Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit has been appointed as the vice-chancellor of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), making her the first woman to take this position.

“President Ram Nath Kovind, who is Visitor to the University, has approved the appointment of Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit as JNU Vice-Chancellor. Her appointment is for a period of five years,” a senior Ministry of Education (MoE) official said, according to a PTI report. 

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Pandit, who is also an alumna of JNU, will hold the post for the next five years. The 59-year-old is currently the vice-chancellor of Pune’s Savitribai Phule University. Apart from politics, she also teaches subjects like media research, politics and communication, and mass media at the Department of Communication Studies.

After pursuing her MPhil and PhD in International Relations, Pandit started teaching at Goa University in 1988, followed by Pune University in 1993. Previously, she has been a member of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). She has also served as a member of several national and international think-tanks.

Pandit has guided 29 PhDs over the course of her career, reported PTI.

According to a report by The Indian Express, she has published three books and over 170 research papers and articles in reputed journals on topics concerning foreign policy and political science.

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Her predecessor, M Jagadeesh Kumar, was appointed as the chairperson of the University Grants Commission last week. 

(With PTI inputs)