Portraits 
Pondicherry University
Pondicherry University
| 10 December 2010
Interview with Mr J.A.K Tareen, Vice-Chancellor of Pondicherry University
Pondicherry University is a Central University established by an Act of Parliament in 1985. The main campus is located in Kalapet, 10km from the town of Puducherry, in a 800 acres land. The University also has at present 80 affiliated colleges, located in the following areas : Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe, Yanam, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
With an expanding number of students, now over 4000, it offers more than 147 masters, Doctoral and Diploma Programmes in 34 Departments and 9 Centres under 13 different Schools : Tamil Language and Literature, Management, Mathematical Sciences, Physical, Chemical and Applied Sciences, Life Sciences, Humanities, Social Sciences and International Studies, Engineering and technology, Education, Medical Sciences, Performing Arts, Media and Communication and Green Energy Technologies.
The University's objectives are to disseminate and advance knowledge by offering not only teaching but also research facilities : about 90% of the faculty have Ph.D. Degrees and are actively involved in research supervision with independent and collaborative research projects funded by various agencies.
ActuPondy met Mr Tareen, Vice Chancellor of Pondicherry University, to know more about this huge campus, its students and its facilities.
How did Pondicherry University start and how is it going now?
Pondicherry University is a central university, a federal university. It is founded directly with the government of India. It started in 1985, and this is a silver jubilee year. We have just celebrated the 25 years of its existence. We have now 14 main schools, 39 departments and 149 programs offered to students.
In the 11th plan [we work with 5-year plans; the 11th plan started in 2007 and will go up to 2012], Pondicherry university emerges as the fastest and the maximum expending university in India.
What kind of expansion is it?
It is in terms of increase in the number of programs, students, faculties, space and buildings, infrastructure, facilities, the library facilities, and many other things. I will tell you a few. For example, there were only 1400 students on the campus [at the beginning of the 11th plan], now we have 4500 students, it's a 300% expansion. And university had only 180 faculties, now we have 460 faculties. We had just 10 hostels, or student residencies, and now we have 19.
I also have started a new concept here, and this is very new : one student can take one degree and two diplomas simultaneously, in two years. During the day-time, it takes his degree courses and during the evening, he takes programmes which are add-on to him. For example, if someone is doing a M.S.W (master of social work), it may take some diplomas such as industrial psychology, human rights, labour laws... in the evening program. So if he takes two of these, and with his master, and he goes out, he is much more equipped for employment. He becomes a generalist and that makes him very strong in the market.
Where are the students coming from? Are they mostly coming from Pondicherry?
No, that's the thing. We recruit students on the whole India base. We conduct entrance examination, this is a competitive examination which is held on a single day, in the month of may, in the entire country, from Kashmir to Kânyâkumârî, and Gujarat through Bengale. Almost 75% of the students are not from Pondicherry. So we have a completely cosmopolitan and mixture of students from various regions of the country.
And the female population has also increased to 40%.
What about foreign students?
I was myself restricting them until recently. This year, we have opened that. And from the coming year, we are opening to foreign students in a big way. At the moment, we have about 50 foreign students from Europe, US, South Indian countries... And we have a foreign student hostel. The facilities for living have been expanded so much; we have three hostels where one floor is reserved for the students coming from overseas, where we have a different arrangement, and where they can make their own food. But still, they can also eat with the others.
We have a common mess where 500 girls can eat at a time and a common mess where 500 boys can eat at a time.
Is that separate?
Yes, because there were zones of girls hostels, and zones of boys hostels. We need to zone that.
There are side by side, they are not separated by walls! They all sit in a class, work together, etc... But they have zones, because they are large number of hostels needed for boys, and large number of hostels needed for girls, and because they have their own facilities. For example gym : we have a gym for boys and we have a gym for girls.
What kind of facilities to you provide to your students? Is there anything specific to Pondicherry university?
Absolutely what you find in your country [France], you find it here! Anything that you find, any modern gym... The every machine which is found in any gym, of international standards, is founded here, is available to our students.
The entire campus is wifi. The library has its own portal and you can access the e-ressources from anywhere. We have about 40 000 e-ressources and about 18 000 journals (news, sciences, research, humanities, law, chemistry, etc...journals). We are also starting a book store.
In terms of food and eating places, there is a centralized service for food, starting with breakfast until dinner, and then we also have 4 cafeterias, and the 5th one is coming soon with multi-cuisine, and I also plan to have one with continental fast-food.
We have provided for commutation on the campus, about 500 bicycles for free (you just pick up any bicycle and go anywhere) and 4 golf cars, battery operated – they will be going around the campus all the time, for you to go from any department to your library, to your place, to hostels, etc... and that's also free.
There is a child care centre, called « daycare centre », it is dedicated to the children of the mothers who are working here -as students or employees. They can leave their child here for free, which is generally charged very heavily. We provide them with doctors, nurses and care. Even a two months baby is left there, and they will take care of it until the evening. Everything is air-condition, clean, hygienic, and we have paediatricians visiting.
This kind of facility is very specific to Pondicherry University.
Which departments or schools of Pondicherry University can be said to be the more dynamic and successful ones?
If you take the sciences, almost every department is strong : hard sciences, biotechnology, informatics, molecular biology, mathematics, chemistry, green energy technology... If you come to social sciences and humanities, we have all the branches such as economics, social work, sociology, anthropology, political sciences and international relations... they are all strong.
It's very difficult to say that something is not strong, because each one of them is going very well, except philosophy : we do not have students, because people don't want to study philosophy...
What about the « campus life » : is there some special events organized on the campus where everyone can access?
Pondicherry university is a place of happenings. Basically, India is a very heterogeneous society. Here for example, we have people from Kerala, north, Assam, Kashmir, Bihar, Tamil Nadu... There are Christians, Hindus, Muslims, etc... And each one of them have their own festivals. So groups of students will organize themselves their own cultural programs in the university. We give them all the facilities to do it. We have many places where they can create these meetings, especially cultural centres : one is with 500 capacity, other with 800 capacity and one more we are constructing and that will come up within 2 years, will be with 2500 capacity.
Then, we have the performing arts here and the electronic media which teach us film production, editing, all related to film and TV, and they are screening sometimes. There is a Film club that will screen movies from all over the world. That is free -they just sit and watch.
So there are a lot of happenings during whole year here. You can find all these informations on Pondicherry University website :
pondiuni.edu.in/
Pondicherry University is a Central University established by an Act of Parliament in 1985. The main campus is located in Kalapet, 10km from the town of Puducherry, in a 800 acres land. The University also has at present 80 affiliated colleges, located in the following areas : Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe, Yanam, Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
With an expanding number of students, now over 4000, it offers more than 147 masters, Doctoral and Diploma Programmes in 34 Departments and 9 Centres under 13 different Schools : Tamil Language and Literature, Management, Mathematical Sciences, Physical, Chemical and Applied Sciences, Life Sciences, Humanities, Social Sciences and International Studies, Engineering and technology, Education, Medical Sciences, Performing Arts, Media and Communication and Green Energy Technologies.
The University's objectives are to disseminate and advance knowledge by offering not only teaching but also research facilities : about 90% of the faculty have Ph.D. Degrees and are actively involved in research supervision with independent and collaborative research projects funded by various agencies.
ActuPondy met Mr Tareen, Vice Chancellor of Pondicherry University, to know more about this huge campus, its students and its facilities.
How did Pondicherry University start and how is it going now? Pondicherry University is a central university, a federal university. It is founded directly with the government of India. It started in 1985, and this is a silver jubilee year. We have just celebrated the 25 years of its existence. We have now 14 main schools, 39 departments and 149 programs offered to students.
In the 11th plan [we work with 5-year plans; the 11th plan started in 2007 and will go up to 2012], Pondicherry university emerges as the fastest and the maximum expending university in India.
What kind of expansion is it?
It is in terms of increase in the number of programs, students, faculties, space and buildings, infrastructure, facilities, the library facilities, and many other things. I will tell you a few. For example, there were only 1400 students on the campus [at the beginning of the 11th plan], now we have 4500 students, it's a 300% expansion. And university had only 180 faculties, now we have 460 faculties. We had just 10 hostels, or student residencies, and now we have 19.
I also have started a new concept here, and this is very new : one student can take one degree and two diplomas simultaneously, in two years. During the day-time, it takes his degree courses and during the evening, he takes programmes which are add-on to him. For example, if someone is doing a M.S.W (master of social work), it may take some diplomas such as industrial psychology, human rights, labour laws... in the evening program. So if he takes two of these, and with his master, and he goes out, he is much more equipped for employment. He becomes a generalist and that makes him very strong in the market.
Where are the students coming from? Are they mostly coming from Pondicherry?
No, that's the thing. We recruit students on the whole India base. We conduct entrance examination, this is a competitive examination which is held on a single day, in the month of may, in the entire country, from Kashmir to Kânyâkumârî, and Gujarat through Bengale. Almost 75% of the students are not from Pondicherry. So we have a completely cosmopolitan and mixture of students from various regions of the country.
And the female population has also increased to 40%.
What about foreign students? I was myself restricting them until recently. This year, we have opened that. And from the coming year, we are opening to foreign students in a big way. At the moment, we have about 50 foreign students from Europe, US, South Indian countries... And we have a foreign student hostel. The facilities for living have been expanded so much; we have three hostels where one floor is reserved for the students coming from overseas, where we have a different arrangement, and where they can make their own food. But still, they can also eat with the others.
We have a common mess where 500 girls can eat at a time and a common mess where 500 boys can eat at a time.
Is that separate?
Yes, because there were zones of girls hostels, and zones of boys hostels. We need to zone that.
There are side by side, they are not separated by walls! They all sit in a class, work together, etc... But they have zones, because they are large number of hostels needed for boys, and large number of hostels needed for girls, and because they have their own facilities. For example gym : we have a gym for boys and we have a gym for girls.
What kind of facilities to you provide to your students? Is there anything specific to Pondicherry university?
Absolutely what you find in your country [France], you find it here! Anything that you find, any modern gym... The every machine which is found in any gym, of international standards, is founded here, is available to our students.
The entire campus is wifi. The library has its own portal and you can access the e-ressources from anywhere. We have about 40 000 e-ressources and about 18 000 journals (news, sciences, research, humanities, law, chemistry, etc...journals). We are also starting a book store.
In terms of food and eating places, there is a centralized service for food, starting with breakfast until dinner, and then we also have 4 cafeterias, and the 5th one is coming soon with multi-cuisine, and I also plan to have one with continental fast-food.
We have provided for commutation on the campus, about 500 bicycles for free (you just pick up any bicycle and go anywhere) and 4 golf cars, battery operated – they will be going around the campus all the time, for you to go from any department to your library, to your place, to hostels, etc... and that's also free.
There is a child care centre, called « daycare centre », it is dedicated to the children of the mothers who are working here -as students or employees. They can leave their child here for free, which is generally charged very heavily. We provide them with doctors, nurses and care. Even a two months baby is left there, and they will take care of it until the evening. Everything is air-condition, clean, hygienic, and we have paediatricians visiting.
This kind of facility is very specific to Pondicherry University.
Which departments or schools of Pondicherry University can be said to be the more dynamic and successful ones?
If you take the sciences, almost every department is strong : hard sciences, biotechnology, informatics, molecular biology, mathematics, chemistry, green energy technology... If you come to social sciences and humanities, we have all the branches such as economics, social work, sociology, anthropology, political sciences and international relations... they are all strong.
It's very difficult to say that something is not strong, because each one of them is going very well, except philosophy : we do not have students, because people don't want to study philosophy...
What about the « campus life » : is there some special events organized on the campus where everyone can access?
Pondicherry university is a place of happenings. Basically, India is a very heterogeneous society. Here for example, we have people from Kerala, north, Assam, Kashmir, Bihar, Tamil Nadu... There are Christians, Hindus, Muslims, etc... And each one of them have their own festivals. So groups of students will organize themselves their own cultural programs in the university. We give them all the facilities to do it. We have many places where they can create these meetings, especially cultural centres : one is with 500 capacity, other with 800 capacity and one more we are constructing and that will come up within 2 years, will be with 2500 capacity.
Then, we have the performing arts here and the electronic media which teach us film production, editing, all related to film and TV, and they are screening sometimes. There is a Film club that will screen movies from all over the world. That is free -they just sit and watch.
So there are a lot of happenings during whole year here. You can find all these informations on Pondicherry University website :
pondiuni.edu.in/