JNU gets its first woman Vice-Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit

New Delhi: Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, a professor at Savitribai Phule Pune University, has been appointed as the first woman Vice-Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). She succeeds M Jagadesh Kumar, who was named UGC Chairman last week.

"In exercise of the powers conferred upon him by the statutes of the JNU, President of India Ram Nath Kovind, in his capacity as the Visitor of JNU has been pleased to appoint...Pandit... as the Vice Chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University," the Union Education Ministry said in a letter to the JNU Registrar.

Santishree has been appointed for five years from the date she assumes the charge as the 13th Vice-Chancellor of the JNU. The 59-year-old Santishree is also an alumna of JNU where she pursued her MPhil as well as PhD in International Relations.

Santishree started off as a brilliant student born to Dr Dhulipudi Anjaneyulu, author, journalist and retired civil servant and Prof Mulamoodi Adilakshmi, a Professor of Tamil and Telugu at the Leningrad Oriental Faculty Department in (then) USSR. In her higher secondary Std 12th examinations, she stood first in the state of Tamil Nadu.She holds a bachelor's degree in History and Social Psychology as a Gold Medallist from Presidency College, Madras and Masters in Political Science from the same college.

Her stint with the Jawaharlal Nehru University started when she obtained her pre-doctoral degree in M Phil in International Relations from JNU in 1986, securing the first rank in the university. Her Doctorate in International relations was a thesis on "PARLIAMENT AND FOREIGN POLICY IN INDIA – THE NEHRU YEARS" which she completed at the young age of 28. Further, she went on to study Peace and Conflict Studies from Uppsala University in Sweden. Santishree has also served as a member of think tanks, government departments and advisory boards in the country. In 2005, she was elected as a member of the National Committee on Reconciliation. She has also served as a member of the Global India Foundation, a national-level Think Tank. She was a member of the UGC Committee on Higher Education and Indicators from 2006-2008 and an Executive Committee member of the Indian Association for American Studies between 2010-2013. In her academic career spanning 30 years, she has guided around 29 PhDs while also serving as an external advisor to many universities across India.

As a well-travelled academician, the multilingual professor is fluent in six languages, including Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit, Marathi, Hindi and English and can understand Kannada, Konkani and Malayalam as well.

Pandit has also been a resource at the military intelligence training school, Pune on the Asia Pacific region and India's security perceptions since 1995. As an author, Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit has written four books – Parliament and Foreign Policy in India (1990), Restructuring Environmental governance in Asia-Ethics and Policy (2003) and two books co-authored with Dr Rimli Basu – 'Cultural Diplomacy: Buddhism and India's Look East Policy' and 'Retreat of the State: Implications of Drug Trafficking in Asia in 2012'.