Prof. (Dr.) Vikas Singh, Vice Chancellor, ITM University Raipur shares his views on new normal education

It is important that they learn how to learn, so we are working in that direction says Prof. (Dr.) Vikas Singh, Vice Chancellor, ITM University Raipur in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group.
What does the word new normal stands for you?
As we both are acquainted for such a long period, we have participated in the events together before the pandemic as well, it was a pre-pandemic normal and now we have different settings all together. Before the pandemic only 3% of education was online and during pandemic all 100% higher education is online. All thousand plus universities, 50,000 institutions, 25 lakh teachers, they have all started using online as the learning platform. Now we are not going to go back to those 3% levels, we are going to stick somewhere in between, this is the new normal now. Students have been exposed to some of the best teachers I would say, not only the teachers of their own universities and institutions, they are been exposed to some of the international teachers, they have done lots of courses on Coursera, Udemy, edX so that exposure has built their personality now and this is going to bring a challenge to higher education leaders like me that our teachers should also be trained, motivated and they should be geared up to face those challenges and be as inspiring as those international professors and teachers so this is the new normal, challenges are going to be many but I’m quite confident that Indian higher education system is going to lead from the front. I would also say that Indian higher education system also has proved its metal, as on today more than 50 International MNCs, large MNCs of fortune 500, they are headed by Indian students, students from Indian institutions, it can be IITs, IIMs it can be Manipal. So Indian students are already leading world class organizations in overseas. So, we have proved the metal in this new normal also, Indian higher education system is going to excel I’m very much confident about that.
Under your regime and leadership what is the vision of ITM going to be like?
In ITM University we are focused on two aspects, first aspect is that we want to work on the learning skills, learning abilities of our students. What I believe you can make them employable once, but once they have joined an organization in two years or three years’ time that learning is going to become obsolete. So, the learning ability is very important, it is important that they learn how to learn, so we are working in that direction. Second is that we are trying to make the classroom teaching learning process very outcome based oriented. So, we are actually following outcome-based education at our campus. All small activities, the way we engage students, the way teachers inspire the students, this is something you must come to see and believe it. Our faculty members are putting a lot of efforts in that direction so outcome-based education is going to be our forte, inspiring and engaging the students is going to be our forte and in that direction my university is taking efforts.
How does such kind of gathering, education events or a networking platform helps overall education fraternity and academicians?
It almost two years now since we have met physically in these kinds of events, this is something which is very essential. We have been interacting online, we have been interacting on digital platforms but still meeting one to one, face to face, holding hands together, shaking hands, so that gives a different dimension to the networking so this is very essential and I’m very happy that you have invited some of the leading higher education leaders here and you are giving a platform to all of us to interact with each other and to interact with these new age education technology companies, they are showcasing their software, products and I’m very happy to learn about these new developments.