Prof V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai, the sixth Vice-Chancellor of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi and Chairman of the Distance Education Council (DEC), is a man with two hats. In his capacity, Prof Pillai is responsible for the co-ordination of standards, quality, recognition and developmental assistance for 13 State Open Universities, over 150 Distance Education Institutes and other private Open and Distance Learning institutions in the country.
After joining IGNOU, Prof Pillai he has helped the University achieve greater heights. He has doubled the number of academic programmes by signing many Memorandum of understandings with prestigious companies, associations, and institutes in the country.Talking about the expansion plans of IGNOU, Prof Pillai said that emphasis was on three key areas.
He said that primarily it was to enhance the Gross Enrolment Ratio, optimal utilisation of existing facilities and also to tap infrastructure and intellectual capital available outside the formal confines of the departments of education or Ministry of HRD or the universities.With current student strength of 2.8 million, IGNOU is backed by the services of the main campus and 61 regional offices. Prof Pillai said that in all there are 900 academic level positions in the regional offices across the country spread over 3,000 study centres with 50,000 teachers.
The IGNOU chief said that the varsity was not just a unitary university but had associations with other institutions. He said that they had collaborations with 3,000 public and private institutions. According to the professor, if the quality of teaching and learning process was improved, it would motivate the students to attend classes. The key was improving quality to increase reach, the professor said.
Speaking about the technological tools in use for imparting education, Prof Pillai said that IGNOU was using the VSAT technology called EduSAT to reach people. Also educational programmes were beamed on Gyandarshan on TV and Gyan Vani, the community radio. Also the IGNOU material is available on the internet on a platform called the FlexiLearn. Explaining the Flexi-Learn, Prof Pillai said that IGNOU material was available in tens of thousands of videos on the platform as an Open Education Resource. For appearing for an examination, a student had to shell down a minimum of Rs 100 per paper, the professor said.
Prof Pillai said that IGNOU Act clearly states that the Open University would not only offer various programmes but also assume leadership in promoting distance education in the country.The professor said that under Open University System, the facilities should be opened to students with minimum restrictions. An Open University is an institution which has to be open to ideas, open to people, open to places and open to strategies for providing education, Prof Pillai said.
To take this further, the professor said that IGNOU had combined its pioneering role in distance learning by extending the concept of ‘open education’ to include flexible, face-toface programmes, making use of state-of-theart facilities on-campus as well as on other campuses.He went on to add that for the last several years, INGOU had been offering face-to-face courses/programmes partly or fully. “All the Engineering and Technology programmes, which have their practical and project works, and also have a minimum of 20% face-to-face component, have been offered on campus. B.Sc and vocational programmes are done by direct teaching in recognised academic institutions or industrial establishments. The IGNOU campus infrastructure is well equipped with digital studios and libraries etc. and therefore, selected number of Post Graduate students are being offered these programmes in the campus.These are proposed to be model study centres,” Prof Pillai said, adding that the varsity had several full time regular programmes as per necessary rules, regulations, ordinances, and examination manual, taught by qualified teachers in other institutions with excellent facilities.
The IGNOU vice chancellor reiterated that a mere 5% of the workforce in the country had some sort of a certification. He stressed the need in training a large number of teachers.Giving an example, he said that to streamline the primary education, there was an urgent need for five lakh teachers.
Speaking on the progress of IGNOU in the next five years,Prof Pillai said that they propose to embark on a major academic expansion plan by adding 10 new schools.He said that this would be in line with the University’s commitment to adapting and upgrading the resources to the needs of the student community. The professor said that recently IGNOU had been involved in the National Skills Mission to aid in generating employment in tune with Central Government and State Government schemes.
Addressing the students of BITS Pilani on September 19, 2008, Prof Pillai said that the purpose of education was to improve the quality of life and that BITS was undoubtedly a pioneer in educational innovation for developing a model which had inbuilt mechanism for imparting soft skills and for fostering industry university collaborations. He had words of praise for the work integrated learning philosophy based off campus distance learning programme initiatives of BITS Pilani.
In a career spanning over 37 years, Prof Pillai has been at the helm of many higher educational institutions. He is an active teacher and researcher in the field of Chemical Sciences, who has held post-doctoral and visiting research professor positions in the University of Tübingen (Germany), Mainz, Germany and Lausanne (Switzerland).The professor created an internationally renowned research group in the area of biopolymers and peptides and has about 200 referred research publications to his credit. He has also guided more than 50 doctoral researchers and many of them are leading lights in academia, R&D, and industry in India and abroad. In the field of research, spanning nearly two decades, Prof Pillai has received over 1600 citations. The professor is credited with an international patent for the gram-scale preparation of biologically important peptides.
The IGNOU VC has also served as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), Director of the (NAAC),Bangalore, Vice-Chancellor of the MahatmaGandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, Vice-Chancellor of the Cochin University of Science and Technology, Founder-Director of the School of Chemical Sciences; Dean of Faculty of Science; Controller of Examinations; Director of College Development Council; Founder-Director of the School of Professional Distance Education and Chief, Employment and Information Guidance Bureau of the Mahatma Gandhi University.
The chemistry professor has also many honours to his credit. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presented the Presidential Gold Medal of the Indian Science Congress in January 2008.In 2007, he was conferred the Triennial National M. V.Pylee Award as the Top Academician of India. In 2006, he was conferred the R.R. Varma Foundation Best Teacher Award. In 2005, he received the Indian Chemical Society Award for his life-long research achievements in the area of chemical sciences. In 1996, Pillai received the Materials Research Society of India Lecture Award. His contributions to science and education have also been recognized by the conferment of honorary doctorates.
Born on October 20, 1949, at Cengannur, Kerala, Prof Pillai is married to Geetha Pillai, who isProfessor, School of Letters, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kerala. He has two children P.Balanarayan and P.Gayathri who are research scholars at Pune University and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, respectively.