Once you were a student of this prestigious university. Now you are heading it. What changes have you noticed so far in the field of education?

Change is the law of life. Changes have been seen in every university and the Sambalpur University is not an exception. As an educationist, I can say that perhaps reading habit of this generation has reduced, but it is not specific to this varsity. Earlier, we used to visit libraries, but now there is social media. One thing I believe is that if you struggle, you will get the results. Success does not come on a platter. To overcome all these things, we are now focusing on skill development and event management. Only domain knowledge is not enough. Keeping it in mind, we have started entering into MoUs with various industrial houses and decided to start courses according to the needs of the market.

Can you elaborate more on the partnership with the industrial houses? 

There are many industries such as Vedanta, Bhusan and Aditya Birla Group that are operating in our areas. They require skilled manpower. By introducing tailor-made courses, we will make our students eligible to get jobs in these industries. 
Our emphasis will be to hone their skills. Take for an example, many Chinese and French professionals are working in these industrial houses. Taking this into account, we have decided to launch many foreign language courses. Under the institutional development programme, the World Bank has given Rs 27. 70 crore to the university. We will utilise the money for the overall development of my alma mater.

The vice-chancellor of the Ravenshaw University had stirred up a controversy last year saying there were political interferences on the campus. Earlier, you were the vice-chancellor of the Berhampur University and now the VC of another university. Have you ever faced this problem?  

I reserve my comments on the issue. As I have just completed 30 days, I cannot comment on this issue.

Debate is on whether student elections should be allowed on the campus. What is your view on it?

This is the fundamental right of students. No one can take that right away from the students. But at the same time other forces should not enter the university and create law and order problem.

Many educationists have expressed their concern over the quality of research. Most of them are of the view the research papers are not up to the mark.

I don’t agree that the quality of research activities has gone down. In science and technology, we have three patents and 26 ongoing research projects. The university is one of the largest in the state. At times, the problem is students are not interested to take up academics. There is no guarantee of getting a job even after doing an MPhil or a PhD, so students don’t prefer to join academics. This has reduced research activity. 

You are heading the top university of wes Odisha. But many colleges lack required infrastructure. 

We have 232 affiliated colleges and around 1lakh students are studying in these colleges. At the postgraduate level, we have 2000 students. Out of the affiliated colleges, 112 colleges have not received the UGC sanction. We started orientation programmes on how to get the UGC nod and how to build the college development councils. It will take time. I have a target to ensure that all my colleges get UGC sanction. 

One of the main accusations levelled against the university is that even students of 1990s have not got their certificates. How long will they have to wait to get the certificates?

Yes, there are many backlogs. Students are regularly complaining about it. I have started clearing the certificates and the process will be completed within a stipulated time period. You must know that even many students of 1989 batch have not received their certificates so far. I’m signing around 1200 certificates a day to solve the problem. I have set an aim to clear all the certificates by 1 March. 

Staff crunch turns out to be a major problem and it is badly affecting the academics and administration…

Staff shortage is a big issue. We have requested the government to allow us to fill up the non-teaching staff vacancies.  They have agreed. In the first phase, we have released some advertisements to this effect.

What do have to say about the private universities mushrooming in the state? 

This is a policy decision of the government of India. I am the vice-chancellor of a state university. There are many good universities and they are doing well. But their fee structure should be regulated. An amendment is required so that poor and meritorious students can also study there. 

Should sex education be imparted at college level? 

There is no need for sex education at the college level. Students coming to the colleges are already into adulthood. We should have more counselling centres and the parents have to play a great role in this regard. 

The university suffering as quality research persons are not interested to join as lecturers.  

Its location is a disadvantage. Many resource persons from Delhi and abroad are not interested to come here, as there is no flight connection to this place. However, now there is hope with the airport at Jharsuguda.

There is a demand to confer central university status on Sambalpur University and other varsities ...what’s your view on that?

I was a part of raising the demand. But according to the ministry of human resources development, the concept of the central university is no more its focus area. So, there is no point to raise the demand at present.