In an exclusive interview to Deccan Herald, Dr Bali, who took over the reigns of the highly disturbed and controversial four-year-old Mahila Vishvavidyalaya on January 29, is not perturbed by the gigantic task she has ahead of her. “Offering run-of-the-mill higher education is not the only duty of the Women’s University. It is a specialised university and it certainly has a larger challenge. My priority is to make the North Karnataka women competitive and communicative by equipping them with necessary skills,’’ she said.

The second vice chancellor of the university is not bothered about the shrunk jurisdiction of the university as it is restricted only to North Karnataka, though originally it was to have the jurisdiction of the whole state. “I know the university is restricted only to North Karnataka. But it is again a good opportunity for us to redress the regional disparity and go about the task of making them competent,’’ Dr Bali said with a sense of hope.
To vindicate her objective she points out that out of the 12 districts in North Karnataka as many as eight have very poor human development indices. The university has a task of transforming these educationally backward districts on par with the developed districts of the state.

The newly-appointed Vice Chancellor of the Bijapur based Karnataka Women University Dr Geetha Bali has a task cut out for her. She has to instill a sense of credibility in the university. Dr Bali has a strong affirmative answer. She says that parents, by and large, even today prefer women’s colleges. They still have reservations about co-education system. Moreover, only women’s colleges and women’s universities can take care of the specialised needs of women, she says. “Some people may say there is no need for women’s colleges and universities. They don’t want to see what they don’t like,’’ Dr Bali quips.

Arguing for opening more and more women’s colleges, both in private and government sector, Dr Bali says only women’s educational institutions can comprehensively cater to the changing needs of women. “Courses like health and nutrition, women’s development, beautician, home science, fashion designing, etc; cannot be taught in a co-education class. Since they are suited to women they have to be the domain of women’s colleges.’’

Short-term courses
Dr Bali wants to start more and more short-term vocational certificate and diploma courses in colleges for the benefit of local women, who can become self-reliant through the applied courses. She wants every women’s college to have a technology centre.

The VC’s other two favourite areas are Information Technology and Biotechnology. According to her IT and BT are well suited for women as the twin courses have wider applications and there was a need for the university to go about them on a large scale. She also desires to have the participation of IT and BT industries in evolving and implementing the curriculum which would be mutually beneficial to university and the industry. She has already sent a proposal to the central government on the introduction of a new course in Bioinformatics.

The Women’s University has 62 affiliated colleges, out of whom only 14 have NAAC accreditation. “Besides asking all other women’s colleges to get NAAC accreditation the university itself will opt for NAAC certification,’’ Dr Bali adds.