A Vice Chancellor, former Director of AICTE and the Founder-Director of SWAYAM, Dr. Manpreet Singh Manna has been serving in the education sector for the past 27 years. Advocating the concept of education with ethics, Dr. Manna has played a vital role in creating a platform to make education more accessible.

Prof. (Dr.) Manpreet Singh Manna is currently working as the Vice Chancellor of the Chandigarh University, Mohali.

From starting as a Lecturer at Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology to being the Director of All India Council for Technical Education, Dr. Manna has been serving the education fraternity for the past 27 years.

Talking about Chandigarh University, Dr. Manna says that what makes the university unique and different from the 1400 universities that we have in our country is the fact that it became the youngest university in the world to reach an admirable QS Ranking in just 10 years and the highest QS rank from the QS World Ranking and the Asia Ranking 2024 in just 12 years. The university has representation of students and educators of more than 60 countries and almost every state and UT of India.

He further emphasizes that reaching the top 20 universities in NIRF (National Institutional Ranking Framework) was only made possible by the vision of the Hon'ble Chancellor and Founder of CU, Sardar Satnam Singh Sandhu, who is also serving the nation as an honorable Member of the Rajya Sabha.

Dr. Manna says that the chancellor’s vision of providing quality education to students which he himself deserved but could not get due to his humble background, is what forms the foundation of Chandigarh University. The university also focuses on adding ethical values like humility and dignity to the education it is providing to nurture good global citizens out of its students. Dr. Manna further adds that technology and innovation will find their way by default, but if we fail to sustain the values of our nation or family forward, we will not be able to create wholesome graduates, engineers and doctors.

Dr. Manpreet Singh Manna started his career in 1997 as a Lecturer in Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology in the Department of Electrical and Instrumentation Engineering. He adopted a unique strategy of picking a new subject to teach in every semester to break the stereotypical pattern in the teaching field that was being followed and to bring a bit of innovation in his style. Within no time he was selected as a visiting faculty at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, an opportunity that was usually given by the government to only IIT or IIM Professors, either of which he wasn't.

Visiting the university which had MoU’s signed with seven different countries, gave Prof. Singh a new perspective about teaching and made him realize that teachers are the greatest learners in the world. He realized that students were focused on new tech subjects like Robotics and AI and their queries and doubts enriched his expertise as an educator to a great extent.

Talking about his initial career years, Dr. Manna says that soon after completing his BTech in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Mandya, Karnataka, he came back to Punjab. Although he had an offer to join Wipro Infotech, Metagalli, Mysore after completing his project successfully, he decided to return for the dream of joining as an Assistant Engineer in the electricity board. Dr. Singh feels that our dreams and hopes are mostly dependent on our surroundings and that was what he desired deep from his heart to do at that time. However, he was also preparing for examinations like UPSC and SSB and found himself lucky to have appeared for SSB in all three verticals of the defense forces, i.e., the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.

Absence of government vacancies for a few years in the electricity board, and time spent as a UPSC aspirant studying sitting in the library of Punjab University, where he was also a scholar, turned his path towards teaching. From solving doubts of students preparing  for PMT and CET, to coming up with innovative teaching strategies is what made Prof. Manna realize that along with being a good scholar, he was also a gifted teacher.

Shedding light on how SWAYAM, of which he was the Founder-Director during his time at the AICTE, Dr. Singh says that it all started when he joined AICTE, Ministry of Education (then MHRD) under the chairmanship of Prof. (Dr.) S. S. Mantha. The initial six months for him went in understanding the working of the regulatory body. As the Director of the University Bureau, the responsibility he was initially given, he got 86 universities recognised under UGC, including REVA university, Bangalore, Sri Guru Granth Sahib World University and even Chandigarh University.

Prof. Manna says that after the change of government at the center in 2014, things took a turn for him. The then Minister of Education, Smriti Irani called the then chairman of AICTE, Prof. Anil Sahasrabudhe, to work on the idea of ‘One Nation, One syllabus’ and the responsibility to do so was soon allotted to Prof. Manna. The first task that he had at hand was to create a full form for the hindi word ‘SWAYAM’ provided to him. He feels that when  you work with good intentions you always end up on the right path, and he came up with, SWAYAM- Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds. He then worked with the Microsoft team that was the tech support of the project to design a logo. He got some computing books to learn more about coding and user experience. Initially, they created 9 national coordinators and soon bodies like IGNOU, IIT, NITTTR, CEC, UGC, NIOS and CBSE came on board. The next step was to devise a credit based system to promote interdisciplinary learning, the idea of which came when Prof. Manna saw universities like Stanford coming up with a course program named Computer Science and Music. The idea was to make SWAYAM a journey from passion to profession for students.

Dr. Manna recalls telling the Minister of Education, Prakash Javdekar that he would get SWAYAM on ground in 9 months just like the time a mother takes to bring a child into the world and to his delight, SWAYAM was inaugurated on July 9, 2017, by the then President of India, Dr. Pranab Mukherjee at Vigyan Bhawan. He was also awarded the President Award for the same and feels that it could not have been possible without the support of the team at AICTE, Microsoft and R. Subrahmanyam, who used to be the Additional Secretary and later Secretary, MHRD. He served as a mentor to Dr. Manna and his advice that you will have to face many hurdles while progressing and doing something new, still lingers on with him.

Prof. Dr. Manpreet feels that every person can be a motivational speaker if they present their experiences and learnings in a positive way. He feels that experiencing hardships is a part of life but the main thing is to focus on turning challenges into energy to fuel us further. He says that the present youth is stressed in many ways. One of the biggest stress is caused by the screen time, an average of four and a half hours per day, that the youth is experiencing, making them devoid of human contact, collaborations and making them more secluded and lonely in life.

This is where Prof. Singh feels that the role of a teacher comes in. He says that beeding all the young pearls into a necklace is what an educator needs to focus on. He says that the sorrows and smiles that one experiences are all written but what a motivational speaker must do is to guide and make the youth aware of the right path. He emphasizes on making the students aware of the importance of EQ, i.e., Emotional Quotient. He also feels that a truly rich person is one who takes everyone along with them and follows the ethical values imparted in them. Dr. Singh feels that one can learn from the life stories of legends like Swami Vivekananda and Dr. Abdul Kalam, who are his role models as well. He says that sometimes movies also provide the right learning message.

Talking about his childhood, Dr. Manna says that he was born in Patiala, Punjab. His grandfather migrated from Pakistan and started doing a job  in the banking sector. Later, his father also joined the banking sector and retired as a manager. Dr. Singh says that initially he started his school education in an English medium school in Patiala but then had to shift to Saharanpur due to the transfer of his father and was enrolled in a Hindi medium school, Vivekananda Vidya Mandir there. After again shifting to Patiala, he continued his education in a Punjabi medium school as admission from Hindi to English medium was not an option in Patiala. He says that the language maze posed a struggle for him and he had to find ways to translate Punjabi to English and that is how he completed his schooling.

In order to pursue his engineering in Electrical and Electronics, he moved to PES College of Engineering, Mandya, where, for the initial three months he had to face a lot of trouble due to the language barrier as he had no knowledge of the Kannada language. However, he learned the language fluently in three months and says that going forward he gained a lot of love and support from everyone at his college. After that, he did his masters in Powers and Machines from Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology and then his PhD from Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology. Dr. Singh feels that the teaching field helped him learn languages and even cultures which still helps him in many ways.

Talking about his role models, Prof. Manpreet says that his first role model was his Mathematics teacher, Sahani sir, who used to teach him in standard eighth. He became his favorite teacher which in turn attracted Dr. Manna towards the subject as well which eventually made him become the first engineer from his family. In his engineering days, K. Channa Venkatesh, the Head of Department,  was another role model for him. Recalling an incident from his college days, Dr. Manna says that he once reached Prof. Venkatesh’s doorstep at one in the night to ask about a doubt regarding an examination the next day. He says that Venkatesh sir resolved the doubt at that hour of the night which created a special place of reverence for him in his heart.

Dr. Manna further adds that he kept on finding good mentors during his journey and feels that a mentor is the one who can guide and channelise your energy in the right direction. He feels that the youth of the country are searching for good mentors, influencers and guides and that is the reason we are seeing good startups coming up, because of the good mentors.

On being asked about the quote he likes, Prof. Manna quotes from the Gurbani,

‘जो ब्रह्मांडे सोई पिंडे जो खोजै सो पावै’

This is a message that he even gives to his students and feels that instead of searching for a solution outside, one should look for one inside and try to read one’s own thoughts. He says that sitting in silence for 10 to 15 minutes will help in detoxifying one’s mind and augmenting energy. Prof. Singh further advises everyone to read spiritual texts and visit religious places as well.

Talking about hardships, Dr. Manpreet Singh Manna feels that challenges always come when one starts moving forward. Sometimes they may be time related and other times they may be created by people around us as well. Talking to the youth, he says that the biggest hardship is of the mindset and not financial. He says that wasting our time in unproductive work is also a challenge that we are facing at the present times. He feels that we should make every second worth for us as we all have limited time in hand.

Giving a message on behalf of Chandigarh University, Dr. Manna says that the exposure that the university provides is of exceptional level. It is the only university in India which invites a Nobel Laureate every year. He says that  more than 100 CEO’s visit every year at the Corporate Advisory Board and sit with the students to understand what level of IPR or Projects they are doing. CU has signed 400+ MoUs with more than 60 countries for student exchange programs and some MoUs for research collaboration with Ivy League and QS Ranked universities.

Out of classroom study, extra curricular activities are also a highlight of the university. Dr. Manna says that their Bhangra and Theatre team win prizes every year and in Khelo India, the university has brought the maximum number of gold medals, i.e., 32. Prof Singh feels that above all the university is working on providing happiness to its students.

Sharing more about the university, Dr. Manna says that there are two mottos of Chandigarh University. First, failure is not acceptable over here and the number two motto is that we cannot be number two. He says that every university is doing great in their capacities and the only competition that CU has is with itself. In 2023, the university got appreciated by the GoI for the highest number of patents and more that 150 startups have taken birth in the university. He says that contributing to the idea of ‘Viksit Bharat’ is what the university aims to work upon in coming years as well.

Believing in the vision of creating something so substantial for this era that the coming generations, even if they do not remember us as the individuals that we are, should remember our work done for the society, Prof. Singh says that we should always follow the concept of ‘'पहले इस्तेमाल करें फिर विश्वास करें’.

On a concluding note, Dr. Manpreet Singh Manna says that it is a thing of pride that we are citizens of Bharat, the land of sages and spirituality. He says that using technology is not wrong but never let the same be our master.