Mumbai News: MU New V-C Ravindra Kulkarni Has to Dive Straight into NEP, Exam Issues

Mumbai: Ravindra Kulkarni will join as the Vice-Chancellor of the 166-year-old University of Mumbai (MU), at a time when it faces the uphill task of implementing the National Education Policy (NEP), while struggling to resolve some of its entrenched problems related to conducting examinations and declaring results.

Kulkarni served as MU Pro V-C from 2018 to 2022. Ramesh Bais, the state governor and chancellor of all public institutions in the state, selected him after an expert team under the direction of the previous Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), DP Singh, reduced the field of candidates for the top position to five.

At the beginning of his professional life, the chemical engineer worked in Mumbai as a Research and Development Officer for Bombay Oil Industries. He then joined the University Institution of Chemical Technology (UICT) at the Bahinabai Choudhary North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon, as a lecturer in 1994 and went on to become the director of the institution in 2015. Later on, he became the Head of the Department of Oils, Oleochemicals and Surfactants Technology at the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), located in Matunga. He has continued to occupy this post up until the present day. 

At his residence inside ICT campus, Kulkarni was all smiles as the family and friends celebrated the announcement by distributing sweets. He, however, is still awaiting an official appointment letter from the governor's office. 

"This is a challenging time of transition and we are well aware of the expections of all the stakeholders... It is a tremendous responsibility and great opportunity to contribute to the best cause of education and in the best interests of the university," said Kulkarni.

The former MU pro V-C is uniquely positioned to roll out NEP, as he is already working as a member of the state's steering committee for implementing the policy across higher education institutes in Maharashtra. He was instrumental in drafting the the new format and curricular framework for undergraduate and post-graduation courses. 

His biggest challenge will be to bring the varsity's exam house to order. With over 860 affiliated colleges, the varsity has often struggled to conduct semster exams for lakhs of students without glitches and declare results on time. Saddled with age-old softwares and an acute shortage of regular staff, the university's results continued to be riddled with errors.

However, as he takes over the new responsibility, his immediate task would be to put in place the varsity statutory bodies including its senate, academic and management councils and boards of studies. The varsity has been functioning with ad-hoc bodies since September last year after the term of previous bodies came to an end.