&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Who is Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit? JNU's first woman vice-chancellor faces controversy for skipping key conference")
The Ministry of Education demanded a formal written explanation from Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit for not attending a high-level conference of Central University heads on Monday. The government sources confirmed that Pandit did not attend the conference without prior approval from the ministry, a move that was marked as unusual for such a significant national event, according to a report by Indian news agency PTI.
The two-day conference was organised by the Ministry of Education in Kevadia, Gujarat, from July 10 to 11. The event marked a five-year series of events of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. However, due to a coinciding event at JNU on the same dates, the vice-chancellor was unable to attend the ministry's program.
“Her absence was viewed seriously. In such circumstances, vice-chancellors are required to take prior approval. There was a conference at JNU coinciding with the vice-chancellors’ conference. But it should have been kept in mind that the invite for this conference was extended much in advance," a source said.
Meanwhile, no official response from the JNU vice-chancellor on the issue has been reported so far.
Who is Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit?
She was born on 15 July 1962 in Leningrad (now known as Saint Petersburg), Russia. Pandit completed her B.A and M.A. at the Presidency College in Chennai. Later, she completed M.Phil and Ph.D in International Politics from the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and a Post-Doctorate in Peace and Conflict Studies from Uppsala University, Sweden.
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Her teaching career began in 1988 at Goa University, and later she moved to Pune University. Before being appointed as the Vice Chancellor of JNU, she served as the Vice Chancellor of Savitribai Phule University in Maharashtra. Other than her academic excellence, she has held prestigious positions in various organisations. One of them is the American Studies Research Institute in Hyderabad.
Pandit's teaching profession also includes the Indian Association of American Studies, the All India Political Science Association, the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, and the Indian Secular Society.
Along with vast knowledge, Dhulipudi Pandit possesses skills including fluency in several languages, like English, Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Sanskrit, and Telugu. She has also authored books such as Parliament and Foreign Policy in India (1990) and Restructuring Environmental Governance in Asia, Ethics and Policy (2003). She also won several major academic awards.
