Dr Chandra Sekhar received his Master’s degree in English with a Gold Medal from University of Hyderabad and received MPhil and PhD degrees from Maulana Azad National Urdu University.

Before he joined GITAM University, he taught at Vasavi College of Engineering, Hyderabad, and had been a coordinator and teacher at the Bhagirathi Valley School (a KFI school) at Uttarkashi.

Apart from teaching, he served as Communications Coordinator in the voluntary sector especially in the areas of tribal and minorities’ development for a decade. He edited eco-ethic a newsletter brought out by Indian Network on Ethics and Climate Change and Mannem Lo (In the tribal habitat), a magazine for Adivasis.

His research interests include Theatre, Literary Criticism & Theory and Indian Literature in Translation. Dr Chandra Sekhar has translated and adopted several plays and political essays.

GITAM Hyderabad

You held key positions at various prestigious institutions throughout your career and also worked in voluntary sector . What is something about GITAM that excited you to walk with in the journey?

What excited me most about GITAM is the number of opportunities it provides its faculty members, and the students, to innovate and become leaders. It empowers them through well designed structures. One can grow and contribute to the growth of the university in such an empowering ambience. The second thing that has attracted me is its inbuilt value system that is unusually humane in this competitive world. 

How do you balance the needs of faculty, students, and administration as a Director of humanities and social sciences and Sciences?

Balancing the needs of different stakeholders is definitely a challenging job, especially when the stakeholders also include students from other Schools. In the enormous flexibility of choice of courses offered to the students of GITAM, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences offers around 80 Open Elective courses to students of other disciplines. But the benefit this system provides both to the faculty members as well as to the students is the reward for the efforts of administration.

As a director of school of humanities and social sciences and Sciences what is the USP or what are the differentiating factors that make GITAM Hyd University stand out from other colleges?

GITAM is one of the very first universities in the country to implement the National Education Policy. As far as the Humanities and Social Sciences is concerned, this has been an exciting opportunity to collaborate with the sciences and management to offer an liberal education program. Besides, GITAM, with its uncompromising investment on infrastructure and research facilities, has been at forefront in attracting and recruiting some of the best teachers in the country.

How do you stay current with the latest trends and developments in the field of humanities and social sciences, Cultures of societies, and incorporate them into the curriculum and programs offered by GITAM University?

As mentioned earlier, GITAM attracts some of the best teachers in the country, who collaborate with renowned experts in all the disciplines to design a curriculum that is forward looking. The curriculum is enriched by the feedback generated by dynamic consultations with some of the best names in academia and industry. 

How well is GITAM Hyd is focusing on maintaining industry relationships with companies in order to leverage them for live projects, training, and placements for the students?

GITAM’s alumni are its brand ambassadors. Their performance in their chosen fields is a resounding testimony to their alma mater. Besides, the collaborations with industry have resulted in Centres of Excellence on the campuses. Virtusa CoE is one such example. GITAM Career and Guidance Centre (GCGC) with its enormous network and personnel, provides guidance, training, counselling, and placements. GCGC not only provides company specific training to the students, and provides ample placement opportunities, but also guides students who opt for higher education. The Venture Development Centre at GITAM trains, with the aid of experienced mentors from the industry, all the students aspiring to be entrepreneurs.

Can you throw some light upon the future scope and opportunities in Humanities and social sciences domain, for the students and parents?

The digital revolution that has transformed the world in the recent decades has enormously expanded the scope of employment opportunities for the students of Humanities and Social Sciences. Apart from the traditional needs in society for students trained in these disciplines, the explosion in social media, AI, created new and urgent need for personnel trained in the liberal arts. The programs offered at GITAM in English, Psychology, Mass Communication, Visual Communication, Political Science, Sociology, History, Economics, Dance, Music, and Theatre Arts, aim to make the curriculum actively address these needs.

What are the biggest challenges currently facing by humanities and social sciences colleges, and how do you plan to address them as a director?

One of the biggest challenges is public education about the career opportunities available now more than ever before in the humanities and social sciences. Enlightened members of the public already see this changing phenomenon. They are encouraging their wards to pursue what interests them rather than what they perceive as what the market demands. Another challenge is to create a curriculum that is dynamically relevant to the ever-changing needs of the current market. Yet another challenge is to attract the best teachers who themselves are trained well in the emerging fields in these disciplines.

How would you promote experiential learning and practical application of knowledge within the College?

As any student of GITAM can testify, lecture-mode of teaching is vastly minimized at GITAM. Teachers are encouraged to add value to their teaching in the classroom by providing a meaningful experience to the students, and provide them opportunities to them through projects, interactions, internships, rather than just providing the content. The content nowadays is available all over the internet. We focus on experience and practice.

What kind of steps GITAM University is taking in order to bridge the gap between academia and the real industry world?

As suggested earlier in this interview, GITAM attempts to bring about a fine balance between academic rigor and relevance to industry. This is achieved at the level of curriculum design itself. Providing exposure to the needs of industry during the studentship is another step. Facilitating guest lectures-interactions with senior members from industry, having almost one fourth of the courses taught by visiting faculty from industry, organizing industrial tours, consultations with experts from industry are only some of the steps that GITAM takes to bridge the gap between academia and industry.