1. How are you planning to establish a unique brand for Amity Gurgaon apart from the other campuses?
Amity University Gurgaon resounds with research and innovation driven learning environment powered by the strong vision of the Founder President Dr. Ashok K. Chauhan and the innovation leadership of its Chancellor Mr. Aseem Chauhan. The strength of Amity lies in its strong industry integration and focus on innovation driven excellence.
Being ideally placed in the Industrial hub of Gurgaon and Manesar, Amity University enjoys a great advantage to emerge as one of the best Universities in India. With our focus on integration of education and research with human values we enjoy a unique advantage to produce industry ready graduates and post graduates and be a pace setter for society and industry-centric technology development and innovations.
2. Students these days choose MBA solely because of the monetary benefits attached without considering their academic profile. What are your thoughts on this?
It is very important for any individual to know his goal and align his professional education towards such a goal. The MBA undoubtedly has emerged as one of the most sought after courses. A student while building his academic profile needs to ensure that specialization and skill development in his related field is taken care of. An MBA degree opens the gateway to earning a big package primarily because “the scientific bent of mind and managerial capabilities together create the competence to face the ever rising challenges of global economy and knowledge society”.
3. How does being from an engineering background help you in your current role? What do you think may be the reason so many engineering students opt for an MBA over specializing in their own field?
For a person like me who hails from an engineering background with a deep routed commitment to integration of Science, Engineering, Management and Social Sciences, it is indeed a great privilege to Head the Amity University Gurgaon as its Vice Chancellor. My own long experience of working at IIT Delhi, DCE, RGTU and Delhi Technological University has provided me a deeper insight into nurturing AUG as a University of tomorrow. Industry readiness, academic innovations and sustained focus on creativity and excellence has become my passion. It is a matter of great privilege and pride to translate the vision of the founding fathers of Amity and shape Amity University Gurgaon as a world class University and a pace setter in certain areas of its specialty. Here at AUG we are focusing on interdisciplinary engineering and integrative science so as to serve the interest on man and nature and address the formidable challenges being faced by humanity.
The reason why so many science and engineering graduates turn towards MBA is the MBA focuses on perfect harmony between science, engineering and management to create and sustain economic growth and human excellence together. After all, management is no longer an art, it has graduated to be a science of strategic planning and decision making and technology has emerged as a major focus to create managerial effectiveness and service excellence. I find this trend of integration of science, engineering and management benefiting the world economies and human society together with an environment in which energy efficiency and environmental sustainability shall empower humanity with abundance of resources and highly specialized skills elevating man to the level of divine. Such is the exciting time ahead for pursuit of science, engineering and management education and research. We at AUG are sincerely engaged in creating such an excitement and thrill in our University for pursuit of excellence in education and research.
4. You have more than 40 years of experience in the field of academics. What is your take on the education experience today vis-à-vis a decade back?
When I look back the passage of almost 45 years of my journey in the field of academics, I find that we are in a great position of advantage today as the knowledge is accessible at a great speed and with a great ease compared to a few decades ago. But then, there is a challenge to cope up with the ever advancing frontiers of knowledge and to remain an active participant in the knowledge revolution.
Further, today’s education has the great advantage of highly innovative and inspired young minds of students in the colleges & universities who are better prepared to use technology for learning and education. But then, there is a monumental challenge to provide the quality faculty to handle the aspirations of such inspired young minds and to provide them education at a time when frontiers of education and skill sets required by the industry are ever changing.
We require research driven faculty which has an in built desire to share its knowledge and nurture the talented young minds of students. It is most unfortunate that in India being a teacher is the last priority for a meritorious graduate! We need to re-engineer our education system to cope up with these formidable challenges.
At AUG I feel greatly privileged that we are creating such a re-engineered environment of learning and scholarship in our University.
5. You have contributed to the field of power & energy resources for more than four decades. Do you think that if we ever run out of exhaustible sources of energy like coal/diesel/petrol we are equipped to still sustain without running into a crisis?
Surely, the march of humanity to ever rising levels of prosperity and growth is bound to continue unabated despite the fact that the finite natural resources of energy and power such as coal, diesel, petrol, CNG are bound to be exhausted in the coming few decades. In my opinion, the ingenuity of human mind is bound to discover new and alternative sources of energy that would be abundance in supply and cleaner in terms of their environmental impact.
This requires nurturing new science and learns a lot from nature. Just think if we are able to understand how matter is created from energy we shall be in a position to utilize the abundance of divine energy in the universe currently being beamed on planet earth. Likewise, new innovations such as nano and smart materials, revolutionary new manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing and newer systems of recycle and reuse shall equip the mankind with the capabilities that shall create sustainable pathways for growth and advancement of human society. The University campuses need to create the excitement and the enabling environment to manifest the immense potential for creativity and innovation that exists in its students and teachers. AUG campus is well equipped with such an environment.