MMU college of pharmacy, Professor: Dr. Vaseeha Banu Interview

Dr. Vaseeha Banu T.S is a Professor in Pharmaceutics at M.M.U. College of Pharmacy, Ramanagara. She completed her M. Pharm from Al-Ameen College of Pharmacy, Bangalore, and Ph.D. from JNTUA, Ananthapuramu. She has 13 years of experience in teaching and research. She has published 15 research articles in National and International journals. She has also presented papers in IPC and APTI and other conferences held in India. She is serving as an editorial member in many national and international peer-reviewed journals. She is a question paper setter both for UG & PG examination in Pharmacy and works as a reviewer for wing research under RGUHS Bangalore.

What are your roles and responsibilities towards the students?

“My role and responsibility are to organize interactive doubt clearing sessions between teachers and students”

There must be some interactive sessions between a faculty and a student to create a friendly atmosphere. I focus on effective classroom teaching, academic advising, and counseling of students. We are required to set standards amongst the students and teach them to face the challenges of the world. Comprehensive student orientation programs, learner-centered courses, advising, and mentorship are organized at regular intervals. My responsibility is to crave a better career and future for students and focus on the continuous development of the curriculum through assessment and implementation of research or scholarly activities. It is done by cultivating Professionalism through rational ways of thinking and performing and by nurturing and applying Innovative solutions or research with consequences and potentials.

How do you tend to establish healthy relations with the students and fellow faculty? 

“Positive Attitude helps me in establishing healthy relations among the students and faculty members”

I follow the following steps to establish healthy relations among the students and faculty members:

• Teacher-focused mastery learning should give away to student-focused smart learning.
• An educational institution should provide the student with a stress-free atmosphere for learning and developing his intellectual capabilities.
• Every college should have a counseling center to address the problems of students in their academic and personal life
• By keeping up better interactions among us (students/faculty)
• Try to understand the situation and have the patience to listen.
• Teach with passion and enthusiasm, find out about their interests
• Invest time to understand students and their skills

How do you make the Course Curriculum industry-oriented?

“To bridge the gap between the practical and theoretical skills of students”

I make the course industry-oriented in the following ways :

• Encouraging Students to come out with their ideas and suggestions in any aspect of education and especially be focused on innovative research
• Conducted workshop from industries experts, 3D visual classes for better understanding
• By training the students to improve their presentation skills and their personality
• A research-oriented way of learning is more effective rather than mugging up a lot of theory.

What are the best practices offered by the department to the students which help them gain necessary skills? 

“Providing students with training programs like personality development, workshops in the guidance of experts”

• By giving students presentations and explaining in an easy manner
• By emphasizing industrial and practical exposure.
• The importance of commitment and awareness are the strong elements of TQM.
• To promote innovation culture by creating an environment and encouraging young minds with ideas and thinking out of box approaches

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How do you strategize and update the curriculum? 

“By constructing new syllabus every five years”

• By re-evaluating goals or objectives
• Take educational and modern teaching trends into consideration
• The application of TQM to the educational system improves the present situation.
• Introducing specializations at the graduation level will result in professional expertise and excellence.
• Focusing and job/research-oriented approach towards education.
• Making the education at the post-graduation level more research-oriented and gives the student chances to think for super specializations simultaneously.
• In this way educating our students with deeper knowledge in the concerned subject and nourishes the professionalism within them.
• The rational and logical way of career development.
• By nurturing and applying Innovative solutions or research with consequences and potentials.
• Pharmaceutical educational institutes must continue to upgrade themselves to provide relevant, contemporary, and quality programs for superior pharmaceutical health care.

What are your views on higher education about the students from your department?

“Encourage students of our department to join higher education of pharmacy”

The main aim is to enable the sustainability of a pharmacy workforce that is relevant to local needs. Ensure that educational programs are evidence and competency-based, of high quality, and meet the needs of the people, the pharmacists, and their country.

How do you help your student to cope up with the competition? 

“By teaching students collaboration as a value and skill set”

• By providing new generation technology and information to keep students ahead in mindset.
• Helping students learn through their strengths.
• Teach students to use their brain manual by imaging pictures and experimenting with new stuff.

Do you have any extracurricular programs to enhance the skills of the students?

“Providing Students with skill-enhancing programs and making them aware of the real-world challenges”

The extracurricular programs that we have to include the following:

• Providing internships.
• Technological skills
• Providing work experiences
• Athletic participations

What are the challenges you faced to uplift the quality of education of your department?

“To achieve due recognition as a pharmacist as a healthcare professional is the biggest challenge”

• To achieve due recognition of pharmacists as healthcare professionals, pharmacy education and course curriculum at diploma/degree level should be restructured to meet the needs of present-day health care. 
• Creating a responsible pharmacist through education and community service will go a long way in providing health care to humanity as they offer endless opportunities for serving mankind.
• Framing Guidelines will identify the four main responsibilities of pharmacists: health promotion and ill-health prevention; supply and use of prescribed medicines and other health care products; identified the four main responsibilities of pharmacists: health promotion and ill-health prevention; supply and use of prescribed medicines and other health care products
• Good job opportunities will promote competent professionals to enter the field of health care which in turn will uplift the status of not only an individual but also of the pharmacy profession along with serving society and mankind.

What are the approaches you bring in apart from curriculum to teaching the students?

“Provide students with an atmosphere to nourish their internal skills and qualities”

• The changing global scenario has prompted pharmacists to adopt new concepts for the welfare of society. Such concepts include retail pharmacist, pharmaceutical journalist, academic pharmacist, clinical pharmacist, hospital pharmacist, etc.
• The institutions should change their mindset to promote innovation culture by creating an environment and encouraging young minds with ideas and thinking out of box approaches.
• much emphasis should be given to industrial and practical exposure. Clinical and practical training should be given more importance and made a part of the curriculum.
• Living labs and user-driven innovations: Focus on people and process development.

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What do you see as the college’s greatest strengths and how it can be enhanced?

“Qualified and experienced staff in an institution is the greatest strength”

The College’s greatest strengths are as follows:

• The senior staff coordinates all the activities related to improving the quality of education in an institution. Believing in working as a team makes the process more easy and effective rather than a compartmentalized effort.
• Individual attention & responsiveness. Hands-on projects.
• Implementing technology to help track student progress and learning.
• Use practical applications to demonstrate the usefulness of contents. Provide PowerPoint outlines with highlighted important concepts. 
• Web design and computers. Hands-on training for programs.
• Day or night; on campus or off flexible learning and Easy material, easy reading.
• Collaborative projects, student-centered assignments, videos (with periodic questioning),

What advice would you like to the students for them to have a prosperous career ahead? 

“Stay focused, grow your skills and knowledge”

I would like to advise the students that they should keep their skills up-to-date. They should seek internship opportunities and consider taking part in a work-study program.