Future Vice Chancellors to undergo leadership training
By Anubhuti Vishnoi, ET Bureau | Oct 05, 2018, 08.17 AM I
The Leadership Development Programme is planned as an annual programme to train academics with leadership potential and help them improve their administrative skills.
NEW DELHI: Having sacked three Vice Chancellors, suspending one and opening inquiries against a few others till date — allegedly because of poor administration or crisis management at the university —theNarendra Modi government has decided that it’s time to address the ‘leadership’ issue comprehensively -- by training all future VCs for the job.
The Prakash Javadekar-led Human Resource Development ministry is set to launch an annual Leadership Development Programme for senior academics from across institutes to train them in ‘leadership and management skills’. The programme will train 200-plus academics every year and aim to prepare 1.5 million faculty members for leadership roles over the next few years.
As many as 12 top ranked Indian institutions from the National Institute Ranking Framework -- mostly IITs -- have developed the three week long training module which envisages a week-long exposure to foreign institutes and universities as well, sources said. The duration of the programme may later be increased depending on the results and feedback
The Leadership Development Programme is planned as an annual programme to train academics with leadership potential and help them improve their administrative skills, crisis management abilities, team work and communication skills. It is expected to be launched within the next two months, sources told ET.
The process has already begun withUniversity Grants Commission (UGC) writing to Vice Chancellors of all central universities and state public universities in July this year to nominate three senior professors each for the programme.
It was communicated that only senior faculty members with at least eight years of experience in the grade of a professor, less than 58 years of age and with ‘high academic capabilities’ as well as ‘leadership qualities’ and ‘impeccable integrity’ should be nominated. Directors of cells in the university, heads of departments, deans and others in governance roles were also considered eligible for the programme, but those already in senior governance roles like VC were ruled out.
The idea was to identify and train such faculty who are expected to move into governance role in the future and to train them for these roles.
The programme was conceptualised keeping in mind the serious leadership crisis that has hit higher education institutes in India. Sources well versed with the selection processes for top posts at universities and other institutes point to the shrinking pool of academics equipped to lead institutes.
In many other cases, academics appointed to leadership positions are found wanting on administrative and crisis management skills, deficiencies that have been known to throw universities off gear with student and teacher agitations that could have been resolved early with better handling.
Recent controversies in Allahabad University, Banaras Hindu University in 2017 and Manipur University recently where the VC had to be suspended have all pointed to varsity management concerns. The Leadership Programme will attempt to equip future VCs with the skills to do so, said officials.
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