Krea University begins search for next Vice-Chancellor

Krea University begins search for next Vice-Chancellor

Krea University’s current Vice-Chancellor, Dr Sunder Ramaswamy concludes his current term in June 2021 and has expressed his desire to return to the United States for compelling personal reasons. With deep gratitude for his contributions, the University has accepted his request.

Dr Sunder Ramaswamy joined Krea as its first Vice-Chancellor in 2017. Sunder has played a pivotal role in Krea’s success in the first phase of its journey. With his vast experience in innovative higher education in the US and India, he has put the University on a strong footing as it moves into the second phase of its journey.

Krea University has commenced the search for its next Vice-Chancellor. A Search Committee has been established to run the recruitment for this role with support from the specialist firm, Egon Zehnder to manage the search process. The University expects to complete the recruitment process by April 2021.

Further details are available here.

Dr Sunder will continue to function as the Vice-Chancellor of Krea University through the academic year 2020-2021, while the search is underway. He will ensure a smooth transition, and subsequently continue to contribute to Krea in an advisory and visiting capacity.

IFMR GSB’s student-led marketing committee launches ‘Prayatna’

IFMR GSB’s student-led marketing committee launches ‘Prayatna’

Markaholic, IFMR GSB’s student-led marketing committee, along with the Graduate School of Business’ notable alumni, recently launched an informative marketing workshop series titled ‘Prayatna’. The committee’s first workshop featured Amandeep Singh Kochar – Business Director at VMLY&R, New Delhi and an alumnus of IFMR GSB. Having worked with well-known brands such as TCS, Fresh Marketing Idea, BrandAppZ.com, KRDS, and Brandmovers, Amandeep shared his own experience and ideas on marketing, business development, creative strategies, and more in his session – ‘Succeeding in the World of Direct to Consumer (DTC)’.

Moving forward, the committee plans to host a marketing workshop every fortnight for a couple of hours, in a bid to inform students about all the trending marketing job roles in the industry, spread awareness about all the necessary skills required to excel in the field, engage in discussion through various practical demonstrations and activities, and, ultimately, build a strong student alumni network.

IFMR GSB’s Analytics Club holds its first event of the year

IFMR GSB’s Analytics Club holds its first event of the year

IFMR Graduate School of Business (GSB) has always fostered an engaging learning environment not only through academics but also through the University’s several student-led committees and clubs. In the first of many, the Analytics Club at GSB conducted its first-ever event of the year – ‘The Commencement’. The Analytics Club advocates itself as a platform to help students learn more about data tools and techniques in the business world. The event, with around 40 students in attendance, included multiple quiz rounds and a few creative, number-crunching activities. The scoring of the event depended on the number of likes and votes each team earned via social media. Two teams – InPrecision and Byte-Bits – were declared the winners owing to their high cumulative scores. Moving forward, the club aims to further its mission of using data as a storytelling tool through several such events.

Business impact of AI & IoT

Business impact of AI & IoT

As part of the industry engagement series,  we hosted Shalini Kapoor, Chief Technology Officer at IBM AI Applications and the first Indian woman Fellow at IBM India. Through a well laid out presentation, she talked about the adoption of AI. She articulated through real-life examples that AI is for all and not just for data scientists.  

Inaugural Krea Professional Development Programme registers over 400 participants

Akhila

In an effort to help develop and evolve professional expertise and skills of educators fit for the 21st century, eminent subject experts at Krea are hosting a series of interactive workshops. 

The first in the series was a workshop on ‘Online Education in Trying Times: Ideas and Strategies’ by Dr Akhila Ramnarayan, Divisional Chair, Literature & the Arts.

Attended by more than 400 education industry professionals from across the country, this 2 hour workshop discussed ideas, strategies, and best practices for online instruction, engagement, and learning, imagining together how educators can work to fulfill the mission of school and college education in today’s world. Through the discussions, Dr Akhila explored how the Coronavirus pandemic might have reshaped education, and how educational institutions can rise to the challenge.

All participants actively discussed queries around interactive learning, management of practical classes in the virtual realm, innovative assessment methods and counselling interventions.

Dr Akhila demonstrated activities which educators could use in their respective virtual classes for enhanced engagement. She shared deep insights on strategies which could nurture emotional wellbeing of students. She also touched on the fact that to take good care of students, teachers needed to foremost take good care of their own selves.  

The educators were highly engaged throughout the workshop and the Q & A session focused on conversations seeking empathetic modes of knowledge delivery through the online medium. As the curtains went down, the participating educators affirmed feeling equipped to use these new strategies and ideas in their upcoming classes. 

‘Krea Professional Development Programme’ is a certification workshop which invites  professionals to interact, engage and expand their skills, through workshops hosted by the fine academic minds at Krea.

About Akhila Ramnarayan

Dr Akhila Ramnarayan is Divisional Chair, Literature & the Arts, Associate Professor of Practice, and Curator, VENI, The Ideas Place, at Krea University.  She is a writer, scholar, theatre actor, and trained Carnatic vocalist with a PhD in postcolonial studies from The Ohio State University (2006).  She has worked at Pramati Technologies, Chennai (2013-2018), the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai (2011-2014), and University of Dayton, Ohio (2006-2011).

A key member of Chennai’s globally touring theatre company JustUs Repertory and founder member of performing arts institute Sahrdaya Foundation, she has received national recognition for theatre (acting) as the 2013-2014 awardee of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar.