It was the Director-in-Charge who appointed me as Dean (PG Studies & Research) and when the full time Director took over, I had two more years in the three-year term which I was allowed to complete. During those two years, with the cooperation of the director and my colleagues, a few things could be done as already indicated. While I was Dean, I was just teaching one theory course only. This was a great relief for me even in those days I was too busy with administrative work. I was still enjoying my teaching work and hopefully majority of my students too. As the term of Dean (PG&SR) was coming to an end, I was happy to return to my department to continue my teaching work and do some possible research which I could not do during these three years sitting in the administrative block. Then one of those days, a messenger from the director came to me and asked me whether I am interested in taking over the post of the Dean Planning & Development. I told him I was not interested as I was not at all keen to swim in unfamiliar waters. Moreover, as already indicated, Dean (P&D) was the person critical in spending the grants available for development of infrastructure. As CVO, I have found this to be a job that can be dirty. Anyway, as the person who was Dean(UG) gladly took up this job, and so this did not come as a formal offer from the boss.
As I was the senior most
professor, I was acting as Director in charge
whenever the director
was away. On a few occasions when there
was some serious difference of opinion between some of
the Deans and Director, I had also played the role
of a fire-fighter on his request. Probably because of
these reasons, he must
have thought that I can
be useful if I am retained in
the administrative block. So,
he asked me in what role I can continue in
the administration. At that
time, NITC had about 20 or more students from
abroad mostly from South Asian countries
(SAARC) and from a few African countries. It
was thought that it will be
good if a senior professor is available to help them in their
admission, visa renewal and other official
matters. It was also desirable to have one to
communicate with the
central government departments
like Indian Council for Cultural Relations(ICCR). So, I
suggested that one possibility is to put
me as International Liaison Officer of
the college. However, I found
that the work involved was very little.
Therefore, I told him further that I
have some unfinished work as Dean which I wanted to
do such as academic audit. So, I
thought I can add another work as Coordinator
Academic Quality Management Initiatives. Director gladly agreed to
my suggestion and created a new position in
the administrative set up as
International Liaison Officer and Coordinator Academic
Quality Management.( the name of the post
was suggested by me, but he
approved it graciously). He got the approval from
the Board of
Governors to declare this newly
created post as equivalent to that of a Dean
and he was kind enough to sanction an allowance equivalent to that of
Dean. I was given an office room in the
administrative block and one assistant was allotted
to help me in office work, even though I did not
need such an assistance as most of my official letters were
being compiled and typed by me directly using my
personal computer.
I started doing this work in
addition to the departmental work allotted to me.
First, I called a meeting of the foreign
students admitted to the college and individually checked up whether
they have any difficulties in
their academic pursuits, accommodation, food and
other living conditions. I promised them that they can approach me
any time if they have any problem and I will try my best to
solve them with the advice from
the director and other administrative officers of the
college. The students were mostly from SAARC countries, about ten
students from Sri Lanka, three from Nepal and two from Kenya and one from
Ethiopia. When they are admitted, the local police had to
be informed with a copy of their passport and visa and they
had to be issued permission to
leave the country and re-enter when they
are eligible to take holidays for going home.
Indian Council for Cultural Relations- ICCR was
an autonomous body under Ministry of External affairs and
we started some correspondence with the
representative of the organization with his office in
Thiruvananthapuram for participating in cultural affairs.
This officer had conducted a meeting in
Calicut University. Quite a few students from Afghanistan
had been admitted to Calicut university as
a part of the agreement signed between our Prime Minister
with Afghan President after the power from Taliban
was taken over. Along with our foreign students, we
attended the meeting and got acquainted with
the students from Afghanistan. As a part of
the one-day workshop held at
Calicut university, I presented my
views on how one should behave in a foreign country and
familiarise themselves with the customs and traditions of
the foreign soil as early as possible. My
pleasant experience in Singapore and Turkey and expensive travel in USA and UK proved very
handy for this interaction with the
foreign students in the group. There was a cultural
programme organised by ICCR in
the Calicut city in which all our students participated.
As Coordinator Academic Quality Management, my
effort was mainly to develop the format
for Academic Audit which we had done at the
end of a two-day workshop on the same as mentioned in
the last episode. However, ice water was
thrown on
these efforts because of the ego of a
few heads of departments
who thought there is none better
than themselves in the most unacademic manner and
the director’s lukewarm attitude to the
whole effort in spite of his high voltage enthusiasm in the
beginning.
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