SNDT Women’s University established in 1916 by Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve a great visionary and social reformer, has served the society for the last 95 years and has been successful in making its mark in creating educational opportunities for women.

I have been associated with this unique and prestigious university for 24 years (I joined SNDTU in 1983) and I strongly believe that the University has potential to become a World Class University for Women in the next 5 years. The dream of making it World Class University can come true if we put in sustained efforts to create quality academic environment.

My vision is to make SNDTWU a leading World Class University, a key institution in National and Global Knowledge Network which will empower women with Knowledge, and Wisdom. SNDTWU has a unique role to play in the field of higher education for women.

I wish to emphasize following areas

1. Creativity and Innovation
2. World class curriculum design and delivery (which includes integration of disciplines and Strengthening of Open and Distance Learning)
3. Faculty Development
4. Resource  generation
5. Quality Assurance
6. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Integration
7. University-Industry partnership
8. Networking with National and International universities/organisations

My vision is to advance knowledge through high quality teaching, research and development in partnership with industry, the professionals, and also the NGO sector. Women have to play a special role as a Scientist as well as a person caring for the society.

The University needs to embrace a distinct scientific approach that emphasizes education of professional women practitioners, promotes creativity and innovation, encourage high achievement and collaboration. The University is expected to be a centre of excellence, where high quality teaching and research play a very important role, and where the context within which knowledge is sought and applied is international as much as regional and national.

Today Global scenario is changing: ICTs are growing at a very fast speed. The concept of University in the past was to transmit information. Now we have to help our students to become citizens of 21st century who are expected to create new knowledge, integrating variety of information sources. This will require shift in our mind set. The University needs to offer variety of new and innovative programmes and courses which will address the needs of the global market as well as national challenges. For this purpose the University needs to provide high quality teaching in an innovative learning environment and attract young professionals who will engage themselves in generating knowledge and mentoring students to become world citizens.
                       
Resource Generation is a very challenging but essential aspect of any institutional governance. Tapping resources (apart from UGC) from various Ministries at the Central Government (e.g. MHRD has allocated huge funds for National Mission on Education through ICT, ICT@School Scheme) will enhanc activities at the university with appropriate financial resource support. Various departments will be encouraged to develop research/development proposals for the funding institutions. This needs motivation, involvement and commitment on the part of the faculty. The work culture (created over a period of time) and the clarity about the Vision of the Institution makes it possible.

SNDT Women’s university attends to both research and teaching, and covers a broad spectrum of disciplines.  Its Research front needs further strengthening. There is a need to create healthy research culture which shall have national and international relevance.  It is natural for human beings to learn and explore and universities have a unique role in stimulating and promoting this kind of intellectual challenge. The University needs to invest more in creating facilities for world class Research (in Science and Technology as well as Humanities). The Faculty needs to be motivated to invest more time in research which should be pertinent to National level objectives and priorities. Freedom to the researcher is the basic requirement.

In this Information age, integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in all the processes of the University (Teaching-Learning, Assessment, Governance, Financial Management, Research, Development  as well as Extension) becomes inevitable. This will not only facilitate reaching a large number of students with quality education, but also will bring in new culture (cooperative-collaborative Learning, Participatory approach to Governance etc). Many processes like Assessment, certification etc could be done in more sophisticated time saving manner and on much larger reliable and comprehensive data. Interactive Web Portal of the University with its Courses, Course Material online, will enhance quality of Higher education; not only of SNDTWU, but it will have effect on other Universities in the country as well. SNDTU could concentrate on developing e-content and sharing it through the portal for the use of students (under the Creative Commons License). University also needs to embrace Free and Open Sources Software. Cloud Computing for Education seems to be the need of the hour.
Satellite TV, IPTV, Mobile Technology, Community Radio, Online Learning and such other technologies are available today and various departments and institutes of SNDTU will be encouraged to use them to enhance quality of education.

SNDTU has about 44 PG Departments, 15 conducted institutions and more than 230 affiliated colleges spread across many states. This implies that there are about 300 strong leaders who are a great resource in providing high quality education to women.

Linkages with Industries and University-Industry Partnership is another area with which University could bring in tremendous change. Each department could develop such linkages and experience mutual benefits. Presently some departments do have such International linkages. This kind of partnership offers substantial inputs for our course and curriculum designing, live experiences and job opportunities to the students and awareness about latest trends to the teachers. In this partnership, University also could influence Industries in many ways.

Networking with National and International Universities/organizations is very essential today as no organization can survive in isolation. It facilitates various activities such as joint programmes, collaborative and cross cultural research, student and teacher exchange programmes as well as many developmental projects. All the departments and institutions will be encouraged to develop such rich bonds.

The last but not the least is reducing the burden of conducting examinations on the University. All affiliating universities today spend most of their time and energy in conducting examinations and related work. The SNDTU needs to find out a solution for the same by employing more innovative examination/Assessment system.