Implementing NEP, improving NIRF rankings priority: VC

Nagpur: A few hours after taking over as Nagpur University’s new vice-chancellor, Subhash Chaudhary talked to TOI on his vision for development of the historic institution. Excerpts...
What’s your immediate priority?
We will be starting online classes as per the government directives from August 16. My priority would be to ensure that this process gets streamlined. Later, I am planning to conduct meetings with various NU authorities on New Education Policy (NEP) with a view to make them aware on its various aspects. Some of its provisions are already under way in the engineering faculty, but it will be difficult to implement the same for arts, commerce and science courses. I am expecting some opposition from the teaching fraternity, but I am sure that after their orientation, they will agree to it as they’re the most important component of NEP.
Your long term plans for NU’s development.
I will be focusing on improving NIRF rankings in these five years. The efforts would be to ensure participation of all stakeholders in this process. NU has a big number of affiliated colleges — over 500. I plan to improve their standards and maintain cordial relations to ensure their participation in the development process. I am concerned about students from rural areas where they don’t get exposure. My plan is to provide them training for personality development with the help of various education activities.
Any plans to start job-oriented courses?
We had already started skill development courses with former VC Murlidhar Chandekar where the students are trained in various skills so that they would secure some kind of jobs in industries. With a motto of getting ‘vocal for local’, we plan to collaborate with industries like in Mihan to know the kind of manpower they require and then provide that training to our students. We will even modify our curriculum with their consultation so that students would be job ready when they pass out.
The final year exams fiasco still continues...
I can’t talk much on that as the case is pending with the Supreme Court. We will act as per guidelines issued by UGC and state government based on the apex court’s verdict. However, we’re ready with our first and second year results which would be out from next week. These students can take admissions to the next class without waiting for results.
NU is facing a big problem of teaching & non-teaching staff shortage.
It’s up to the government as universities don’t have any major role to play in filling up vacancies. With the Covid-19 pandemic, I don’t see any chances of those getting filled up. But I have set an objective to use the situation to advantage through use of automation. The priority will be to digitize the entire work which would reduce the need of manpower. We’ve already uploaded video lectures of expert teachers on our website which students can access anywhere, anytime on mobiles. I plan to enhance online mode of learning for the students through learning management system (LMS) platform.