“Devote crucial time towards building the career, respect each other,” suggests Dr. Ashok Diwakar to the students

Interview by Arjun Verma

Dr. Ashok Diwakar is presently working as the Vice Chancellor of Starex University Gurgaon. He has been working as the vice chancellor of Starex University for the past 15 years. He comes from a background in the banking industry prior to teaching and education. He is committed to help the students fulfill their dreams and aspirations. He holds a vision to transform his students, first of all into good human beings and then into competent professionals, and aims to realize this dream through innovative pedagogy and persistent interaction with business and industry. His aim is to work with his students to design vibrant educational plans and their individual goals.

Dr. Ashok Diwakar’s experience in the education industry

Starting from my career, I have been a student of Regional Development form Jawahar Lal Nehru University. I am a Ph.D holder and I was the Principal of Govt Girls College, Sec-14 Gurgaon for 3 years after holding the same designation in the Govt Girls College, Sec-9 Gurgaon. I also served as the registrar in SGT University, Gurgaon, and the vice-registrar of Mahila Viswavidyala, Khanpur (in Sonepat). After this I taught Geography and Regional Development for the next 30 years acquiring designations like Professor, chancellor and vice-chancellor. I have 12 research papers and 16 books on the subject Geography. All the while I enjoyed being the part of education industry as this is the one industry that gives you great pleasure from the simple fact that we are giving back to the society.

Leading by example is the leadership style of Dr. Diwakar

As a leader I always think of benefitting my staff and students directly in the terms of growth, personality development, skill development and finally a good placement. I used to be a strict class teacher here in starex due to which there have never been any mass bunks in my class that’s why Students perform their curriculum actively. We share all the reports with the parents and I believe that leading by example is essential.

Significant challenges faced by Dr. Diwakar as the Vice Chancellor of University.

We get challenges that come from the society itself. Some parents have financial issues and many do mind their daughters reaching home late due to practicals or classes. Finding good faculty is also a challenge in today’s time. Students come from different socio-economic backgrounds, bringing and sustaining them on the right track is also a challenge. We do keep counselling our students from time to time.

Read more about faculty available at Starex University

Our curriculum provide good industry exposure to students

I believe that it is very essential today to provide good industry exposure to students. We organize events and workshops in campus to give them the best insight of the industry. Also, we have industry collaborations. We assess the students continuously through practicals, assignments and tests. We also take them on industry visits. This helps in the overall grooming of the students and also gives the students coming from comparatively rural background to get good exposure. We also invite experts from the industry to visit our campus and enlighten our students. Also, we counsel students from time to time about various social issues, hygiene, curriculum, career opportunities, etc. We offer courses according to the capability of our students so that they can excel accordingly.

Growth of students through placement opportunities

As I said we are highly industry oriented. We have successfully placed 99% of our students in the past years because we do take efforts to understand the capabilities of students. I personally have always been able to submit good placement records to my management.

Read more about placements opportunities available at Starex University

Dr. Diwakar makes schedule on a daily basis for establishing a relationship with students

We make our schedule on a daily basis regarding meeting with students. If today I meet the management students, tomorrow’s day would be reserved for the engineering students. If I am interacting with the engineering students I would probably send the registrar or some other dignitary to visit the students of some other course, understand their problems and pen it down on a piece of paper and then bring it to me. After 2 pm, I am mostly on rounds in the university and I attend the students as and when they come to me for anything.

An ideal school environment involves peoples who stays together with peace and harmony

My ideal school environment would include parents who support their children. They should support them and also go hand in hand with the faculties. Our faculties are strictly told not to harass the students physically or mentally. We ask them to counsel the students about everything. Everybody should stay together with harmony and peace, and create an environment for growth and learning.

Qualities for aspiring candidates

Hard work, passion, perseverance and positive attitude towards life

Goals for institute for the next few years

We started with 120 students, and today have about 500. I aim for the next 2 years to make this number 2000. I aim at making Starex University one of the top universities and give employment to all our students, and be known in the industry as an organization with the best curriculum and environment for learning

Suggestions for current youth and the aspiring students

I would want to give a message to my students and advise them to always respect their parents, teachers and fellow beings. They must devote their crucial time towards building the career, respect each other and become successful individuals of the future.