By Matters India Reporter
Bengaluru, Sept 22, 2020: Father Paul Achandy, the former prior general of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, has taken over as the new Chancellor of Christ University in Bengaluru.
Father Achandy, on assuming office on September 21, addressed the faculty and students of the university.
The university has made its impact as an emerging global university with its open, inclusive and value-based way of proceeding, Father Achandy said.
“It has been an ever-growing ground for staff and students to develop themselves to make an effective contribution to society in today’s dynamic environment,” said the 57-year old priest.
Father Achandy is also appointed as the new rector of Dharmaram (‘Garden of Virtues’) College, a major seminary of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) Congregation.
He is an alumnus of Dharmaram College and former staff of the university when it was a college.
Father Achandy has Master of Business Administration from North Maharashtra University in 1995 and a doctorate in Management from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras in 2002.
His area of specialization has been strategic human resource management.
He has published several research papers in national journals and has been a resource speaker at many national conferences in the country.
Father Achandy is strongly rooted in the Carmelite spirituality of Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara, the founder of the CMI congregation. He is known for his simplicity, erudition and humility, Father Mathew Chandrankunnel, director of Ecumenical Christian Centre, Bangalore, told Matters India.
Several administrative positions Father Achandy governed with spiritual animation and management skills filled up with compassion and affection, said Father Chandrankunnel, a Carmelite.
Father Paul “is an erudite scholar and will be able to animate both the secular students at Christ University as Chancellor and the priestly and religious students at Dharmaram College as Rector with values and motivation to higher levels of excellence and service to wider humanity,” said the director of Ecumenical Christian Centre.
Founded in 1969 as an autonomous college, in 2008, Christ College was declared as an institution deemed to be a university by the Ministry of Education (India).
It is under the management of the priests of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate, a prominent religious order for men under the Syro Malabar Church.
The university has more than 18,000 students and more than 800 faculty members.
In the 2017 India Today-Nielsen survey, CHRIST (Deemed to be University) is ranked among the top private universities in India.
It offers nationally and internationally recognized undergraduate, postgraduate and research programs in Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences, Law, Engineering, Business Administration, Commerce, and Management.
It offers professional courses in fields including Business Management, Computer Application, Hotel Management, Mass Communication, Social Work, Engineering and Tourism.
About 700 international students from 58 nationalities study at the university.