Dr. Sharvey Dhongde is the Professor and Academic Coordinator at Dr. Bhanuben Nanavati College of Architecture for Women [BNCA]. He has been a motivation to all his students during his teaching career of almost two decades and holds a rich experience in this industry. He strongly believes in engaging in the real fieldwork for his architecture students.

BNCA Pune

As an academic Co-ordinator, what are the key factors that keep you connected with the education sector?

“Teaching & guiding the students to stay abreast with the latest advances”

Throughout my teaching career of 18 years, my students have been my prime motivation to remain in the teaching profession. While the education sector is the best to satisfy your thirst for new knowledge and keeping ahead of the field, my satisfaction comes from influencing and training young minds with this knowledge and helping them mold themselves into professionals of tomorrow’s world. 

How do you describe your roles and responsibilities at this institution?

“Not just academic, but social and technical activities to promote students overall growth”

At BNCA, roles and responsibilities are very fluid. Though I am the Academic Co-ordinator, you will find me working with the accounts department or planning the annual social. The bulk of my work of course is related to the academic running of the college as well as academic growth, development of new ideas and programs, ensuring the quality of education, and working towards giving our students a wholesome learning experience. 

What is your opinion on the New Education Policy 2020? And how will it benefit the students to become corporate ready?

“It brings flexible options to curate the courses”

NEP offers many exciting opportunities! We are especially pleased with the flexibility that it will bring in designing our courses, inviting expert faculty from across the country, engaging with field practice, and offering varied learning paths for students to choose from.

Check Dr. Bhanuben Nanavati College of Architecture for Women Courses & Fees

What do you think will be the impact of Covid-19 on the placements of the current academic year?

“A difficult time to handle placements but special measures are taken to ensure opportunities for everyone”

Placements have definitely suffered. In fact, even for internships, we had to take specific efforts to ensure that all our students are placed in offices as per their choice of work. We also help our fresh graduates to establish themselves, but this year, it’s tougher than usual. Our goal is to make our students entrepreneurs than employees, and we are assessing the challenges that Covid-19 has posed in this endeavor.

What are the different industry connect programs/events that take place at BNCA institute to make them industry ready?

“Encouraging our students to participate in real-world competitions to test their ability”

Our academic program creates lots of opportunities to bring in people from the field. This may take the form of guest lectures, industry-based seminars, exhibitions, juries, etc. We also and boost their confidence. We work with field organizations like INTACH, ISOLA, IGBC, etc. so as to expose students to research-based practice. Our exposure is not limited to local and national levels, but we have many programs that give students practical exposure at the international level. Under our United Nations Academic Impact program, our students do hands-on work every year in various counties ranging from Tanzania, Jamaica, Zambia to Hungary and Slovenia.

What are the interventions and approaches you bring in apart from the academic knowledge to train the students?

“Getting out of the confines of the classroom into the real field of the work”

While we are quite rigorous in our classroom teaching, we have almost a parallel program that pulls out students from their classrooms and exposes them to various situations and opportunities. This can range from surveying public toilets in the city for better design interventions to building an entry canopy in bamboo at a professional event, or from documenting heritage structures for professional agencies to assessing gaps in the implementation of the city’s development plan.

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

“Relevancy of the education in the current times, according to industry needs”

The biggest challenge is to make education relevant to the students for their future careers. Many are too content in their own silos- in specializations and exclusivity. But we believe in a more multidisciplinary, more real-life based process of learning. We believe each generation of students that we receive is different and needs a different approach and input. We have to therefore keep our programs dynamic and make them appealing to every new batch. We fear a notion that may easily take root in the students’ minds that college education is too backward or irrelevant to the happening in the world around them. To not let that happen is our biggest challenge. 

Click Dr. Bhanuben Nanavati College of Architecture for Women Placement

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

“One of the most active architecture college with a myriad of student-centric activities”

There may be a general impression that being an only girls college, we may be conservative in our approach and activities. But it is the exact reverse at BNCA. We have a vibrant student community that not only excels in academics but makes its presence felt in the other circles outside college too. We also have the best faculty available and all our teachers share our vision about education. Thus, we all make a rocking team!