Academic Leaders should have vision for the future Secretary

Leadership for Academicians Program (LEAP) at National Institute of  Technology (NIT), Tiruchirappalli was formally inaugurated by R.  Subrahmanyam, Secretary, Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource  Development on February 4.  Mr. Subrahmanyam emphasised that new age leaders should develop great leadership skills, future vision for the  Institute, good communication and conflict resolution capability. Dr.  Mini Shaji Thomas, Director, NIT-Tiruchirappalli, in her presidential  address encouraged the participants to imbibe the essence of the  program and equip themselves with qualities of a true leader and  consider themselves to be fortunate to be chosen for such a unique  program which is first of its kind. Director of IIIT Guwahati Gowtam  Barua delivered the keynote address on ‘Ingredients of a Good Academic  Leadership’. Director, IIIT-Sri City Dr. Ganesan Kannabiran,  elaborated the details of the programme, which will cover the domain  knowledge areas such as finance, budgeting, project management,  attitudinal skills like team building, leadership, conflict  management, handling diversity etc.

LEAP is an initiative conceived by the Ministry of Human Resource  Development to hone and equip the senior faculty members of higher  educational institutions with leadership skills and roles. As the  global competition gets stronger, the role of Higher Education is a  key factor in India’s growth strategy and capable academic leaders who  will take the Institutions forward. As an attempt to face the myriad  challenges and opportunities in Higher Education, LEAP is being  organized by the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli in  collaboration with the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and  with IIIT, Sri City as the organizing partner. The rogramme has an  exclusive activity based outbound experiential learning module during  the weekend.  It is pertinent to mention that NIT Tiruchirappalli is  the only institution chosen for conducting the program.



The event spans over three weeks from February 4 to 23 with the  participants visiting the Nanyang Technology University, Singapore in  the last week. Through a participative learning mode, the programme  will equip 23 participants from 16 different universities across the  length and breadth of the country – Assam to Uttarakhand to Surat down  to Karaikudi and Calicut to take up leadership roles. The MHRD mandate  on participant’s profile was to ensure diversity, accordingly  professors from fields ranging from Science, Engineering to Animal  
biology to plant protection are attending the programme.

The programme has 31 renowned and prolific speakers from institutes of  national reputation and the industry. Industry visits and immersion  during the 2nd week at IIIT Sricity leveraging the ecosystem at Sri  
City followed by international immersion at NTU ranked amongst top  universities in the world.

The programme is planned to create an opportunity to consolidate best  practices created at the national level, benchmark them with  international practices and eventually provide a structured approach  for institutional transformation. The LEAP programme at NIT Trichy is  expected to provide the required insights on emerging international  and national contexts of higher education and necessary learnings for  taking up leadership roles in institutions such as IITs, NITs, IIITs,  Central/State Universities, etc.