Metro people: Fr Abraham V M, now VC of Christ

Fr Abraham V M has taken over as the new Vice-Chancellor of Christ (Deemed to be University). He has been serving as the university’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for the last 10 years.

With a PhD in Mathematics from Bangalore University, Fr Abraham has been teaching the subject for as long as he can remember.

He has also been an integral part of both academic and administrative responsibilities at Christ.

In a freewheeling interview to Metrolife, Fr Abraham spoke about why it is important to prepare young men and women for life first and then job market.

“At Christ, we are working towards preparing the students to face the challenges in life. We have developed soft skill programmes and seamlessly integrated them into the curriculum. We want to prepare the students in such a way that they are in demand world over. We insist on research-based education and impress upon the students not to rush into a job soon after graduation but work towards enrolling for a postgraduate degree,” says Fr Abraham.

He points out that most students are glued into the system in the first few months after they come in. “Even the students who are introverts gather a command over the language and we also find that they are more confident than when they first came in,” he adds.

Fr Abraham points out that there are two things that the college concentrates on --- Student activities and faculty development programme. “The members of the faculty are mandatorily put through a well-structured three-day training programme at the beginning of every academic year. They also draw up strategies and plans for the year. And do an evaluation towards the end,” he says. He informs that he would like to focus on developing infrastructure, quality of teachers, sharpening the effectiveness of the teaching-learning process and ensuring a sustained effort towards promoting research and effective academic monitoring.

There are 21,000 students on campus. How does the faculty ensure that they are not under any kind of pressure? “There should be some amount of pressure because only then will there be growth. This will eventually have a positive effect on the students,” adds Fr Abraham.

What does Fr Abraham do when he is off work? “I read a lot. My morning starts with meditation and I wrap up my evening with a walk. I believe that there is no life without health. I also impress upon the students to focus on fitness.” Does he miss teaching? “I enjoy teaching more than anything else. I will miss teaching,” Fr Abraham sums up.