Dr. Gautam Sinha is the Vice-Chancellor at IMS Unison University. A well-known figure in academic circles, he has been involved with various private institutes as well as known for establishing a highly reputed government institute that is IIM Kashipur. He holds qualifications in Engineering & Management, he holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering & Management from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. His vision for this institute is to make it a well-known and trusted name in the field of education. 

IMS Unison University

What are the key factors that keep you connected with the education sector?

“Modern education methodologies & learning new things keeps me bringing back to the education sector”

I like to explore new things. Currently, I want to step out of my comfort zone, which is typically operations management, manufacturing strategy, and supply chain because of my background in engineering and work in the industry. Now I want to explore certain new things like teaching critical thinking to undergraduates, something I've never done before. I am also teaching students of Liberal Arts, so on and so forth, and also the other macro trend that is happening with the National Education Policy, which was to change the spirit of education in India so we can become an education hub with much to offer. 

What is your philosophy of leadership?

“Leadership style in academia has to be more people-oriented than task-oriented”

The academy leadership has to be very collegial. You have to motivate and support professors and students to conduct research and make sure they have whatever is required like for example, journals, books, or monetary funds. This is how academic leadership should be. I've seen that happen in many places, including India and abroad, at fantastic places like Harvard. I would like to call it a benign backyard. You look after your people, take care of them, nurture them. So that is the kind of leadership style we have at IMS Unison University.

Any insights into how your university could be more welcoming to students of different backgrounds?

“A plethora of students from different ethnicities getting an opportunity with scholarships”

At IMS Unison University, we have students from 23 states in India, as far as Manipur and Kashmir. We are bound to give the residents of Uttarakhand a 26% scholarship, which is also a part of our statute. Other than this we get students from abroad, we have students from Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh also some African countries like Tanzania where English is spoken. We also provide scholarships to students at the entry who have secured very good marks in 10th and 12th. We also give scholarships to students who score high marks at the University like 8.5-9 CGPA.

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What do you think your roles and responsibilities to the University and the students are?

“The bridge between the administration and teachers”

The UGC specifies the post of Vice-Chancellor as the principal academic and executive officer. So, I am both a teacher and an administrator, that is my role. Personally, whenever I’ve led an organization, I have looked at myself as a seller of dreams. I take a young faculty and show him/her what is possible for them to do in academics like publishing journals, conducting research, and teaching students.

What do you think should be the University’s top priority over the next 10 years?

“To Become an established recognized name & achieve top ranking”

First of all, we want to become a NIRF 20 University for multidisciplinary education, non-engineering, non-science, in liberal arts, management, laws, journalism, hospitality, so on and so forth, and we want to be known for our publication and research. In this year, we have learned how to develop and how to deliver online education, and we are the first University in Northern India that held, online classes on time, online exams on time, also published the results on time as per the date on the academic calendar and also had our convocation on time as per the academic calendar.

What would you like people to know about your university that they may not know?

“We are a dedicated university to excel in fields lie arts, management & Law”

We are a new university, a small university. We are about 7-8 years old. What we want people to know is that we are committed to the community where we live. And we are dedicated to academic delivery, which leads to getting a good education in management, law, mass communication, liberal arts, hospitality, irrespective of what happens in the outside world. And that's what we have proven in 2020 by continuing with online programs and finishing everything on time. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you see, both for higher education in general and for your institute?

“Funds, training in online education and cash flow in times of a pandemic”

The biggest challenge is to find funds for research in a private university. Unless you do research, you don't create new knowledge. This year, all parents are concerned about paying the university fees. Because of this, there has been a revenue and cash flow problem. Online education is not the same as classroom education, we need significant investments in bandwidth, in fiber-optic networks, in cameras. So, these are some of the biggest challenges, creating online teaching-learning capacity, the students have to learn how to learn online, Teachers will have to be trained in how to teach online. 

This other major challenge is of a leadership pipeline. Leadership pipeline creation is not done in universities in India and that is a big drawback. This generates discontinuity in thinking and the ideas and leads to a big backlog while the university searches for a new executive.

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Any suggestions you would like to give to the current youth and the aspiring students?

“With a clear and focused mind, you need to figure out the future goals & aims”

I believe students can make fantastic careers in the new fields. But they have to be clear about what they want to become. You need to focus and find out, today you have much more information at your fingertips, which was not available to us. You should not be looking at just your current skill set requirements, you should look for skills, which will be relevant five years down the line. The other thing is, don't procrastinate and postpone learning.