Know all about Ahmedabad University: Interview with Prof. Pankaj Chandra, Vice Chancellor and Chairman

In this exclusive interview with Careers360, Professor Pankaj Chandra, Vice Chancellor and Chairman, Board of Management, Ahmedabad University discusses the vision and mission of Ahmedabad University; what sets the university apart from other institutions, accreditations, placements and more. Read the interview to know more about Ahmedabad University.

About: Ahmedabad University was established in 2009 by Ahmedabad Education Society (AES), a non-profit educational foundation. Ahmedabad University courses are offered in multiple disciplines at undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels. Ahmedabad University admissions are both entrance and merit-based. The university has a Career Development Centre (CDC) that guides and prepares students by providing them with significant resources to explore, discover, develop, and pursue their professional and personal goals.

Careers360: Please describe the journey of Ahmedabad University so far. What is the vision and mission of the university?

Answer: Ahmedabad University was established by a very unusual trust of India called Ahmedabad Education Society in 2009. The trust has built higher educational institutions in this city like IIM Ahmedabad, National Institute of Design, Physical Research Laboratory, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) and many other institutions. Ahmedabad University is the most ambitious project of this trust. Its purpose is to foster continuous progress of self and society. Our graduates bear the capabilities, attitude and values to excel in whatever field they choose to pursue around the world.

Careers360: What according to you sets Ahmedabad University apart from the others?

Answer: There are many things that set Ahmedabad University apart from other institutions like pursuit of academic rigour, flexibility and outcomes of our graduates.

We are building a very serious academic centre. The education is holistic at Ahmedabad University. The fundamental aspect is to bring interdisciplinary education to address complex problems. Another aspect of our education is understanding how learning happens.

Our education is flexible. We provide a way in which students can take their own courses, find what they’re passionate about and pace their education according to their needs and challenges. For instance, we developed two interesting programmes this year at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The BxMx Programme allows a student to study bachelor’s in one discipline while completing a master’s in another.

Lastly, what sets us apart from other institutions is the outcomes of our graduates. About 50% of our graduates go to pursue their masters. Our students go abroad to good universities like Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University and New York University (NYU). One-third of our students join family businesses or startups. The remaining students take up jobs in some of the best Indian companies.

Careers360: Please elaborate on the learning initiatives taken at the University.

Answer: We believe there are four ways to learn - thinking, doing or experiential learning, connecting and becoming.

The most unusual part of our undergraduate education is our interdisciplinary foundation programme. We have built four foundation courses which are around grand challenges and they are “Water, Climate Change, Democracy and Justice, and lastly Neighbourhoods”. This encourages holistic thinking, learning from multiple and different disciplines and builds a much broader perspective.

Our other programme called Independent Study Period (ISP) offers students a chance to explore their passion, dive deeply into a field of interest, gain rich immersive experience and go beyond the classroom thus making academic learning truly interdisciplinary and conceptual understanding more experiential.

Recently, Ahmedabad University was awarded with recognition by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and Times Higher Education Ranking (UK).

Careers360: What does the university look for in a student applying for admissions? What are the steps taken by the university to make the admission process robust?

Answer: First and foremost we are looking for an academically strong student, who is prepared and willing to stretch. Our education is not for the faint hearted. It involves a full-time engagement in projects, assignments, fieldwork and a lot of reading and doing. We are also looking for a student with multiple interests and passions, interested in a broad and deep liberal education and with attributes of caring for the underserved students. However, the university does look for grades, passion and excellence in students applying for Ahmedabad University admission.

Careers360: How does the university bring in a balance in gender and regional disparities?

Answer: More than 50 to 52% percent of our students are females and the rest men. That brings an amazing amount of diversity as far as gender is concerned. We also encourage students who do not belong to these two defined categories to look at us. We care for young students who have disabilities of any kind and who have special needs. We bring in students who are from across the country and we’re fast becoming a national institution. We have students coming from 25 different states of the country.

Careers360: Practical training is important when one considers industry requirements. How does Ahmedabad University ensure its students are industry ready?

Answer: We look at industry readiness in three broad ways - teaching conceptual knowledge and its application in the complex domain and in problems around them.

All our students have to undergo an internship. Our career development centre prepares students right from the first year for internships. While it is not mandatory to do an internship every year, we encourage students to engage and work with very different kinds of organisations and entities in society to discover their passion. We also have a provision for students to go and pursue a six months project in an industry to build skills.

We are putting forth a new curriculum in the academic year 2024. Almost every student will have to take a certain number of skilled credits. These micro credits will help students pick up skills that are needed by the industry and prepare them for certain professions that they would like to join. This may be different from a major or a minor that they will study.

Careers360: Please throw light on accreditations and collaborations that Ahmedabad University has. In your opinion, how can students benefit from these?

Answer: Ahmedabad University is accredited with an ‘A’ grade by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), the national accreditation body of the country. Our business school is going through a process of getting accreditation from AACSB.

We have a number of partnerships within the country and globally; we also have partnerships with companies and agencies for student internships. In some of our programmes, we have immersions. Students in this case go to particular locations globally. They immerse themselves in the industry and business world by visiting facilities and listening to people there. This helps create a global and future ready mindset.

Careers360: How does Ahmedabad University ensure that its curriculum is on par with new age trends? What are the innovations and steps undertaken in this regard?

Answer: We are way ahead with our innovative curriculum and implementation of the new National Education Policy (NEP). Our foundation programme is to prepare people for grand challenges and how to navigate them. We have four mandatory courses that every student does irrespective of the discipline. The foundation programme offers four thematic studios namely Water, Climate Change, Democracy and Justice, and Neighbourhoods. Through each one of the studio courses, we engage the student with six domains.

Careers360: Holistic development is a necessity in the current times. How is this facilitated at Ahmedabad University?

Answer: At 17 or 18 years of age, when students enter university, they are very unclear about what they want to do in life. We provide a wide variety of courses and opportunities across domains for holistic development. We also strongly encourage all our students to participate in the various activities held on the campus.

Our platform Nalanda has been set up to understand, debate, enquire and reflect on the nuances of issues by engaging with leaders in society. Held every month, students interact with deep thinkers who enable them to articulate their unaided thoughts before peers. Nalanda facilitates confidence, helps them become independent thinkers with a very rounded personality valuable in the future.

Careers360: Most students look at placements and internships as important parameters while taking admissions. Could you give details on this along with the latest statistics?

Answer: Ahmedabad University placement record is almost 100% with most of our students finding jobs before graduation or within one or two months of graduating.

Our Career Development Centre (CDC) at Ahmedabad University is manned by professionals who start engaging and preparing students for life after university. Students are equipped with knowledge of careers and characteristics required, building resumes, and finally connecting with relevant people in the industrial society.

Students start with internships and these in later years lead to placements in many cases. The Career Development Centre also has a corporate connection that brings a large number of companies from across the globe for on campus recruitment.

About 50% of our students go for higher studies following the completion of their programme. Every year, we send a handful of students to IIMs and over the last five years, there have been three gold medalists one at IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore and IIM Lucknow who have been undergrads at the Amrut Mody School of Management, Ahmedabad University. Around 30% of the students go back to their family businesses or build startups.

VentureStudio, our incubator, has a fellowship programme where a student with an idea for a startup can spend a semester in summer incubating it. They do it in lieu of taking a semester of coursework.

Careers360: What would your message be to students?

Answer: Irrespective of where you go to study, keep four things in mind. First, have a purpose when you come to an educational institution. Always look for an institution that allows you to discover. Second is - own your own education. Third, work hard as there is no substitute to hard work. Finally, explore and discover.

About the Interviewer

Professor Pankaj Chandra is the Vice Chancellor and Chairman, Board of Management, Ahmedabad University. He was Director, IIM Bangalore. He has held tenured positions at the IIM Ahmedabad and McGill University Montreal. He has held visiting positions at leading universities like University of Geneva, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Professor Chandra was a member of the Government of India Committee on Rejuvenation of Higher Education (Yashpal Committee) and the Government of India Committee on Clusters for Development of the Informal Sector. He was also a member of two steering committees constituted by the Planning Commission of India - one on Higher and Technical Education (where he also chaired the Sub-Committee on Student Financial Aid), and the other on Industry. He was a member of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) subcommittee on Teacher Education. He was also a member of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and RUSA (the higher education regulator) of the Ministry of HRD, GOI.