Rtn. Dr. Indu Shahani, Founding President & Chancellor of ATLAS Skill Tech University
The formation of the ATLAS SkillTech University began in February 2020 when I was invited to be on the skills committee of the Government of Maharashtra. What is a skill tech university? It is where a core discipline is taught with technological intervention and increasing the skills of a person.
So, skill-tech is a progressive concept, amalgamation of a body of knowledge, skills and technology and focussed on skills-led education. These are new-age skills’ education. We have five schools under the university; ISDI, a design school, continues to be one of our prime schools, now offers a Bachelor’s degree in design or vocation. The school of management and entrepreneurship gives a BBA which is not just management, it is also entrepreneurship which is the future.
It gives a B.Voc in financial technologies and there is an MBA. The School of Media gives a BA Hons in media and a B.Voc in e-commerce and MBA. The School of Film and VFX gives a BA Hons in film production and B.Voc in animation and soon, we will go to artificial intelligence and the school of digital technology will start next year.
We are in BKC, a campus within corporates. I wanted to be in Mumbai; we wanted to be the first urban university surrounded by corporates so that when my students graduate, they just cross the road to join any of these companies and sectors. We are fortunate to find an exclusive campus with an open amphitheatre, sporting facilities, outdoor hangouts, learning studios, digital labs, prototyping labs, and a café that attracts them the most. It is all ready to go and this is how our classes are where we bring Board members to the classroom. Soon, Rotarians will also come and speak to my students.
Of course, our academic approach is very different to the normal approach. In 1996, Dr. Manmohan Singh had said to me, “Quality will come to education when students demand it but are we allowing our students to demand it? Are we listening to our students?” Yes, we are, because all our curriculum is co-created with students. The students sit on the board of studies and not just faculty. They decide their elective and more than that we have support from apprenticeship, internships and I will also request Rotarians to come forward with internships and observerships so that they can get experience early in life and understand the practical approach.
Today, it is more about being a generalist than specialist. They want to be multi-disciplinary, trans-disciplinary. We are also co-creating a curriculum with leading universities. The design school is in partnership with Parsons and we are fortunate that they have continued to be our curriculum co-ordinator. Vancouver Film School has joined hands for our film and animation; this is not an acting school; it is film production. Kings College, London; LSE; Colombia University and Berkeley have all joined hands with us for programmes and international linkages.
Our first batch of 913 students has true diversity. I didn’t see this diversity in the HR college because mostly it would be people from Mumbai. Today, I can’t tell you how amazing it is to have 50 per cent students from Maharashtra and the rest from 22 states of India. I never thought I would be able to get someone from Meghalaya, Jammu and Kashmir and it is amazing to see the students around us and the diversity and intellectual capital they bring. It is a lesson for my Maharashtra students because they wouldn’t step out of their states and they don’t know what is happening around the world.
Welcome to the ATLAS Metaverse, being in a digital world, they want to set up a digital university and we have already started it. Can you imagine a journey of a student going through block chain, AI, augmented reality, smart phone and virtual reality? E commerce has now moved to virtual commerce. So, students are better prepared; are you going to teach me with oculus? Yes, we are! Because we co-create our curriculum. Gen Z is waiting to be heard, they want to stop talking about profits and make profits, find out more eco-friendly ways of doing things, they talk about the poor, their actions are based around people, encourage and uplift the youth. They are the future. This is my Gen Z. Their motto is if you can dream it, you can do it.
How do you choose your students? And what is the cost?
We actually look at the academics, but not only that. In HR college, if you have the percentage, you would be in, but here we have our own challenge, we have our own simple aptitude test. It is general and something one should be able to do. It is an interesting way. Today we are struggling with the numbers applying to us. We have 3000 applications for 2023 already and we have started with the tests. The costs are higher than the government colleges but not higher than the private institutions. We do a lot of scholarships for Armed forces, educators and for those who can’t afford.
Are there any companies sponsoring you?
Some give scholarships like Bajaj Electricals, normally the companies help us with curriculum, student internship, placements, setting up centres of different units. Colgate is working in digital marketing and getting insights of young students.
How did you manage to attract students from all-over India in the first year?
We have had a reputation for our design school and management school for the last 7 years and our admissions team travels. They have one day at work and rest 364 days they are travelling. I tell them to go to schools that will never get an opportunity to come to an education like this. So, we do travel. We are fortunate with our admissions.
If someone is doing IB, does IBDB, can he go into ATLAS university or does he have to go abroad?
We started the ATLAS SkillTech, I got IB to India, I used to always wish that I’d be able to create an IB of higher education and today I have succeeded in doing that. I welcome IB students and they are happier here than going to conventional colleges. In fact, I always say if there is Make in India and Skill India then why not Study in India? Why can’t we create world-class educations in India and why should our students always go abroad? I feel under-graduate should be here, post graduate you can look at international opportunities.
At my hospital, we have a very large internship every year. I found that as generations are going by, there is huge sense of entitlement that comes although they have fabulous skills, have you seen that?
It takes time to take them away from that sense of entitlement but who gave them that? Parents. So, now you are leaving it to the educators’ shoulder to move the other way but I have one philosophy. When my son was young, we were entitled and I used to tell my mother is he ever going to work? Is he ever going to do this? My mother said you can’t change the content; they are born entitled. Change the context. So, I just moved the context to say that every work’s day we will celebrate with the blind school or something like that. The same way, it just takes a little bit to move them away. They are so smart. Look at the Rotaractors. The minute you flip them, they can do wonders.
What about the generation that wants to stay in touch? Do you have something for us?
I would do a special class for Rotarians to introduce the newer concepts to you and am very happy to do that. We believe in life-long learning. The alumni are coming back to learn metaverse. I am ready and happy to do the classes. We are going to make it a part of our certificate programmes.