Siksha O Anusandhan University

Prof. Amit Banerjee is currently Pro-Chancellor, Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan University. He has served as a Vice-Chancellor of the same university as well as the West Bengal University of Health Sciences. Having a penchant for guiding and helping students to elevate their learning methodologies, he expresses his views about the education sector. Here is what he has to say in his interview. 

What are the key factors that keep you connected with the education sector?

“The most attractive attributes of the Education sector are its dynamicity and immeasurable scopes”

The academic ecosystem has no frontiers and no boundaries. The very mention of diverse quality and excellence reminds me of the change in the railway tracks where the lines seem to converge at the horizon. Still, the illusion continues as you proceed. Likewise, both excellence and quality do not ever have an endpoint.I am a doctor by profession, specialized in cardiothoracic surgeries. Still, my curiosity about all other disciplines and my never-ending ignorance about all the different fields adds to my stimulus to keep myself alive in the intellectual stimulation. The more deficient I find in my knowledge and my understanding the more impressed I am with the scope that is ahead of us to keep learning and learning things that I have not learnt during my student days.

What is your philosophy of leadership? How would you describe your leadership style?

“I have a somewhat peculiar perception about the philosophy of leadership”

I do believe that a true leader is one who can lead from the front. Still, a successful leader is one who can create a leader out of each member of the team equally capable and motivated to rise to the occasion in case of any needful situation; and yet recognizing the universality of there being only one leader at any given time.

“With the National Education Policy 2020 off the anvil and ready to be inducted into the academic ecosystem of India, many strategies need to be taken back to the drafting board and to be redrawn. Therefore, I think at this point of time we need to wait and watch as to how, and at what pace, the components of NEP are taking shape towards implementation; both at the government’s level and the endpoint stakeholders”

How does the curriculum of SOA University,Bhubaneswar ensure the best practice of industry?

“Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan has an exceptionally robust relationship with the target Industry, irrespective of the broad stream, viz., engineering, healthcare, hospitality, agriculture etc”

We have frequent and significant industr- academy interactions; and for deserving scholars, there are ample opportunities for sponsored short term industrial internships in prime establishments. These are all facilitated by our faculties and by the administrators of the University. We ensure at the end of their academic stay; the students get the feeling of fulfilment in terms of exposure. We prepare them to flourish in the outside world, which they join after they complete studies.

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Any insights into how your university could be more welcoming to students of different races or economic backgrounds?

“We have a great blend of students from overseas countries who bring forth an excitingly refreshing whiff of fresh air from across the globe to merge into our own ecosystem”

 For the second year running Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan University is in the process of admitting students of different backgrounds. Countries as near as Bhutan or Nepal, and as far as Syria, Ethiopia, Kenya etc. are represented at the graduate, postgraduate and even doctoral levels! The successful assimilation of these students from other locations, with our own, has already proven our ability to amalgamate scholars from varying social, geographical backgrounds seamlessly. For deserving economically compromised international students there is a provision not only for full scholarship but also for other ancillary support including for boarding, lodging etc. Our USP is to create a milieu beyond the curriculum. There is frequent interchange of culture, language, history, performing arts, games and culinary kaleidoscope. The fact that we have four different campuses housing nearly a dozen institution makes it an unprecedented experience for our scholars as well as faculty across the board. 

What do you see as SOA University, Bhubaneswar’s greatest strengths?

“Our holistic approach towards creation of global professionals are our mark of strength”

Some of the strengths of SOA University are its adherence to logic-based learning, its commitment to strengthening women empowerment with above 40% of its faculty and students being women. 

Our research-oriented atmosphere and professional commitment to the creation accomplished global leaders with a humane approach. The robust infrastructure for research through several dedicated laboratories and research facilities, state of the art laboratories, particularly the widely acclaimed Centres for Biotechnology, Centre for Climatic and Environmental Studies, etc are already well known all over the country. Our University has found a place in the top 20 Universities as per the NIRF Ranking and many other national and global rankings is a reflection of its strengths. But from the student's point of view, the near cent per cent placement record for outgoing students in prime industrial segments is considered a colossal strength, which makes SOA attractive to the student community.

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Any suggestions you would like to give to the current youth and the aspiring students?

“Students should have a broader perspective about their career choices”

The pandemic of COVID-19 has proved to be a great unifier, having confronted the entire human race with enforcing challenges irrespective of our social status, geographical location, or genetic antecedents. The whole world's population has been forced to wake up as one and try to minimize this deadly virus's catastrophic impact. The younger generation must discover the making of the Universal Citizen. Those who can position themselves as global leaders will be the eventual winners, irrespective of their academic pursuance choices. I advise the younger generation today that they must look at the entire world with a much broader outlook than what it was just a few months earlier. It is of paramount importance to keep abreast of expanding scientific tools as as well as social engineering. They must remain in absolute synchrony with the scope of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, 3-d printing, machine learning and other components of the fourth industrial revolution. They must also be totally up to date with the national policies including NEP. Most importantly, the mantra of “Multidisciplinary Approach” must remain ingrained in their future outlook.