“I think skill in terms of ‘RUN’ which is my punch word here, where I say Reskilling, Upskilling and New age skills,” says Prof. Dr. Padmakali Banerjee, President, Sir Padmapat Singhania University, Udaipur in an interview with Chandan Anand, CEO & Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAJaipur #ELSARajasthan
Would like to understand and know more about your University?
Sir Padmapat Singhania University is based out of Udaipur, the city of lakes and one of the world’s tourism capital of India and this is an initiative of the JK cement which is a very large group, one of the world’s largest manufacturer of white cement and grey cement. This University is a 15-year-old University and it is a very forward-looking University where there is a lot of importance which has been given to the new age education in terms of the professional skill courses and the industry integrated programs coupled with internationalization.
How do you rate and how much focus you are giving on skilling part?
I think this is something that it is the need of the hour, so as I was in the deliberations today, I mentioned that I think skill today is the most important. I think skill in terms of ‘RUN’ which is my punch word here, where I say Reskilling, Upskilling and New age skills, so every curriculum has been integrated for having certain employability skills also skills which will be enabler for the very chaotic world that we are seeing in the future.
Being a corporate governed University does it play a good factor for getting admissions or is still the same way as other Universities are doing?
I think it is a brilliant question, the answer is yes where we are looking at not just the admission part but I think the delivery part because I talk about three I’s, innovation in curriculum design, industry integration and internationalization, so in the second ‘I’ of Industry integration here is a university where the students can also go for immersion programs. So, while we go for the most of the universities around from all walks of life for example in the tech area if you look at, very recently we tied up with HCL technology then if you look at Commonwealth education, so I think in a very big way partnerships are playing a very big role at the University and so are the very great placement opportunities and the so-called median salary and the top of the salary. So, I think I see a great opportunity serving such a University.
At your role balancing finances is equally important, how do you address when it comes for an edtech integration in your University?
I see a business plan for anything, suppose we are going to set up our program say on robotics, so I think you need to set up the actual work area. For example, the labs so we see it as a part of the business plan so even before launching a program, we have that set. For example, even it’s in the data analytics we had a robust partnership with SAS so now our entire cluster is getting that kind of a collaboration and we’re also getting a lot of projects coming from industry, for example we recently got a very good grant for offering programs on the online platform from Commonwealth education.
We all have gathered at New Normal Education Leadership Summit, so according to you what is New Normal?
I just mentioned in the session today, for me it is a brave New Normal wherein we are doing everything which is breaking the age-old norms. So, whether it is digitalization, whether it is the way we are connecting to the communities, the way the relationships have been, I see slowly the gap that we were talking about 10 years back about industry where I think a lot of tech companies were struggling to make an appearance, I think I see now educators are also coming together. So, I see forming a league which will create a very beautiful and a Happy New India that we look at where education will play a great role.
Any message for ArdorComm Media Group?
I think ArdorComm Media Group that you have set up, congratulations for the kind of associations you have already created getting almost maybe 30 to 40 top Educators itself, I think already is something that you have won. What I also want to really leave you with is that every organization has to look for the development of youth at large so I think in each of the projects, how are you taking care of the ESG aspect of economy, social relevance and corporate governance. So, that is just a message and since you are with the youth for the youth so I suggest then bring in their seventh sense which is their optimistic intelligence and I think as a technology company it’ll be very easy that you can start bridging that area as well.