Anyone can’t pick up a bag and start heading towards a university or college claiming a rare class mentor or consultant. It is not like an artisan who in earlier times would do ‘Kalai’ to your old cooking utensils, a tinning by coating the inside of brass or copper utensils to create silvery smooth utensils to prevent metal leaching. Don’t look for a temporary shine. Search for a competent Mentor capable to not just do NAAC NIRF or foreign ranking but do much more; one who is capable of mentoring for a long-term capacity-building in academics, research and governance and lay a strong foundation of jettisoning it into the top league of universities.
Don’t ignore merit just to oblige someone known to you or to someone in the GB. Such a fait-accompli can often be disastrous as the mentor will sit upon you like a cobra on your dining table, and won’t let you even eat your own food. She/he will give some ordinary ideas, cheap ‘gayan’ and end-up wasting precious time of faculty and some key appointments. It is still acceptable, but increasingly retrograde is a mentor who sows the seeds of corrupt and unethical practices who recommends sinful ways to circumvent the system. Don’t accept such a person.
Always prefer to develop institution measure by measure in multiple fields of excellence, according priority, attain gold standards and sustain them. Therefore engage only s high-worth expert/s who can show the way, hand-hold institute’s teams in developing the needed abilities required to attain the set objectives, inspire faculty and build sound processes n’ practices. A mentor must have very high academic credentials and rich experience of mentoring in leading universities.
Prof JR Sharma
