Six-day faculty enrichment program on 21st-century knowledge and character skills for university teachers 

Gurugram: With the objective of inspiring university and college teachers to empower themselves with the 21st-Century Knowledge and Character skills and to support the major transformation of higher education, the Amity Staff College of Amity University Haryana organized a six days Faculty Enrichment Program from 21st June to 26th June 2021. The program was Inaugurated by Dr RA Mashelkar FRS, Founder Chairman National Innovation Council and former Director General of CSIR in the august presence of Hon’ble Chancellor Dr Aseem Chauhan, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor Prof PB Sharma, Vice Chancellors of Amity Universities in India, Deans, Heads of Institutions, large number of faculty members and 180 registered participants from various universities and institutions from across the country, that included Allahabad University, BR Ambedkar National Law University, Mahatma Gandhi University Kerala, Mizoram University, IGNOU, Alagappa University Chennai, Carrier Point University Himachal Pradesh, NMDC Tamilnadu,KL University Andhra University, GD Goenka University, KR Mangalam University Haryana, Amity Universities at Noida, Mumbai, Jaipur, Gwalior, Raipur and Gurugram among others  
 
A galaxy of eminent speakers who addressed the participants during the above FEP included Padma Vibhushan Dr RA Mashelkar FRS, Prof Prem Vrat, Hon'ble Chairman IIT Dhanbad and IIT Mandi, distinguished Scientist and National Science Chair Padma Shri Dr S Hasnain, Eminent Educationist India’s Representative to UNESCO Executive Board & Padma Shri Prof J S Rajput,  Secretary General of AIU Dr Pankaj Mittal and Dr Krishen Kumar, former Lead Technologist NASA Johnson Space Centre (JSC), Houston, Texas, USA, Emeritus Professor, Department of Pharmacology Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Rutgers University USA Prof. Debabrata Banerjee, DG-ICSI- International Chamber for Service Industry Dr. Gulshan Sharma, President ASTIF Dr W Selvamurthy, Pro VC Dr Padmakali Banerjee, Dy Pro VC Dr Vikas Madhukar and Dean Research Dr Rajendra Prasad among others. 
 
At a time when major reforms in education are in the offing with the education framework proposed by NEP-2020, it is highly important to encourage and enrich the insights of faculty members to pursue and upgrade their professional acumen not only to ensure the best learning outcomes for their students but also to make them more effective and outcome oriented in their future endeavours. Further, apart from domain knowledge and professional skills and enterprising spirit, the teachers of the new knowledge age are to imbibe the character skills of integrity, truthfulness, compassion, peaceful co-existence, sustainability and resilience, the experts emphasized during their deliberations. 
 
The faculty need to continuously update their domain knowledge in their chosen field of expertise as well as keep themselves updated with the emerging technologies, as also to create new knowledge through engagements in Industry and Society relevant R&D and cause innovations, new product development and give rise to start-ups in the university and college campuses, the experts opined. 
  
Delivering the Inaugural Address Padma Vibhushan Dr RA Mashelkar, Eminent Scientist & Former Director General, CSIRsaid “Teachers are architects of the future of the country. As such they should not to satisfy with incremental improvements or even leapfrogging but take courage to pole-vault to another level of excellence by their exciting and intuitive quest for eminence". The Teachers of the university and colleges should transform themselves into great mentors and great researchers and innovators empowered with enterprising skills of the new knowledge age. 
 
Eminent Educationist India’s Representative to UNESCO Executive Board & Padma Shri Prof J S Rajput while sharing his rich experience of formulation and implementation of Education policies of 1986 and 1992 invited the universities and colleges in India to shoulder the responsibility of adopting Government Schools in their neighbourhood to strengthen the school education for children of low- and middle-income parents. As good quality school education lays a strong foundation for building both the capabilities and character and is the surest way to improve the quality of life of people. The NEP-2020 has laid a great emphasis on teacher education, as the quality of teachers truly decides the quality and standards of education. Prof Rajput invited the teacher participants from universities and colleges to pursue lifelong learning, practice self-discipline and lead by their example to earn great respect and reverence from the student’s community.  
 
Dr Krishen Kumar, former Lead Technologist NASA Johnson Space Centre (JSC), Houston, Texas, USA while delivering his plenary address said, “in this new age of knowledge and technology revolution the teachers have and important role to prepare students for an exciting journey of lifelong enlightenment and shape them as great human beings who shall work with head, heart and soul for humanity at large”. Technology shall be a great enabler, but the human touch of empathy and compassion can never be replaced by smart and intelligent machines. As such great teachers who fire the imagination of their students and kindle their intuition and innovative faculties shall always be in great demand. 
 
Prof Prem Vrat, Hon'ble Chairman IIT Dhanbad and IIT Mandi and founder Director IIT Roorkee delivered his plenary address on “Effective Implementation Strategies for NEP-2020”. He emphasised the need for interdisciplinary and integrative approach for education and research and invited the teachers to empower themselves with the mindset of a mentor, innovator, researcher and imbibe human values in the student community along with the capabilities to create globally competent professionals. 
 
Secretary General of AIU Dr Pankaj Mittal in her actioned packed address on NEP2020: Empowering the Teachers invited the teachers at the universities and colleges to empower themselves with the digital technologies and support the cause of autonomy and flexibility of learning. Dr Pankaj Mittal opined that the NEP 2020 offers a great opportunity for radical reforms in education from schools to the university levels. She talked about the importance of ABC concept of Lifelong learning, Blended & Hybrid system of learning and also highlighted the benefits of the National Credit Bank idea proposed by the NEP- 2020. 
 
Director General of International Chamber for Service Industry Dr. Gulshan Sharma in his plenary address while highlighted the importance of the service industry in India said that more than 200 million people will be added in the global workforce by India by 2030 and as such great opportunities lie ahead for Indian graduates who pursue their education with interest and passion. He invited the teachers to make education relevant, go back to basics and submit to the call of curiosity, innovativeness, and humility to succeed in life. 
 
President Amity University Science, Technology and Innovation Foundation Dr W Selvamurthy, while delivering his plenary address on “Power of Innovation, Science & Research in 21st century” said that the universities of India should be empowered with the innovation eco-system so that innovation at all levels could be pursued to support the accelerated growth of relevant research, IPR and innovative product development. Dr Selvamurthy called upon the teacher participants to cause incremental, sustaining, disruptive and radical innovations to empower India with breakthrough technologies and accelerated growth of start-ups.  
 
Executive Director of Young Lives, India Dr Renu Singh in her plenary address on “Is our curriculum doing justice with the 21st Century Skills” invited the teacher participants to seriously revisit both the curriculum design as well as content delivery and develop new tools for assessment of the 21st Century Skills imparted and imbibed by the learners of modern age. 
 
Pro Vice Chancellor AUH Dr Padmakali Banerjee in her thought-provoking address on “Pedagogical Eclecticism and Learning innovation in the digital age” said that we need to nurture abilities of adoptability and flexibility both in the students and teachers to cope up with the challenges of education tomorrow. The digital age offers immense opportunities to innovate the learning environment. 
 
Prof. Vikas Madhukar, Dy Pro Chancellor and Dean of Management Studies, at AUH invited the participants to support the development of entrepreneurship ecosystem in their institutions and foster enterprising spirit among the students to boost the rise of start-ups and innovation incubation. 
 
Distinguished Bio-Scientist and former Vice President of Indian Nation Science Academy, present Dean of Research Dr Rajendra Prasad while delivering his plenary address on “Healthcare: Where Will We Be in 2050?” said that the future of medicines will be of ‘Precision Medicines’ that will be tailored to the needs of an individual to combat the disease and metabolic disorder. While stressing that   genetic similarity between human and a human   is 99.9% nobody in world has similar DNA of you.  This diversity is possible because of millions of differences in the alphabets of DNA and epigenetics changes influence by the environmental factors.  The old idea that genes are ‘set in tone’ has been disproven. Nature vs Nurture is no longer a debate but a reality. Giving a hope for good health and long life for all and even mastery over death by 2050, Prof Prasad shared the mind-boggling advances taking place in the field of life sciences research and invited the teachers to enjoy the excitement of research in their own domain areas and carry this excitement to the classrooms. 
 
In her plenary address on Mental health: A fundamental component of human development, Prof. Surinder Jaswal, Deputy Director (Research) at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai said that “there is no health without mental health” and as such a greater attention is required to develop emotional maturity and mental health of the students. Prof Jaswal further inspired the teachers to reach out to the community along with their students to spread awareness about mental health in the community.  
 
Dr Gunjan M. Sanjeev. Vice President (Amity Education Group) & Director - International Affairs, delivered her address on “Internationalization in Higher Education” and said that great opportunities for internationalization at home and maximizing the global connect are now available as power of connectivity has created a highly enriched environment for global cooperation in education and research.  Dr Gunjan also shared the strategic framework for strengthening internationalization in universities in India.  
  
In his words of wisdom Dr. Aseem Chauhan, Hon'ble Chancellor, Amity University Haryana said, “Teachers have to play a pivotal role   as leaders in their domain areas and should work as mentors. For this they need to regularly upgrade their knowledge base as well as technology Skills. Much of this upgradation should be self-motivated. Teachers should have the capabilities to adopt advanced technologies and should have the willingness to experiment with innovative technologies to improve learning outcomes. National education policy has provided a great opportunity for globalization and growth and is important to be implemented. University rankings would greatly improve by maximizing the university outcome in respect of quality of education, research publications and a more effective translation of research into innovations and new product developments said Hon’ble Chancellor Dr Aseem Chauhan.  
 
Delivering the valedictory address Dr Rakesh Bhatnagar, former Vice Chancellor BHU and currently Vice Chancellor Amity University Rajasthan said that “We teachers must enjoy our profession then only we can give our best to the noble profession of teaching and research. We need also to promote out of box thinking in our teachers as well as students and engage in learning beyond classrooms in collaborative learning, collaborative research and cause an upsurge of innovation and new product developments to empower India with accelerated growth of science and technologies of the new age of knowledge”.   
  
Addressing the valedictory function Prof P B Sharma, Vice-Chancellor, Amity University Haryana said, “the new normal of higher education necessitates a thorough revisit of education and research ecosystem in universities and colleges in India to create a great Advantage India in higher education and support the Society and Nation’s development on pathways of inclusive growth and nurturing of human excellence”. Prof Sharma expressed his delight at the august presence of great many eminent educationist who addressed the participants during the Six Days FEP organized by Amity Staff College under the caring patronage of Hon’ble Founder President, Amity Education Group Dr Ashok K Chauhan and visionary leadership of Hon’ble Chancellor Dr Aseem Chauhan. Prof Sharma specially acknowledged the live interactions of the participants and highly intuitive questions raised by them in the chat box as well as in the question answer session for each plenary session. Prof Sharma warmly appreciated the excellent coordination and execution of the FEP by Director Amity Staff College Rear Admiral KK Pandey and Program Director Dr Sanjna Vij.  
 
Expressing their profound happiness in participating the highly insightful FEP at AUH, the participants shared their online feedback and also expressed their profound appreciation of Amity University Haryana for organizing such an impactful Faculty Enrichment Program.  
 
Dr Sanjna Vij, Program Director, Academic Staff College, AUH said that the Staff College is deeply devoted to empowering teachers and Sr Executives of the Universities and Colleges in India with vision and skills of 21st century to nurture education and research excellence in higher education. Rear Admiral KK Pandey (Retd.), HR Director, AUH whilst delivering the Vote of Thanks, highlighted that in a rapidly changing world scenario, the role of Teachers assumes utmost importance. He expressed his profound delight at the level of sincerity and keenness to participate in the deliberations by the faculty participants who closely interacted with the eminent speakers during the sixday Faculty Enrichment Program.   
  
Excellent support for the program was provided by the Amity IT Team headed by Dr JS Sodhi and Shri Sandeep Singh, Dy OSD to VC AUH.