Dr. RupaVasudevan, Chancellor, BEST IU, Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh speaks to Sudheer Goutham,Founder, CEO & Editor-In-Chief, IndiGlobal Media Network on the genesis and future plans of BEST
Bharat Lal Meena, retired Additional Chief Secretary Higher Education and I realized that there is a huge disconnect between classroom teaching and real-life circumstances. There is a gap between industry and academia. We wanted to bridge this gap.
We approached the Government of Andhra Pradesh and submitted our DPR for the Best Innovation University. We believe that the three aspects that are needed for any set up include: For a child, True value and to act. This was the basis and the philosophy on which we started. We wanted to become the one of the largest socio conglomerates where innovators are groomed and ideas are incubated. This is how we started the Innovation University in the year 2018 and it’s been a four marvellous years.
What are the initiatives to create an innovative eco-system?
We are a state private university based out of the Satya Sai district in Anantapur. We are doing a lot of work in agriculture, horticulture, forestry and the computer science streams. As a University, I believe that we are here to provide the 24 century skill sets to our students. We are giving the core curricular knowledge to a student where we bring a very beautiful seamless integration of other disciplines which will help them grow in their academic boundaries.
I call it the first aspect & and the second aspect is the humanistic knowledge of how one can use it for the benefit of others. The third and the most important aspect is the meta knowledge. Meta Knowledge is the new type of knowledge which is primarily to do with design thinking and creative thinking. As a university we use to bring in these 21st century skill sets with the students.
Tell us about hands-on-training at BEST.
We have moved from teacher centered to student centric now where we are trying to bring in industry best practices, researches from different research organizations and world-wide universities to our universities to ensure that the student has the world view beyond the boundaries of his subject of learning. We have something called experiential programme learning where our students were staying in a village in their last semester for 14 weeks with the families understanding their issues, understanding what could be the possible solutions. We are working with the state government in the thousand echo plant where our students will develop everything for the farmers. It’s a technology knowledge transfer programme.
Once you are a teacher or an academician it’s a lifelong learning. I can say one thing that one size doesn’t fit all. With national education policy our university forays across the globe specially in India including the best Innovation University.
Best Innovation University’s vision is having three more universities in Andhra Pradesh and in the southern region in the next five years. We have our Junior colleges also where we teach 11th and 12th in Anantapur District in Andhra Pradesh.
We are relatively new about four years old and in our 4th year we are about 1600 students strong. In the next five years we will see 6-8 thousands students in the campus. But our flagship program still remains agriculture.
Where does India stand in terms of technology in agriculture?
There is a lot that needs to be accomplished because most of our farmers cannot afford technological intervention. The world is moving forward. There are several countries having tremendous technological intervention with zero labour. But in India we are still following a lot of traditional mechanisms.
We make technological interventions, we make knowledge interventions. We explain to farmers that to do not use chemicals. We provide them with the indigenous seeds. We have a mother nursery in the campus and we also have the animal husbandry in the university. We give a lot of technological inputs to the farmers around us. We ensure that we also give them the knowledge of market intelligence.
Please tell us about your take on the national education policy?
I think for any nation the investment in the humanistic capital is imperative. Not only for the sustainable development but also the cultural connection. The national education policy has come at the right time when we are bringing technological interventions and cultural connections.
We are a country with thousands of universities. We have more than 6 lakhs colleges. We have more than 3.5 million children in schools. We are looking at a huge demographic dividend here. Unless we channelize this into the right direction through education through enablers we will not be able to develop. India’s knowledge systems is one of the very important aspects in every program there. Therefore all the aspects have been covered in the National Education Policy. Implementation may be a challenge in a few of the aspects but when the stakeholders come together it is definitely possible.