BANGALORE: With an international and national school and a college of Engineering and Management, Gopalan Group has made a strong foray into the education sphere apart from it prime business of construction. R Karunamoorthy, Academic Administrator and Strategic Planner of Gopalan College of Engineering and Management (GCEM) speaks withVyas Srinivasa from City Express about the features of the institution as well as their future plans. What are the unique features of Gopalan College of Engineering and Management?
At GCEM, the main impetus is on value-based technology education. In my experience, without value, no technology or any other education will be of any use to the country. The main course as far as any institution is concerned is academics and that is our strength. In case of MBA, we have a completely different pedagogy.
The class of two hours is divided into parts, for example 15 minutes of Group discussion, 15 minutes of presentation and case studies etc. If you look at the present batch, we put them on job during vacation in Gopalan Group.
What are the plans in pipeline?
We have already applied for a Medical college. It should happen in two years because the Medical Council of India has a stipulation that we should have a 300-bed hospital also attached. We are also discussing to start short term vocational courses. Skill based education is definitely the need of the hour.
We are also planning to collaborate with a foreign university. The Scottish University is interested. We are waiting for the private and deemed university bill to be cleared in parliament.
Do you think the quality of education is going down with the huge number of institutions cropping up?
Only 12 per cent of students who qualify in SLC or PU are going for higher education. We require more institutions but it should be geographically spread in suburban and rural areas. There should be more institutions in the private sector and over a period of time the strength will decide who will stay and who has to shut shop.