Vice Chancellor's Message
From Vice Chancellor's Desk
The city of Lucknow in its echelons stands as a byword for grace, etiquette, charm, cultural pulchritude, gastronomic delights and much more. The city, since its inception has been Avant-garde in the holistic cultural engagements- a primogeniture propitiously preserved and persevered by The University of Lucknow. carrying a prodigious legacy of meritocracy, cultural pluralism and collectivism, but also for nurturing an intellect driven social system that strives for excellence in terms of teaching, research, innovation and extension. The University, established in the year 1920, then known as the Canning College, for teaching Arts, Science, Commerce and Law has today metamorphosed into a mammoth nucleus of education with 07 faculties segregated into 47 departments and 17 institutes in two campuses, affecting a spatial expansion from Lucknow District to Lucknow Division.
The University of Lucknow has through sheer grit and perseverance secured significant positions in many prestigious rankings of the country and abroad including QS, Nature Index, TIMES Higher Education, EduRank, UniRank, SCImago, UniRank, and NIRF Top 100 Rankings since January 2020. The University was the baton bearer across the country in the adoption and implementation of the guidelines of National Education Policy 2020 in letter and spirit at its Undergraduate, Post Graduate and Ph.D. program with incorporation of the Choice Based Credit System, Inter- departmental and Intra departmental credit transfers, flexible entry and exit, core courses and open electives, credited and non-credited value-added courses, online learning, internship, dissertation and more.
The happy concurrence of the VMGO (Vision, Mission, Goal, and Objectives) of the National Education Policy 2020 and University of Lucknow for academic excellence, led to various strategic initiatives being taken to ensure our responsiveness to the changing demands in academics. The “Student First” policy- focussing on participation and inclusivity aims at active involvement of students in several decision-making bodies. Student centric schemes like the VC Care Fund, Coffee with VC, round the clock social media presence through various social media platforms facilitates vital student engagement and outreach. The University focusses to constructively strengthen the intellectual as well as the emotional quotient of its scholars to ensure that they are multifaceted individuals who can effect a positive change in the world. University of Lucknow engages in conscientious fulfilment of the responsibilities it bears towards its stakeholders- particularly, the students and the society at large.
Student centricity serves as the northern star in the campus as it guides the decisions of both the administration and academia alike. We are committed to ensure that our students experience the best of learning opportunities with the help of contemporary curriculum design, industry interaction, research, innovation and infrastructure. To ascertain the holistic development of students, the University has implemented many initiatives through Student Centric schemes like Karmyogi, Karmodaya, Chatra Kalyan, Shodh Medha, Arpan, Samvardhan, VC Care Fund, Meritorious Student Council, Our Pupils’ Day, Mentor- Mentee program and Teaching, Reaching, Emboldening, Evolving (TREE). Moreover, Happy Thinking Lab, Open Gymnasiums and Yoga centre take care of the aspects related to health and physical well-being of the University students and employees.
The University of Lucknow is host to one of the largest on-campus communities of international students in North India. We have been collaborators and signatories of numerous MoU’s with many international higher education institutions.
The University is effectively engaged in doing its bit for a positive transformation in the world by serving and reaching out to all the concerned stakeholders. The University organises drives and campaigns which creates a two-way channel by sensitizing the students to the lacunae in the society and benefitting the community in the process. Social concerns encompass campaigns on health and hygiene of girls, distribution of sanitary napkin vending machines and incinerators in schools and colleges. Interactions and conversations to promote development initiatives of the government and support in their implementation especially in adjoining rural belt are regularly undertaken. In the past the University’s welfare and outreach mission was met with great success even during the trying times of the pandemic. The University’s relentless efforts to extend a helping hand to the needy and distressed included undertaking the organization of immunization camps, mask bank and food distribution during COVID 19 pandemic, and also extending a social message on environmental and ecology related challenges.
Education 4.0 lined up with the industrial revolution aims at transforming education with use of advanced technology and automation. The NEP 2020 calls for leveraging advantages of technology through ICT based educational initiatives to optimize its use in meeting challenges of quality education. University of Lucknow has implemented initiatives to leverage technology for the purpose of improving teaching-learning and evaluation processes, along with e-Governance. Development of own LMS SLATE facilitated hybrid learning. E-Governance initiatives include digitization of administration of functions such as recruitment, admissions, examinations, process of association of colleges, and communication.
The cogs of the functioning of the University have been oiled and smoothened with the introduction of procedural simplification and process automation by channelling the administrative workload through e-portals like Samarth, etc. The University has welcomed new faculty members to the tune of more than three hundred recruits in its fold. The human resources of the University are being continually replenished with recruitments and appointments of teaching and non-teaching staff. This has led to academic rejuvenation, managerial upgradation, financial strengthening, organisational restructuring and strengthening by decentralized decision making and inclusive governance.
The transformation experienced in creating a student centric innovative learning ecosystem in the University paves the way for many more outcomes which is manifested in good citizens and nation building. Let this journey of togetherness be a touchstone of academic excellence and innovative research which will help make this world a better place to live in.
Best Wishes!
Prof. Alok Kumar Rai
Vice Chancellor