Prof Ganesan Kannabiran takes charge as NAAC Director

Tirupati: Prof Ganesan Kannabiran is appointed as the new Director of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). Prof Kannabiran assumed charge on Friday at NAAC headquarters in Bengaluru and his tenure will be for five years. Prof Kannabiran is an alumnus and a senior Professor of Information Systems at the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli with over 30 years of experience in teaching, research and administration. He has served as Dean of Research & Consultancy and Director in-charge of NIT Trichy.

He successfully led the Indian Institute of Information Technology Sri City from 2018 to 2023 as its founding Director. He has made significant contributions including implementation of NEP 2020 by incorporating skill development, holistic education, inclusive education, credit transfer, etc. He also introduced many best practices in the areas of student placements, attracting and retaining highly qualified faculty members, promoting innovation and entrepreneurship, societal engagements by adopting neighbouring villages under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan and industry engagement at multiple levels. He also served as Director in-charge of NIT Puducherry.

Dr Kannabiran is a recipient of Commonwealth Professional Fellowship (Edinburgh Napier University), Fulbright Fellowships (Education Administrators Programme, Fulbright Visiting Faculty at Oklahoma State University), and British Council Study Fellowship (Huddersfield University).

He has carried out several projects with funding from international and national agencies including MeitY, AICTE, DST, UKIERI, The Asia Foundation, UNESCO for a value of about 8.00 crores in the areas of Industry-Institute Interaction, Computer-based Learning, Industry 4.0, Entrepreneurship Development, IT Graduate Employability, SME development, Data Privacy, Gender Equality and ICT Education, etc.

Dr Kannabiran established the Center for SME Research Development and led the institutional-level ‘Strategic Planning Group’ assisting a major goal-oriented transformation at NIT-Tiruchirappalli. He serves as the member of the Academic Advisory Committee of Project Management Institute India. He is also a member of the Computer Society of India and Indian Society for Training and Development.