Interviews

Going forward the new normal is going to be blended learning where physical togetherness is going to complement the content and the skill part which could be delivered through the digital mediums says Dr. Kamal Kishore Sharma, Director General, Taxila Business School, Jaipur in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, ArdorComm Media Group. What’s your take on the new normal education? While the new normal boarders on digitization and blended learning, my firm take is that the learning really happens in a physical environment. So while the new normal will bring in more technologies, more options for the students to learn their skills but there are certain skills in life for example how to analyze, how to understand a behavior in a certain context, interact with people, how to communicate, how to spread across your thought process and argue around it, what you have been able to think in your mind all of that happens during an interaction process and that requires a physical togetherness of students. So, to me the new normal is about a new realization of how important it is to look at this development of the software aspect of students. Now that most of the content is being able to be provided by technology and Google so going forward the new normal is going to be blended learning where physical togetherness is going to complement the content and the skill part which could be delivered through the digital mediums. How did your institution adapt to the online mode of education when the pandemic hit the world? The first thing that was required was to engage the students because each student as well as the faculty and the whole ecosystem was in a state of stress induced by the pandemic and the lockdowns. So, the very first thing that the institution could do was to reach out to the candidates, second was in order to keep the learning process going on we had to bring on technology in order to reach out to the students. So, simultaneously there were lot of options in the zoom, meets, BlueSky and everything that came in. The other part of it one, the local infrastructure of how you could use those web technologies, so we brought in the best of cameras, mics and everything and we created a studio in the college itself where the least of noise interference would happen so that was important. Two, was to create multiple platforms together in that studio so that on one hand while you will be able to show what you want to show as a content, you’ll also be able to interact with the students face to face. So, there were two mediums working on simultaneously. Third, was to get into a faculty development program wherein we had to imbibe everything else that was happening around the world in terms of how to engage students in an online classroom. So, those regular inputs on that front, together these three saw us through the most difficult period during the pandemic. Going forward these things will stay with us, the technology will stay with us, the infrastructure will stay with us but clearly we have been able to identify that digital can only go to a certain extent, that is being talked about as new normal but the importance of physical togetherness and interaction and the values, the human soft skills that you learn from it, there is no other way to do that even in a new normal.

In digital platforms we were able to deliver much more than the physical classroom, says Prof. Dr. Daviender Narang, Director, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Ghaziabad in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, ArdorComm Media Group. What is your take on the new normal mode of education and how has your Institute implemented the same to impart education during the unprecedented times? Well during the pandemic, to teach the teachers how to use the new platform for teaching, how they should use the tools for creating the content, for delivering the lectures, for engaging the student was very important and on the same side for student also, we trained them, we made them ready for how to use these tools. So, within a very short span of time everybody was on the same platform so that they can learn from each other. We are very happy that in the whole pandemic we didn’t lose any time or any curriculum which we couldn’t deliver. In digital platforms we were able to deliver much more than the physical classroom, so that was our experience so far. How does education events and gatherings like this helps the education fraternity? In the new normal event everyone is talking about the digital transformation, digital content, the tools and about the challenges so there is a deliberation of all the experts and we are learning from each other. While listening to the discussions there was some new experience they shared with new pedagogy which they experienced, which they delivered in their respective universities and institutions, so that is our takeaway. So, by deliberation of all the people, a new knowledge is creating and everybody is getting that knowledge so when they get back to their own places they will implement this and that’s the important thing.

Dr. B. Sendil Kumar, Dean and Director, School of Allied Health Sciences, Vinayaka Mission’s Research Foundation (Deemed to be University) tells about how they transformed education from physical to digital in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, ArdorComm Media Group. How did you transform the education in your university during the pandemic? Covid 19 is a pandemic and nobody expected that it would shut everything and the education sector as well. What we exactly did is that we switch over all the education to digital mode because we had already started with the digital mode with the use of software which is LMS platform (Learning Management System) where everything is through that portal. We had started taking that online mode to all the students because already we were trying the faculties and students to get into that, through Microsoft Teams we have started doing that. Apart from that we have asked our students to take up courses like Coursera, edX where they can take up courses which is available in the curriculum. So, by the time students start writing their examination, we have incorporated that in our curriculum so everything is settled properly. How does this kind of conferences and education summits help the entire education fraternity? This is a platform where you can meet all the eminent persons and get to know their thoughts and views. Since this is a Covid 19 pandemic so you get to know the information like how other universities and institutions are taking up the challenges and how they are implementing all these things. It’s a good event where we can learn a lot of things, so the takeaways are like we can take a lot of information and we can implement them in our institutions so it’s a great opportunity actually.

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.

I’m trying to revamp the academic reforms, says Prof. Ambrish Sharan Vidhyarthi, Vice Chancellor, Bikaner Technical University Rajasthan in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group. What are your views on the socio-economic transformation in the education sector? Socio economical and emotional intelligence and the divide which we are facing in the current scenario, it’s basically if we look at our education systems during the historic times, in the gurukul we have people like Lord Rama and the Kevat, where all together was studying. What happens in the next, Dwapad you know, we have excluded the Eklavya and Arjuna and made this. So if you think of both this divisions, Ram rajya was established because of the inclusion of all the people and the Mahabharat happens when we have started making the distinguish between the people so if we want to attain our own glory in education like the Vishwa guru, I think that we have to go back to the Rama stage and that would be good enough and we as a University, we have all the opportunities and we have to put the efforts to make that happen to the Treta Yug or Sata Yug. Under your leadership how has Bikaner Technical University been transformed and what are your vision going forward? Well my thinking is that I should play a key role in understanding the student’s need. If we can make the students so versatile in the thinking, so humble in the nature and so dedicated towards the work and the duties and the society, then definitely we would be able to produce a good quality of citizens and that’s the aim of the university and I’m trying to revamp the academic reforms, whatever is possible but at the same time I am very happy to tell you that this university has already started to inculcate the human values in our students and we are the leader, we have given around training to 70000 students including the teachers in which around 40000 teachers are now well trained to give the human values to the students. What are the takeaways of an event or a networking gathering like this, ELSA 2021? In my opinion definitely, it has sensitized the need of the hour and this will be beneficial to the entire education world, where the people can appreciate the ideas which has been discussed over here. So, I congratulate you for holding this kind of event and this should be happening not only on year basis, it should be more frequent.

UTS University has also signed some articulation agreements in India, says Pankaj Jain, Regional Director India Subcontinent, UTS College Australia in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group. What is the vision and mission statement of your UTS College? We are actually University of Technology Sydney College, we are affiliated and fully owned by UTS university, so we are the pathway provider for UTS university. Our main aim is to help students who do not directly get into UTS university by providing them a pathway option of like diplomas or foundation and even pre-masters and masters level now. So basically, we have around 45000 students at the university which is a big thing, located in Sydney so very popular for engineering, the name itself says technology, its very popular for business, design, fashion, architecture. We do all the courses, location is also very strategic so it makes a lot of sense. Sydney, Melbourne these are two very big cities of Australia so lot of students go from South Asia. What are your initiatives for student exchange and faculty exchange programs between the nations? Basically, as UTS college we have TNE agreements across China, we have in Indonesia, Vietnam, we have in Sri Lanka our own campus, UTS college. We have tied up with East West University in Bangladesh, we are exploring some tie-ups in India and Nepal also. Where TNE like Transnational education where one year will be studied in local partner institution and 2 years the student goes to Australia to study. Besides this UTS University also has signed some articulation agreements in India which are like tie-up sort of thing so they are also working on those. In your perspective how does such kind of educational gatherings where you can see representation of the government, corporates, education leaders, helps overall education fraternity to collaborate? I think it’s a very important forum because when you are doing video conferencing and skype meetings people are not able to meet people, here when people interact during high tea, during lunch, during conferences and after conferences it gives them a good forum to at least meet people, exchange cards, discuss somethings and at least they can learn some example instead of doing just a virtual conference. So, I think physical conferences are the future which will happen and I think it’s a big learning exercise for all, even government people, private people, universities, schools etc.