Vikrant Group of Institutions

Prof. Kuldeep Pathak is the HOD, Civil Department at Vikrant Group of Institutions. He believes in providing experiential learning with much focus on practical learning and training according to the industrial trends. He ensures that students learn from various sources to be on the top and outshine others. Read here what he has to say in his interview

How does the curriculum of Vikrant Institute ensure the best practice of industry?

“There are many practices that we bring into picture to help students learn”

The rapid development in the field of technology is changing every possible domain. With that in mind, the academic curriculum has become much more than a course. So, there is a need for changing the curriculum as per the industrial demand. Vikrant offers various programs to bridge the gap between industries and students, such as:

  1. Faculty training program- In this faculties are trained in the emerging areas so that they can teach students efficiently. It is generally a 4 to 5 days program in which the faculty is trained on practical grounds and provided with a certificate in the successful completion of the training. For example, recently in the past month, we have organized an FDP sponsored by TEQIP, RGPV Bhopal on Recent Trends in Science and Technology.
  1. Workshops and seminars/webinar for Students - Industries regularly conduct workshops for students in emerging areas of technology. By this, students can interact directly with industry experts and learn best practices followed in industries. Every month several seminars & webinars are organised with the help of industry experts and academicians who address the students on relevant subjects. Recently we have organised webinars in association with various Government or Non-govt bodies to help students.
  1. Industrial visits and training (Online & Offline)- Industrial visits and various vocational training programs are a pivotal part of our curriculum where our students undergo the real working environment and learn how the industry functions. It helps them to understand their interests and field. Besides, several online training sessions are also being offered to the students for which we have collaborated with several organizations.

Any insights into how your university could be more welcoming to students of different races or economic backgrounds?

“We keep an inclusive approach and welcome diversity with open mindset”

We welcome and embrace diversity. Thus, we keep an inclusive approach. There are various chairman's scholarship schemes given to eligible students, e.g. Every year we adopt five daughters who are single daughters to their parents and give them free education. This year we gave the outstanding scholarship to those students who lost their family members due to COVID19. Various scholarships and financial aids are offered to minorities and low-income students. We also have a Dedicated Diversity Office which helps all the students in the best way and resolved their issues.

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What do you think your roles and responsibilities to the Institute and the students are?

“An essential responsibility of a professor is to provide high quality pedagogy”

The primary responsibility of a professor is providing the highest quality classroom teaching, including each student in the class. One must use better devices, programs, and online technologies and new methodologies to improve and to make the teaching and learning process enjoyable. It is crucial to incorporate the latest research, knowledge, and theory in classroom interaction to make students vigilant about the latest developments. For the same, we have collaborated with great learning, and we are also developing a new teaching methodology called ALAS, i.e. Active Learning Assignment System. One of the most prominent roles a teacher has is that of a mentor. Students look up to teachers and may pattern their behaviour and work ethic to match the instructor. For the same, we have a unique Monitoring system, which is developed by us to make the parent aware of every activity and growth of their child. A teacher has to provide academic and career guidance and encourage students to do better day by day. 

What do you think should be the Institute’s top priority over the next 10 years?

“We want to become a centre of excellence”

The top priority will be to become the centre of excellence in education in Central India having the biggest research hub centre in the field of science and technology, a world-class research centre which will offer an appropriate academic environment among the academia. Apart from this, we want to increase the reach of higher education to the students who belong to rural areas and poor economic backgrounds as we believe that the real talent is hidden in these areas only, who need a pushing and guiding force.

What are some plans that you’re currently (or will be) designing for Vikrant Institute international affairs and/or students?

“We have designed an attractive method of preaching students”

We have designed an attractive method of teaching and learning, i.e. ALAS (Active learning assessment system), which is a training approach for the students to mitigate the problem of laziness, and memorization. It also improves alertness in the class. It works on 3 T's principal - Teach-Test-Train, which helps students to improve their writing and presentation skills, and develops a healthy competitive spirit between the students. It has a proper monitoring and guidance system which allows students to understand their mistakes one to one. For encouragement, this program has a well-done credit card system also, which we give weekly to the best performers, and it motivates the students to do better and better every week. We have also introduced a zero hour in our curriculum, which helps students to do mandatory practicals, live projects, creative things on their own, followed by clearing their doubts with the respective faculty.

Any suggestions you would like to give to the current youth and the aspiring students?

“The generation today is impatient and should bring in best values to be successful”

Today’s generation is very impatient with respect to everything, which leads to many negative consequences and habits. Thus they should follow the below factors:

  1. Give values to life, education and freedom: If you give high value to these three things, it will affect the choices you make. For example, if you value your life, you will think twice about Taking intoxicant substances. If you value your education you won’t cheat, you work hard. 
  2. Meditation and yoga: It will lead not only a physically healthy life but also a healthy heart and mind. It will help them to maintain emotional stability; there have been incidents that go bad due to a loss of dynamic control. So, yoga will help them in developing focus, patience and emotional stability.
  3. Find a mentor: Find someone who you know has your best interest at heart. Who is responsible and mature enough. It can be your parents, siblings or teachers, as they will be an unconditional and lifelong source of love and support, who can guide you what is best for your well-being. 

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

“Bringing skill based education is a persisting challenge”

The biggest challenge which we as a nation sees is the inadequate focus on research in higher educational institutes. The lack of capital allotment for research at institutional level leads to lack of instruments and tools needed for the examination. There are minimal resources and facilities available for analysis. The students need to go or send their samples to different places to get the results of their experiments. We are going to solve this problem for central India soon while developing a better research centre or I should say an incubation centre.

Considering today's trend in industries, the demand in future would be skills, not degrees. So, it's imperative to focus on skill development. Vikrant is working hard to set up Start-up, new business models and incubation centre, which would help students on a larger scale to gain practical knowledge and set up their businesses.

What do you see as Vikrant Institute’s greatest strengths?

“Our developmental model is our greatest strength”

The biggest strength of Vikrant is it’s “development model” which focuses on the overall development of the student which helps a student to become tailor-made for the industry, Vikrant has different authorities dedicated towards the other aspects of the development model. We have a separate department working towards the communication programs for our students. We have NCC, which plays a vital role in discipline and physical fitness, dedicated incubation centre along with the smart city of Gwalior, which gives industrial exposure to our students and many more.