In 1931, just before Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime was set to take over Germany, a Jewish Professor of Analytical Chemistry, sensing the impending anti-Jewish offensive, was preparing to migrate to the US. But just a few days before his journey, he received an invite from the then Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University (AU) to teach chemistry.
The Professor was none other than the famous German chemist Professor Ludwig Wolff and the then AU V-C was Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the second President of India.
Past glory
Prof. Wolff was the first foreign professor to teach at the 93-year-old university and it was him who had started the Department of Chemistry, which later went on to be among the best in the country. The name of Prof. Wolff was suggested by Prof. T.R. Seshadri, who once served as the former’s assistant in Germany, and Prof. Radhakrishnan took the daring step of inviting him. During his stay he had a number of interactions with Nobel Laureate C.V. Raman who was a visiting professor to Andhra University then.
That was the beginning of a flow of eminent teachers from abroad who set a defining standard at the university. “The V-Cs were eminent personalities and they went on to bring in the best and strong academicians who lent quality to the teaching faculty,” says Prof. Vaidyanadhan, a former Geology Professor of AU.
According to him, Prof. Eugene C. Lafonde from the US also taught in AU in the mid 1950s. Prof. Lafonde, a renowned oceanographer, was instrumental in the setting up of the Department of Meteorology and Oceanography in AU, a first in the country and the fourth in the world.
The flow of professors continued till about mid-1960s, and many taught in the university under the Fulbright Exchange Programme, says former AU Rector A. Prasanna Kumar. They included H.L. Wallace, L.A. Yates, Elmer Cutts and Jim Groff from the US, he adds.
After that the flow ebbed. Neither did the university care to keep a date with the trend nor were the exchange programmes encouraged due to lack of initiative and funds.
Now efforts are on to revive the old tradition. “We have formed a panel to identify and invite eminent Indian Professors working abroad on a term basis of three to five years,” says AU V-C G. Nageswara Rao.
With the university recently being accorded the National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF) Category-I status, the AU has been given the autonomy, offering the scope to appoint Professors from abroad, he points out.
Funding matters
But, such moves needs a substantial funding. The AU has been selected by the Union HRD Ministry to compete for the Institute of Eminence status.
“We have been short-listed among 20 institutions and are confident that we will be in the top 10 after the second round of presentations due in the next two months. All the top 10 institutes will be funded ₹1,000 crore,” says the V-C.
According to him, ₹400 crore will be spent on R and D, ₹300 crore in infrastructure and ₹300 crore more on introducing innovative courses and recruitment of faculty including the foreign Professors.
“The funding will be available for the next five years and we have already submitted a vision document with the projection for the next 15 years. Further, the UGC will fund for bringing foreign Professors in. The move will certainly reflect on the ranking of the university and the quality of teaching,” adds Prof. Nageswara Rao.
