Sunday Celebrity: New Madras varsity V-C Dr. Thiruvasagam beams with innovative ideas

Dr. G Thiruvasagam. The 42nd Vice-Chancellor of the 152-year-old University of Madras. He assumed charge as new V-C on October 13. Like his name, he is a person holistic in his approach to reforms in education, and innovation, the university should reap the benefit of his service during his tenure.

Beaming with fantastic ideas, the former vice-chancellor of Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, succeeding S Ramachandran, has his second stint as vice chancellor. No sooner he assumed charge, he announced a slew of new programmes.

Talking to the Asian Tribune on Sunday afternoon, Thiruvasagam said there is certain imbalance between the private and self-financing colleges and government and government-aided colleges. “As a first task I want to clear the lacuna and disparity between them,” he said.

Seventy-five per cent colleges are with the private and self-financing sector, the rest with the government and government-aided control. The former have better infrastructure and faculty, and moreover the freedom to bring in inter-disciplinary and new courses with employable education, but the benefit does not reach the under privileged and rural students, he said.

Dr. Thiruvasagam added: But the government and government-aided colleges fill the statutory requirement of offering reservations and other government’s social justice schemes. For some time now there have been no newly designed innovative programmes and courses that would offer employable opportunity to the students, with this type of colleges.

“I am going to enforce both the streams of colleges to accommodate the ‘left over’ interests so that the student community is not missing anything,” he said.

Research would be made possible at under graduate level from next academic year, he said. “Now, there is a view in colleges that research is confined only to university, which is regrettable. Any student from graduate level interested in research can explore his area of interest,” he added.

“The Government of India, University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) give several crores of rupees to the universities and colleges, but the purpose of the grants is ultimately not achieved. Though there are research projects going on, the outcome and findings of the scholars are not beneficial the community and the country. I want to take serious steps to see the outcome of the research will give product and service to the community in particular and the country in general.”

For promoting research and publication, a corpus of Rs 10 lakh would be created for researchers, who need to go abroad and participate in international seminars and workshops. To encourage budding scientists, the university would introduce a young scientist’s award, he added.

MA in Kalaigner Thoughts

As soon as he assumed charge, Thiruvasagam cheered the fans and followers of Chief Minister M Karunandhi with the announcement of a postgraduate course in Kalaignar Thoughts.

"New MA programmes in Periyar Thought, Anna Thought and Kalaignar Thought will be introduced soon and we will take steps to create Centres (named after these leaders) also by next academic year. It will be available both in English and Tamil medium and also in the Distance Education mode," he said.

Besides, a centre for basic sciences development would be set up in the university, he added. It will be called A L Mudaliar Centre for Basic Science Development. It is to create awareness among students on basic science courses, he said. An amount of Rs 10 lakh would be allotted for the centre. “The centre will hold workshops and seminars for development of basic science courses.”

A separate board of studies for innovation and inter-disciplinary programmes would also be set up. The new board would have one member from the concerned department and the rest from the industry and business areas. The board would meet once in a month.

The university would also introduce an ‘Earn while you Learn’ scheme. Under the scheme, an amount of Rs 1,000 would be given to each student. A sum of Rs 50 lakh has been earmarked for the scheme. The criteria for this would be announced later

No tuition fee for disabled students

The vice-chancellor is planning to introduce a free education scheme to provide assistance to deserving students. Madras University has 60 departments; one candidate from each department would be eligible for free education. The scheme envisages providing food, accommodation and meeting fees expenses. A minimum of 10 students from colleges would also be offered free education.

He has announced 100 per cent waiver of tuition fee for disabled students. “Many disabled persons are not able to pursue higher education in colleges and universities. I want to help these students continue their college studies and to motivate them I have come out with this initiative.”

To encourage colleges coming up in rural areas, he said the university would give fee exemptions to the new colleges there.

The vice-chancellor said that his immediate focus would be on creating infrastructure, constructing new buildings, installing proper security measures and setting up a good canteen. He announced the creating of a new email id, muvcgreenbox@gamil.com, to which students and parents could send their grievances.

Green drop box for grievances

The V-C would have a separate cell to attend to the complaints and grievances and take appropriate action. A green drop box would also be placed in front of the V-C’s office in which people can put their complaints.

Dr Thiruvasagam also said that henceforth Tamil would be the official language for the university. He urged university employees to sign their official documents in Tamil and publish circulars or any other documents in Tamil. “We will also try to make it possible for PhD scholars to submit their thesis in Tamil,” he said.

However, the vice chancellor added that the Madras University’s ambience was not conducive for learning and said he would take steps to improve things.

He hails from Siruvelangudi village in Sivaganga district. The 58-year young Thiruvasagam had served as a professor of commerce and management for 34 years. He rose to became the principal of Yadava College in Madurai, following which he functioned as a member of Syndicate of Madurai Kamaraj University.

When he was vice-chancellor of Bharathiar University, he was instrumental in creating 14 new departments that were interdisciplinary in nature. He had introduced novel concepts like attending to the students, faculty and stakeholders through Green Box — a facility for staff and students to air their grievances (which idea he brings to the Madras university now).

Similarly, he helped in setting up of industry-institution and consultancy cell, and a civil service centre there.

- Asian Tribune -