‘Good faculty is the key’

His humble beginnings at Kothakuppam in Gudiyattam taluk in Vellore district gave no indication of the heights he would scale later, but today VIT university’s founder chancellor G. Viswanathan is a happy man, in that he has achieved what he always longed to: to make Vellore famous, and not only for CMC hospital, but also for a world class engineering institution which would make people sit up and take notice. Walking down memory lane in an interaction with the editorial staff of DT Next recently, Mr. Viswanathan, who became an MP at 26 and later the TN government’s cooperation minister in the early 1900s, revealed why VIT is what it is today. It all started in the 1980s when MG Ramachandran was the TN chief minister. Mr. Viswanathan was then the AIADMK MLA for Anaicut constituency. Wanting Vellore district to develop, he requested MGR for an engineering college in the locality. MGR bluntly told him he had no cash to spare, but offered to give official permission if he (Viswanathan) was willing to start one. In those days, Anna University did not exist and a total of 26 colleges were affiliated to Madras University. So he got the permission and started the Vellore Engineering College (VEC) with three engineering branches that were located in a rented building at Abdullapuram near the Vellore aerodrome. The first and second years were completed on these premises, but what made the college a hit was when the 19841988 batch won eight of the nine gold medals awarded by Madras University. 

This was a turning point. The college soon started getting students, initially from Andhra Pradesh. Today, VIT has students from all over India and nearly 50 countries. “I always believe that good faculty motivates students best and VIT’s advantage has always been in getting good teachers, who, in turn, attract good students,” said Mr. Viswanathan. The college is home to students who are ambitious and eager to excel. The cosmopolitan atmosphere is one reason why companies flock the campus for placement. Currently, 42 languages are spoken on the campus. And to ensure that this momentum continues, VIT provides coaching in six languages: French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and Arabic. Tamil and Hindi are also taught to ensure a pan-Indian presence for student placement. “The success of the institution is based on the success of its students,” said Mr. Viswanathan and it’s the alumni who act as brand ambassadors for the institution. He therefore makes it a point to meet alumni wherever he goes. Mr. Viswanathan, who refers to VIT as ‘the father’s house’ and students who pass out being the ‘daughters’, asks them to visit their alma mater once a year. He started the practice of January 26 (Republic Day) being called ‘Alumni Day’. In 2015, this day witnessed nearly 3,000 alumni descending on the campus with their families. “VIT even arranged cradles for infants,” he added. The interaction with alumni continues even after they leave the portals of the institution. 

Accreditation stamp 

VIT was the first to seek British accreditation in 2005. Then it got accreditation from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) from the US where students in ABET-accredited courses could join a Master’s programme or practice in the US without passing special exams. Today 14 VIT courses are ABET-accredited, including 10 at the Vellore campus and four at its Chennai campus. This enables students to spend two years of their course period at VIT and another two years at a foreign university with which the institute has a twinning programme. This makes students industry ready. “This year VIT plans to go in for twinning programmes with universities in the US, UK and Canada,” said Mr Viswanathan. Such initiatives apart, the institute’s publications also establish its credentials amply. “Publications prove an institution’s seriousness in research — and VIT has always favoured this,” he points out. “This year, VIT ranks second to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. As regards H index stories — an author-level metric that measures productivity and citation impact of a scientist/scholar’s publications – VIT, which now ranks below the IITs, plans to catch up within three years,” he added.

Mr. Viswanathan has always been passionate about the government increasing its funding of research. “Top universities abroad spend up to Rs 15,000 crore on research whereas in India, the IISc is the top spender at Rs 700 crore, followed by the IITs with Rs 400 crore, while private universities spend up to Rs 30 crore,” he said. Where there is no cash input from the Union government directly, funding has been through various departments like the department of biotechnology and department of science and technology, he said. With GDP spent on education being less than 4 per cent, Mr Viswanathan aims to  double this ‘so that more can be achieved’. Asked if mushrooming colleges were a good trend, Mr. Viswanathan said that of the 14 crore children in India, only 3 crore benefit from higher education through 40,000 colleges and 800 universities. Hence there was ample scope for more colleges.

Understanding that innovation is necessary for progress, VIT was the first to introduce the fully flexible credit system (FFCS) where a student chooses the course, teachers and timings. This year, more importance is to be accorded to lab projects, with additional marks being given for attending practical classes while industry experts are roped in to provide practical knowledge one day a week. VIT has always been student-centric, he said and added when cell phones were banned in colleges VIT decided not to follow suit after consulting students. There have been no complaints on this score. The institution has 17,000 boys and 4,000 girls residing on campus: girls form one-third of the student population.  Under VIT’s STARs programme, rural students who top their school finals are chosen for free education in the course that they pick. VIT trains them in English and such students are on par with others in the second year, he said. A special higher education trust has provided scholarships to more 1,650 students of whom more than 1,000 are girls. They are provided tuition and college fees.