Published on February 17, 2019
Dr. N. Saravana Kumar, Joint Secretary, MHRD, Government of India participated in the final day of 2-week Indian component of the Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) in IIIT Sri City on Saturday evening. The first week of the programme was conducted by the lead institution, NIT Trichy. Third week of the programme will be conducted in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. A cross section of 23 senior professors are attending the Government of India funded leadership training.
Higher Education is increasingly becoming important to India’s growth strategy. Indian institutions are faced with unique opportunities and challenges. Institutions need to focus on their global positioning through a strategic transformation. When India becomes one of the top few economies of the world in the next two decades, it is a necessity and an outcome that our academic institutions have to raise to global standards. In the process, our academic institutions are undergoing major changes in areas like funding, internationalization, innovation & entrepreneurship, Research & Development and societal engagement.
Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP) is a unique, important and timely initiative of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India to equip senior faculty members to take up leadership roles in existing and new institutions. The programme aims to create an opportunity to consolidate best practices created at the national level, benchmark them with international practices and eventually provide a structured approach for institutional transformation.
LEAP covered the following objectives:
Required insights on emerging international and national contexts of higher education and necessary learnings for taking up leadership roles in institutions such as IITs, NITs, IIITs, etc.
Participants a unique opportunity to carry out a project on chosen themes of institutional administration under the mentorship of experts from India and Singapore.
Dr. Mini Shaji Thomas, Director NIT Trichy delivered the presidential address. Out of 31 NITs, NIT Trichy was chosen to conduct the programme, along with 15 other leading institutions in the country. The programme was design and implementation was unique it terms of objectives, methodology and choice of speakers. The programme has been conducted in four locations- Trichy, Chennai (Outbound Training), Sri City and Singapore. Academic leaders, education specialists, industry experts, psychometric professionals, etc delivered sessions and interacted with the participants. As a leader of NIT System, NIT Trichy senior leadership team shared the best practices with the participants.
Dr. G. Kannabiran, Director IIIT Sri City highlighted that key features of 2nd week of the programme at Sri City. Participants had an opportunity to engage with industries in Sri City to understand the technological developments and realize the need for continuous change in the curriculum design and delivery. Participants visited few Sri City industrial units such as Mondelez, Foxconn, Alstom and Colgate-Palmolive and interacted with teams of managers. Dr. Kannabiran, recalled the support of Sri City leadership for enabling engagement with leading organizations and infrastructure for successful conduct of the programme.