An Interview with the Vice-Chancellor
Having been the Founder Vice Chancellor of PDM University for last few months, he’s had time to find his feet, and now Prof. (Dr.)Bakhshi looks forward to making the most of the potential he sees in the University.
Prof.(Dr.) A.K.Bakhshi has a long record of winning great respect from the higher education sector of India and abroad. From holding the prestigious Sir Shankar Lal Chair of Chemistry at Delhi University to becoming the Executive Director of Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), Mauritius (a post equivalent to that of Chairman, UGC in India) and Vice-Chancellor of U.P. Rajarshi Tandon Open University (UPRTOU), Allahabad and also Head, Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, Prof Dr.Bakhshi has remained through an interesting and upward trajectory. He been very actively engaged at the national level in the development of e-content under Digital India initiative and was felicitated two times by the Former President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam for his contributions in the e-transformation of the University of Delhi (2009) and for outstanding contributions in the field of education (2011). He is also Chairman of Centre for e-Learning as well as Chairman of Guru Angad Dev Teaching – Learning Centre (a Centre of the MHRD Govt. of India) as well as Chairman of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) project in Chemistry of the CSIR. A double gold medalist of Delhi University, Dr. Bakhshi did his post-doctoral training at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg, Germany with Prof. J. Ladik and at the Kyoto University and the Institute of Fundamental Chemistry, Kyoto, Japan with where he worked with Nobel Laureate Prof. K. Fukui A Visiting Scientist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangaluru, Prof Dr. Bakhshi has many more honours, accolades and awards to narrate his profile.
Q: You have so many years of experience in the field of education and academics. How do you see the changes which have taken place in the higher education sector & Indian education system over the years?
A: I was one of the youngest to enter into the teaching profession, when I was not even 21 years. Because I had topped the University, I secured a job immediately after I finished my MSc. I got the job at Delhi University College that time. I served in the college; I served in Panjab University, Chandigarh, and the journey then took me to Delhi University as a Chair Professor in Chemistry, which I still hold. And now am here.
The biggest change I have seen over all these years is, people have become more quality conscious now. The landscape of Higher Education has really changed. We have new students, coming from varied socio-demographic backgrounds, with very different mindsets. They have grown with technology and internet. They have experienced how technology makes their lives easier and convenient; so why not education? That is one change.
Second, there is a great demand for value for money, from all the stakeholders in education sector. They don’t mind paying good money, but they look for value in that. This is a great change.
Third, modern technologies have entered into the classroom. Because of these ever emerging technologies, the nature of teaching-learning has undergone tremendous change. Those changes can one see now very clearly. Earlier, it was chalk and talk method, where teacher was active but the student was passive.
The entire approach was teachercentric. But now it has become more learner-centric. Technologies are making great impact in education. Knowledge is also growing very fast in every discipline. The doubling time of knowledge has shrunk considerably. This is a change which poses a big challenge in education to keep pace with. But unfortunately, with so many changes happening, we still don’t have high quality education in India.
Q: What are the reasons for quality being missed out from Indian education?
A: There were about 25 universities and 700 colleges in India, in 1950s. Now we have about 750 universities, about 40000 colleges, around 2 lakhs teachers and it has all become more about numbers. There has been considerable growth and expansion in the sector, in terms of size. It is been considered as the third largest system of education in the world. But quality wise, none of our top most universities is standing anywhere. Even with this much growth, our gross enrolment ratio is quite low, which is about 24%. We need to expand this further and also we need to grow in terms of quality, as 24 % is not enough. Particularly, when you are looking at the age group of 18 to 23, 76% of this age group is without higher education, which is a serious concern. On one hand, we are boasting that India is a nation with young population and in the other hand we are depriving them of higher education. Even the 24% coming under higher education facilities are not having quality education. According to one report, around 90% of our colleges are providing education below the mark of standards. Two third of our universities are not offering quality education.
Q: What are your suggestions, to integrate quality at all levels of education?
A: In my personal view, our method of recruitment of teachers needs fundamental change. We do graduation, post-graduation, PhD, NET and then get a job to teach in college or university. But all these qualifications are to test the domain knowledge. Nobody tests your pedagogical skills. For example, I was an MSc pass out when I started teaching in Delhi University. I had good domain knowledge, but I was never taught how to teach. So formal trainingon teaching skills is missing. School education at least has some formal exposure through B.Ed. I would suggest for some short- term induction program, to give formal training on how to teach. How systematically and logically one speaks is very important in teaching! Even if somebody has enough knowledge, imparting that knowledge appropriately to the students is a big task. Subject competency is utmost important and there should not be any compromise on that. But, your teaching should reflect the amount of thinking you have done on the subject. Your teaching is the manifestation of your thinking. That should be the hallmark of a good teacher. We lack on this sort of training, which is unfortunate and which affects quality.
Again, there is no clear definition of quality. For some, it is an outcome. For example, if the result is good in a class, it proves about good quality. Sometimes it is relative to stakeholder. Students view it differently; for teachers the meaning is different and for evaluation teams it is all the more different. The yardstick varies. Quality is nonetheless, continuous reduction of defects. We need to focus on this.
We don’t have any award or recognition system for excellence in teaching. That is there for research areas, but not for teaching in higher education. We must remember assessment drives learning. In higher education, a teacher has two roles to fulfill- one is disseminating knowledge which is teaching and other is creating knowledge which is research. So broadly, knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination are the two activities. One should assess the teachers for both the factors, which is missing, unfortunately.
Q: Tell us about PDM University. How do you plan to build on the success of PDM Group’s long presence?
A: PDM is a new University established in 2016 by the Haryana State Legislature under the Haryana Private Universities Act. PDM group of institutions have been here for more than 20 years. P D Memorial Religious & Educational Association was established in the year 1995-96. With which, we have PDM College of Pharmacy, PDM College of Dental Science, PDM College of Engineering, PDM College of Architecture, PDM Public school and some other institutions. All these institutions have been doing very well since past many years. At present, about 12000 students are studying in the PDM Educational Institutions. About 300000 students have already passed out from the above Institutions and are placed in good job positions in India and abroad. Now, with the setting up of this university we aim to extend world class quality higher education to the students.
The focus will be on the all round development of the students and high placements. The PDM institutions that are providing specialized subjects will subsequently come under the faculties of PDM University. PDM College of engineering will come under Faculty of Engineering and Technology of PDM University. Similarly, College of Pharmacy will come under Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the university.
So, along with world class infrastructure, we have good many faculties and student areas already in place. Very soon, we are going to have good teacher pool as well. That is where we are taking our cautious steps for recruiting quality teachers. Any university or institution is as good as its faculty. Hence, there will be no compromise on quality teacher intake.
Q: What opportunities do you see for PDM to play on the national or international stage?
A: We have started with very high hopes and we are quite hopeful that soon it will start showing national impact. However, all these will take a little time for giving shape to all our vision towards making a national mark. Besides academic learning, we are also focusing at all round development of the students. The university management is also fully supportive towards this vision. Am sure, when we have decided about not compromising on quality, we will ultimately succeed.
Q: What are the core strengths of the university?
A: Good infrastructure, existing institutions in multiple education areas, presence in education sector for more than 20 years, competitive curriculum, good vision with focus on quality education and all-round student development, employment and industry links.
Q: What will be the approach of governance for you as a Vice Chancellor?
A: Other than the regular set up starting with the Chancellor, the Vice Chancellor and the Pro Vice Chancellor, we are also going to create an advisory committee with eminent people, from different walks of life. They will be a part of our academic and planning board. Then, there are those existing 13 faculties with the PDM Group of institutions who will be engaged in.
We are focusing more on e-governance now. Our efforts will be to do everything online and to integrate IT in most of our services. We have a fully functional impressive IT division. Other than providing facilities to keep the students connected to the outside world, the university has been making all information available online including the content and their dissemination. Students are provided with technology devices and they carry all their courseware along with them. There is a PDM Educational Directory Service that provides the students all up to date information regarding their course, exam and other time tables, etc. The campus is India’s one of the most advanced technical campuses. We have a fully functional impressive IT division. The entire university is under CCTV. The central facility takes control over everything from one single point. So we are hoping to make the university a role model.
Q: What are the vision and ideas for research you have for the university?
A: As I said earlier, University’s main function is knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination. Knowledge creation is all about research which is one of the important activities of the university faculty members. How good they will be in research initiatives will ultimately depend on the quality of teacher intake. My endeavour will be to attract, retain and nurture best talent to this university. Once you have the talent pool, there will be smooth ride, be it research or academic initiatives or technology integration. And we are ready to provide them all kind of support in this direction. All evaluation agencies including international ranking agencies, give utmost emphasis on the research quality. Research is no doubt an important area for us.
Q: How do you like to see your Vice Chancellorship here in next few years?
A: I have held many senior level administrative positions. But this is different, as I have to start the university from scratch, as a Vice Chancellor. Even I have to build my first ordinance. This is very exciting as well as challenging to discussing around how university start does. I did not have to change anything when I was in Mauritius. In Allahabad also, I didn’t have to change anything.
But here, you can actually make a big fundamental change. The way of our examination systems, the admissions, the student discipline, whatsoever is your vision, here is an opportunity to implement. That will be a very big thing for me if I am able to do through the vision.
