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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.

Online teaching is a challenge for the teachers a lot because teachers are the one who are interacting and engaging the students, says Dr. Shraddha Sharma, HOD English Language and Communication, Thadomal Shahani Centre For Management Mumbai in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, ArdorComm Media Group. How is the online mode of education different from the physical and according to you what is the future of education? Talking about future would be so early we cannot say anything but of course, online teaching has become a part of our lives now. Whether schools will be open, colleges will be open, we will be working online I know for sure and it has changed the lives of teachers, students and everybody. The challenge is basically not only the students are facing, teachers are also facing a lot of challenges. Teaching online is not a child’s play, every teacher has to be trained first before teaching the student because online is something when you are teaching a student, you have to grab the attention of the student which doesn’t happen in the physical class. In physical class teachers are teaching and there’s a physical contact like, ok you’re not listening, come on listen to me, look at me, but here in that window, a student is making an eye contact but you never know that if there’s a TV right behind. Even in the laptop also, the student must have opened some other window, and still making an eye contact. I would like to share with you one good example, one of my students, he fixed his brain with my voice. While teaching I tell them I’ll call you only once if you’ll not respond, I’ll remove you from the session. So that student quietly I didn’t know that you can fix your brain with the voice and there was a time when there was an activity and there were 4 to 5 girls, they talked about him and he didn’t listen, I told him that there were so many compliments about you gentleman, why didn’t you react? That day I got to know that online teaching is not very easy, for me he was listening but he was not listening to his classmates. So yes, online teaching is a part and it’s a challenge for the teachers a lot because teachers are the one who are interacting and engaging the students. Teachers have to be trained in an innovative manner, there should be some idiosyncratic pedagogy. In Thadomal Shahani Centre For Management (TSCFM) we have been opting many such kind of activities, we have been training our faculties for this online teaching. We have been enabling our faculties so that they can groom their students. First, we are grooming our teachers and as they have groomed me first, now I’m grooming my teachers to groom the students. What are your takeaways from this education leadership summit? The discussions are fine but these should be implemented, so my take is what we are doing today should be implemented as soon as possible and I’m learning a lot, listening to a lot of people. While listening I can make it out that the challenges we have been dealing, every university, every college and all the teachers are facing, it is not we but how fast universities and colleges are dealing and implementing, that is the important thing. Whatever we are discussing today, we know the points, we know the crux of the situation so we should implement as soon as possible because it’s the matter of our future. The generation which is not going to the school or college, that is suffering and that generation is in jeopardy. Being a teacher its our responsibility that we understand the importance of our role to play in this situation and act accordingly.

Every morning when we get up it’s a new normal and life is going on, says Kunwar Shekhar Vijendra, Co-founder and Chancellor, Shobhit University in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group. What is the vision and mission of Shobhit University which you have been taking forward with your leadership teams? Shobhit University as you have mentioned, we have two universities one is in Meerut, one is in District Sahranpur, a small village. There are two challenges in this country and otherwise also, one is to turn the potential of our youth into reality and second is to empower our youth with education. So that they can become employable, contribute in the development of the society and this is what exactly we are doing through our different initiatives, universities, through so many things that we are doing since last more than 20 years. For you, what does the word new normal stand for? You know every morning when we get up it’s a new normal and life is going on. Every time when there’s a challenge there’s a disruption, new creation happens so this new normal is a new creation and we have to adopt it, we have to love it. How does the knowledge-sharing platform like this helps the overall education fraternity? In India we believe in debating more but discussions and deliberations are less, so you have given a platform to discuss and deliberate and definitely its going to create something new because knowledge creation happens when we discuss and deliberate and this is one such platform, its wonderful. You are actually representing the Delhi NCR region and a rural region also, what is your message for other emerging universities who are looking up to you as an idol? Find your purpose and stick on that, this is all what is required.

We have to do lot many things to improve the number of international students who are coming to India, says Dr. Mrs. Pankaj Mittal, Secretary General, Association of Indian Universities in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group. What’s your vision and view about the concept of New Normal? The concept is very good because New Normal is New Normal and everybody has to abide by the New Normal. Its good that people learn about New Normal and how to adjust in the New Normal, sooner the better. Its very timely that you held this Education Leadership summit to make people aware that what is new normal and how they have to work in order to be successful in the new normal. Being a lady there are very few people in the country who are holding such reputed and honored position. How do you feel like being in this position and what’s your vision ahead for AIU? I’m very happy, it’s very true that women have to struggle more than the men for achieving any position especially that glass ceiling is there and its very difficult to break the glass ceiling, so you feel very happy and you feel like doing lot more. Like you want to do lot of things for the nation for the country, for the education sector when you are in this position. As the Secretary General of Association of Indian Universities where we have more than 850 universities as our members so its very good to work for the entire Higher Education sector, to do a lot of work in terms of say academics, research, internationalization of higher education, sports, culture. So, it’s a body which is involved in holistic developments of the students in all manners, not only in academics and research but also in cultures and sports events. You mentioned about the internationalization of universities, can you please elaborate on what AIU is doing on it? Right now, you will be surprised to know that especially if we talk of international students, from India, about 8 to 10 lack students go out every year but when you talk about students coming to India it is less than 50 thousand, around 46 thousand students are coming to India and that too only from the neighboring countries like Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh. So, we have to do lot many things to improve the number of international students who are coming to India. To that extent AIU is doing a lot of things, for example when we talk of international collaborations we see that many times specially the foreign universities who want to come to India, they don’t come to know that which university is good in which area so we are building an AIU collaboration portal where the foreign universities will know that which university is good in which area, so that they can straight away collaborate. Secondly in spite of so many year independence we do not have a network of international educators, like Nafsa is a network and there are so many networks in different countries but India does not have a network of international educators, so what happens in India is that very few universities are good in internationalization and many of them who want to do internationalization they don’t know how to do it, whom to contact, how to start. So, we are building a network which will help in a lot of information sharing, knowledge sharing so that the good ones can hand hold the not so good ones and everybody can move together.