Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit Appointed New JNU VC; 1st Woman To Take Up Role

Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, a professor at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Savitribai Phule Pune University, has been named the next Vice-Chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University for a period of five years.

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Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, a professor at the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Savitribai Phule Pune University, has been named the next Vice Chancellor (VC) of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) for a period of five years.

The appointment marks the first instance of a female academician at the helm of the central varsity in 52 years.

In a press release dated 7 February, Pandit announced that the JNU will strive to implement National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, especially in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary areas of studies.

"The immediate focus of this administration would be to provide clean administration, students friendly and gender sensitive environment for academic excellence," the VC wrote.

The outgoing Vice Chancellor, Professor M Jagdish Kumar, was recently appointed the chairperson of the University Grants Commission (UGC). The search for his successor had been on for months, and this is the latest in the series of appointments made by the Ministry of Education to the top posts of central educational institutions.

Who Is Santishree Pandit?

Prof Santishree Pandit taught at the Politics and Public Administration Department of Savitribai Phule Pune University. She obtained her MPhil and PhD from the JNU, before moving on to the research vocation.

Pandit is also a part of multiple statutory bodies instituted by the government, and is known to be multilingual, with command over Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, and Sanskrit, besides English and Hindi.

In a letter dated 7 February, the outgoing VC thanked the JNU community for its continued support during his tenure, and handed over the charge to Prof Pandit, wishing "her success in the new role."

The outgoing VC in his farewell letter recounted his experiences as a professor at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, wherein he was "always inquisitive about JNU that stood right across the road."

Jagadish Kumar had been appointed as the head of the institution in January 2016.

Kumar expressed his appreciation towards the administrative staff of the institute, noting how they were "the backbone of the university."

The students, he added, were "always receptive to new ideas," and engaged with him in multiple fruitful dialogues. "My wife and I will always cherish the association with JNU for the rest of our lives," he ended the letter by saying.