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Chirag Agarwal, Founder Director, EarlyVentions – Chain of Preschools, Bengaluru shares his views on the role of NEP 2020 on preschools

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“The foundational years is in place so the value of foundational years is something that the government has understood now,” says Chirag Agarwal, Founder Director, EarlyVentions – Chain of Preschools, Bengaluru in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad How are you feeling to witness this physical event of Education Leadership Summit and Awards? It’s really feeling very nice we’ve seen two whole years of shutdown we’ve seen things not happening, it’s been a big roller coaster ride for the entire education industry and today when we are here physically gathering, we are communicating, we are connecting with more and more people, networking with so many people so it feels really great, wonderful to be here. What role has NEP 2020 played on the preschools particularly? Well talking about the NEP, it’s been years and years and finally we get to see that kind of a recognition for the early childhood education segment so that’s been the biggest thing that has taken place lately. We are of course waiting for the industry to accept it, we are waiting for the government to actually give us more and more guidelines on how this is going to be implemented in practice so that’s something which we are waiting for but yes of course on a positive note the early childhood education segment which was not at all recognized until date has at least got the recognition. The government has identified it, the foundational years is in place so the value of foundational years is something that the government has understood now. So, looking forward to some major drastic changes in the segment. As you know for the last two and a half years there was a complete shutdown and particularly in the preschool where a crucial role plays of the teacher and student interaction, so how did your chain of preschools ensure to provide education to the students? Right so of course two years of covid was a big learning experience for all of us, there were a lot of challenges initially, the transition basically was a big challenge but yes as educators we should really give ourselves a big pat on our shoulders that yes, we accepted it we went forward, we implemented whatever best was possible at that point in time. Of course, without the support of teachers, parents and all the pillars, so basically what I say is that there are multiple pillars, there’s a pillar of parents, there’s a management, school management, that there are teachers and then these three pillars together raise this child into a beautiful structure in the future. So, what I say is that yes definitely it’s not been an easy journey but it’s been a journey which we had never thought of. I mean who imagined a two-year-old or a three-year-old sitting in front of a laptop screen and learning took place so the schools were physically closed but learning didn’t stop so that’s a big achievement for the entire education industry I should say taking it on a positive side of course yes it had its own challenges we saw that a lot of schools a lot of brands did shut down operations as well the teachers were not able to work as they used to. It was very difficult but yes so far so good we’ve been able to achieve it and we’ve come out victorious so that’s the good thing right. These kind of events and symposiums where we have the industry and the academia together how does it impact or how does it help to the society at large? See there is definitely a lot of impact that is created by such gathering such kind of symposiums being conducted across the nation where we get to meet a lot of people, share ideas, share knowledge, share our experiences. More than that I mean I might be having an experience which you might not be having and you might be having one which I might not be having so sharing this kind of a knowledge is really wonderful and that’s according to me is the best part of any such gathering or conference. I’m happy to inform you that recently ArdorComm Media completed one year of its existence so what message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media? Firstly, I would like to congratulate the whole team of ArdorComm Media for completing this journey, I mean definitely it would have not been an easy one for you as well because considering the entire situation the lockdowns and the pandemic which was spread across the world, it was a worldwide problem but my best wishes with you guys, keep doing such wonderful events so that we as educators also get to connect, we get to interact and enlighten each other with our knowledge.  

Chirag Agarwal, Founder Director, EarlyVentions – Chain of Preschools, Bengaluru shares his views on the role of NEP 2020 on preschools Read More »

Manhar Rathod, Managing Director, Shree Gyanguru Vidhyapith, Bhavnagar, Gujarat shares his views on new education policy

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“I think that change in education is necessary for the development of the nation,” says Manhar Rathod, Managing Director, Shree Gyanguru Vidhyapith, Bhavnagar, Gujarat in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad How are you feeling to witness the event? This event is great, it gives a new vision to the people connected with the education sector. I believe that whatever the topics of discussion you have kept for this event will definitely benefit the future of education and it’ll guide many educators. Now its time for the implementation of the new education policy so it’ll benefit the school owners, principals and the people associated with the education. How is NEP 2020 being implemented in your school? The new education policy is going to be implemented in India after 34 years and I think that change in education is necessary for the development of the nation. In our school we are gradually implementing the NEP. Like till now pre-primary section was not there in the education policy now the government has included it in the education policy and lots of changes has been proposed in the NEP, like 5+3+3+4 policy it’ll bring change to the education system and it’ll benefit the country and the citizens of the nation. How can we ensure inclusive education? We have to update the teachers for this, we have to update the school system, we have to bring a change in our learning material and we have to try to implement inclusive education at every place. How does these kinds of events where we have the presence of industry and academia benefit the education community? Here all your partners have come up with different solutions, like if someone faces challenges with school fees collection so there are some apps, agencies which will be helpful in school management. Also, they have the ERP app for the schools, they are bringing education material for the schools, online platforms are coming. So, I believe that it’ll play a great role in the school management and in the future education system. I’m happy to inform you that ArdorComm Media has recently completed its one year of existence, what message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media? What you are doing for the education is really appreciated and I wish that you continue to do this and my best wishes to the company.  

Manhar Rathod, Managing Director, Shree Gyanguru Vidhyapith, Bhavnagar, Gujarat shares his views on new education policy Read More »

Bharat Gajipara, Chairman, Sarvodya School, Sarvodaya Education Network; President, SFSO, Rajkot emphasizes on the aim of SFSO

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“The schools must together instill on the students to become a good citizen and work for the development of the nation,” says Bharat Gajipara, Chairman, Sarvodya School, Sarvodaya Education Network; President, SFSO, Rajkot in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad What is the vision and mission of the SFSO (Self Finance School Management Association) Rajkot, Gujarat? We have 9000 schools who are associated with us. We try to solve the problem of admin along with the government and ensure that together we transform the academic education. In this association all the schools share their achievements and discuss the new systems and technologies of the education. We conduct different seminars and programs to do so. Our aim is to ensure that children study well and learn life skills as per the new education policy. In the present education system students become machines, we have to build a human being and instill empathy, make sure they learn the languages well. When children will have sympathy then it’ll benefit our nation. The schools must together instill on the students to become a good citizen and work for the development of the nation. You must also organize these types of events quite often so that everyone comes together and discuss for the betterment of the education. What is the importance of sports in the school education specially when during covid we shifted to online and digital education? Sports plays a very crucial role because if our health is fine then our mind will be fine. It’ll help in the mental growth and bring in a lot of energy in a child. So, sports should be given due importance in schools. The more there will be experiment in terms of technology and along with different activities the more it’ll benefit the child. I’m happy to inform you that ArdorComm Media has recently celebrated it’s first anniversary, any message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media? The initiative ArdorComm Media has taken and the event you have done here, I wish you continue to the same again and again. We have learned a lot from this summit through knowledge sharing and I wish more and more people get associated in these types of initiatives in future.  

Bharat Gajipara, Chairman, Sarvodya School, Sarvodaya Education Network; President, SFSO, Rajkot emphasizes on the aim of SFSO Read More »

Anantha Krishnan B., CEO-Operations, Kalorex Group, Ahmedabad, Gujarat emphasizes on the vision and mission of Kalorex Group

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“We are a forward-looking organization and we think that teachers are our core and by implementing the best available resources, by implementing the best available technology we think that we definitely can make a lot of impact in the Indian education system,” says Anantha Krishnan B., CEO-Operations, Kalorex Group, Ahmedabad, Gujarat in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAGujarat #ELSAAhmedabad You having such a renowned institution under Kalorex brand you have DPS also and other institutions what is the vision and the mission behind taking this league forward in implementing the school educations across Gujarat? Well thank you for this opportunity in fact Kalorex is a 27-year-old organization in the field of Education founded by Dr Manjula Pooja Shroff who is a visionary, a President of India awardee. Dr Shroff’s vision is very clear that she wants to reach out to every section of the society to give the best of education to whatever best possible way. She’s a very forward-looking lady in terms of she tries to implement anything and everything that comes new into the technology segment new into the academic segment, upskilling, reskilling. So, we are a forward-looking organization and we think that teachers are our core and by implementing the best available resources by implementing the best available technology we think that we definitely can make a lot of impact in the Indian education system so that’s the primary objective of the organization. We are 40 plus institution group right so we run preschools, K-12 schools under the brand name of Delhi Public School and Calorex Public Schools and Calorex International Schools and we also have a online initiative called as eKal which is an anywhere learning platform wherein we integrate the best use of technology along with the contemporary teaching styles and we also provide skill development and other required fields which a professional today in the working environment would require plus we are also into the animation segment right so we have something called as the Yali animation series, it’s live on the MX Player for kids so Yali is a mascot, it has got a few characteristics which we believe that every child and every teacher should imbibe into so that’s what the idea behind Yali. Covid was a tough time for everybody across the country but then we being a visionary in terms of being in the forefront of education we were one among the initial implementers of online learning and online technology so our schools are doing fairly well in that particular segment. And we also are doing a lot of new I should say research across how to imbibe technology in a better sense and into a more inclusive and immersive way in the classrooms. As you have been a part of many events before as well how does this kind of gathering where you have the technology partners, the academicians and even the government, support in overall development of a society of education? See any forward movement that you look across in the society today has to have multiple pillars, so all the pillars you just name, government is one pillar the institutions are the second pillars the technology partners are the third pillars so it’s a combined and a collaborative effort. The Indian government is a visionary government so they’re trying to bring in the new NEP the new stuff in learning, the edtech partners are trying to bring in the best of technologies and we are the institutions we’re trying to adapt these technologies and ultimately, it’s the learner who is going to benefit so that’s the primary idea. So, all segments are looking forward towards the initiative like the one that you have done today as an initiative to bring in all these partners together. It’s a fantastic initiative I think Ahmedabad of late has not been seeing much after covid so I think you are one among the forerunners to bring this event to Ahmedabad I thank you very much on to it and I congratulate you for this beautiful event and looking forward for such beautiful events in the future too. Just to inform that we have recently completed our one year of existence and our first anniversary was being celebrated recently, any message would you like to give for ArdorComm Media Group? ArdorComm is a team of young entrepreneurs and edupreneurs so keep up the good job. You’re doing a fantastic job I’ve been into a couple of events of yours, your speakers are really good they talk a lot of varied subjects the ideas and the information that you gather across these events are really fantastic. Keep doing your research and do this wonderful job thank you very much.

Anantha Krishnan B., CEO-Operations, Kalorex Group, Ahmedabad, Gujarat emphasizes on the vision and mission of Kalorex Group Read More »

Dr. Kuldeep Kumar Raina, Vice Chancellor, M.S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, tells how they transformed during pandemic

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“One of the important and significant features of Ramaiah University is that we are truly multidisciplinary and if we look at in the context of the new education policy, I think it fulfils most of the objectives that are laid down there,” says Dr. Kuldeep Kumar Raina, Vice Chancellor, M.S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm – Higher Education and Edtech Conclave & Awards 2022’ #HEETbengaluru If I use the three words, physical then digital and phygital what weightage would you like to give and why? So, frankly it is 30 30 30 because both are interdependent on each other as on date but I know that in the days ahead it is going to be more towards the digital era. The dream of our honourable prime minister is to make India digital and that Digital Drive I think there is going to be more and more people aligning towards the digital learning tools. I see there is a hope for the nation, hope for the next generation and when we look at the aspiration of the people I think they want to go more in the digital mode but we cannot compromise on the face-to-face learning tools as well. Any case study or keynotes which you want to share about how Ramaiah University transformed which could be helpful or useful for others who will be listening? Yeah, Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences as we all know has been there for the last six decades catering to the needs of Education. One of the important and significant features of Ramaiah University is that we are truly multidisciplinary and if we look at in the context of the new education policy I think it fulfils most of the objectives that are laid down there. Pandemic was certainly a breakthrough in shifting our thought process from the face-to-face learning online. I think with lot many specializations that we offer nearly 75 specializations in medical in Health Sciences in engineering and Technology, social science it was not an easy path for us to adopt anyone so the Blended was the solution. So, what we did in the first place we used all our ERP tool systems to reach the larger diversity of the students and thereafter we give opportunity to students to come to the lab and work on the experiments wherever they had certain doubts I think I would say that during the pandemic Ramaiah University was in the Forefront of providing all possible tools and the services for the stakeholders and students. I would like to understand how does such kind of forums where we have a connect of government academia and industry helps overall the education community or a society at large? It is the need of the hour Mr Anand because you know people have aspirations from the government and government used to serve the society. This embedding system government the private players academics the corporates there has to be a wonderful tie up and the way you are creating this synergy is really wonderful fantastic indeed. I’m happy and glad to share with you that today we are proudly celebrating our first anniversary, any message would you like to share for ArdorComm Media? My compliments to you, this year have been I’m sure great learning for you but I know that you know you have to go a long way in making people satisfied with the process and the procedures that you adopt. The beginning is wonderful I compliment you and I through you appealed all people follow the practices what this great company is going to have for the society for the students of this country. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours, let us grow together.

Dr. Kuldeep Kumar Raina, Vice Chancellor, M.S. Ramaiah University of Applied Sciences, tells how they transformed during pandemic Read More »

Dr. Kiran Kumar Ravulakollu, Dean, Woxsen University emphasizes on internationalization of education

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“One of our university’s prime pillar is internationalization where we used to have a lot of faculty from many universities across the globe to deliver lectures to our students,” says Dr. Kiran Kumar Ravulakollu, Dean, Woxsen University in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm – Higher Education and Edtech Conclave & Awards 2022’ #HEETbengaluru Will you like to share some experience of today’s summit? Definitely, thank you very much for having me and it was a wonderful conclave you have here, usually the conclaves like this only have either educators or tech companies over there but you have a mixed match of both of them it is a very good platform for people like me, will be looking forward in the future to participate many of these kinds of things. How has your institute evolved during this last two and a half years of struggle for existence? Over the last two years has been concerned we are primarily the organization that has turned into university in 2020 May itself which is the pandemic time and though we are aspiring ourselves to a bigger goal but that particular point of pandemic hit did not stop us. We did take the particular challenge we put all the efforts towards the technology. We embrace the technology to a greater extent we provide the support of all possible educational standards and requirements to our students. One of our university’s prime pillar is internationalization where we used to have a lot of faculty from many universities across the globe to deliver lectures to our students and in the pandemic time embracing the technology has highly helped us and that’s where we are able to deliver the quality and requirement to our students and that’s I think in this particular platform also that legacy we are not stopping we are still continuing the same legacy and we see that this kind of platforms will enrich to bring us towards a greater extent where the technologies and educators can come together and do many such great things. Any message would you like to give to the institutions who are from a digital divide area maybe a two tier, three tier or a smaller town, how do they upgrade or enhance themselves in this digital era? That’s an interesting question, never fear that technology is costly, it is never costly it is how we perceive it. The way we should be able to see is technology is nowadays the modern tool for education. Education and knowledge as its own it has its value and procession at the same time technology is only the tool that will be able to empower it to a greater extent. Then modern educators are new upcoming universities, colleges and all the people especially the operations who are embracing the multi-disciplinary culture they should be able to see the technology as a mere tool then the objective the bigger opportunity to what we’re looking for will definitely be achieved. I would also like to share that today we are celebrating the first anniversary of ArdorComm Media, and this last one year has been very exciting very struggling and very experiencing, any message would you like to give for ArdorComm Media Group? It was a wonderful initiative that has been taken first of all and at the same time I was happy that through the pandemic you have able to successfully complete one year of all these particular hurdles and the way I see it the gathering the size the amount of energies that have been left over here is clearly visible that your vision has been much better and stronger. Though as a single university, Woxsen University from Hyderabad, we are smaller but we wish a good amount of success and a lot amount of participation in the future and when your next event is happened in Hyderabad I would like to be prima facie of this particular event.  

Dr. Kiran Kumar Ravulakollu, Dean, Woxsen University emphasizes on internationalization of education Read More »

Prof. Bishnu Pal, Dean School of Engineering and Academics, Mahindra University emphasizes on teaching-learning practices

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“I used to be at IIT Delhi for 35 years I never used PowerPoint there but now here I use because of this problem,” says Prof. Bishnu Pal, Dean School of Engineering and Academics, Mahindra University in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm – Higher Education and Edtech Conclave & Awards 2022’ #HEETbengaluru We have seen and witnessed how the overall education industries has transformed since last two and a half years what has been the role of your university and how you have transformed your teaching learning practices? Till we have been hit by the covid, we were still in classical mode of teaching but because of the covid we had to innovate and try to maximize for the transfer of knowledge through online mode because there are no students who are allowed to come into the class. So, all the lectures were held online, when it’s the large class it was through zoom and for medium to smaller classes it was by MS Teams. The problem that we eventually experienced is that we don’t know whether the student is really listening to them. You know he’s on but this applies to a percentage of students who are not so serious that they are trying to tell themselves that I am very smart, but that is not true the good students are still attending that we can see in the in the examination. They are delivering in the examination against questions but there are some certain problems that you cannot do it since it is engineering. When you carry out the calculation step by step in that process also students’ brain is working but if you just show directly a PowerPoint right it does not work so well in engineering and most importantly the practical process laboratory classes are very difficult. So, what we did was that we teachers actually carry out the experiment and video recorded then shared with the students but whether they have understood or not that we tested by having some viva voice examinations. How does a blended education overall transform the teacher student dynamics in terms of their relation of grasping the lecture delivery? We have flagged problems there because what you do in a physical class, by just looking at the face of the student you can make out whether what you have told has been absorbed by the students from the face itself will tell. You can walk around those students who are not very serious not listen, you walk towards the end of the class and then you can ask physically you can’t do it on a blended part it’s very difficult. I’ve seen so many people are working so many ed-tech companies are working we have fantastic you know IT people around in the country so I’m very hopeful that there will be a lot of new innovations which will try to minimize these problems. Yes, completely is difficult but I also said at the end there is also a lot of positives of the online like for example you can store your figures already and that you can simultaneously use while you are writing on the board so you have that facility in the class otherwise that was not there. So, these are certain positives, it did not be completely PowerPoint. I used to be at IIT Delhi for 35 years I never used PowerPoint there but now here I use because of this problem. There also is a problem so there are innovations you have to make for every one line you can bring into animation that’s what I do and my US friend says that is a good idea because otherwise students focus on the whole board so these are the innovations. Today is also a very special day for ArdorComm Media as we are celebrating our first anniversary and one year of difficult and interesting struggle of existence, any message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media Groups? The message is you have to continuously innovate today product lifecycle is very short, I’m actually a specialist in optical communication, in telecom the general rule is that 25 years survival of a product but in optical communications during the boom time it happened within five years or four years. You need to develop an impact so this applies also to companies like you who are involved with that. So, you have to continuously innovate come out with new ideas.

Prof. Bishnu Pal, Dean School of Engineering and Academics, Mahindra University emphasizes on teaching-learning practices Read More »

Sam Maniar, Founder & CEO, SmartVisibility Edutech Pvt. Ltd. speaks about their aim to be a decacorn start up

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“We would like to become a decacorn start up not unicorn, the plans are in place,” says Sam Maniar, Founder & CEO, SmartVisibility Edutech Pvt. Ltd. in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm – Higher Education and Edtech Conclave & Awards 2022’ #HEETbengaluru Tell us something about your organizations? Yeah, we are established in 2021, we are into education technology and we have created a learning Application where collaborative learning, social learning come into the picture. The platform is vernacular platform that we are building and it’s a fully customizable and it is adoptable to any languages of Indian and worldwide from Arabic to any Indian languages the system can work. This is a kind of a platform where people can come learn together, understand the user’s behaviour also we track how user is behaving in the system and this is how this system works. How did the idea come to your mind and why only this segment of the technology? I’m in the educational technology since quite a long time, I’m into the IT since 1996, we basically understand work with number of educational projects and understand that where is the market gap and we try to bring that technology into the education field this is how it comes into the picture. What is your plan of scaling up in next five years? We would like to become a decacorn start up not unicorn, the plans are in place we have been incubated by NASSCOM’s 10 000 start-ups and this idea has been validated by number of corporates across the globe and this is how we are working on it and we see like in the near future in 5 years’ time we can become a decacorn start up. What will be the USP where one would love to explore your product rather than any existing product in the same domain? We are fully customizable, vernacular and also artificial intelligence like learning recording behaviour that we are having that put us at edge further compared to our competitors.

Sam Maniar, Founder & CEO, SmartVisibility Edutech Pvt. Ltd. speaks about their aim to be a decacorn start up Read More »

Dr. Balakrishna P Shetty, Vice-Chancellor, Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education speaks on the importance of skilling

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“The skilling can happen only by including the students in each and every platform,” says Dr. Balakrishna P Shetty, Vice-Chancellor, Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm – Higher Education and Edtech Conclave & Awards 2022’ #HEETbengaluru During this last few years of struggling times how have your university under your leadership sailed off and have made the teaching learning process quite feasible for everybody? We had two problems one is we had a technical college as well as a medical college. As well the technical college doing online program, online education was very easy like technology students are so much enthusiastic they could learn online but as far as the medical college is considered we had a tough time because a doctor has to see the patient it cannot be done online and also surgeries also cannot be done online so talking to the patient interacting with the patient and examining the patient all those things was a very tough time for our students during this covid time but some how we managed by getting all those software where we can see the patient, we can see various diseases online and also we can see something like artificial intelligence and augmented reality, virtual reality. Although some of the software which really helped especially our students so our students could get virtual exposure to the patients. Of course, virtual exposure is not comparable to actual exposure, actual exposure is mandatory interacting with the patient looking at his eyes talking to him feeling him touching him makes a great difference but because of the digital innovations, digital advances our students could get some sort of exposure. The last two years that is 2019 and today we are in 2022 still we are not sure whether another wave is going to come or not but our students and faculty members lived up to that challenge and we could produce best of the students the best of the doctors from our university. Would like to understand what is the focus of the university on skilling rather than the regular academics, regular process? It is easy to talk about skilling, from the President of India to even a student and everybody talks about skilling, re-skilling, up skilling this is the buzzword going on everywhere. The skilling can happen only by including the students in each and every platform, let us say today you have a program we’ll call our students and ask them to do the program now let’s say we had one program on drug abuse and we asked the students to speak about it not the vice chancellor speak about it not the faculty will speak about, the students will speak about. So, skilling is I feel only one methodology involve the student in each and every program of the university program of the institution. I heard that there was one great innovative where one chief minister made one-person chief minister for one day, similarly you should make student a faculty for a day, HoD for a day a Principal for a day or a Vice Chancellor for a day that will be a great thing in skilling not just by talking. How does such kind of forums where you can see the amalgamation of government, academia and industry how does it help the society at large? it helps a lot because we keep speaking because we are experts in giving suggestions and recommendations but we are very poor in implementing. Implementations and sustainability is the biggest challenge for us for that there is involvement there is a commitment there is a moral responsibility for the teacher, faculty and students to do something then only I think something will happen otherwise we will again become the clericals the clerks which were produced in the British government. British wanted Indians to be only clerks, they never wanted a skill because they had the technology there, they never wanted a skill to develop in India. So, we need to have the inclusiveness that is very important. Today we are celebrating first anniversary of ArdorComm Media, any message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media? I’ve been attending so many higher education meetings but I would like to say ArdorComm Media is something unique. I’m not saying because you are asking this question but I’ve been experiencing the way the panels are conducted the way faculty members speak even sometimes I have seen today the student is speaking so these are something different as far as ArdorComm is doing so I request you to continue this, include as many students as possible, student representatives, the stakeholders as much as possible not only the vice chancellor so that involvement, inclusiveness innovations the three eyes is very important.

Dr. Balakrishna P Shetty, Vice-Chancellor, Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education speaks on the importance of skilling Read More »

Dr. Dwarika Prasad Uniyal, Pro Vice-Chancellor, RV University, Bangalore emphasizes on the digitization of higher education

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“We have mandated at our university that minimum 30% of the curriculum needs to be taught by industry experts which means if I have 30 hours, minimum 10 hours need to be taught by industry people,” says Dr. Dwarika Prasad Uniyal, Pro Vice-Chancellor, RV University, Bangalore in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm – Higher Education and Edtech Conclave & Awards 2022’ #HEETbengaluru I’m in touch with you Dr. Dwarika since many of the organizations, past few of the organization which was pre-pandemic and few of the organization which was post pandemic, any achievement under your leadership when you sailed off during this journey? I would rather not say achievement but I think we all had to adapt right, pandemic was once in a lifetime situation which we were facing and we didn’t know how to face it and one of the most important aspect was to how do you redefine, reimagine teaching learning. So, yes you have buildings, you have faculty, you have curriculum but how do you realign all of that learning in a situation where nobody can come to the campus, teachers can’t come, everything has to be closed so it’s not that straight away get into digital part of it right, you have to think through about how and especially where we are teaching liberal education both at Flame and of course at RV now, we have to completely rethink about the pedagogy about the courses to be taught not in the lecture mode. How do you go about making changes in the concept, how do you make changes in the application? How do you make changes in students are doing on their own? Evaluation has to be thought through so that the challenge was to train the teachers and also train the students to be self-learner otherwise it’s always been you know we have given assignment we have to come submit get it evaluated, now nobody is watching you here right now how do you go about making changes there was the question and what we have done is invested a lot in technology invested a lot in LMS, invested a lot in training our faculty, changing in curriculum, engaging with the western universities bringing industry which was very difficult initially because you have to fly them down to a city and today with zoom and other things it was easier for us to bring lot of those inputs so it was I would rather say not as something rocket science but it fundamentally changed the way we looked at teaching learning and how universities need to be of ready for the future. Would you like to focus on certain points like industry interface and the industry interaction especially which could be helpful during the placements for the students? That’s a central part of it right every profession needs to be linked with what is happening in academia at the same time industry needs to be a equal partner, it can’t be a customer right after four years three years two years you come and say we want placements similarly academia, universities, business schools and others have to see industry as somebody who would provide not just internship not just a live project but actively involved in the creation of the curriculum. At the same time also, delivery of the curriculum and today with blended and others it is easy to bring industry experts on a regular basis. We have mandated at our university that minimum 30% of the curriculum needs to be taught by industry experts which means if I have 30 hours minimum 10 hours need to be taught by industry people. It can be through zoom, it can be something else and hence faculty has to rethink faculty doesn’t know everything so you have to bring that industry input and also get it delivered by the industry and work your projects accordingly so that there is a better coordination. So, that is really coming up now and thankfully industry is also very open today earlier it used to be closed, they used to come only during the placements now they are starting from the admissions to orientation to courses they are you know letting their colleagues to go and teach in institutions earlier they were very closed that we will not send our experts to these institutions now they’re very open to send across. We have seen many transformations for many of the educational institutions, how did RV university played a role especially when you thought this pandemic would be an opportunity for you in expanding your horizons nationally or internationally in teaching exchange or maybe effective student exchange? Oh yes, we actually looked at the pandemic as an opportunity to become much more global than we had thought otherwise and because international universities were also looking at Indian footprint, global footprint they were also much more open to engage and hence in last one year’s time we have forged relationship with almost 20 international universities for student exchange faculty exchange joint research and now with UGC allowing us we are moving towards dual degree and joint degree programs. We just signed an MOU with Bryant University from Rhode Island, the dean was here Dr Madan, their provost was very much involved Dr Rupendra there we are working with creating a three plus one model which is three years in India, one year with them in the advanced accounting program. We are working on two plus two programs in the BBA on the business analytics we’re working on one plus one MA in economics is Virginia tech in the initial stages with Bryant we’re looking at joint degree in the executive MBA, where their faculty will come they teach, our people will go to Bryant university. So, thanks to people’s openness to now recognizing online learning, blended learning as a legitimate teaching tool. Even UGC is now allowing it with almost 40 percent through

Dr. Dwarika Prasad Uniyal, Pro Vice-Chancellor, RV University, Bangalore emphasizes on the digitization of higher education Read More »