The University of Pune is going through various transformations and even scaling new heights, be it the historic name change decision, new agreements with foreign-based varsities, the vital change in the exam sections and various new plans for girls education. Vice chancellor, Dr Wasudev Gade speaks to Sandip Kolhatkar about the new plans and challenges before the varsity.
What is your take on the name change decision of University of Pune to Dnyanjyoti Savitribai Phule Pune University?
There was a long pending demand from all walks of society that the varsity should be named after the woman who had pioneered the education of girls in the city and just because of Savitri Bai Phule, today the girls are at the forefront in all domains. Since, there was a demand coming from all over, we decided to take forward and with the consent from all the stakeholders, the decision was chalked out in the senate and later in the management council and received a go ahead. Since the name, University of Pune is brand across the globe; we decided to keep the words the same in the name change decision and it has now been approved by the state government.
What are we doing for the girl students?
There are several plans for the girl students from varsity as well as from the affiliated colleges. The most ambitious project which will start in a few days would be the health check up of over three lakh girl students which will going to take place in all three districts: Pune, Ahmednagar and Nashik and health audit of all the girl students will be made ready. If some girls need medical assistant, it will be facilitated by the varsity. In the Learn and Earn Scheme, we have already removed the bar that girls from economically weaker sections can apply as now, it will be open for all the girls and whosoever wants to earn while learning, they can apply.
Any new tie-ups with foreign varsities?
There are several new projects and Memorandum of Understandings with varsities abroad are on the anvil. We have recently signed an MoU with the United States of America's Dean International Flight School, which is in Miami Florida and it is more feasible in terms of fees compared to the earlier one with FFL, Germany. We are also planning to set up a centre for Penn State University on the varsity campus, where there would be better coordination between the varsities over research and post-graduate exchange programme. Apart from this, we have also signed an agreement with University of Massachusetts for a specialised programme called 'Train the Trainer'' (TTT) since they have expertise in conducting training programmes for teachers.
Any improvement seen in exam section?
The examination section is currently doing well and the most important thing is that due to better coordination, the section has managed to declare results of over 95 per cent courses within or on time which includes engineering and MBA section. I am very happy that there are no discrepancies cropped up in any result and we look forward to bring more coordination among the staffers working in the section so that the process remains error-free and students do not suffer.
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