Five day long educational leadership and faculty programme concludes,

Radhika Naghrath

Haridwar,
In the Faculty of Engineering and Technology of Gurukul Kangri University, a five-day educational leadership and faculty development program on the subject of management of vocational GB education is being organized under the AICTE Atal scheme from 14 to 18 September 20. The inaugural session was held on 14 September 20.
Dr. Suyesh Bhardwaj, who is conducting the program started with Gayatri Mantra and Kulgeet, under the chairmanship of Professor Roop Kishore Shastri, Yashswi Vice-Chancellor of Gurukul Kangri University, presented the outline of the program welcoming all the participants. Program Coordinator Prof. Pankaj Madan, Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, informed all the participants about the activities of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology and also presented the objective of this workshop to all.
Dr. Mayank Agarwal, Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, motivated all the participants to develop leadership skills through excellent research and technology. Welcoming all the participants, Mr. Sanjeev Lambha, in-charge of the Mechanical Engineering Department, said that organizing personality development workshops was an excellent medium to learn various genres. In charge of the Electrical Engineering Department, Mr. Gajendra Rawat inspired all the participants to achieve new achievements in technology and research in modern times.
Respected Registrar of Gurukul Kangdi Prof. Dinesh Bhatt, in his lecture highlighting the role of leadership all over the world and in the entire environment, motivated all the participants to develop leadership skills and described it as important for success.
Prof. Ravindra Kumar Soni, Director AICTE Atal Academy gave information about various programs of AICTE and discussed all-round development of teachers through such events.
Around 200 participants from 100 institutions and more than 20 states are participating in the Faculty Development Program on Leadership organized by Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidhyalaya, Haridwar.
On 15th September, i.e. on the 2nd day of the program, eminent speakers Prof. Dr. Amit Mittal, Prof. Dr. Alok Kumar Chakrawal, and Prof. Dr. Gunmala Suri enlightened the participants with their expert talk on the leadership.
Prof. Dr. Amit Mittal, Professor and Dean at Chitkara University, Punjab, discussed the different types of leadership styles and their relevance in different situations. He also elaborated on different personality types and reinforced the discussion by quoting the examples of some the most promising leaders of today – Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela, Sundar Pichai, Virat Kohli, M. S Dhoni, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which made the session informative and interactive for participants. The expert also talked about Followers’ Development Level and highlighted key points on – how a leader should always motivate their followers to move to a better level? And Why women leadership is still under progress in many areas? Professor summed up the session by saying that –“there is no perfect leadership but being flexible and good performer itself make a leader impactful and working in collaboration for good research work is the best way to get a quality work”.
Prof. Dr. Alok Kumar Chakrawal, Professor at Saurashtra University, Rajkot, began his talk by comprehensively explaining the concept of Team Building, where he highlighted the key characteristics of an ideal Team, what should be the ultimate objective of the team, how to streamline the individual objectives of the team members towards it, how a team is formed, how the trust among the team members can be established using different exercises and what sort of aspects to be considered to improve the efficiency of the members and gain utmost contribution from them. Further, he threw light on different leadership styles in the context of Education, that is being practiced around the globe. Expert practically connected all the statements with real-life examples that eventually helped participants in understanding the application of the same. At last, the expert winded up the session by saying that – “the whole is greater than the sum of its part”.
Prof. Dr. Gunmala Suri, Professor at Punjab University, emphasized the key presentation skills of leaders and how these skills can be developed. The expert made the session incredibly engaging by playing the videos of some of the world’s best presenters of all time, such as- Steve Jobs, Martin Luther, and Jeff Bezos. Each of them has their own unique way or presentation that was minutely differentiated by the expert. Steve Jobs used to keep things as simple as possible – Just two or three words in a presentation slide, simple calculation for customers to relate and understand, and creative demonstration. Martin Luther’s incredible way of speaking and delivering a speech with selective words, ideal voice modulation, pitch, tone, and confidence. Jeff Bezos, who always presents and puts across his thoughts with stories. A story for each and every thought. Finally, the expert winded up her session by saying that- “A good presentation makes a trick a MAGIC”.
3rd day of the program was started with a power-packed session on “Academic Leadership: An Individual Discovery and Reflections for Excellence” by a multidisciplinary academician cum expert, the one and only Prof. Dr. Pankaj Madan, Dean FET at Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidhyalaya. The expert explained the meaning and constituents of a Mission statement and critically examined as well as related the statement with purpose, work, and values; and that’s all demonstrated live during the session using real-life applications that vouched for the beauty of the session. The expert also highlighted imperative change management theories that a leader should use while designing a strategic action plan for change around us or in a team.
In the end, the expert shared his experience on how he changed himself, his teaching strategies, and made to the list of Premium Educator with Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston.
Finally, the Experts put the full stop to the session with the saying that – “No leader is perfect. The best ones don’t try to be-they concentrate on homing their strengths and find others who can make up for their limitations”.

The second speaker of the day, Er. Anil Kumar Upadhyaya, Former GM & Head HRD at BHEL, delivered his talk on “Learning Circles and Mentoring for Change”. The expert started the session with a beautiful quote, “once you stop learning, you start dying” that streamlined the approach and mindset of the participants for the rest of his session. The expert elucidated the meaning of mentor, learning circle and explained the key features of successful transformational change, Leading Chang, and the change equation. At last, the expert shed light on the mentoring skills and gave guru mantra on – How one can assess himself as a Mentor?

For the last session of the day, our speaker Dr. Mayank Aggarwal, Associate Professor & H.O.D at FET, Gurukul Kangri University, Haridwar, drew the attention of the participants on “Virtual Spaces and Academic Leadership”. Indeed, it was such an innovative way of teaching; Interactive exercises, inspirational videos, media content, and a lot many things made the session highly captivating and engrossing.
The expert explained the meaning and the importance of 3Cs, i.e. Calm, Confident, and Communicate relevant, for a teacher and a leader. In continuation, the expert also highlighted the importance of hybrid &flipped learning, virtual/online teaching, and how the adverse situations bring disruptive shifts in the normality.
In the end, the expert inferred that we (i.e. humans) are not doing sustainable practices and recklessly consuming resources that are directly or indirectly harming our nature so we must plant trees and exercise sustainable practices in consideration to nature.
With such intellectual and inspiring personalities, the third day of AICTE ATAL FDP on “Academic Leadership and Management of Professional Education” came to an end.

The fourth day of the program was also equally informative and full of cognitive orientation towards the role and importance of leadership in academics and education.
In the fourth day of FDP, our first speaker Prof. Dr. H.C Purohit, HOD at Doon University Dehradun, talked about the ideal vision and mission Indian universities should have and peruse, so that the synergized effort of all the interested individuals can be streamlined to attain the ultimate objectives and something fruitful can be given to the society. The expert pointed out the major loopholes in the mission, objectives, and ethical practices in the present education system and showed a way forward to tackle these issues that directly or indirectly affecting the nation. At last, the expert talked about the perfect approach and mindset the top bodies should have to deal overcome such issues, and how leadership can change the game drastically.

The second speaker of the day Prof. Hitesh Shukla, Professor at Saurashtra University, Rajkot, talked upon “the industry engagement, collaboration, and development”. The expert highlighted the importance of Leadership in the corporate world and emphasized- how the same can be used in academics to extract the maximum output from the synergized effort of all the stakeholders. The expert also talked about his journey so far- how he used the leadership theories and shaped his family business, which was the center of attraction of the session.

Our third speaker of the day Dr. Jayaprakash Bhamu, expressed his views on “strategy for governance in autonomous institutions”, where the expert compared the traditional and the conventional governance practices in the education field, what has changed now and talked about the vital steps that have been taken by the government in this to uplift the quality education in India.

On the last day of the faculty development program prominent academicians, Prof. Alka Sharma, Prof. Sanjeev Marvah, and Prof. Shweta Anand delivered an expert talk on change management.
Prof. Alka Sharma, Professor at the University of Jammu, Jammu & Kashmir, in her session shared her views upon – developing and shaping highly effective teachers for the nation. The expert discussed some most important aspects in teaching, like– what it takes to be an effective teacher, what are the characteristics of a good teacher, how the required characteristics or skills can be developed and learned, and how to engage students. The Expert also discussed the recent paradigm shift in Higher Education and seven principles of learning to encourage active learning. In the end, the expert shared a scientifically proven self-assessment method for the teachers, which tended to be one of the most engaging parts of the session.
Dr. Sanjiv Marwah, Director at JK Business School, delivered his talk on the topic “Preparing action plans for change”. The expert triggered his talk with a famous quote given by Lady Nancy Astor “The main dangers in life are the people who want to change everything or nothing”. Further, the expert discussed a case study on “Outcome Based Education” and shared the academic experience that he gained while vising prominent universities across the globe.
Prof. Shweta Anand, Dean at Gautam Buddha University, Noida delivered a talk on “implementing change for excellence” where the expert discussed – why change is necessary, how to bring change in the society or the institution, what steps are required for implementing the change. She also discussed the process of implementing the change. At last, the expert addressed the gathering with the saying – “you are empowered to implement change in all the respect of life towards excellence”.
Altogether the session was incredibly informative, and the corpus of academic intellectuals imparted wisdom upon future academicians that will for sure contribute to the upliftment of the quality education in India.
In the end, an exam was conducted to assess the overall understanding of the participants, which was mandatory to qualify for the attainment of the certificate, followed by the Valedictory session, where Prof. Dinesh Bhatt, Registrar at Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidhyalaya, Prof. Roop Kishore Shastri, Vice-Chancellor at Gurukula Kangri Vishwavidhyalaya, Dr. Arvind Kumar Soni, Director at AICTE ATAL and Dr. Girdhari Lal Garg, Assistant Director at AICTE ATAL addressed the gathering and highly appreciated the relevance as well as the viable outcome of the FDP on a much-needed topic for the future academicians i.e. on Leadership. Dignitaries acknowledged the augmented efforts put in by the organizing team that made this program a grand success and congratulated participants and other stakeholders of this program for the successful completion of the same.
Now, it’s time to acknowledge the names without who the feasibility of the program would have not been imagined, FDP Coordinator Prof. Dr. Pankaj Madan, technical support head Dr. Suyash Bhardwaj and the other members of the team Kirti Sharma, Deeksha Ahuja, Tania Mittal, Pallavi Bhardwaj, Shreya Arora, Aditya Dhiman for their support through the program.

This was the end of an imperative and much-needed faculty development program and the university hopes to organize such sessions in the future as well.