'With NEP And Competition, We May Think Of Increasing Fees,' Says Dr Shinde, St Xavier’s Principal

The Mumbai University felicitated the principal of St Xavier's College, Dr. Rajendra Shinde. The award is presented to principals who have been running a college for 5 years and more.

In an exclusive interview with the FPJ, Dr. Shinde elaborated on the various reforms he is bringing to the institution, how he intends on taking the college into the 21st century, winning the Best Principal award, and more. 

Excerpts from the interview: 

How do you think Xavier’s changed over the years? 

We are moving towards a skill-oriented college. It's gonna take a transformation because now we have vanilla courses like arts, or science like BSc. We have to now diversify and introduce more skill-based programmes. If we have to compete with foreign universities coming in, then we have to revamp ourselves. Skill-oriented, more liberal degrees.

Not exactly like the NEP, lots of ifs and buts there. We have to do all this to stay in competition with foreign universities. We will have to think in terms of fees. Fees will have to increase, we cannot survive in this type of fees. Xavier's is a brand. The ID card itself gets respect.

Tell us about the ‘Best Principal’ award that you won recently. 

The Mumbai University has a procedure of recognizing teachers, best colleges, and best principals every year. On the teacher's day, they distribute these awards. So, there was a category for Best Principal Urban and Best Principal Rural. So, I had put in my applications for best principal urban for the year 2022. Because you need to have a minimum 5 years of work put in for that kind of a consideration. 

What are some of the factors behind you getting the award? 

So, basically after I took over, within a year, COVID started. We were autonomous. So, we could do a lot of different things differently. Prior to COVID, we had no online hybrid mode. So, it was difficult for us to shift the gears, shift the mode of teaching, learning, all those things. Also, autonomy is meant for starting new programs. So, I could implement it.

We started MSc Big Data Analytics in collaboration with TCS. So, it is an industry collaboration. We started MSc Physics. It was thought we did not have any agreement signed. But we got good support from IUCAA and TIFR. So, there is a collaboration between the research institution and the college. 

What has Xavier's done for urban spaces outside the campus?

We revamped Malhar in its entirety. It has gone beyond the college walls. They have just had a review meeting for the festival, and they admitted they should restore the glory of Malhar and I think that, yet again, is a result of freedom for initiative. While making my policies, I made it clear that I don't want quantity. You can go for any number of events you have no control over, or you could have a few quality events. That is another thing that's admittedly worked very well for us.

So Malhar has gone beyond the college space, and the people realise that. That has created a good rapport with the public. 

.We must make sure that Xavier's social media presence is felt, and that is how we could improve our ranking still. Because now the youngsters don't read newspapers, it's all online. So I have started using our social media Instagrams, LinkedIn, Facebook. So each and every college activity we've started putting it up online so that again is going urban.

What are some of the other programmes being focused on? 

We started a MA Psychology program, which has gone hit and full the last two years, three years now. And it is full. Lifespan counselling, I think it is a unique program. No other colleges are doing that. We also started one PG Diploma in Expressive Art Therapy. And I think that is most unique. It is nowhere in Mumbai. I think it is run in some other institutions outside Mumbai. Not in Mumbai. We pitched it at a higher range of the price because of the expenditure involved. It is still going full. So, those are the four, five main courses. Along with that, we had started several certificate programs and diploma programs. So, a wide range of courses, mostly skill oriented courses offered to them. 

We have 3 departments, post-graduate departments collaborating together. And doing a project. 3 crores, so 8 crores. Plus we got several grants of DBT which would amount to another 2 to 4 crores together. We have crossed 10 crores in just 5 years. That helped to improve the laboratory facilities which has a cascading effect. Teachers could do their research. We have started schemes like incentive schemes for the teachers, young teachers. Even though they are not permanent. We are giving them seed money, 1 lakh rupees for a project per year.

How would you assess your time at Xavier’s as a principal?

I think that should be asked by our faculty. How did they find it different, if at all?

I have done things slightly differently, but not by much. The legacy was always there, I didn't do things very differently. I gave the teachers a lot of freedom. People come from both sides, except admission times are open all day. Parents are walking in - they find it surprising that the principal of Xavier's is available to talk to them, which compared to Jai Hind, KC, Mithibai, find out where the principal sits.

These are top colleges, but you won't be able to meet the principals easily. I'm available to my faculty. The students are walking in - and giving them freedom all the time, and of course stopping them from doing something wrong, according to my discretion. That has worked quite a bit. There were a lot of restrictions, earlier, as well.

How has the top management reacted to your approach?

They were quite supportive of me, although there were some mixed reactions. From the management's point of view, the fathers, from the fourth floor, as it is popularly known, have been very supportive. I had a lot of freedom to myself to make decisions and implement them. Unless it's a major policy decision where I had to go to them, they wouldn't intervene. And I passed that freedom to my faculty. Many times, taking the right decision at the right time helps. Earlier, the decisions were not taken, they were kept on hold which would waste a lot of time. That probably also helped. Whether it's a good decision or a bad one, you must decide and not keep it pending. That has worked.

Are there any new courses being added? 

Under the NEP, new courses are being added. We recently added Marathi to our curriculum.

Maybe in the long run, we'll have a BA in Marathi. A lot of new combinations were added, we gave more than 80-90 combinations. Obviously we now realise that that is a mistake because that has caused a problem. The time-tables have become staggered because the students have to be available. Next year, we're planning to drop off combinations that are not popular. We will keep a minimum limit for combinations.

Is Xavier's pushing for 4 Jesuit colleges as a university cluster?

Now we have an empowered, autonomous status. Under it, the degree certificate will also have the Xavier's logo along with the Mumbai University logo. The next step under the NEP is that the government will grant the college a degree granting status. The college would now like to walk in the footsteps of Homi Bhabha University, Sydenham University and Elphinstone University.

Xavier's has a very vibrant queer community. Is the college planning on starting any LGBTQ+ friendly clubs? 

No, the college has an inclusion cell where all these activities happen. We don't need to do anything differently or separately.