JNU VC: Will focus on providing gender-sensitive environment, NEP implementation, says Pandit

NEW DELHI: Newly appointed Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) vice-chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, the first woman to be appointed to the post, on Monday said her focus would be the implementation of the National Education Policy and providing a gender-sensitive environment for academic excellence.

The Ministry of Education (MoE) appointed her to the top post on Monday. She is currently a Political Science professor at the department of politics and public administration at the Savitribai Phule University in Maharashtra. The 59-year-old is also an alumna of JNU where she pursued her MPhil as well as PhD in international relations.

Also read | Is this the new JNU VC? Tweets call farmers ‘parasites’; AAP ‘fraud’; JNU students ‘losers’

"As vice-chancellor, JNU I thank both the Hon'ble Prime Minister and Minister of Higher Education for giving me this opportunity as the first woman and alumnus of this esteemed University from the state of Tamil Nadu," she said in a statement.

Pandit said she is looking forward to working with students and faculty members. "The immediate focus of this administration would be to provide clean administration, student-friendly and gender-sensitive environment for academic excellence. We would strive to implement NEP-2020, the vision of our Hon'ble Prime Minister especially in interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary areas of studies, JNU rising to greater heights of academics and research. The focus would be in constructing Indo-centric narratives," read her statement.

M Jagadesh Kumar, who was holding the charge of acting VC at the JNU after his five-year term ended last year, was last week appointed as the chairman of the UGC.

Also read | COVID-19: IP University, JNU to resume offline classes from today