We are committed to looking at societal problems and solving them: Rishihood University VC

Shobhit Mathur, Vice Chancellor of Rishihood University an alumnus of IIT Bombay, ISB Hyderabad and the University of Washington speaking to Shiksha.com shares his vision for the university and how university is geared towards producing socially oriented individuals.

Q. Rishihood is a new university and has taken a liberal education approach. What is the idea behind this?

A. The university has taken a liberal education approach in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) so it is multi-disciplinary, it has a social impact. The motivation of the university is that at present the universities have got disconnected from the societal issues and national or international issues. Most of the universities are producing graduates who are job seekers, but not people who could go ahead and take leadership positions and solve various problems in society.

The approach that we have taken is different and that’s why we call ourselves a social-impact university and we are committed to looking at societal problems and solving them. Typically to solve any issue in society a university should be multi-disciplinary, for example, to solve the problem of water in the village all the disciplines must come together.

Q. There is a counter-view that if specialized institutions like IITs, and IIMs would start offering multidisciplinary courses they would lose their focus? 

A. It is important to understand that if NEP talks of a multidisciplinary approach that does not mean everyone should start offering different courses. It is important to understand the mantra because if we don’t understand that very soon we will start producing graduates who would be irrelevant. We are trying to customize courses depending on the need, we are not forcing students to choose a course. We have different schools with different approaches but the common goal is to produce graduates who have knowledge and understanding of different disciplines.

Q. The University has made its approach multi-disciplinary, what steps are being taken to provide practical exposure to students to address societal issues?

A. It is a very high component of interface with industry or society by organizing industry visits, field visits or through internships, or projects during different programmes. We have an eleven-month public policy programme where students mostly learn on the field by starting their own ventures.

Q. What all courses are being offered right now by the university?

A. Broadly there are 10 majors offered by five schools. We have a school of Leadership, where leadership is major, and then we have the school of Entrepreneurship, where entrepreneurship major and it is offering business administration, commerce and economics.

Then we have a school of Education, where education and psychology are offered. Then there is the School of Design under which design and visual arts are offered. Then we have the School of Health Sciences through which we offer courses in healthcare.

All these majors have been chosen broadly so that they can mix with each other, at present, we are not offering courses in areas like Engineering, Law or Medicine.

Q. Is the admission process of all these schools the same?

A. The application process is the same but there are different components and requirements for different schools like the School of Design we would want a different test than what we will have for the School of Leadership.

The students will have to go through a screening test, they are also required to submit an SOP which is followed by an interview. So criteria for each school are different but the process remains the same for everyone.

Q. How is Rishihood University different from some of the new universities which have come up in the past decade and particularly in the same region?

A. As stated earlier we are a social-impact university, while many of the elite institutions which have come up in this area are that they want to bring Ivy-league education to India. Why no one is asking them is that education is relevant to India, what is global best, and can that work in India as well?

We don’t want to do that, what we are saying is that what is the best education model keeping India in the centre. We are confident that what we teach here will be globally relevant, what we teach here has been derived from Indian knowledge systems. The faculties which have been recruited here all have the same approach.

Right now the entire purpose of education in India is to get jobs, and placements, we are not looking for that, and of course, the job is important, but we create people who would give jobs. We are creating individuals who would contribute to society in a positive manner, who would solve problems which are there in society.

Q. How is Rishihood along with its students solving the local problem of Sonepat, where it is located?

A. First thing that we have started is that we have launched ‘Jal Fellowship’. Punjab and Haryana have a major problem with water because of the crop pattern and if we address the water issue, we will be addressing issues of agriculture, biodiversity, water contamination and so on.

So, all the schools at Rishihood are working on the water problem and it is not just Sonepat we are looking at, but we have chosen 18 districts in the country under this scheme.

Water Fellowship is a one-year fellowship which is on-field learning with some classroom components. In this, we train them on how they can address water issues in their communities.

Q. Tell us something about the school of entrepreneurship?

A. What India needs right now is ‘Job Creators’, but is our curriculum relevant to creating job creators, the B.Tech, MBA-like courses are producing very good professionals but how many of them become job creators.

Entrepreneurship just doesn't mean starting a company, our idea is to inculcate that thinking in the mindset of students. We want wherever our students will go, he or she should be able the solve the problems.

Through this school, students choose a problem or a venture and start working on that and the university provides all kinds of support to them. We also help them in getting funding from various sources. As a university, we play more of a facilitator role than an investor.

Q. How many faculty members are there right now, is the university planning to start new programmes in future?

A. We have around 30 full-time faculty and some part-time faculty members. Going forward we would like to start the School of Food and Agriculture, and the second School of Technology. When I say Technology it will be offered as a minor where everyone will be able to study because it is important that everyone should learn technology.

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