated with the help of Coursera also because we have 6000 license of Coursera and the kindness of the CVM management is we are not going to charge a single paisa for minor degree offered from CVM University. For example, a 20 credit is equivalent to one semester course so when you are offering minor degree of 18 to 20 credit to the student and not charging anything that means you are giving a scholarship of one semester to the student, that is the greatness of the CVM University.
How is hard skill and soft skill important along with the regular pedagogy and regular curriculum?
Being an ISRO scientist my inclination will be always towards hard skill. Soft skill is required in today’s world because a remote environment you are collaborating with many colleagues and your product design also may be done at different places so that kind of things are required but if a mechanical engineer is not able to assemble or design a machine then his soft skill has no value. So, being an ISRO scientist, hard skill I will give 70 percent weightage and 30 percent yes definitely required a soft skill that is the ratio a university leadership has to plan and accordingly students should be groomed. But if I had to restructure my entire curriculum my preference would be let us have a 30 percent classroom teaching 40 percent lab so that is core curriculum where you have to take examination as per the curriculum and framework of the country and 30 percent should be only startup and innovation where there is no curriculum there is no standard set of examination and you can guide students just like a research supervisor is getting a research student you have a unique problem for a group of students and they will be demonstrating their hard skills and soft skills and everything and that is a 30 percent weightage in an entire curriculum and that 30 percent weight will relieve student also and faculty also from that conventional kind of a teaching learning process that is what everybody should do it but we are going to attempt from next academic session.
I’m sure you must be having an alumni association also do you do a regular program which encourages the current people who will be coming out, who have faced last two years of difficulty for a motivation or an industry reaction?
See university was started in 2019, it is a two years old university but our most of the institutions have legacy of 70 years, 50 years, 30 years. We have alumni of more than 1 million so we have a rich alumni association and they are helping our student also. Many are giving donations for establishing laboratory facilities, establishing centre of excellence and they are continuously interacting with our student also online or offline mode and that is the because of our legacy. University yes started in 2019 first batch was admitted in 2020 but we have a legacy of 1 million alumni and they are helping our student in a very great way so we are also very much thankful to the all the alumni more than one million spread across the world.
As you know that the event name is New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards, what is the word new normal for you stands?
So, before pandemic it was totally a brick and mortar system, New Normal is going to be blended only and that is what morning session upGrad also pitched the same idea. When you design a course you have to make it very clear if somebody has taken admission in B.E. Mechanical engineering at the time of admission we have to make it clear these are the courses which will be taught in a brick and mortar system in your offline mode and these are the courses including subject course, Course Code Credit and hours and everything will be taught in an online mode and something can be blended more. So, when student is taking admission at the time of admission is clear by how program will be transacted what is the component in online mode, what is the component in offline mode and what is component in blended mode but what will be repercussion? It would be your entire business model may change near future. Today we are admitting student per semester and student is paying fee per semester it’s just like eating a Gujarati thali, Italian thali or Rajasthani thali you are paying for enter thali. Tomorrow a student will register for the courses and fees also will be decided according to the courses that is what I am visualizing next two three years things will happen something like this.
I’m glad and happy to share that we recently celebrated our one year and it has been a wonderful journey from the pre-pandemic during pandemic and post pandemic, any message would you like to give for ArdorComm Media Group?
First of all, this is my first interaction with your team, Sujata was interacting with me and sometime I have also had a chat with you. I’m happy that it could mobilize and discussions happening since morning and also post lunch definitely there is a point of learning from everybody something great we are doing something great another University is doing. Tech companies are helping so this kind of gathering is called for and I congratulate you that you could do something in Ahmedabad and as you said next event would be in a Rajasthan but my submission would be panel discussion is also fine but sometime five minutes you should give to University representative so that they can talk about their University what are their USP, what are their different programs which are the unique program and at least message can go across the audience and it may happen that another University represented a few more program and it can help in tying or a collaboration also across the university so that is my humble submission if you can do something like this when you plan an event in a Rajasthan definitely our representative will be participating.