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(O holy Mother Ganga! O Yamuna ! O Godawari ! Saraswati ! O

Narmada ! Sindhu ! Kaveri ! May you all be pleased to be
manifest in those waters, with which I shall purify myself)
Dear Colleagues,
I am happy to be here in our esteemed Patna University. I feel proud to be in our Patna
University campus once again. For this achievement, I received the blessings of the His
Excellency, the Governor of Bihar, Dr. D. Y. Patil, Honble Chief Minister Sri Nitish
Kumar, Honble Education Minister Sri P.K. Shahi and Principal Secretaries to the
Governor, the Chief Minister and the Department of Education and the entire community
of Bihar. With this, I am the Sixth time Vice-Chancellor which is the rarest in the
country, probably in the globe. I got this honour because of all of your kind blessings and
good wishes. I am grateful and thankful to all.
I welcome you all in the precinct of the VCs residence of this most prestigious Patna
University which has been a famous seat of learning established on the verge of the most
sacred river Ganga. I feel emotionally attached to the Vice-Chancellors residence and
the great Patna University as my home in the village is also on the bank of Godawari in
the similar fashion. I feel this great university like my home.
Looking back to January 2008 when I quit my first tenure as the VC of Patna University
it has been a curious exercise for me. At that time I set out some of the challenges we
could expect, and touched on our mission and on the values we hold dear. We will try to
accept some new challenges and will continue to do work for already undertaken good
missions and values so as to achieve excellence in coming days even if measured by
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international or national standards. Short-term vicissitudes must not deflect us from this
goal. While we are entering a period not so happy, it must not prevent us from re-iterating
and developing the vision that will ensure that our future is secure. In my remarks today,
I shall review the changes of the past year, and argue that they reveal new imperatives for
our future.

My past efforts of 14 months i.e., between 20
th
November 2006 to 21
st
January 2008, I, in
full cooperation with you all present here this evening, brought many positive changes
which were widely appreciated by the concerned citizens of Bihar. With the experience
of successful implementation of self-financed courses in Nagarjuna University for the
first time in the country and again successful implementation of self-finance scheme in
BHU, I successfully experimented in starting many new SFS courses in Patna University
within shortest possible time and I am happy to know most of them are still surviving
well. With the introduction of semester system at postgraduate level, the university has
experienced some delay in regularity of academic sessions; I have put the academic
calendar committee, all Faculty Deans, P.G. Heads, Principals of Colleges and Controller
of Examinations into motion in order to bring full regularity into sessions by the end of
June-July 2014. I will also look into other problems related to physical and human
resources and take appropriate measures to remove all of them.
The basic purpose of switching over to semester system is to maximize and make
learning thorough and at the same time to reduce sudden examination pressure of
voluminous contents by dividing whole curriculum load into a six month package. After
getting some feedback during last two-three days I have realized that some of the
problems related to semester system are linked with the mindset related to annual
examinations. Once mindset is changed the semester system will be accepted gladly by
both teachers and students even at undergraduate level. I will try to undertake such
required changes with the help of you all present over here. Required changes include
identification of reading resources, better library facilities, development of learning
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materials at faculty level, preparation of semester wise question bank, flexibility in
scaling from one semester to another, extension of teaching-learning hours etc.
Along with academic discipline, I have been always concerned with discipline in all
members of Patna University, the highest and best known seat of learning of the state. I
fervently appeal to all-teachers, students, non- teaching staff to possess self-discipline
without which the immense potential that each one of us has is diffused to mediocrity.
Discipline never means coercion, nor does it mean the absolute freedom to do anything
disobeying the needs of the system which we are in. Discipline automatically comes
within if you are honest enough to make contribution to the system to the best of your
capability. Discipline also prompts you to grow yourself continuously so as to always
fresh and relevant for the system. University is the highest place for academic adventures
and for every meaningful adventure we must be highly skilled and exercise utmost
precaution otherwise adventure will turn into disaster. Hence, if you wish to see your
university regain its pink health, it is imperative for all members of the university
including students to possess highest order of discipline.
It is observed that teaching is not properly being imparted and there is much to be desired
to improve the academic atmosphere within the campus. Reciprocity of blaming the
teachers vis--vis students should be stopped and discouraged. I think that there are more
responsibilities on the teaching community but both students and teachers are
complementary to each other. The teachers are required to spend more and more time in
their respective departments, colleges and institutes for better teaching and research
atmosphere. They must make it a point to be available from at least 9.00 A.M. to 6.00
P.M. every day and be available to the students, scholars, colleagues, teachers and public
for consultation. Even on Sunday and holidays they must learn to be on the campus for
research, study and consultation. Teachers, Heads, Principals, Director, coordinators are
expected to help the students, research scholars with their progress regarding their
scholarship and other related work. The attendance of the students, scholars and teachers
should be mandatory and there is no substitute for it. The cleanliness, hygiene of the
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departments, colleges and institutes is important and the teachers are expected to ensure
their maintenance. The toilet facilities, safe drinking water is also of great importance and
any difficulty in this regard must be brought to the notice of the university. Discipline is
most important in running any institution smoothly. Indiscipline leads to confusion and
disorder and it hampers the development of the university. Discipline should be
maintained at every level whether teachers, scholars, students or employees. I am open to
feedback and suggestions from all quarters for the improvement of the university. The
mechanism of university functioning should be transparent and also ensure students
involvement in various processes especially related to teaching-learning. Students can be
involved in preparing syllabus wise routine by the Deans, Heads and Principals.
Every month, Deans and Principals will make an appraisal of the extent of syllabi
covered within a month and they will also get to know how many students are regular so
at the end of month, they will get clear position of the academic achievement of students
and they will also be able to truant students, to attend regularly, they can also inform the
parents. There would be a well defined procedure for enforcement of strict routine for
regular and monthly assessment.
I would also work to clear all pending promotion cases as the staffing pattern approved
by the state govt. and the UGC.
We have to work hard to get NAAC accreditation of our colleges, departments and the
university as a whole in order to improve quality and to get more central funds to restore
academic excellence.
Student elections are important but in the interest of University functioning and quality
education, a modified system of democratic method can be introduced.
Patna University would be completing 100 years of its existence in 2017. Living long life
is not that important as living life king size. We must take how to work hard so as to
fulfill the Patna Universitys historical commitment to excellence. We must prove at the
earliest that our achievement of excellence, have not changed. We were leader and still
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we are. To fulfill the glorious historical promise we also have to take on new challenges
which have emerged in the current global perspective.
Firstly, what the public university like us contributes to society has been put into sharper
focus. This is of particular importance in traditional courses of the Arts, Humanities,
Social Sciences and natural sciences. We must try to reframe our curriculum in these
courses so that they can again reestablish their relevance. Secondly, how can we develop
new strategy and considerations for socially useful researches? I am happy to know that
some changes have been incorporated in PhD programmes of the university but we will
have to work hard to make important contributions to the new domain of knowledge. It is
also important to see that our doctoral and postdoctoral researchers are popularized to
various national and international forums and do not slip from the public gaze. I will try
to ensure the quality of our researches and their presentation by our teachers and research
scholars at appropriate forums. I will also try to increase the frequency of publication of
our university and Faculty Journals and assure their quality and timely publication. I will
try to ensure required financial assistance for all these purposes. When I delivered my
speech to the teachers on 17 January, 2007 I said Devoted faculty members who teach
with sincerity together with officers and employees who perform their duties with
diligence will be rewarded with foreign visits. International exposure will enhance quality
education and strengthen support systems to realize our goals. We examine whether we
can get some money to meet the expenditure for a few teachers to go abroad for a month
on academic visit to interact with universities in their field of studies.I will try my best
to carry out my promises. Fourthly, I will try to strengthen our relations outside our walls
with our alumni, other universities in the country and abroad. Last time I took some
initiative in this direction but things could not be formalized due to time constraint. This
time I will try to take some systematic efforts in this direction. I am happy to learn that
some of my initiatives taken during my first stint were appreciated and carried forward.
In the history of modern Bihar the Patna University has a prominent place. It would not
be an exaggeration if we say that Patna University is the master architect of the history of
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modern Bihar. Many of the Bihars strengths are the strengths of Patna University. Patna
University is still an immense asset not only to Bihar but to the country and it will remain
so if we make our way through the challenges and opportunities of 2014 and thereafter.
The upcoming universities of Bihar are still miles away the destination they would like to
be achieving. We have already scaled heights which may not be easier for others to scale
and reaffirm our commitment today to scale them again. Our new affirmation will
prepare us to ask for Central University status once again with new vigour. The initiative
taken by me earlier will definitely reach the goal this time.
I will try my best to ensure that Patna University is valued properly. Patna University has
been a place of outstanding individuals. The roll call of brilliance include Janab Hasan
Imam, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Jai Narayan Prakash Shri Sachchidanand Sinha, Shri Braj
Kishore Prasad, Justice B.P.Singh, Justice L. M. Sharma, Sri Jadunath Sarkar, Dr. D.M.
Dutta, Prof. A.S. Altekar, Prof. R.S.Sharma, Dr. G. Jacob, Prof. K.K. Dutta, Prof. Ramola
Nandi, and many more. It may run into several pages. But most important is that it is a
place for quality higher education for the children of common people for nearly 100 years
unlike new corporate universities and institutions which are very selective and beyond the
reach of common people. For all these reasons we deserve to be the central university at
the earliest.
A dozen of civil servants holding key positions in the Govt. of Bihar are also our alumni.
It is a great achievement for us. The healthy trend must continue in future too.
With the assurance of the state government to provide all sorts of infrastructural and
financial help and appointment of new teachers soon we can achieve our goal of
excellence. Finally I am thankful to you all for your presence here and expect new
attention and fresh commitment a task to all of us must rise.
Jai Hind
Jai Bihar
Jai Patna University