May has been a hectic month of travel for me and a lot of learning. Learning, because of my various visits to Universities and interaction with experts from various fields. A lot has been discoursed on during these visits and there are a lot of takeaways for us as a young University!
Awards flowed in again, as I spoke at the House of Commons in London, where I was personally there to fetch the Most Preferred University Providing Global Environment to International Students. It was a momentous occasion for REVA as I spoke on REVA’s efforts towards Social Responsibility and Building sensitivity in students towards society. Ours is a young, global University and we take pride in the fact that we embrace students from all walks of life and from across the Globe. My reference point during my speech was on Jagruti as a social cause movement.
My visit to Manchester and Scotland apart from London was a learning curve, as it endorsed my belief that Universities have to thrust on Research and Consultancy. When it comes to infrastructure REVA is at par and above with most of these Universities. Where we need to focus and work on is on enhancing our industry collaboration and partnerships and ensure that we have a separate wing and set of people who will work on exclusively building of partnerships and collaborations with the industry. This is where the strength of the Universities abroad lies where they partner closely with industries based on their disciplines and areas of expertise. I observed that there was high potential and areas for collaboration with REVA when it comes to Performing Arts and this is a good opportunity for us to invite students from across the Globe and indulge in learning of our dance and theatre and culture at REVA. Likewise, we at REVA are far ahead when it comes to Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering and Architecture which are our flagship Schools too, where there is high potential for these schools to host various programmes and courses for students from around the globe. My focus and thrust would be on these schools as there also have been a lot of interest in these Schools evinced by the partnering Universities. I am sure with concerted effort this would be a mighty possibility for us.
Rankings and surveys have continued to fetch us laurels in this season too as we dazzle with various School ratings and rankings. This is retrospection time for us to read through and set aligned goals. Scoring higher cannot be our only goal. Our scores have to be backed by our impact on Society and the contribution to the Society either through research that will impact and bring about a change in society and activities and causes where we can rally students towards social responsibility. As I always say, let us not rest on our laurels but keep moving ahead and make learning experience for students who enter the threshold of REVA an experience which could match but the BEST!
