‘We’ve recruited more than 200 IITians’
Aman Mittal, assistant director, Lovely Professional University (LPU), on why should a student choose to study at its sprawling 600-acre campus.

By Shubhdarshani Mitra
May 05, 2009: A graduate in engineering in electronics, Aman Mittal, assistant director, LPU, has done his MBA from University of South Hampton, UK. The 28-year-old executive shares the idea behind the formation of LPU. Excerpts from an interview:

Why did you feel the need of a new university?
Though initially we had no mind to enter into education sector, my grandfather wanted that we should do something on the social front. We started Lovely Institute of Management, which was initially named as International Institute of Management. But we later realised that people might not know that the Lovely group was promoting this initiative. So, we changed the name. As we saw the opportunity, we started taking it more seriously. That’s how we entered into education venture completely in 2001. The University came up in 2005

So is that how the name Lovely Professional University came up?
The name was more about bringing in the trust. An international group as a name would have made people think twice before coming to the institute. It was more about winning the trust of the people that they have shown in Lovely group. We wanted to encash more on our brand name.

How was the whole experience of setting up of a private university in the country?
When you are associating yourself with a government body it becomes very difficult to take things forward as you want. And especially Lovely group has a very strong ideology of working in a transparent manner and it became more challenging. When you work with that ideology, it becomes hard to convince people. The process itself was so tedious. But we believe that if things are right they will happen

Which are the focus areas in terms of academic programmes in LPU? Are there any special study areas like tourism studies etc?
We have several courses, including engineering, pharmacy and education but our engineering courses and management programmes are the biggest ones and also the most comprehensive ones. We have programmes right from Xth level to a doctorate level. You have the option to enter into diploma in engineering, BTech in engineering or an MTech in engineering.

How do you ensure competent faculty?
We have faculty from all across India now. Recently we did a very unique experiment and it went quite well. We went to all different IITs and recruited more than 200 IITians. We got more than 500 applications for faculty recruitments. We also have visiting faculties from foreign nations but they don’t come for a long time. They visit us for a week or so. Recently, we had a faculty from computer science department of San Francisco State University. And the best thing is that anybody who comes to LPU has to undergo training wherein we tell them about the pedagogy. We also have tie-ups with international colleges and we ask them to train our faculty.

Could you elaborate on the twining programmes?
It’s a very successful programme wherein a student decides in the IInd year which international college s/he wants to go for. For eg if you enter a programme like an engineering, you don’t know at that point of time which education destination to go to -- to the UK, US, Australia or Canada. So, you get to decide that in the IInd year. It gives the students the time to decide the college as well. LPU has tie-ups with 20 international universities.

How do you manage to rope in foreign collaborators, being a very new set up?
Sometimes universities approach us and sometimes we approach them. We have an international relations division, which is looking after this aspect.

What would you say is the USP of LPU? What do you have to offer in terms of infrastructure?
I would say that the infrastructure and the quality and delivery of education are our USPs. In terms of infrastructure we have a sprawling campus spread across more than 600 acres of land, which by our understanding is the biggest in India owned by any private university. The buildings and the laboratories we have are really good. Whether it is technology or infrastructure, we have world-class levels. Also, we do a quality check from time to time. We believe in deliverables and work like a corporate in this aspect. There is accountability in the whole system.

How do you see the scope of a student who carries a degree/diploma by LPU in the job market?
We have a very strong placement cell, which is in touch with the corporates. Companies like Infosys, Accenture, Bank of America, keep visiting our campus. And once the students are in the job market, they know the quality. Recently, the Infosys awarded our students as the best performers during a training programme.