ArdorComm Media Group

Friday, July 11, 2025 1:57 PM

Interviews

Prof. B. Thimme Gowda, Vice Chairman, Karnataka State Higher Education Council, Govt. of Karnataka emphasizes on the industry academia connect to make higher education relevant

“Digital education plays an important role in the present-day education and blended learning is the order of the day” says, Prof. B. Thimme Gowda, Vice Chairman, Karnataka State Higher Education Council, Govt. of Karnataka in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm – Higher Education and Edtech Conclave & Awards 2022’ #HEETbengaluru We welcome you at today’s event. How does these kinds of summits and conclaves benefit the higher education sector? Yeah thank you Mr Chandan Anand, I’m very happy to be part of your conclave. Connecting the academia and industry it is very important, it would go a very long way. In bringing together the industry and academia together that would be the order of the day because the industry and academy are put together we have to frame the programs and design courses and the contents and whatever that is relevant to the Indian society and elsewhere it has to be done. It cannot be done in isolation it can only be done in collaboration with the industry. Therefore, in that way these types of conclave would help us in finding industry academia connect and therefore what we have to do is now it was perceived that vocational education is inferior to general education, it is not so it is not true. NEP emphasizes on integrating vocational education into general education it can be either an additional course or it can also be integrated into general education as two discipline subjects, one vocational and the other discipline eventually so that the candidate can get the degree in both the vocational and the discipline and in addition to that there can also be apprenticeship embedded undergraduate programs in universities and colleges that can only be done in collaboration with the industry. That’s what we have initiated in the state of Karnataka under the visionary leadership for honourable higher education minister Dr. C N Ashwath Narayan. Similarly, it will also be introduced in all the universities so that it is to improve the employability of graduates and in addition to that the online education has become order of the day and all the institutions which have NAAC grading of 3.26 and above are NIRF ranking two consequently two consecutive times below 100 can run online programs which are treated equivalent at par with the regular education. Therefore, the digital education plays an important role in the present-day education, all these transformations all higher education institutions have to bring in to survive the education part or to improve the employability of our graduates. We have seen a big-time difference, how the overall education industry reshaped and especially in the higher education from last two years of this Covid pandemic. How did under your leadership you made certain changes and revamped certain changes in the system under the council? Yeah you know Covid it’s a curse in one way but it is a boon in disguise because that has helped us to concentrate on digital educational online education therefore the UGC and the national regulatory authority has realized the importance of it and therefore it has allowed in all undergraduate programs up to 40 percent of the courses can be studied through online programs we have made similar changes in Karnataka also. In all the university regulations governing various degree programs we have allowed 40 percent online programs. Therefore, the blended learning has become order of the day and therefore with the introduction of academic bank of credits the candidates can earn credits in blended mode and pull them together get the degree because even as per UGC the candidate has to earn only 50 total credits from that institution which awards the degree. Other credits can be earned through other modes therefore the blended learning has become order of the day. As you know in today’s meeting as we are gathering we are also celebrating our one year of existence and this is our anniversary day. Any message would you like to give for ArdorComm Media? Now I have realized the importance of media like ArdorComm Media company because you are helping in bringing the academy and industry together without which higher education cannot become relevant, order of the day. Therefore, to make it relevant, remain relevant the industry and academy have to come together this can only happen when companies like yours, ArdorComm can bring them together so that they can probably interact arrive at what is needed for this society that way you are playing an important role in the society. I congratulate you for your potential and efforts.  

Prof. B. Thimme Gowda, Vice Chairman, Karnataka State Higher Education Council, Govt. of Karnataka emphasizes on the industry academia connect to make higher education relevant Read More »

Dr. M. S. Shyamasundar, Senior Advisor, National Assessment and Accreditation Council, Govt. of India elaborates on the digital transformation in education community

“In NAAC we are giving the very due weightage and we are empowering the education community with a digital transformation which is the order of the day,” says Dr. M. S. Shyamasundar, Senior Advisor, National Assessment and Accreditation Council, Govt. of India 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 a major transformation of education from last two and a half years what has been the role of NAAC as an eye opener to the education industry? Now NAAC also has taken a different role especially in the era of pandemic because in the pandemic several higher education institutions came across very many challenges they were not able to come for face-to-face interactions that’s why now we have started very many webinars in a short span of time. We were able to organize several thousands of webinars to go for hand holding exercise of all the higher education institutions and also, we have created our website in a very robust way. Our website is self-explanatory and also when they want to ask any questions we have gone for artificial intelligence just like that they can ask any generic questions any time that is 24/7 and apart from that we have introduced the concept called IMS that is Issue Management Service, anytime they can ask any clarification if they don’t get appropriate answer from the artificial intelligence and within 24 hours’ time their queries would be resolved. I think that is one of the USP of NAAC. Nowadays three words are quite popular ‘Physical Digital and Phygital’, what is the weightage and why? Now especially in the era of pandemic we are constrained to give more weightage especially for the digital transformation because we there is no other go. Because in the absence of this blended learning maybe about 1.2 billion students across the globe would have been totally deprived from the education. Maybe because of this online learning and blended mode of education all these children have been benefited immensely and in NAAC also we are giving the very due weightage and we are empowering the education community with a digital transformation which is the order of the day. When everyone keeps on going in one track and keep performing how does assessment and accreditation plays a role in that? Now we have given due emphasis for data collection because earlier our physical team was going for face-to-face interaction now university should go for proper documentation and they have to put all the documents in order and they have to submit all the documentary evidences well in time and for that about 70 percent of the evaluation would be done based on their documentary evidences remaining 30 percent would be done by the actual peer team and they would be seeing the realities especially with respect to infrastructural development the digital infrastructure in the institution all these things and it’s a blend of both peer team visit and quantitative evaluation also of the data. How does certain conclave like this where we have industry academy and government makes an impact overall to the communities? Especially in the Indian context the mental framework is not so good maybe if you go to the any developed countries like US their corporates go after the higher education institutions for their research and innovation but in the Indian context still it has not been strengthened but anyway nowadays the trend also has been changed maybe conclaves like this would be helpful to create a platform to interact with industries by the higher education institutions because both the stakeholders from both industry would come together and they can have a proper dialogue and this dialogue will go in a very long way and which will be helpful to all the stakeholders and in turn which would be helpful for the growth and development of our Indian economy. As you know today is a special day ArdorComm Media is also celebrating its one year of existence, this is our first anniversary, any message for ArdorComm Media Group? Yeah within a span of just one year you have taken very many significant initiatives because last time also you did invite me for online program at that point of time also I got the opportunity to speak to stakeholders from industry and academia and this time also I did the same thing. Whatever the initiatives you have already taken please continue with the same set of initiatives and create this type of platforms both for industry and academia and all these people would be benefited immensely. Anyway, at this juncture I wish you all the very best to reach the pinnacles on the on the plateau of all your endeavour.  

Dr. M. S. Shyamasundar, Senior Advisor, National Assessment and Accreditation Council, Govt. of India elaborates on the digital transformation in education community Read More »

Dr Sandeep Pachpande, Chairman, ASM Group of Institutes emphasizes on leveraging the technology for the betterment of education

“I think this is the best time for us to rethink, reimagine and reboot the education system,” says Dr Sandeep Pachpande, Chairman, ASM Group of Institutes in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm – Higher Education and Edtech Conclave & Awards 2022’ #HEETPune Under your leadership how ASM group of Institution is growing and what is the vision forward for next five years? What we at ASM looked at and even I am is that I’m a completely optimist person, I believe every crisis gives an opportunity and that is how we have looked at the crisis as such. A full focus is on use of technology and partnerships with ed-tech companies and industry to develop courses which can increase the employability of the students. Since morning we have been talking about phygital, we are talking about setting up of digital university, multidisciplinary approach, in that robust conditions how have you managed to balance the teaching and learning process in your institutions? See what covid has done is that it gave us a very good option to change our pedagogy and leverage the technology to give students a right blend of a kind of education which will help them not only to learn the knowledge but also understand and, in the future, implement them in the companies which they will go and work for. So, I think the leveraging of these opportunities is what is required and I think this is the best time for us to rethink, reimagine and reboot the education system. Forums like this where we have the blend of academia, the corporate, startups and even a support of the government how does this kind of gathering helps the overall community to grow? So, one of the best things I liked about this event is that it is a mix of all the stakeholders of education and that is what is important. You know I could see not only the owners but directors and some teachers plus ed tech companies and people from the government itself here. And as Chandan you said in one of your talks in the panel it’s very necessary to get everyone on one page so I think that’s what events like this are very useful and I’m sure that you’ll become the catalyst of getting all these people together on one platform. Any message for the students who will be just facing the physical world of the schools and colleges again? I think everyone’s looking forward to the physical mode of education and they should remember that we’re not going to go back to the 100 percent normal again. So, they should leverage both the online and the physical together in the next coming days. Any message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media? Keep on doing the good work and please make sure that you include all the stakeholders in your programs make sure that you do this at a regular level and it doesn’t stay with just the people who attend it make sure that it reaches the policy makers as well as the people who did not attend this.  

Dr Sandeep Pachpande, Chairman, ASM Group of Institutes emphasizes on leveraging the technology for the betterment of education Read More »

Dr Sachin S Vernekar, Dean, FMS; Director, IMED, Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University) says, today ‘network is the net worth’

“If you have a good network you have an excellent net worth,” says Dr Sachin S Vernekar, Dean, FMS; Director, IMED, Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University) in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm – Higher Education and Edtech Conclave & Awards 2022’ #HEETPune Under your leadership how IMED has diversified in overall development in teaching and learning process? At the very outset let me congratulate ArdorComm Media for the excellent job you have done because today network is net worth and you have brought the academicians, the corporates almost all the stakeholders on the same platform that’s a great job you have done I would say. As far as I’m concerned, I have joined Bharati Vidyapeeth in 1985 and for the last 37 years I’m working for Bharati Vidyapeeth. From a faculty to director, to team, campus in charge, so I have played different roles in Bharati Vidyapeeth. Like Indra Nooyi always says we are all students, throughout our life we have to be students even today I am a student so I have tried my best to ensure that our students get the right input because through seven tire feedback system the fire time counselling system, industry institute partnership summit, 80-20 pattern that we have, 80 percent of the syllabus covered by the regular faculty, 20 percent by the corporates, the different events then support of the digital media the online programs the MOOCs, 20 to 40 percent is the digital media, the online courses that we have and more than 60 percent it is offline. So, these are the various things that we do, international conferences, national conferences, IMED gems i.e. inter class competition. We have expressions where we give an opportunity to the student not only from IMED, we give opportunities from 40 to 50 colleges across India to unfold their hidden qualities. Best manager, best entrepreneur, Elocutions, there are so many events that we organize and what I believe in is, we being the teachers we have to ensure that the students are exposed to fine aspects of management, holistic development of the students is very important, their physical features their mental faculties their mannerisms, their etiquettes all are very important. We want the students to be best citizens, very good citizens of this country. They should be proud of their country, their organization, their parents and I want these students to be very honest, committed and with lot of integrity and this is our focus and accordingly we are shaping and reshaping and organizing various events. What should be the criteria or what assessment a student should do before finalizing any admission in any institute?   What I would say is the very important thing for any student is not just the package the institute gives, generally what happens the students are looking for the placements, what is the highest package, they directly come and ask also what I feel the students need to be knowledge oriented not just the exam or placement oriented. The students will have to see, they have to find out who are the alumni, who are the alumnus of this particular institution what they are, what contributions are they making to the society, what kind of faculty they have, what is the curriculum and overall culture in the organization. What matters is the culture in that organization, whether it is society oriented or it is commercial and frankly speaking Bharati Vidyapeeth is social organization where we see the interest of every stakeholder in the society so they should look for the institutions where better citizens are prepared, where proud feeling is developed, where they think global, but act local. When we witness the forum and conclaves like this where we see the exhibition also where ed-tech companies, start-ups and MNC’s are displaying the product and services lots of academicians and educators and even the government involvement, how does it overall help?  Greatly helps, I interacted with SAS people, I interacted with Coursera, I interacted with many directors, the corporates it really helps because there are many things that are happening in the world unless we join such a network unless we attend participate in such panel discussions we will not know what’s happening around the world. We are the students and we should keep learning what was there yesterday is not today and it will not be tomorrow. The test preferences are changing technology is changing now today it’s all digital but to what extents we should go digital that’s again an important question. So, we have to have an excellent balance and such forums are very important after two years I think this is the first offline forum where vice chancellors, the corporates, the directors, the deans have been invited and excellent, I would say the session that I attended just now, excellent speakers, your choice is really good they have the experience to speak about, it was really great. Any message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media? Yeah definitely you have been doing great, I can see that one question everybody has to ask to himself and the organization, is my organization growing or growing old, am I growing or I am growing old and I must say your organization, ArdorComm Media is growing, not growing old it is growing and it has a great future. The way networking has been done today, if you have a good network you have an excellent net worth.  

Dr Sachin S Vernekar, Dean, FMS; Director, IMED, Bharati Vidyapeeth (Deemed to be University) says, today ‘network is the net worth’ Read More »

Prof. (Dr.) G K Shirude, Vice Chancellor, Sri Balaji University Pune emphasizes on the future of digitalization

“Technological tools today are going to be outdated tomorrow and therefore you have to update always with the changing technology,” says Prof. (Dr.) G K Shirude, Vice Chancellor, Sri Balaji University, Pune in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm – Higher Education and Edtech Conclave & Awards 2022’ #HEETPune Welcome you in today’s forum, what are your takeaways from the summit? Yeah, very nice to be here with you, your name itself is Chandan Anand so on one hand there is a Chandan that is sandalwood on the other hand there is Anand means happiness and this fragrance take place only when our learners are well skilled and that skills comes from not the traditional way but transformational digital way. This digitalization process which we are accommodating with those who are making a very excellent contribution in digital process and that is one of which we have experienced is that of Coursera courses and these courses we found at Sri Balaji University Pune are useful, students are also getting advantage of it. Sometimes it is difficult but Balaji university always welcomes the difficulties and we accept the challenges and we make the best of the best solution to solve these particular problems. How does the such kind of forums help where we have exhibition from the corporate and side-by-side conference also going on where the entire industry is uniting? See after all it is the society which is a combination of all these particular stakeholders and whenever these stakeholders are coming together with their merits with their limitations then certainly to discuss to discourse and to have a dialogue that will certainly give us a future road or future map how to proceed further. Any message for ArdorComm Media? One thing which is very common and which you have to be at your steps and that is learning never ends. Technological tools today is going to be outdated tomorrow and therefore you have to update always with the changing technology with the alpha generation which is coming now and this alpha generation will have a super brains and they will work more about the devices, tools, technology and how it is going to save their time, save their money and give a best possible output as far as the future entrepreneurs are concerned or getting a best possible jobs in the multinationals or the renowned companies in the world.  

Prof. (Dr.) G K Shirude, Vice Chancellor, Sri Balaji University Pune emphasizes on the future of digitalization Read More »

Dr Eknath B Khedkar, Vice President, Ajeenkya D Y Patil University, Pune elaborates on the need of Digital Universities

“The Gross Enrolment Ratio of our country will go up, suddenly it will increase may be more than 50 percent and when the educated people will increase definitely final result of this, the GDP ratio will go up,” says Dr Eknath B Khedkar, Vice President, Ajeenkya D Y Patil University, Pune in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm – Higher Education and Edtech Conclave & Awards 2022’ #HEETPune Myself Dr Eknath B Khedkar, Vice President, Ajeenkya D Y Patil University as well as Vice President of Decision Sciences Institute Houston USA, again I’m also Vice President of one International Association of Asia pacific and middle east, International Society for Data Science and Innovation. We have established this association in 42 countries the head office is at IIM Nagpur. Now I would like to first congratulate Chandan Anand that he has organized this particular conclave very systematically. I appreciate his effort that he has done in Maharashtra particularly in Pune by calling number of industry experts industry people and academician, Vice Chancellor, the management people. Because of such types of event this is very very important for a timely because after the pandemic situation now I think this is the first event which he has organized when the industry people meet academia or university and university people meet industry. Definitely what is the requirement and need of the industry for a day, the university can fulfil, industry also see that what is the requirement from the industry side. Academia always want that student should be employed then how to make employable, what is the requirement such types of definitely event give a very high-level knowledge to all of us this is one thing. Second thing the topic which he has chosen about phygital university or digital universities government of India is bringing in the country and this is a need because of this pandemic situation and in hereafter also when the world is going to a digitalization everywhere education 4.0 is already started at European and American countries whereas the Asian countries part India is little bit lacking. But now the government of India has taken a very correct decision to go for a digital university and it will take some time maybe another four or five year these university will get developed few university will get developed and because of this, the gross enrolment ratio of our country will go up suddenly it will increase may be more than 50 percent and when the educated people will increase definitely final result of this, the GDP ratio will go up. There will be a number of small and medium scale industries MSME will come up because there our honourable prime minister saying, there is a need of Atma Nirbhar Bharat and this is possible only when we educate our younger people. For educating more young people we don’t have more universities we don’t have more colleges then how to do it, digital university is one of the part where maximum number I feel that say 50 percent to 60 percent student will be educated through the traditional university and remaining 50 to 40 percent student will be educated through digital university and the enrolment ratio will go up and another important point in national education policy 2020 government has announced that the student can take two degree at a time this is amazing and good decision by the government. What will happen, student will get a knowledge in different field therefore student can go for starting their business, a student can go for doing various types of multi-level jobs. This is very important moves like person like me even at this particular age also I feel that I should go for collecting some degrees I should go for taking some knowledge through digital university online while working. Therefore working people they will go for taking some degrees, people who are in village area rural area they don’t have money they can also join with this because government is making lot of facilities in rural areas as far as the infrastructure and bandwidth is concerned and therefore I think this is very very important event you have organized and you know the flagship is there in this area automatically the academician also come to know that what is the requirement for developing this digital university. Three important things are there we have to go first for development of digital infrastructure very very important it will take some time, second teacher training very very necessary teacher training number of teachers we have to train through this and last part curriculum development, content development when we go for these three things I think a lot of development will come. I would like to give the best wishes because of all this development in another four five years our GDP will go up and the country will go in 100 percent developing stage in another 10 to 15 years’ time.  

Dr Eknath B Khedkar, Vice President, Ajeenkya D Y Patil University, Pune elaborates on the need of Digital Universities Read More »

Dr. Sayalee Gankar, Vice Chancellor, D Y Patil University, Ambi, Pune stresses upon the dire need of digitalization

“Right from your admission processes to make the student as an alumnus the complete process has gone on the digitalization way,” says Dr Sayalee Gankar, Vice Chancellor, D Y Patil University, Ambi, Pune in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm – Higher Education and Edtech Conclave & Awards 2022’ #HEETPune What according to you are the key takeaways from this event? Thank you so much Chandan Anand for organizing such a wonderful conference today in Pune. ArdorComm is really doing great especially when I’ve seen that so many ed-tech companies are here which are at one platform giving so much detailed information and of course this kind of the event you know I think it’s learning from each other’s experiences. In D Y Patil University, Pune what we are doing, other universities are doing it is always better to learn from others. It is always better to understand the various experimentations because at the end of the day every university, institutions are working for imparting quality education and increasing the employability of the students, so I’m really happy to be the part of this event. When everyone is progressing towards making their infrastructure digital what has been a go ahead and an initiative under your leadership in your institute? So, if you look at it the digitalization of the campuses is the dire need right now what we can see. So right from classrooms and even not only for that even right from your admission processes to make the student as an alumnus the complete process has gone on the digitalization way. So, all these kinds of stuff right from admission, academics, examination and convocation, if you look at it everything has gone on digital platforms. We are doing it very extensively not only that, if you look at it our complete hybrid mode of learning is happening in campus so digital classrooms are made available to the students and faculty members so that they can interact directly with the industry experts and not only that even international speakers as well and that is what is bringing a very good value on the table for students and faculty to learn together. What outcome one should get from the forums like this, where there is a conference going on, there is an expo going on we have a representation from the government, academia and industry? I think when we talk about all the stakeholders coming in one platform it helps everyone to change their own perspectives right, so when we talk about government definitely the National Education Policy, Digital university concept through the union budget all these discussions will help us to understand what they are aiming at and what would be our contribution when we talk about the universities and vice chancellors. I think we spoke a lot about that what quality education is, what outcome we are expecting and how we can really engage the youth with the help of all these new ways of doing which is happening in this country. So, could be a national education policy, union budget, digitalization all that is coming on one table I think that’s a wonderful think tank kind of activity which has happened in this conference.  

Dr. Sayalee Gankar, Vice Chancellor, D Y Patil University, Ambi, Pune stresses upon the dire need of digitalization Read More »

Dr. Siddharth Jabade, Vice Chancellor, Vishwakarma University, Pune emphasizes on adoption of digitalization in their university

“We are also moving forward with the digitalization in terms of the student empathy, understanding what students need and how we can provide them because we believe our teachers, our faculty, our students are the focal point,” says Dr. Siddharth Jabade, Vice Chancellor, Vishwakarma University, Pune in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm – Higher Education and Edtech Conclave & Awards 2022’ #HEETPune How has Vishwakarma University adapted with the digitalization? It’s great to be in this gathering and really it has been an enriching experience of first of its kind event after pandemic in Maharashtra with physical presence and this entire gathering and this event has provided lot many insights in terms of how do we go ahead with respect to adaptation and adoption of digitalization. Vishwakarma university in Pune has been on the forefront of adapting this change of digitalization in terms of we have established a VU Digital (Vishwakarma University Digital) as the digital Avtar of the university we are focusing on the faculty development in terms of content development learning pedagogy in the digital age in terms of the investments, in our studios, investments in terms of training our faculty. We are also moving forward with the digitalization in terms of the student empathy, understanding what students need and how we can provide them because we believe our teachers, our faculty, our students are the focal point. In this, the gatherings and the conferences, the way they are configured and designed, they provide really important insights, understanding and sharing of thoughts in creating this network community of practice which will go a long way in terms of moving forward with this transformation of digitalization and adapting it very responsibly and meaningfully for our students. We are very happy to announce here that Vishwakarma university, Pune is the youngest university to be nominated in the most prestigious Times higher education, Asia award in the category of excellence and innovation in the arts of the work done even in pandemic and we are the youngest and there are only two universities in India, we are the youngest one to be part of it. Any message would you like to give for ArdorComm Media? I’m honestly very impressed with the way entire event is organized most importantly thoughtfully designed and the entire panellists and the range of panellists that are being brought also with the stakeholders like the industry and ArdorComm Media, I must say is an umbilical link in bringing all the stakeholders and different minds together and making them think and this will certainly lead to a great outcome and impact in the interest of our education sector.  

Dr. Siddharth Jabade, Vice Chancellor, Vishwakarma University, Pune emphasizes on adoption of digitalization in their university Read More »

Prof Dr M M Salunkhe, Vice Chancellor, Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed to be University speaks about how the institute is diversifying

“Now we would like to go into the domain of artificial intelligence, big data and so many other new things” says Prof Dr M M Salunkhe, Vice Chancellor, Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed to be University in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm – Higher Education and Edtech Conclave & Awards 2022’ #HEETPune Bharati Vidyapeeth is one of the institutions who has classes from KG to PG, how has the institute diversified under your leadership? In case of Bharati Vidyapeeth it is already a multidisciplinary, multi-campus university. As per new education policy everybody expected to have medical, engineering, agriculture, pharmacy all the courses on one campus. We have already all the programs in one campus under the umbrella of Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed to be University. But in addition to this we have three specialized research institutes and you have specifically questioned how we are trying to diversify. Now we would like to go into the domain of artificial intelligence, big data and so many other new things. Even we have gone to the physiotherapy, it is a school, now we would like to establish another ayurvedic college at Kolhapur, already hospital has been started and we are diversifying. We are also planning to set up another campus at Sonipat in New Delhi. I would like to understand how does this kind of forum, conclaves help where you have conferences going on there is an expo area and involvement of government also? See one thing is very clear, universities are always discussing about industry academia interaction and it is lacking and I’m very happy I congratulate you for organizing this particular event in which industry and academia they are coming together they are discussing about their problems their association and so many things and so it is a good initiative. I have read one paper in some international journal where they have calculated the indices where industry academy interaction and they have shown a tripod and when the tripod is balanced then only the academic activity is better but I’m very happy with such type of interaction. There is a lacuna in our system regarding industry academy interaction that will improve and definitely I’m looking forward. In future ed-tech companies will collaborate with universities and will try to train students in better way. What will be your message to the next generation learners? I was a vice chancellor of different universities, I worked in central university, state university as well as open university and I was very happy and I was very curious because as an open university vice chancellor we used to discuss a lot about digital university and along with MKCL we have prepared some documents about digital university and today we have specific station on this particular concept and all ed tech companies they are enthusiastic about this particular concept and already we could start this particular online education when I was vice chancellor of Shivaji University then we started distance but online programs we have started at YCMU and being a ‘A’ category university we have started also online programs at Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed to be University and we have very good response we have more than 6000 students and now we should dream for digital university and that is the next generation learners should be digital learners otherwise they can’t survive in this particular scenario.

Prof Dr M M Salunkhe, Vice Chancellor, Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed to be University speaks about how the institute is diversifying Read More »

Dr. Apoorva Palkar, Director- Innovation & Incubation Linkage, Savitribai Phule Pune University emphasizes on the motto of setting up the start-up innovation cells

I would call this as new order of education because we all are tired of the concept of rote learning says Dr Apoorva Palkar, Director- Innovation & Incubation Linkage, Savitribai Phule Pune University in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm – Higher Education and Edtech Conclave & Awards 2022’ #HEETPune What is the motto of setting up an Innovation & Incubation Linkage at SPPU under your leadership? It has been a great pleasure in leading this initiative in a 73-year-old university and this is a start-up in a 73-year-old organization. Building everything from scratch, from zero and bringing it to a level where we now have about 340 colleges, where we have setup the start-up innovation cells. We are building a culture of innovation in the grassroot which is through the colleges and the students. Along with that we are also trying to spot innovators from the open market. We are also trying to reach out to people from the government to find out where are the problems and what is the kind of solution that the market today is looking at. So, this is kind of trying to build in the capacity for people to have originality of thinking, that’s the outline or underlined motto for us. According to you how much should we rate to the innovation and skill development apart from the regular studies in the regularized curriculum of institutions? I think what we are building here is a new order of education. I would call this as new order of education because we all are tired of the concept of rote learning. Everyone is talking about how can we get away from the rote learning, where everything is governed by marks and at the end of the day placements. This is what the innovation cell is trying to do and build up in the college ecosystem, how we make people think, how do we make faculties think and how do we get them away from a cut paste model. So that’s what we are trying to do through all our initiatives. We are happy to see and spot more than ten thousand ideas under the University of Pune and there are a lot of people who are coming forward to also reward them. Its just not about recognition of an idea but how do we commercialize this is also very important. On one side people say that you need to be creating job givers but how will the job givers be created unless you have an ecosystem that helps entrepreneurs to kind of build the companies. So, this is what we are trying to do in short.

Dr. Apoorva Palkar, Director- Innovation & Incubation Linkage, Savitribai Phule Pune University emphasizes on the motto of setting up the start-up innovation cells Read More »