Implementation of NEP a priority for BITS, says new Vice-Chancellor

In a candid interview with Shiksha.com, Professor V Ramgopal Rao said his primary goals would be to drive attention towards education that is tranformative, research that is impactful and innovation that is disruptive. Internationalisation of BITS will be on his priority list. 

Professor V Ramgopal Rao joined Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) as Group Vice-Chancellor on March 10, 2023. He is the Vice-Chancellor of BITS campuses located in Pilani, Goa, Hyderabad, Dubai and Mumbai. Prof Rao took over the charge from Professor Souvik Bhattacharyya. In a candid interview with Shiksha.com, Prof Rao said his primary goals would be to drive attention towards education that is tranformative, research that is impactful and innovation that is disruptive. Getting more international students and faculty to BITS will be on his priority list. Excerpts:

Q. Since you have just taken over as BITS Pilani VC, what transformation are you planning to bring about in the institute?

A. BITS Pilani is one of the older instiutions, almost 60 years old. It's a very good undergrdaute institution. There are about 18,000 students in five BITS Campuses, of which about 1800 are PhD students. I will be working on three aspects. One is education. BITS is providing high quality education. I always believe that in good institutions, education needs to be transformative and not incremental. My first priority therefore will be a curriculum review. We plan to revise the curriculum keeping in mind the evolving trends in technology. We will be cosulting our alumni very significantly. We have over 150,000 alumni in leading positions in corporates, in faculty positions and as unicorn founders all over the world. Involving our alumni in curriculum changes and trying to see where we want to be in the teaching-learning space will be our focus. Impactful research will be my another area of focus. We are chalking out multiple plans to have more research facilities, which is very important to attract high quality faculty. The final aspect is innovation. We will be focuing on innovation that is disruptive. We will be encouraging more student and faculty startups in the deep-technology space. As an Institute, we will also be taking a lead in empowering more women led startups in the country through a variety of initiatives.

Q. BITS Pilani was one of the first institutions to get IoE status along with IIT Delhi. What are your topmost priorities as BITS Pilani VC?

A. BITS Pilani has expanded quite a bit. It is multidisciplinary university now. In fact the BITS campus in Mumbai offers high quality management and law programmes. One thing which is missing in the BITS system is Internationalization, both among the students as well as faculty. Considering that the admissions in BITS are entirely merit based and totally transparent as in IITs, there are challenges in admitting international students in our undergraduate programmes. We would like to reach out to the countries in the neighbourhood, particularly the ASEAN countries and other countries and see how we can have more and more students come to BITS and pursue their careers here. More international students in the masters and the PhD Programmes is also something we are targeting. We will also be aggressively looking for international faculty. We need to increase cultural diversity on the campus without compromising on the merit. Research needs to be strengthened further. I would like to encourage more multidisciplinary research on the campus through seed grants. If you can bring the right set of people together and define some challenging problems for them, then wonders begin to happen. India has always succeeded in mission-mode programmes, whether it is in space or atomic energy or defense. A strong leadership and a mission mode approach is required. We have our campus in Dubai which is doing very well. We will be strenthening the Dubai campus with more programmes. Getting more synergy across these five BITS Campuses is also a priority.

Q. Are you planning to bring any change in your curriculum as per the guidelines of the New Education Policy 2020?

A. My first task will be to bring changes in the curriculum in keeping pace with the changing technology scenarios worldwide. Extensive consultations across all the different stakeholders will be done before any changes are brought about. We will be introducing flexibility, mutiple entry-exit options and increased multi-disciplinary focus. The National Education Policy will also be a guiding spirit for these changes.

Q. Are there any expansion plans in terms of building more infrastructure, campus, facilities such as labs, innovation centres, etc?

A. BITS has seen a rapid expansion in the last few years. As a result, a kind of saturation can be seen in both Pilani and Hyderabad campuses as far as the infrastructure is concerned. BITS now requires another major infusion of funds in order to expand on our physical infrastructure and research facilities. In fact, BITS has undertaken a massive renovation work in the last 10 years with a total budget of about INR 1,300 crore. The next phase of infrastructure development needs to happen considering the rapid growth. One of my tasks will also be to raise funds to support the growth.

Q. Are you planning to revise the fee structure at BITS Pilani?

A. BITS is a self-supporting institution, and 100% transparent as far as its financial model is concerned. Whatever money BITS generates goes back into the system. There is a financial model that exists. However, I see a pressing need to diversify our revenue sources so that the burden on students can be reduced. I would like to see a few 1000’s of scholarships introduced in BITS. I will be working towards making this possible.

Q. How do you plan to tap alumni base?

A. There are about 150,000 alumni at BITS Pilani. One of the priorities for me will be increasing the alumni engagement. A lot of initiatives have been taken in this direction in the past few years. I would like to launch an endowment fund where BITS alumni can contribute and become founders and co-founders of the endowment management foundation. Alumni connect is one thing that I will be significantly driving in the next year or two to come. Something I had done successfully at IIT Delhi. In July-August this year, the leadership team of BITS will be undertaking a trip to the US and Canada to connect with the alumni there. We would also like to visit universities in the US and Canada and talk to the prospective candidates who can become faculty here.

Q. BITS Pilani ranked 29 in NIRF engineering ranking 2022. What are the areas you are focusing on to enhance BIT Pilian’s ranking?

A. One of the parameters on which BITS is losing heavily is on perception. BITS is on par with IITs when it comes to the quality of undergraduate education. There are also many excellent faculty here. We are trying to improve perception through a better connect with the society and peers. Disseminating what is happening on the campus is important. We will be recruiting more senior faculty. In the last six years, BITS has recruited about 600 young faculty. We also need to improve our faculty-student ratio and improve our research output. One of the strengths of BITS Pilani system is its programme WILP (Work Integrated Learning Programme). There are currently over 30,000 working professionals studying offline under the WILP programme. We need to showcase such things so that the perception about BITS changes in society. The rightful place for BITS is among the top 10 institutions in India, even with what’s currently happening here in terms of the quality of education, research and the industry connect. We will reach there soon.

Read more:

• IIT Mandi to offer executive program in Data Science, AI: Director
• NIT Srinagar to start integrated BTech-MBA programme from 2023-24 academic year