PART-2

NAZIR AHMAD GANAI  /  PARVAZE A SOFI

Developing the Working Model: March towards New Normal

The key factors contributing to the success of SKUAST-Kashmir in ideating, pitching anddeveloping a working model were the freedom and flexibility leveraged under NAHEP, the institutional will and the quick spin-off coming from the application of the working model in the university. Within a span of three years, SKUAST-K became the fastest progressingState Agricultural University, reaching the top 10 SAUs of the nation, getting the BandExcellent category in Atal Innovation Ranking in first attempt.Outstanding scholarly achievements of faculty and students at national and global level, the increased inflow of research grants, local engagement to global impact, international faculty, improved engagement with industry, faculty and student startups, good governance, institutional reforms and overall improvement in learning infrastructure and ecosystem made us a preferred destination for higher education.

Our broader shift in policy mindset was based on the premise that in order to be impactful, higher educations has to come out of classrooms and do away with the structural bottlenecks. The institutions need to move away from existing systems towards adopting new norms such as Creativity, Innovation, Discovery and Technology. Such a shift was possible through the inbuilt flexibility of all components of our system viz., faculty, students, stakeholders, and governancesystemfor setting futuristic targets and makinga course corrections.

Major Foundations of SKUAST-K Model

A connected network of domains and stakeholders:

Our model is based on thepremise that education is not a stand-alone institution and cannot deliver unless it is connected by domains as well as players. The connections increase the outcome by making the system responsive. Our model seeks to integrate education, research, industry, and stakeholders such as farmers, consumersand governments to create a holistic set-up that delivers solutions to problems and improves the system output.

Flexibility of curriculum:

Our model is based on a flexible curriculum where students have the freedom of choice to select courses that suit their academic and research pursuits in line with the demands of the national and global job market and industry. We created a curated semester system comprising mainstream academic courses, as well as other courses for upskilling and reskilling. The university has created a broad-based and diverse cafeteria of courses for students to choose from. The students have complete freedom within the institutional framework of regulations to choose from such cafeteria courses and these courses are duly accounted for through another innovative toolkit viz., NextGen^© transcript that is a record of accomplishments in academic and skill courses.

Innovation and Discovery driven education:

SKUAST-K is poised to be the first innovation-led farm university in India with academic and research programmes aligned towards translational research that could help develop technology-based solutions to farm sector problems. University is proactively pursuing an ecosystem that promotes innovation and discovery with a focus on technology & product development, technology &product commercialisation and patenting. This has led to aflurry of patent applications from the university and seven patents in just one year post-NEP 2020 and 42 more under administrative processing.

Policy initiatives for entrepreneurship and Startups:

SKUAST-K has the privilege of being the first agricultural university in India to draft and enact a Startup Policy that seeks to create an enabling ecosystem for promoting entrepreneurship and Startups at both faculty and student level. The policy aims to create an institutional mechanism for benefit sharing and IP holding rights, which is something first of its kind. As a result of this initiative, two faculty members and five students have set up their own Startup companies.

Reforms in assessment:

SKUAST-K has made far-reaching changes in the assessment system with a focus on fostering the development of cognitive faculties in students and helping them build analytical skills, critical thinking as well as problem-solving skills that will create future change-makers. During the last two years of our model validation, we have recorded a significant increase in scholarly output of students at national and international levels.

 Reforms in recruitment:

SKUAST-K has reformed its recruitment policy to attractoutstanding talent to meet its future requirements of human capital development. We have made a policy shift from Eligibility to Suitability, Knowledge to Skills and Expectations to Deliverables. This requires great institutional freedom in order to hire a pool of talented human resources that can help us fulfil our social commitments as well ashelp us land where we aim to be. The reforms stem from a principled stand of the National Policy paper of NAAS that sought to do away with any centralized system of recruitment for SAUs in view of their specialized requirements.

Increased global visibility:

Reaching out to new target groups: SKUAST-K has changed the landscape of its engagement from a regional player to an internationally engaged institution with strong linkages with globally accredited academic and research institutions. This has helped us land ourselves in the international educational market with a poise to be the preferred destination for foreign students in the coming years. We are creating a matching infrastructure and an ambience that embraces the values of Kashmiryat and multicultural diversity to become an institution to look out for.

Alignment with NEP-2020:

During the last two years, we have achieved many firsts in aligning our education system with the broader policy domains of NEP-2002 making us one of the very few universities to lead the national mission towards competent human capital development.

Building Institutional capacity

including state of art Smart classrooms, Tech-enabled video conferencing systems, a state of art Discovery and Innovation Centrethat will serve as a hub of innovative pursuits for developing technology-based solutions, A Center for Artificial Intelligence& Machine Learning, Tech-enabled Library and Information Services. Model instructional farms and laboratories, improved research capability to foster translational research to create an institutional mechanism for offering outstanding education and research aimed at churning future leaders and developing research output that addresses challenges facing agriculture as well as help the state develop into a model technology-driven and knowledge-based bioeconomy.

Greater autonomy for building impactful Universities- A strong Rationale

Universities are seats of higher learning building human resource and scientific capacity at the regional and national level and thus helping states and the nation be technology ready for meeting the challenges of the future.  The administrative, governance and recruitment process of universities have certain unique features that warrant enhanced financial and governance autonomy.

SKUAST-K is a striking example of autonomy lead progress. In the last few years, riding on the support system and autonomy provided by GoJK and the financial and administrative support of ICAR, SKUAST-K has emerged as one of the fastest-progressinginstitutions of higher learning in J&K with strong performance indicators in teaching, research, student performance and research and innovation output. Universities across India in general and SKUAST-K, in particular,have a strong internal and external monitoring system for teaching, research and extension in form of various statutory bodies in which state government has ample representation to the extent of commissioner secretaries whereas the apex governing body of the university is headed by Hon’ble Lt Governor of J&K. Therefore, there is already a substantial government role in mainstreaming the functioning of university in line with the state policy priorities.

The academic, research and extension, as well as other ancillary domains of the university such as fund procurement and utilisation as well as recruitment, are constantly evolving process and the university has a well-structured system of creating an ecosystem that helps it stay relevant. In terms of the recruitment process, the system followed by the university is one of the most transparent and specialised processes that comprise a multitier screening system based on the set procedures laid down by various governing bodies such as ICAR, UGC, MHRD as well as J&K CSR.  The universitiesas such should continue to enjoy freedom and autonomy in all domains of their functioning to help them grow and fulfil their mandated commitments in the overall development of the State. 

(Prof Nazir Ahmad Ganai is Vice Chancellor of SKUAST-K and Prof Parvaze Ahmad Sofi teaches plant breeding at FoA, SKUAST-K. They can be reached at drnazirahmad@gmail.com)