The Higher Education Review

Dr. Satheesh Kumar Bhandary, Vice Chancellor

Dr. Bhandary started his academic journey in Mysore Medical College from where he graduated, followed by a diploma and completed his post graduation, MS in ENT from JJM Medical College, Mysore in 1986. He has served for about 10 years as Assistant and Associate Professor in KMC, Mangalore. He was appointed as Professor and Head of the department of ENT, from 1999, for a period of 13 years followed by the Vice Dean, for a period of 5 years and as a Dean of K.S.Hegde Medical Academy for five years. He has contributed immensely to the advancement of his branch through numerous National and International publications and lectures. He has vastly contributed to research and has received several external grants for his research.

Founded by Justice K.S. Hegde, who served as a judge in the Supreme Court of India from 1967 to 1973 and later as the Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Nitte Education Trust in Karnataka is a synonym for quality and affordable education. The trust has established 32 institutions, 3 hospitals and 4 Research centres spread in three different campuses at Nitte, Mangalore and Bangalore. Formed under the Trust of NIITE, a trust sponsored by Nitte Education Trust, NITTE that was conferred the status of Deemed-to-be University in June 2008 began offering health professions education of various levels to the aspirants across the globe and is diversifying to other areas of education. Including its first constituent college, A.B. Shetty Memorial Institute of Dental Sciences, NITTE now has eight constituent colleges, the other seven being K.S. Hegde Medical Academy, N.G.S.M. Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nitte Usha Institute of Nursing Sciences, Nitte Institute of Physiotherapy, NIitte University Centre for Science Education and research, Nitte Institute of Communication and Nitte Institute of Architecture.

For its commitment to assure quality in medical education and excellence in research, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) has accredited NITTE with the highest Grade 'A.' Further, the University has been ranked within the top 100 Universities of the country for two successive years by National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), MHRD, Government of India. NITTE is ranked 9th in the country in the area of Outreach and Inclusivity.

"We strive to inculcate a sense of social responsibility and professional integrity in all our education programs, aligning the goals and outcomes with national and global needs," opines Dr. Satheesh Kumar Bhandary, Vice Chancellor, NITTE. With an objective to build a humane society through education and healthcare, NITTE admits over 1164 students every year for under-graduate and postgraduate degrees in medical, dental, pharmacy, physiotherapy, nursing, bioscience, mass communication and architecture. . "The courses offered to the students range from undergraduate to doctoral levels, where the quality is continuously assessed by our Internal Quality Assurance Cell," adds Dr. Bhandary.

"NITTE has a network of 20 rural satellite centres, two rural secondary hospitals and a rural psychiatry centre delivering health care across four districts in two states.

Most of the programs of the deemed-to-be-university are in the health sciences professions for which NITTE's teaching hospitals and network of rural health centres provide workplace based hands-on training opportunities. This gives NITTE students an edge in employability skills. At NITTE, facilities for simulation based clinical skills training provide safe yet effective approach for imparting crucial skills to students."Our tertiary level teaching hospital with all broad and super-specialty medical and dental health care services provides immense hands-on training opportunities for health professional students," claims Dr. Bhandary. The institute has a network of 20 rural satellite centres, two rural secondary hospitals and a rural psychiatry centre delivering health care across four districts in two states. This provides a unique opportunity for students of NITTE for community based learning and inculcation of social responsibility in line with the institute's vision and mission.

Research Oriented Education

NITTE fosters research activities through their curriculum, which is revised once in three years based on the inputs from teaching faculty,

students, alumni and employers of graduating students. Dr. Bhandary says, "We have a system in place to obtain feedback from these stakeholders. Revisions reflect advances in the respective disciplines and changing requirements in terms of expected competencies and employability." The deemed-to-be-university has an advanced Medical Simulation and Clinical Skills training Centre (NU-MEDISIM) for clinical skills training using state-of-the-art patient simulators and skill trainers. In addition to this, laboratory facilities in Neurosciences, Stem Cell Biology, Molecular Biology, Genomics and Neuroinformatics, Cytogenetics, Lipidomics, Micobiology, Marine Biotechnology, Food safety and toxicology offer opportunities for students to integrate research into education.

Unlike many private universities across the country, NITTE has been able to attract and retain talented faculty due to its strong research culture. NITTE has employed full time research scientists to strengthen research and development, as well as supported its faculty to attend professional development programs including conferences and workshops both within India and abroad. "There are active Medical Education, Dental Education and Nursing Education Units in our constituent colleges to train teachers in educational technology. Apart from that, we also conduct faculty exchange programs with Universities in USA, Belgium, Japan and Philippines to provide global exposure to faculty," explains Dr. Bhandary. NITTE has established over 26 MoUs and collaborations with international universities, which have resulted in resulted in joint research projects, publications and faculty exchange.

Imbibing cutting-edge research and innovative teaching practices, NITTE has always been a favourite destination for prominent recruiters in the industry. Microlabs, Lotus Teva, Indegene, Syngene, Mangalore Institute of Onclogy, Father Mullers Hospital, Ecron Acunova, Farwaniya Hospital and Meitra Multispecialty Hospital are few to name among them. NITTE has also established a Business Incubation Centre for Micro, Medium and Small Scale Industries. Through this Centre, the institute assists the student-entrepreneurs in their start-up activities. "In the immediate future, we will introduce new post-graduate programs in medical super specialties and allied health sciences. We will also provide more value added courses to enrich the academic experience of our students. Over the next few years, we are poised to grow into large multidisciplinary University," concludes Dr. Bhandary.