Prof. Nilesh Advani is currently working as a Deputy Director of International Relations at Marwadi University. He has been working with Marwadi University for 11 years and has a total experience (post master) of around 20 years. He also has 5 years of international experience working in Shanghai - China. His work experience is spread across administration, education and software development domains. Professor Advani has written four books on IT. His research area is cryptography, where he has developed a fast and secure algorithm for multimedia data transfer over wireless communication. Moreover, he has experience leading and managing a range of projects to support the development and maintenance of international partnerships. He works on developing key initiatives for the improvement of the university’s global presence and image.

Marwadi University

You have held Key Positions at MARWADI UNIVERSITY throughout your professional career. What are the main factors that keep you connected with the education sector?

I have 25 years of experience in the educational domain, which is mainly spread across education, development, and administration. Being in the education sector has always been my passion. The main reasons are constant learning and having to upskill for current trends. Apart from that, I use my public skills to be on the same post which is also a major factor for me to keep connected with the education sector.

Being the Director of International Relations at MARWADI UNIVERSITY, what is your philosophy of leadership? How would you describe your leadership style?

Leadership style should not be the same if you are a good leader; it needs to change depending on the person and the task you have. I believe in different leadership styles, i.e., autocratic leadership, where we need to make quick decisions based on our strong viewpoints. I also believe in democratic leadership, where we involve our staff members and those who are subordinates in making some decisions. I also believe in delegative leadership, where sometimes we don’t know the basic or core problems of day-to-day issues. Transactional leadership is also there, where we keep on watching the performance of our subordinates to see whether they are working according to the defined rules of the organization and transformational leadership is also there, where we inspire or motivate our subordinates to grow for our organisation.

How do you strategize about the key programs of your department and plan for the administration of your institute?

Being the leader of the department, I know the skills of each and every subordinate who is working in my department. By key strategizing, we mean to give subordinates roles that they like to do, which will help them understand more and they would like to do it with joy. Most of the tasks in the department are designated for people who are good at them.

How does the curriculum of your department ensure the best practice of the industry?

The main key to the growth and progress of any department is to adopt the best practices, which we definitely do. We always ask students who are the actual driving force for us for the best practices required and we also keep on evolving. We help our students at the university in MUIAR. We help them to go for different research initiatives, we help them to go for exchange programs, and we have an international opportunities section available on our website where students are informed about different international opportunities across the globe. We also have the MU Global magazine, which students use to upskill their knowledge.

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What are your roles and responsibilities to Marwadi University and the teachers and students?

We mainly go for international collaborations and exchange programs. We go for international admissions as well. I am happy to say that we have 15% international student strength from 53 countries across the globe. Then we also go for the post-admission process of international students by means of FRRO and many other things. These are my major roles and responsibilities.

What do you think should be Marwadi University’s top priority over the next 5 years?

Over the next five years, we would like to go for different kinds of national and international accreditation, like NAAC. We would like to go for research consultancy and start-up ecosystems, and then we would like to go for community outreach and social initiatives that can help society, enriching students' experiences by means of increasing facilities for them so that they can learn more as far as international exposure is concerned.

When you first came to Marwadi University what was your vision for Marwadi University and how has it evolved over time and how far along are you in implementing that vision?

When I joined Marwadi University, my vision was to work for the university as a normal employee but when I started working, I observed that our university truly believes in leadership. I was inspired by the main vision of the university, which is to foster an environment that empowers people, organisations, and societies through education, ideas, research, and training. We also believe in leadership quality, where we describe leadership in six important aspects. I would like to elaborate on the term leader. Within the term leader, ‘L’ stands for lifelong learning, ‘E’ stands for Empathy, ‘A’ stands for Adaptability, ‘D’ stands for Diversity, ‘E’ stands for Empowerment, and ‘R’ stands for Respect. We believe in all these and, of course, it has evolved over time, and our university believes in all these leadership qualities.

What do you like people to know about Marwadi University that they may not know? 

I would like people to know about our mission statement and what we stand for. We believe in quality education and bringing about social transformation, which is very important today. We believe in creating leaders through innovations and encouraging entrepreneurship, which is one of the key aspects. Apart from that, we believe in cultivating the culture of research, which is also equally important today. Additionally, I want people to know that we believe in imbibing universal consciousness and stimulating growth through industrial and international partnerships.