“The economy cannot run only on Computer Science or Electronics; it requires Civil, Mechanical & other branches too” – Prof. Anil D. Sahasrabudhe, Chairman – National Educational Technology Forum (NETF)

Fondly called as the Bhishma of Indian Higher Education, Prof. Anil Sahasrabudhe has helmed several initiatives during his tenure with AICTE. Currently heading the NETF, Prof. Sahasrabudhe has his task cut out to boost the digital infrastructure, digital content and capacity building thereby helping NEP getting implemented in a phased manner.

In a free-wheeling interview with S. Sudarshan from the Office of Outreach VIT, he speaks on an array of things in the higher education landscape.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q) Let us begin with your current role. We all know NBA, AICTE, NAAC etc. NETF is relatively a new initiative from the Govt of India and you are the Chairman of NETF. Can you tell more about NETF and what is the purpose of setting up NETF?

A) Well, National Education Technology Forum (NETF) is a creation out of National Education Policy. NETF is basically a think-tank advising the Government (Centre and States) on the use of emerging technologies for enhancing the quality of education.

NETF has currently initiated the National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR), One Nation One Data (ONOD), National Education Alliance for Technology (NEAT) portal, Student and Teacher

Registry, Anuvadini (AI Text & Voice Translation tool), National Internship Portal, National Academic Depository etc; to name a few

Q) You are a veteran administrator in education and policy making. But you are a teacher at heart and as there is a famous saying “Once a teacher, always a teacher”. There is no better person other than you to understand the challenges currently faced by the teaching fraternity. What are those and how can they overcome those challenges?

A) As you know, we live in strange times. Ironically, the teachers and students are facing similar challenges. The challenge that I am talking about is how to keep them relevant in the era of Chat Gpt’s. It is possible to stay relevant only when we reskill and upskill ourselves and many teachers fall behind in this. These days students are reluctant to come to the class because they learn it online.

Also to make the classrooms more interesting, challenge the students with problems and make them solve those problems rather than delivering lectures, which they anyway get it online.

Q) Coming to the technical education, we saw Computer Science becoming stronger and Electronics & Communications Engineering made a strong come back this year. The other branches particularly Civil, Mechanical etc; are swimming a rough tide in this era. What do you envision on this subject?

A) Look, Engineering requires all disciplines – be it Computer Science or Mechanical or Electric or Bio Sciences or Metallurgy. The numbers might vary little bit and that probably could be due to the job availability. Over the last decade or so, students are preferring Computer Science because of the jobs available but what they fail to realise is, if they do well, jobs are available aplenty in all disciplines under engineering.

This is why Multi-Disciplinary learning is a game changer. You can learn Architecture with AI or Mechanical with Robotics etc. So, it’s important to be multi-dimensional

Q) What are the new-age skills that a student must develop to become employable?

A) Technology integration is the order of the day if you have to scale up anything. So, understanding and updating technology is a basic skill that a student must learn. For eg – AI or Chat GPT and its implementation.

As far as the non-technical skills, critical thinking and problem solving skills are a must have and these are basically all season skills that anyone should develop.

Q) This is your maiden visit to VIT. What are your observations about the campus?

A) Yesterday evening I saw some students practicing dance, late in the evening and it looked fabulous. Today, I had a long walk in the morning and from whatever I saw, it looks World class. It’s quite green and there is enough space for the students to move around

Q) This is our 40 th year and is there any special message that you would like to leave it to VIT?

A) I would like to see VIT competing with leading Universities in the World and break in to the top 100 rankings. I see VIT contributing to the nation building and I hope it continues to do so in the future.