Slug: [Tête-à-Tête]

Dr Balaji Appointed Pro Vice Chancellor at IMU

Dr Rajoo Balaji has been recently appointed as Pro Vice Chancellor at Indian Maritime University. Dr Balaji- DMET 76-80 batch, Chief Engineer, gradually turned to academics with a Masters in Maritime Management and a Doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering/Maritime Technology (UTM, Malaysia) with a modest collection of indexed / cited publications to his credit. He has also been an Editor of the magazine Marine Engineers Review read across the maritime industry.

Since 2019 Dr Balaji has been the Director of IMU Chennai Campus and the Dean In-Charge of the University for the academic year 2022-23.

During his tenure as Pro V-C, Dr Balaji hopes to add value not only to IMU but also to the maritime community and to our aspirations of making India a stronger maritime nation.

Dr Balaji interacted with our Consulting Editor, Padmesh Prabhune at length on various issues, excerpts of which are reproduced here:

Having taken charge as Pro VC, what will your immediate focus be?

The mandate, of course, is to support the Office of the Vice Chancellor. However, there are many initiatives at various stages of development which require traction. On the Academic front, operationalising the new Ph.D ordinance, Minor Degree options in Marine Engineering, effective delivery of Micro Credit Courses elective options, inland vessel personnel training etc., would be a few priority tasks.

Few planned engagements with institutions of repute such as IIT-Madras, Erasmus UPT, Rotterdam etc., are other enterprises in focus. On the R&D front, the establishment of the Innovation Centre with support from the Ministry is a priority. Giving impetus to the Policy Research Cell inaugurated last year is also in the top priority bracket.

What are courses currently held…Do you plan to bring changes at IMU?

Traditional programmes for sea and shore careers are firmly on course. An industry-oriented MBA programme is also on the anvil; this will be for CoC holders, especially those who do not possess formal degrees. We are hopeful of its launch in the coming year. Offer of Minor Degree options based on credit accumulation from other recognised platforms such as NPTEL MOOCs is a change already in stream. Dual Degree Programmes are being contemplated with DGS.

We are gearing up to accommodate a few models out of the new education policy such as Academic Credit Bank System, etc.  But this requires better clarity and system maturity. There are significant initiatives in parallel driven by the Maritime India Vision 2030 document as well.

Given the ongoing discourses on gender equality, do you plan any new initiatives for encouraging girl students/ cadets at the University?

This has been a constant endeavor and it is an agenda close to our Vice Chancellor’s mind. Recently, an agreement was inked with BW Global for providing a fee sponsorship of 50 girl cadets every year, with assurances of training berths on M/s Synergy’s vessels. Industry support in this form, best girl cadet awards, and MTT’s support for girl students are a few other existing measures encouraging girls to choose a sea career.

There will be more to come. There are events planned to promote the awareness amongst school children also. IMU has steadily seen a growth in girl cadets’ numbers from 9 in 2014 to over 200 in 2022. Of course, the girl students’ population has been healthy for our MBA and BBA programmes.

Do you plan to revamp the curriculum or say introduce any extracurricular activities so as to have overall balanced professional growth?

Yes. Post pandemic, we have notched up students’ participation in sports and other activities. This has paid dividends and our students have been winning competitions rather regularly. One homegrown extra-curricular event is the IMO Mock Competition of which the third edition is coming up. In this instance, we expect participation from a few foreign Institutes also. This has been possible only because of the support from DMET Alumni, IME(I),  and the industry. We intend sending the winners to the actual IMO sessions in due course. Similar reward models of sending deserving students to foreign ports (e.g., Antwerp) have been well received. We intend to keep this extra-curricular action dynamic.

–Marex Media