For India to become a USD 5 trillion economy and developed by the decade’s end, education will play a major role. Industrial Economist (IE) meets with Dr R Velraj (RV), Vice Chancellor, Anna University to understand how this four-decade old public state university is preparing youngsters, who would be change makers. Excerpts from the interview.
“India is a young nation. Around 65 crore people in the age range of 29 years will propel India to a developed economy. Competency based education is the need of the hour. Our youth must be encouraged to pursue education of their likes,” said Dr Velraj.
Competency based education
We live in a society that pushes every child to either pursue engineering or medicine. This forces them to fit in a mould and never identify their true capabilities. “I feel that about 70 per cent of the students, who join engineering each year are not inclined to it. They would do better in other fields,” pointed Dr Velraj and continued, “engineering is like Greek and Latin to them and each day, they lose their confidence. This happens at the prime time of their life and leaves a huge impact on them. If provided with other options, they would definitely do better.”
During Anna University counselling this year, about half of the seats remained unfilled and the Vice Chancellor is actually happy about it: “I think that the students are more aware now. They know what they want to study and at the same time parents also understand, be it arts and science, polytechnic or diploma, well competent students are placed at good salary levels. Our country needs skilled people, this shows that the society and government have understood it.”
Students need to be guided and mentored to chose the right fields. Dr Velraj suggested that the government should assess students based on their skills and identify their core strength. “This happens in some countries. Scientific evaluation methods are used to assess the capability of students. At the end of 10th or 12th standard, our students must also be assessed and guided based on their skills and interests.”
Curriculum to suit the time
Dr Velraj has completed more than a year in this position. Like his predecessors, Dr Kulandaiswamy and Dr M Anandakrishnan, this VC’s focus is on promoting research and skill-based education. “In my first year, I have worked extensively to revise the curriculum. Within the next 4 to 5 years, this will have a huge impact on the quality of students graduating,” said the VC. This new curriculum will allow students to expand their knowledge both vertically and horizontally in a field. One can either chose to become master in a single topic or chose a broad base of several topics. This revised syllabus will be soon adopted by the other campuses of Anna University and then by its affiliate colleges.
To support this revision, teaching methods have also been transformed vastly. Students are offered experiential learning through case studies, practical exercises, hackathons, project and problem-based approach.
Recruiting 400 new faculties!
There has been no recruitment for close to eight years, but now the VC has approval to recruit about 400 faculties. “By recruiting highly meritorious candidates, the university will be in good hands for next thirty years,” said Dr Velraj enthusiastically.
Recently, the university has partnered with companies to offer courses. IBM made the students solve 50 real time problems, which gave them necessary industry exposure. Through the Naan Mudhalvan scheme that aims at skilling youth, around Rs 60 crore has been spent for one semester. 19 companies including, TCS, Microsoft, L&T have partnered with the university through this scheme. “We similarly expect industries from other sectors to partner with our students,” said Dr Velraj.
Anna University, since its inception has had the concept of establishing centres to focuses on deep research in specific areas. These are managed by directors who have full autonomy. “I plan to establish more such centres in current and emerging areas like – artificial intelligence, cyber security, internet of things, liberal arts, energy storage, electric vehicles,… These will conduct fundamental research and will have the capability to produce Nobel laurates in the future,” said Dr Velraj optimistically.
3 lakh sq ft Research Park to come up soon…
A research park is to come at a 2-acre land at the Guindy campus. With about 3 lakh sq. ft built up space, this will house existing companies with preference to alumni, incubation centre that helps students test their idea and a product development space that fosters translational research. The cost of the project is expected to be around Rs 50 crore. The university is mobilising the funds through partnership with industries and construction is expected to be completed within a year and half. “About 10 per cent of our faculty have good connect with industry. This research park will allow to showcase our strength and create a system for more faculties to partner with industry for projects,” pointed Dr Velraj.
Financially self-sufficient
Anna University has been self-sufficient in fulfilling its administrative needs over the past years. “We receive only funding for capital expenditure from the state government. There is no concept of block grants for salary. For the past ten years, we have managed our administrative needs with the fee received from affiliate colleges. At one point of time we received around Rs 400 crore as examination fee from affiliate colleges, but today it is at around Rs 125 crore. We are looking at tapping into our alumni for scholarships and other fundings,” said Dr Velraj.
Anna University aims to provide quality technical courses at affordable prices. Many of the students are first time graduates and about 40 per cent of them are women. The university is looking to offer dual degree courses partnering with foreign universities. “We would advertise about these courses to understand the willingness of students. This would be launched by next year,” said Dr Velraj.
Anna University’s coveted alumni are the proof of the university’s success. Dr Velraj is working to establish a strong connect with them. Their guidance and experience would add great value.
He has sowed the seeds and is sure that these would reap rich benefits for the society in years to come. He is indeed a VC with a vision!
