'THE UNIVERSITY IS A PLACE FOR UNIVERSAL THINKING'

In June 2022, University of Lucknow became the first state university in Uttar Pradesh to secure an A++ grade from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). LU will introduce a Faculty of Agriculture this year and has constituted a committee to guide the introduction of dual-degree and one-year postgraduate programmes, both recommendations of the National Education Policy 2020. Alok Kumar Rai joined LU as vice-chancellor in December 2019 and was re-appointed in December 2022. Edited excerpts from his conversation with Careers360 below.

- Sheena Sachdeva

Q. LU recently received NAAC accreditation with an A++ grade. What are your suggestions for other universities struggling with accreditation?
A. Universities must document whatever activities they conduct because all these documents and evidence are to be produced for the accreditation. Most universities find it challenging to document every activity, including seminars and conferences.

Further, the NAAC process is holistic. Hence, universities must focus on everything from maintaining the faculty-student ratio to strengthening the research output, mustering resources from alumni and consistently keeping a connection with them, developing physical infrastructure, organising sports and cultural activities along with many other activities.

Q. Last year, the university announced it would offer dual degrees from 2023-24. What else is in the pipeline?
A. As part of NEP 2020, University Grants Commission has recently developed directions for introducing dual degree programmes. We have constituted a committee to devise modalities to start these. While a lot of this is in the early stage, we started planning well in advance.

Further, as one of the few universities in Uttar Pradesh, we started four-year undergraduate programmes in 2021-22 and have constituted a committee for a one-year postgraduate programme, to be implemented once these four-year undergraduate students complete their course in 2025.

We implemented NEP 2020 from 2021. While the UGC started notifying guidelines for many such policies in 2022, we had implemented most of these much before. This includes parttime PhD, integrated programmes, professor of practice, and others.

Q. Have you introduced new scholarships for students from marginalised sections? How many have benefited?