Proffering a bright future

He is very young for a Vice-Chancellor. And he's already into his second term. Perhaps, it's a reward for his smart handling of the growth JNTU has seen over the last few years. In a free-wheeling chat with R. Ravikanth Reddy, Prof. Y. Venkatrami Reddy, VC of JNTU, explains his future plans.

HIS ULTIMATE dream: making the university into a world class research institute. So, what are his priorities in his present tenure? "I want to see JNTU as a quality research institute," Prof. Reddy explains.

"I enjoyed my tenure, seeing the engineering stream making rapid progress in the last three years. But a lot remains to be done," says the 50-year-old soft-spoken yet articulate electrical engineer. If his grand plans do come to fruition, then JNTU should be in the league of most sought after technological varsities in the world.

Beat this. The administrative building was completed in a record time while the guest house and the Academic Staff College are almost finished. Work is in full swing on the School of Information Technology which, Prof. Reddy says, will be a feather in the cap of the university with state-of-the-art facilities. "We need quality infrastructure to become a world class institute," he explains.

What more. Under his helm, the university has gone global. Several new courses in partnership with foreign varsities -- MSIT programme with Carnegie Mellon University, MBA with Central Michigan University and M.S. in Geo-Environmental Engineering with Kansas State University -- have been introduced.

Talks on collaborative programmes with other US varsities are on.

But the mushrooming of colleges due to burgeoning demand for technical courses has shadowed the quality of education. Indeed, it's a testing time for Prof. Reddy. "We are not going to tolerate inferior facilities and we have a mechanism to oversee the functioning of colleges. Whenever complaints are lodged our teams are sent to check the facilities and infrastructure. But I assure you there will be no compromise on quality," he asserts.

It seems the VC is more than serious on this front. For the first time in the university's history, 750 students were detained in the second year. And despite protests and threats of agitation the professor didn't budge.

On the anxiety among techies in the `land of dreams,' he feels the software bubble has not burst yet. "It's a temporary phase. But it's not the end of the road for information technology," he proffers.

Universities abroad are gauged by their research work and Prof. Reddy sure wants JNTU to be in that league. "There is no dearth of quality teachers and researchers here but what we lack are facilities and opportunities," he stresses.

But how does he plan to give a shape to his dreams? "Money is not a problem. There are several avenues. Several old students have come forward to develop the university and we plan to utilise their resources," he signs off.

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