Date:22/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/22/stories/2007122260740100.htm

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Professor Kalam goes to Delhi University today

Parul Sharma

To teach at Faculty of Management

Professor Kalam…. All set for a new innings

NEW DELHI: When former President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam begins his teaching stint at Delhi University’s Faculty of Management Studies here this weekend, his class will include not just the Institute students but also some special guests from abroad.

Students from Pakistan’s Lahore University of Management Sciences and MBA students from South Korea who are on a visit to FMS will also get an opportunity to attend the Indian Missile Man’s first lecture this Saturday.

Joining the Institute as Honorary Adjunct Professor, Mr. Kalam will take classes on “Economics, Technology and National Development”.

“Twenty-eight students from Lahore and about 20 executives from South Korea will attend Mr. Kalam’s class. They are here to interact with our B-school community and industry. As this would be Mr. Kalam’s maiden lecture at our Institute, we have allowed them to attend,” said FMS Dean J. K. Mitra on Friday, adding that nearly 90 final year students of FMS had been short-listed to attend the lecture.

After Mr. Kalam’s Presidential term got over, FMS invited him to teach its students as the former President had expressed a desire to teach after demitting office. He has been a Visiting Professor at several academic institutions across the country.

“It was the former President’s desire to interact with a small group. A lot of our students wanted to take the course, but we had to do some filtering. Our alumni too were very keen to attend his lectures. I received a number of calls from around the world, but it could not be worked out,” said Prof. Mitra.

The classroom sessions will be recorded on video and Mr. Kalam is expected to take over half a dozen classes till the end of March, making presentations and providing reading material to his students. The assessment for the course taught by him -- not a regular paper -- will be of a different nature. “There will be no examinations at the end of the course in March/April, but a system for continuous assessment. When we revise our syllabus, we might make the course an integral part of it,” said the Dean.