Within three months of taking over as the Vice Chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University, Dr Nitin Karmalkar, has initiated a systems audit of the functioning of the university, to find the gaps and close them. Despite being an out-and-out academic-first as a student, then as faculty and now VC-his approach to the aims and objectives of a hallowed academic institution such as the SPPU are quite unconventional and out-ofthe- box. Education has to ensure a means to livelihood, and research has to be socially relevant, believes he, and is steering efforts to achieve these goals
Dr Nitin Karrmalkar has recently taken over as the Vice Chancellor of Savitribai Phule Pune University. His tryst with the university goes back to his college days. After graduation, he completed his MSc in Geology and then his PhD. Thereafter, he served as Professor of Geology and Head of the Environmental Science Department of the University. He has two post-doctoral research qualifications to his credit-one from Macquarie University, Australia and another from Max-Plank Institute for Geo-Chemistry at Mainz, Germany. As Corporate Citizen found out during our interview with him, despite his academic sojourn of so many years, his approach as a VC to research and college education is most pragmatic.
Dr Karmalkar: I am proud and privileged to be associated with such an esteemed university, first as a student, then as a teacher and now as Vice Chancellor. It is a unique opportunity. I have worked for the ranking for the university where it has come almost to Number one in the state of Maharashtra and 10th in the overall National Circuit Indian ranking.
A phenomenal change has occurred over the years in technology. In terms of the admission process, in the way we conduct examinations and in administrative areas too, we have been using technology to a large extent, resulting in good progress. Obviously, you have to look into certain issues that crop up when you use technology, such as when a question paper goes viral on social media. More security needs to be imposed in such areas, and we are definitely working on that.
“There is a subtle difference between knowledge and information. What is available on the Internet is information and not knowledge. Knowledge actually gets imparted to the students through teaching at regular classes. But we find students not attending classes so teachers too need to undertake some introspection”
Overall, there is progress because youngsters are exposed to the media, the Internet; so information wise, they are well informed. However, they lack from a knowledge point of view because everything is available at the click of a button. They have very poor reading habits so they do not go into the depth of the subject; they have a very superficial understanding of the subject. Also, due to gadgets, connectivity has increased but dialogue has decreased. There is erosion in social interaction, morals and values. That needs to be looked at.
There is a subtle difference between knowledge and information. What is available on the Internet is ‘information’ and not ‘knowledge’. Knowledge actually gets imparted to the students through teaching at regular classes. But we find students not attending classes so teachers too need to undertake some introspection. Are they providing the students knowledge, or mere information? Because of such a tussle, there are issues with the students. You find them neither in the classes nor in the libraries. But there is always one lot of about 20-25 per cent of the students who are really studious and who attend classes, work in the laboratories and use the libraries.
The first issue that I will try to address in my mandate of five years is connecting or interlinking education with livelihood. Whether whatever is taught in the class, provide that student a job opportunity? There appears some gap between the two. Also, it’s not the case that everyone who graduates from this university gets a job in the field in which he/she has knowledge. There has to be serious work done in this aspect. That is my first priority, for which you have to make the student aware of what is happening outside, especially in the industry, at NGOs, at the government level and what kind of opportunities are available. And then involving those stakeholders in the teaching programme, as well as in making the syllabi. Perhaps you can even involve them in research activity, so that the issues they have become the subject of research for our students. That could perhaps provide them better job opportunities.
Secondly, I have spoken about the erosion of moral standards. We need to restore the character of students through value based courses which they can imbibe and inculcate. What are ethics, and how should they be implemented? In the progression of life, it is not the shortcuts but the full in-depth understanding and value based education system, keeping morals and values intact, which will make students into better human beings and better citizens.
Thirdly, we all know that the job situation is grim; so I would like to explore whether we can convert the students from job seekers to job providers. Whether we can provide them the necessary skills to make them entrepreneurs; propel them to open startups and provide financial assistance to promote their startups. These are some of the issues I would like to work on, rather than focus merely on elevating the standard of the university to improve its ranking. If students are ranked, obviously the university gets a better ranking.
“The walls we have created around our faculties have to break down. We have stopped interacting with other faculties as well as within our own faculty. Unless and until you interact, you cannot create a job opportunity for a student. The education that is imparted should offer glimpses of everything”
Certainly, in the last five years under the NHRD, we have set up a very well established Skill Development Centre through which we have been promoting certain courses. There are vocational courses. Some of them are very region specific- I am talking about Nashik, Ahmednagar and Pune-the three districts, which come under the jurisdiction of this particular university. So Nashik would perhaps have a requirement of a different skill depending upon the industry, NGOs and other organisations available in the vicinity. You have to do the mapping of what skills are required where, accordingly formulate and advocate the courses. For example, Nashik is known for Paithani weaving-so this old traditional skill can be taken as a challenge and the required skills identified and skill based courses provided. We can also look at wine and alcohol based technology as we have vineyards there. Food processing has taken a backseat in the overall Indian scenario. Certain courses to promote these industries and generate jobs and inspire entrepreneurship can be looked at. These are the kinds of courses I would think of initiating. First, we need to map the different skills that are required in each region, and then get the appropriate skill based courses.
Yes, it has to be that way-in fact, the walls we have created around our faculties have also to break down. We have stopped interacting with other faculties as well as within our own faculty. Many a times we do not even know what work the person sitting next to you, in your own department, is doing. Unless and until you interact, you cannot create a job opportunity for a student. The education that is imparted should offer glimpses of everything. From that point of view, it might help build up a team, inculcating the spirit of working in a team, understanding subjects you do not know. That might ensure better prospects outside and lead to a better understanding of the world.
The government has already taken certain steps. There is a credit system already in place in which 75% of the component is compulsory-which you choose from your own course-but 25% can be chosen from other branches as well. So there is already a provision. But students are not adequately sensitised about this. So most of them still try to confine themselves to their own domain- try to be in their own cocoon. They need to be sensitised and made aware about other courses, which they would have otherwise pursued after graduation by paying a lot more money. It can be a part of their graduate programme, thanks to the skill development courses.
“We will be completing 70 years next year. Since its inception, the university has obviously produced lakhs of graduates. Many of them must have reached very high positions or are running their own industries, or playing prominent roles at the policy makers’ level. But, until they are connected back to the university, the perception about the university will not get better”
We have not done very well on two issues-one is perception and the second is research. We have scored reasonably high in research, but again research that is socially relevant and market- oriented is not happening. Most research serves to satisfy your own ego and getting your paper published in some good journal. In this kind of research, relevance to society as a whole is not considered. What research you do should be relevant to what is required outside. When that kind of research happens, perhaps it will have better visibility, standing and longevity. There should be more involvement of other stakeholders in your research activity, so students on the campus know what is required outside, and that becomes a research subject for them. That will be a win-win situation for the students and to the industry.
As I said, what is lacking is dialogue with other stakeholders. Perception will come once people outside understand that whatever is taught here is of relevance to them. Secondly, with regard to involving the alumni, that has still remained on paper. We will be completing 70 years next year. Since its inception, the university has obviously produced lakhs of graduates. Many of them must have reached very high positions or are running their own industries, or playing prominent roles at the policy makers’ level. But, until they are connected back to the university and until we inculcate a sense of belonging for them by having a dialogue and calling them over, the perception about the university will not get better. A proper dialogue with the alumni will help in enhancing the overall quality of education and potential funding from them.
For the first time we have a marking system that has evolved. So now we can understand where we stand. From that point of view, 10th place is not at all a bad number. And we are the first in the state of Maharashtra. But at the international level, yes, we still have to strive hard to get the required number there and for which there has to be an exchange happening with the Western world. We have to have more MOUs not just on paper, but ones that are working and effective on the ground. There has to be exchange of faculty as well as students. Visibility will increase; the overall ranking at the global and national level will also increase.
Certainly. Since I took over-it has been about three months-I thought, let me get a system audit, be it IT, security, or exams, and that too from outside experts. By involving the industry, perhaps we will be able to understand whether we are on the right track or we need to have some kind of integration; whether there are flaws in the system, etc. This kind of audit would identify the gaps in the domain of examinations, IT, IT operations, etc. Once they get integrated and connected, things will improve. As for food, health facilities and hostel, yes, it is on my agenda to make all possible improvement for which I am taking a survey. Within whatever limited resources we have and limited space that we have, we can work out a better strategy and make up for what is actually lacking.
I can say for myself that I have been a student here over so many years and I feel that the university has given me enough. Now it is my turn to give back to the university. That is the reason I accepted to occupy this particular chair, which is a medium through which I can try to make life in the university a lot better. Similarly, I expect the students also to think that it is not the university directly but whatever knowledge that you have gained from this particular university, needs to be put to use for the society. If not anything else, try to be a better human being, be compassionate and work for the society. The university will get the benefit indirectly from such activity.
Hard work and relentless effort will take you to the goal you have set for yourself. There is no short cut to success. Your efforts have to be sincere and sufficient enough to achieve your goal.
Fondly known as the Oxford of the East, the renowned Savitribai Phule Pune University, well known for its quality of education, has taken further strides to enhance the credibility of Ph D degrees and skill up the last student. Corporate Citizen spoke to the outgoing Vice Chancellor, Dr W N Gade on his role in the university’s progress, as he made way for the new Vice Chancellor
Noted biologist and life sciences expert Wasudeo Namdeo Gade was till recently the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the prestigious Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU). A recipient of the Lupin Endowment Award instituted by the University Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, he began his career as a scientist in the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology of the CSIR in Delhi for 20 years between 1983 and 2003. This gave him an opportunity to interact with students, after which he developed an interest in taking up teaching as a career. He was Reader and later Professor in the Department of Biotechnology, University of Pune, from July 2003. An overview of his thoughts and action on several issues concerning SPPU:
Dr W N Gade : The Savitribai Phule Pune University has a great name internationally. It has established itself through its excellent teaching programmes and research. The good thing about this university is that right from 1949 when the university was established, it has been blessed with great and visionary leaders starting from Vice Chancellor Barrister M R Jayakar. It has also had the fortune of having visionary senior faculty and innumerable people who contributed very significantly to research. This is also the university that has the largest number of students.
In 2003, I came here as faculty in the Department of Biotechnology, which was established in 1985 under the initiative of the Government of India. Five biotechnology departments were started for the first time in the country in five universities-JNU, Pune, Madurai, Kamaraj and MS University, Baroda. So Pune was one of those five, and since its inception, this department continues to be the best biotechnology department in the country.
In the recent past, Vice Chancellors were being frequently changed and that had affected the credibility of the university and there was negative talk about it. The faculty and the administration too were not very positive about it. Earlier the university was graded highly with an A++ but it went down to getting just A with CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) given by the NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council) just bordering, at 3.1. Therefore in 2012, when I got this opportunity to become its Vice Chancellor, I took it as a challenge. I knew that the university has great potential-it is just that we were not working as a team. I took it as a challenge to take this university forward with the involvement of all faculty, good administration and all the decision making bodies, and started working on that line. I started decentralising responsibilities and brought in new research initiatives, changed some policy decisions, and brought in transparency into the administration. Our main focus was on promoting genuine research and discouraging plagiarism and substandard research.
If you want to compete internationally and nationally also, you have to improve your research output; even if you want to improve your teaching quality then also research is most important. If you are not a good teacher then you cannot be a good researcher-that is what I have been telling my students too. For good research, money, infrastructure, equipment and flexibility in rules for expenditure for research is imperative. So we introduced a programme called Departmental Research and Development Programme (DRDP). Under this programme, we started providing funds to each of the departments specifically for research initiatives. At their departmental level, in their departmental committee, they should decide the type of project they should take up and we will fund that. And the money was allocated in the budget and provided to them at the beginning of the financial year itself. That has motivated faculty to be totally involved. We initiated discussion among the faculty groups; not within the social sciences, but across faculty. When they started discussing, large areas of research emerged and we were able to submit big proposals and get huge grants.
I conceptualised the Central Instrument Facility (CIF), as I thought that sophisticated equipment, so essential for research, cannot be made available to each and every laboratory for each and every person; besides, it will be underutilised. So, we decided to establish one Central Instrument Facility where simple as well as highly sophisticated equipment would be installed. It would be made available to the faculty and students across all the departments. We not only allow the college faculty to use that, but when we have spare capacity, we allow the industry to use it as well. National institutes, which are on the campus and outside the campus can also use it against payment. We did that. Now, some of the equipment are being used 24-hours without any break and some are reserved for weeks and months in advance-so much is the demand. This has generated a lot of funds too. More importantly, the researcher is rest assured that his or her work will not be hampered.
Absolutely.
Yes. More credible.
“We introduced a programme called Departmental Research and Development Programme (DRDP). Under this programme, we started providing funds to each of the departments specifically for research initiatives. They decide the type of project they should take up and we fund that. That has motivated faculty to be totally involved”
Nobody has been dismissed. We have a new University Act called the Maharashtra University Act 2016. Now the term of these bodies-elected bodies, management council, academic council and several others-is for five years, which got over on 31st August, 2015. After that, new elections were to take place but since the new Act was to be implemented, the government decided not to have elections till such time, and to form these bodies after the new Act. Therefore, for two years, decision making bodies didn’t exist. Now, we have started the process of electing the new bodies. Nothing was hampered because of the absence of the deans, as most of the bodies have certain ex-officio members, who were mostly the same persons.
Having so many colleges puts an enormous burden on the university administration-there is absolutely no doubt about that. Each college selects its own faculty and to ensure quality selection of each one of them becomes difficult for me. Also, colleges do not fill up the required number of faculty, which also is very difficult for a VC to monitor from the university headquarters. There are many practical difficulties because of the size in ensuring quality and the satisfaction level of the students. I am aware that the satisfaction level of the students is very low. Examination is also an over burden because so many answer sheets have to be corrected and so many question papers have to be prepared. If some marking goes wrong, it becomes a question of life and death for that particular student, and people talk negatively. So, there are issues because of the size.
I have been talking about it. We have three districts under our university-Pune, Nashik and Ahmednagar. Savitribai Phule Pune University is a brand internationally as well; every student yearns to have a degree from here. If we propose to bifurcate this university and make Nashik a separate university and Ahmednagar another one with degrees given by those universities, people will protest. They want a degree from Pune University. I think, making sub-campuses could help. For example, we have 62 acres of land in Nashik and 83 acres in Ahmednagar. I would like these to be converted to sub-campuses of the SPPU but totally decentralise them. This means they will have their own Vice Chancellors and departments just as we have it here. This will ensure quality control. The university’s administration burden will be reduced. Students too would be happy as they would get a degree from this prestigious SPPU. Not suddenly, but slowly and steadily this process can be initiated.
This is a very important question. Teaching is a noble profession. Teachers have the responsibility of building a nation, a society. You are creating human resource for transforming the country. In my opinion, this is the biggest responsibility that anybody has. Therefore, people with genuine interest and passion should come forward to choose this profession. Our country’s expenditure on education unfortunately is quite low. Now, it is a mere 0.6% or 0.7% of GDP. Whereas China is spending much more than that-about 0.9%. The silver lining is that the 6th Pay Commission has provided significant enhancement in salaries as compared to earlier ones. Career-wise too it has become easier to get promotions. So, things are improving.
We have to make efforts to bring the best brains into education and then only will there be change. The change in education for a societal transformation will only happen if competent people choose to be teachers and guides. Unfortunately, good people are leaving educational institutes and going to industries or research. Their last option is to come to state and private universities, and 94% of the students in our country are in state universities and these institutes have hardly 6-7% of them.
Definitely, only three to four hours are not enough, as our course is such that 25 credits have to be covered by the student in one year. That is not a joke and three to four hours of teaching in my opinion is not enough. But if they are really able to finish teaching in three to four hours, there are many options you can offer to the students to keep them busy the whole day. So we have taken an initiative on skill development. We have established a centre for skill development on the campus, and this centre coordinates with all the colleges too. At the moment, there are 70 skills-related courses on offer, in addition to the courses they are pursuing. I would suggest that if there is spare time, why can’t colleges offer these courses to the students after the regular hours of teaching-let them do three to four hours of skills-related courses. We have all types of courses -banking, telecommunication, computation, automobile, and so many others.
Yes. The college has to take the initiative. We offer the courses and we offer to teach them as well. We have tied up with several industries and also established a virtual classroom facility. We can teach from the campus, direct, live, to the colleges, in an interactive mode. Technology has transformed the way of teaching. In addition, our skill development faculty can go physically to colleges and take classes too. We have been doing this in various colleges. Colleges like Fergusson College have initiated it, but in rural areas also, where girls come from various backgrounds, we can design courses as per their specific needs. We also have industry partners who design the syllabus, teach, certify and also conduct examinations in most cases.
The Law department is not weak-the minimum passing percentage is overall 50%, and that is tough to achieve. My point is, irrespective of what type of marks you get, your level of knowledge is more important. If that can be ensured, a student can stand up anywhere. There are universities where it is easy to get 98% but look at the performance of students who pass out from them–wherever they go they don’t do well at all, but there are colleges like for example Presidency College in Kolkata where it is very difficult to get a first class, but these students excel everywhere. If the standard of teaching is very good, there could be tough marking. That department or that faculty becomes known nationally, as graduates coming from that department have high levels of knowledge.
I put the onus on the faculty; the faculty generally decides the type of examination standards we have to maintain by way of setting the quality of a question paper. The Principal and the faculty must ensure that the syllabus has been covered properly and the subject has been explained to the students properly, that they have comprehended it well and after that if they give a tough paper there is no problem.
We have to ensure 90 days of teaching in a semester- without that your minimum requirement doesn’t get completed, so every student has to complete that and every teacher has to ensure a minimum 90 days of teaching. Now we have credit systems so students have to earn that credit, for which they have to attend classes. We have a lot of flexibility in timings for the student as well as for the faculty. This minimum statutory requirement has to be complied. Many a times, admissions are delayed; then we get very little time so we have to take extra classes on Saturdays and Sundays and all other holidays. Without fulfilling the minimum requirement of attendance and classes, students are not eligible to fill his/ her examination form. That is what we ensure.
At the national level, all our educational programmes must start at one time. If we decide 1st July, then all teaching must start on 1st July. If it has to end at the end of December then it must end by December-examinations, result and all. Due to various processes, results are declared late; when results are declared late, admissions get delayed. It is a vicious circle. We have an academic calendar-here we decide that our teaching will start on this day and will end on this day and examinations will be over by this time. We here in Pune University do it, but in other universities we have absolutely no control.
The eligibility criteria is well defined by Pune University.
If there is regular recruitment of teachers, if the teachers stay, then there is absolutely no problem. Many a times, colleges make short-term recruitments for six months or one year even for the Principal’s post. We have the responsibility of ensuring the quality of education, therefore we have to monitor that and we study that-we send a committee to each and every college to ensure that they have infrastructure, faculty, management, library and equipment. We address their grievances too. To ensure all that, we have to adhere to the annual license renewal policy.
I agree with you, I don’t see any reason for having such an admission process, but that is handled by the UGC.
Certainly. We have a refectory where we provide food at a very reasonable price of Rs. 28 per meal. A student body monitors the quality as well as the menu. We also have a separate refectory committee. In the past, there have been certain issues, but now the university provides a lot of support to the contractor, such as free electricity, water and equipment. So we expect good quality food from the contractor. There is now a good level of satisfaction among the students. Security is an administrative issue. It is handled by the state government so we do not have much say in it. We have taken the matter up with the government, seeking a better quality security agency and are waiting for their response. For girls we have a separate vehicle that shuttles within the campus from 7 pm to midnight. If girls are going from the laboratory to the hostel, our vehicle drops them. Dropping the girl students as well as the women family members-picking them up from the gate, dropping them home or hostel is done free of cost.
“Teaching is a noble profession. Teachers have the responsibility of building a nation, a society. You are creating human resource for transforming the country... this is the biggest responsibility that anybody has. Therefore, people with genuine interest and passion should come forward to choose this profession. Our country’s expenditure on education unfortunately is quite low. Now, it is a mere 0.6% or 0.7% of GDP’’
I live a very simple life. I and my family have been totally honest to ourselves. During my entire career, I have never tried to deliberately or otherwise hurt anybody. If by doing some administrative work somebody has been unhappy, that is because of my professional responsibility. I tried honestly to bring up this university and to some extent the results show. It is tremendously hard and thankless work. I have not given enough time to my family, but they too have not complained. If I take up responsibility I give my best, I don’t take it lightly. I didn’t take up any responsibility to help my own personal progress. There are lots of things I have sacrificed.
They have to work. Getting a degree by hook or by crook is not going to help them in the long run, but they have to ensure themselves whether the degree they get is worth or not. They have to put in extra efforts and they have to skill themselves not only in the subject they have studied but all related subjects too so that they can face the challenges more competently, otherwise it can become very difficult.
By Vinita Deshmukh
