PUNE: A journey that started as a student of Savitribai Phule Pune University, ends on a high note for vice-chancellor Nitin Karmalkar who will retire after completing his five-year term at the university where he studied, taught, and was at the helm.
Karmalkar, who will serve his last day in office on Wednesday, spoke to TOI about his journey, the takeaways, and the scope for improvement at one of the leading state universities in Maharashtra.
The one thing he said he regrets was that good teachers were retiring and there is a dearth of equally good replacements. “It hurts when some knowledgable and top grade teachers retire, but when it comes to recruiting replacements, we do not get a good match. When we publish a recruitment advertisement, we have to make a compromise. We look for the best from those who have applied, but we never get them. Some centrally funded institutions have the right to reject and place a new advertisement if they are not satisfied with the applicants. State universities should also have similar rights. We have to make do with just one announcement, be satisfied with the applications and choose from them,” he said.
On the lows in his career as vice-chancellor, Karmalkar said that he could not fill up the vacant posts due to government rules and regulations and departments had to compromise with whatever resources they had.
Hence, in order to give back something to the university and resolve the issue to some extent, Karmalkar has decided to use his corpus fund to fill up nearly 55 posts. The process for filling about 7-8 posts has begun and the remaining would take place soon, he said. “Facilities and infrastructure are materialistic things that would come and go, but what would really take an organisation forward would be its human resources,” he added.
The two years of the pandemic were the most challenging and most disruptive, he said. “From creating digital content to e-learning labs and also empowering our teachers and giving them the confidence that they could face the camera and teach, we sailed through,” he added.
On his future plans, Karmalkar said that he aims to project the rich and diverse culture of the country for others to notice. He has already prepared a proposal in his capacity as the chairman of the Deccan College Trust to set up the Indian Institute for Contemporary Indology.
This institute would be similar to those in European countries, where an ecosystem for art and culture is created. “The proposal aims to bring together various artists, stage exhibitions, conduct art discussions, and much more. I have already identified some 20-25 experts in these areas and if it takes off, it would be a great asset for the future,” Karmalkar said.
