Getting it right from the start and building confidently
A visit to Mahindra University
A few miles north of Hyderabad and slightly hidden away behind the main office of Tech Mahindra you find the campus of Mahindra University. The quality of the construction and the attention to the detail of cleanliness and maintenance are immediately impressive, and reminiscent of the best Universities in North America.
We were delighted to visit Mahindra recently. We had been tipped off that the institution was one to watch – defined by a commitment to quality and to building the nation and its society. It has a genuine focus on research that is matched by its efforts to develop students who will contribute and take on responsible leadership roles. We were every bit as enamoured by the institution as we expected to be.
--
It is well recognised that the story of the Mahindra fully parallels the story of India post-independence, although the company pre-dates independence by three years. As the family of businesses has diversified, it has taken an increasingly broader view of the contribution it can make to the growth of the nation. It has also been consistent in letting its actions speak louder than its words, and avoided the brashness that has characterised some of our other large conglomerates. This ethos comes through very clearly in the University – the focus is on content rather than noise.
The University originates as recently as 2014. The campus itself was inherited from the training and development of Satyam, the former computing services company which experienced a well-publicised demise in the late noughties and which Tech Mahindra absorbed.
One of the most interesting aspects of the University is the partnership that lies at the heart of it with Ecole Centrale, the Engineering and Science institution in France. It began as a pure engineering undergraduate campus with a strong emphasis on core disciplines and, unlike more Anglo-Saxon transactional models of partnership, this one is rooted in holistic exchange including faculty development, sabbaticals and student internships. As the Indian government rushes into a new age of foreign involvement in Higher Education, this is a model that would be well-worth a closer look.
It expanded beyond the Engineering partnership in 2020 and took on University status. Since then there has been growth of the portfolio, with schools of Management, Law and Education quickly coming on stream. Covid hit quickly, with the University sitting at around 2000 students. Coming out of the pandemic, there are plans for growth, but not at the expense of quality, and schools of Design and Media/Liberal Arts are being developed as we write. The Management School has just tied up with SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell to enable it to develop to the next level. New buildings are sprouting up in all directions, to support measured growth in students numbers, and a strengthened culture of research. Student numbers are unlikely to expand much beyond 3000 in the near future.
Professor Yaj Medury, the seasoned Vice-Chancellor, has had experience of leading in institutions ranging from Vellore Institute of Technology to Bennett, where he was inaugural Vice-Chancellor. He spoke to us the determination to ensure that Mahindra is a self-confident institution. It employs the IIT entrance exam, JEE (Mains) scores (~15% of students come from Northern India), and is committed to developing resilient, self-driven graduates who will take a leading role in India and the world. We discussed the growing student welfare challenges, with recent events at IIT Bombay fresh in mind. Mahindra University is about the development of students who are resilient and self-confident, able to embrace the opportunities offered by an uncertain landscape.
Similarly to the highest quality private Universities in the country, Mahindra University enjoys governance where the business sponsors are fully engaged and supportive, responsive and fast in following up, but without interfering. CP Gurnani is CEO of Tech Mahindra, and well used to University governance as Chair of IIM Nagpur, and Anand Mahindra himself is well-read and enthusiastic. We see repeatedly that this is a key ingredient: for private universities to realise their potential they need governance which recognises that the most important paybacks are not financial.
The research culture at Mahindra is developing fast, with many academics who have PhDs from globally leading institutions. Research income is still modest but beginning to benefit from the new rules about private access to research funding. New labs are being developed, and a Robotics group has developed comprising mainly academics with backgrounds at IIT Delhi. There are around 100 PhD students, following the US model which aims to support comprehensive development of academic professionals rather than simply accredit a research degree.
It will be exciting to see how Mahindra University develops over the coming years. Its development so far has been rapid, even despite the interference of Covid. It stands out for its potential to make a significant contribution to how Higher Education develops in the country.