Can you be a founding member of Ashoka University and can you illuminate the development of Ashoka and Way Forward?
In 2014 we started university programs and it was a great run. We started with a small dose of 128 students and nine members of the faculty and today we have almost 3,000 students and almost 250 permanent and guest members of the faculty. I think that the current phase of Ashoka has scaling and expansion to areas we could have been able to keep aside or departured. In the last few years we have focused on science – physics, chemistry, biology. We have always had computer science and mathematics, but we really intensified our activity, our minutes and our research activities. And then we launched our first new initiative, which is School of Management. Now we will start the bachelor in the management area of the academic year 2026-27. We are about 25 acres. We move to a nearly 100-acre campus. Fortunately, we were able to get neighboring land from the government of Haryana.
In the years 2024-2025, there were huge challenges for students to study abroad. Many of them now decide not to go abroad. So how do you see this trend affecting Ashoka university?
This year, with a big change in immigration settings and people do not get visas or just get abroad, we see the trend that many more students choose us as the first preferences, while earlier we would choose us as a backup. The bunch of people who originally decided not to apply for Ashoka on Ashoka later applied to us in the special round we created. This is mostly in bachelor courses. In this last round, we got more than 100 people who asked for Ashoka, mostly those who have never been interesting to Ashoka, and received admission to good universities around the world.
One of the founding members (Sanjeev Bikhchandani) said they were considering “walking”, from Ashok University with regard to a number of controversies. How do you view this statement?
We have 200 founders, one of which has said. The founder wrote on a graduate who accused the former of not being a professor (referring to Prof. Ali Khan Mahmudabad) or did not interest a specific attitude. So the founder said – “I have to work so hard to get money for you”. We did the things we needed.
The professor is also on the paternal holiday of absence and is part of the ecosystem of Ashoka. We helped his family in a humanitarian way, as for any other employee.
I don’t think any of us are leaving. I looked at people in the eyes and told me to give me money to build a great university for you. People have now given us more than 3,000 GBP Crores, and that’s actually a hard -earned money.
Now most universities in India make money through fist and in the name of a non -profit organization. If we retreat to scholarships, many surpluses can be generated. In fact, we invested 600 GBP Crores in scholarships. So if we did not give these scholarships, we could certainly find 50% more students who pay students. But then the quality will suffer. We choose a harder way.
What are the highest challenges in the operation of Ashoka University?
The biggest challenge is to get the best faculty. You must hire the best faculty on the research queue. Give them the freedom to conduct research and do not overload them with teaching. You must also provide them with funds and Ph.D. Students carry out research with. It is really difficult to hire a high -quality faculty and make them come to India, let alone Ashoka.
Another big challenge is fundraising. Why should anyone give money a new institution with which they have no connection? Funds usually come from graduates, but if you don’t have graduates, how do you get money? And there are many requirements for people’s money. You can donate schools, look at the education of girls, mitigating poverty, environment, climate, etc. Why should they give Ashoka that has the perception of an elite university.
How to balance at Ashoka University between the current bad political climate and the provision of freedom of expression to students. This, especially with regard to the current US government to suppress protests in America. And then there are domestic challenges on academic soil.
We focus on high quality education and of course you have the freedom to say what you want. I can’t control it. If you have high quality people, they will say what they want. The rest, you have to deal with the external environment. Some things, the external environment will go. Some things will not be, and people should be aware of it. We like to explain to people that this is allowed or is acceptable and what is not allowed. Be aware of it and what you say, then thinks about the university. We say that our founders, faculty members, employees, students, all.
In my own life I have seen many different era. I was born at the age of 60. I saw an emergency situation. I saw the rule of amber and saw political shocks in Bihar where I grew up. I think the environment will come and leave; We have to focus on what we are for. We are here to provide high -quality education in the classroom.
All universities should have freedom of words. But it comes at the cost of something. You maintain this balance by focusing on what to do and not engage in other controversies.
The Ashoka University campus protested against your cooperation with universities in Israel by threatening last year to boycott the convening. Later they expressed concern about the safety scanning in the area. Then it became the controversy of professor (Ali Khan Mahmudabad). Now the controversy of household staff is happening …
What is the problem if students protest? When I was on (Iit-) Kanpur, I protested. I was on a two -day fast because I didn’t like the food. But don’t judge me. There are two parties in every situation, right? Take any story and I can tell you what the other party is from what students say. And we have to solve it.
Household staff receive much more on the market than other peers. We are obliged to pay the minimum wage. We pay much more than that.
There is the spread of narration that in five years no increase, it is absolutely not true. Workers gained an increase of 20-23%. Why should I devote 15 years of my life to building a university for this country? For raising scholarships to provide access to the most disadvantaged children in this country and then deteriorate with the compensation of workers. It doesn’t make sense.
The university must follow government regulations, so you have ever faced situations where it has become difficult for you.
I can notice that no one in Haryan or University Grants Commission nor the central government has ever given us any grief on regulations. You use them as our restrictions we need to work against. But these are the rules of the game. Can I excel, do you know what I do, given the rules of the game? And we say, yes, it’s possible. No one actively holds you. In fact, most people in the government are very proud of what we have built. We had a successful partnership with the Haryana government to build a good administration program by the main minister.
We do not want to attract these so -called controversies. They are very marginal. We don’t want to lift things. We don’t want to play.
The case (Professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad) is at the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court decides to do it. Our task is to ensure that our students have a fantastic campus experience and that the faculty gains all freedom and support to make great research for us and the country.
Published – September 18 2025 11:45
