NOTE: I had started writing the blog (https://pragatimateparishram.blogspot.ca/ ) in 2012, when I had the responsibility as the Vice-Chancellor of Gujarat Technological University (GTU), Ahmedabad.

GTU is the biggest university of Gujarat State and it caters to the entire field of engineering, pharmacy, management, architecture and  planning and hotel management. In each one of these fields, it offers Bachelor’s and Master’s programs and in the fields of engineering, pharmacy and management, it has research students, working for their doctorate. The total number of students is about 450,000 and the Faculty Members, associated with GTU may be about 20,000. About 480 Colleges are affiliated with GTU.  

GTU had opened its doors to the students in 2008. Two of the cohorts of students were admitted when the university was  managed first by the Commissioner of Technical Education, Government of Gujarat  for about one year and by the Principal of the largest and one of the most prestigious engineering colleges of the State as the Acting Vice-Chancellor for one year. Then in June 2010, I  was appointed as the first regular Vice-Chancellor of the University. it required a great deal of hard work by a team of academician and student-fellows, supported by admin personnel, to set up and manage the systems at the university. The team was soon able to build a high reputation for excellent work and the university established itself as the leader among technological universities of India in terms of new ideas and in many cases in terms of implementation of the new ideas. In Gujarat State, GTU came to be recognized as an innovative university. I, as its VC,  naturally took pride in the progress of GTU.  But the multi-dimensional work, required for the development of such a large university, working in more than 70 clearly-defined academic disciplines, took its toll in terms of the time, that GTU’s VC was required to invest. So  I could not find time to continue writing the blog. In fact six of the drafts, written at different occasions, could not be published.

Now I have retired after completing two terms of three years each as the VC.

Please see the following articles on

Using change Agents for offering high quality education

at Affiliating-type Universities

Improving the quality of education in India’s Technological Colleges 

Today’s Need 
                             Preparation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
                                                                                      by India’s Technological Colleges

Seats in Technological Colleges go abegging

                            vs Worldwide Shortage of Competent Engineers

at https://worldclassuniveduinindia.blogspot.ca/

 Please see the draft of an article on

Seats in Technological Colleges go abegging

                            vs Worldwide Shortage of Competent Engineers

at https://worldclassuniveduinindia.blogspot.ca/

The Importance of Examinations

The learning systems at a University must include an evaluation sub-system. The evaluation sub-system must be fair and transparent so that the  world may be able to use the evaluation by the University with confidence. 

The evaluation system also provides a control and feedback mechanism for the learning systems of the University.

But the evaluation system  must not override the learning system. For example  an electric meter in a home is used for measurement of the electrical energy used in the home. However the energy used in the meter must be negligible as compared to the energy it measures.

At Universities in South Asia, the examination systems use up so much of time and energy of the students, faculty members and the College and University officers that at every University, the learning system seems to have become a sub-system while the evaluation system has become the main system.

All the stake-holders in the institutions of higher education  have to understand that the institutions are to primarily provide systems of learning to the society. The libraries, class-rooms, laboratories and workshops are places of learning. New knowledge for the world is created, when the faculty members and students become immersed in the processes of learning at these places.  At the end of the semester, examinations are supposed to evaluate how well the learning systems have worked. But examination system is not the main objective for an institution of higher education’s existence.

 GTU has used technology to create an objective and fair administrative system for examinations.  The paper-setters are requested to provide an Assessment Chart so that the faculty members from all over the state should be able to provide  a similar and fair assessment to all.

GTU processes the results within three days of receipt of the assessed answer-books from the examiners. If every  administrator at every College and every faculty member were to do his/ her part of the job with sincerity, the system can work so well that no student or faculty member would have any complaint whatsoever.

We want every student to use only fair means during examinations. So like every University, GTU has a  high-power Unfair Means (UFM) Committee to consider all cases of use of unfair means, reported by the supervisors. In India, GTU is the only University, which has recently established a Committee to consider the cases of any inappropriate or insincere work by faculty members, while doing the assessment.   

Let us all join hands to make our learning systems the best and let us make our examination system totally fair and transparent. 

 

Other happenings at GTU:

Visit of Dr. Bill Damachia, Director, Transnational Education & Alliances, University of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia

The First Day of Blogging

PRAGATI mate PARISHRAM

Today on Saturday, 1^st September 2012, at the GTU conference room, about 35 young persons came together to listen to Shri Arvind Patel of Sahajanand Laser Technology and a leader of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).

In the audience were 4 young faculty members, many young engineers, who had graduated in May 2012 and some young students. They all were budding entrepreneurs.

GTU is working for excellent learning systems in the Colleges, affiliated with it. It wants to continue to work with its alumni to help them continue to acquire additional knowledge, through Continuing Educational programs, whenever they feel the need.

The purpose of the meeting was to learn about entrepreneurship through  a successful entrepreneur.  Shri Arvind Patel inter-acted with the young persons very creatively and the meeting continued from 5 PM to 7.30 PM.

But these days whenever our faculty members, students or graduates come together with me, it is natural that we start discussing what we should do to improve GTU further.  I gave the following mantra:

“We can succeed in making Gujarat Technological University a great University when every member of the GTU family starts taking pride in GTU and starts working hard to see that his/ her contribution does not fall short.”¹

  

¹ References:

(i)  Gandhiji brought independence to India by converting Indian elite’s movement for self-rule to a people’s movement for independence.

(ii)  The Honourable Chief Minister has succeeded in bringing progress and prosperity to Gujarat by using his unmatched power of communication to make every Gujarati take ownership of the idea of development.

Other happenings at GTU:

<    1.     The start of Telecast of lectures under the ALCE (Active Learning and Creating Excitement in the classroom) program of GTU. The lectures will be telecast for 2 hours on every Saturday and for 4 hours on every Sunday during this semester.

      2.      The visit of the Managing Director of National Stock Exchange, Mumbai to GTU office. Later in the afternoon, NSE’s Associate Vice-President for Educational Activities met GTU’s Council of Deans for Business Studies to discuss the detailed proposals for signing an MOU between GTU and NSE.