With two years left for retirement, after 35 years of teaching Commerce and Management Studies, KV Achalapathi of University College of Commerce and Business Management, Osmania University, is a man on a mission. A voracious reader, constant learner and a pragmatic educationist, the Senior Professor has his eyes set on making the University a pioneer in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) studies when India Inc will adapt to the standard rules once the Centre implements it in 2017.
Currently pursuing a University Grants Commission (UGC) sponsored research project on IFRS for Corporate Reporting Practices, Achalapathi is set to start a PG Diploma course in IFRS, apart from guiding four research scholars working on IFRS on corporate reporting practices. “Corporate Reporting Systems across the country will undergo a change and our students would be most sought after soon,” says Achalapathi.
Born into a modest family in Hyderabad, the 58-year-old grew up with five brothers and four sisters. “My father was a Deputy Secretary at the Law Department. He gave us a good education, morals and values for life. Three of my elder brothers are in the profession of teaching and I always wanted to become a teacher,” he adds.
After completing schooling and intermediate college from Government High School, Erramanzil in Hyderabad and Government Junior College in Nagarkurnool in Mahabubnagar district, he went on to pursue BCom from Badruka College affiliated to Osmania University in Hyderabad and graduated as a gold medallist from the University, in the Telugu medium. Soon, he joined Nizam college’s evening batch for MCom in 1977.
“During UG, I used to work as a Research Assistant and typist at International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics between 8am and 5pm and attend college between 6pm and 9pm. And during my PG, I used to work as an Accountant at Golconda Paints,” he reveals. After MCom, he worked at AV College and Pragathi Mahavidyalaya Degree College between 1979 and 1988 after which he pursued PhD in Corporate Collapse and role of Board of Industrial and Financial Reconstruction as a Policy Instrument. Securing a PhD in three years, he joined Osmania University PG Centre at Mahabubnagar district as an Assistant Professor.
The PG centre those days used to function from a rented building and was asked to move to another district. Achalapathi says it was here that his entrepreneurial skills came to use. He not only managed to save the centre by involving the community and State Government but during his 21 years there, he also developed the centre to an extent that today it has become a separate university called Palamur University in Mahabubnagar. He was the Principal of the PG College between 1993-98. He also holds the distinction of being the senior-most professor at OU across all disciplines, having been a professor for the past 20 years.
Between 1998-2001, Achalapathi went to Ethiopia on a sabbatical, after which he joined OU again as its Chairman, Board of Studies for Commerce, where he rolled out a series of changes in the outdated university curriculum. Apart from introducing Application of Derivatives in Managerial Economics and Principles of Marketing Concept Application through caselets (case studies in the form of booklets), he also managed to introduce Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), Excel and Ministat software in social sciences research works.
As the HoD of the Commerce department between 2004-06, he introduced the concept of ‘Earn while you work’ for students by entering into collaboration with industry leaders like ICICI, Genpact and Tally. While working as an Associate Professor in Muscat, Oman, between 2010-12, he skilled himself with IFRS, which he has been proactively imparting to students in the University here.
However, he believes the link between industry and academics have to grow further and that professionals should participate in preparing, executing and evaluating syllabi to make students more employable. “A student should not be awarded a degree without industry approval of his project work. Many of them are a false and wasteful exercise. In Harvard, unless the industry approves your work, you do not get the degree. The attitude of students here has to change first,” he rues.
According to him, the herd mentality of students in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where their preferences for courses that are sought after change every now and then, there exists a fear about IT jobs, as they believe it is highly exploitative and insecure. The swing, he says, today is towards Government sector jobs. “In a young state like ours, there are plenty of opportunities in Banking, IT, Pharma, Life Sciences, and Insurance. We need our students to be decision-makers and leaders not only in Government or politics but also in the booming corporate world,” he says.
He laments the fact that Telangana students who belong to OU lack confidence when it comes to communicating in English. “Students do not join the course of their choice but a course in which they get seats. If they themselves fail to believe in the discipline they study, what more can you expect?”, he asks. Hoping to change things for the positive, and having a vision, mission and persistence to create employable professionals, he is confident of leaving a legacy behind him.