Prof PK Khosla

Vice Chancellor

A dedicated educationist cum entrepreneur with a mission - Prof Prem Kumar Khosla has many facets to his career that spans more than 43 years.

At an age when people prefer to retire from active work and spend quiet time at home,Prof Prem Kumar Khosladecided to invest his and his wife’s lifetime savings in establishing a non-profitable organization, Shoolini Institute of Life Sciences and Business Management (SILB) in 2005. He retired as Vice Chancellorship of Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishva Vidyalaya, Palampur and as Senior Scientific Advisor to Government of Himachal Pradesh. His mission was to provide affordable quality education to the youth from rural and semi urban areas of the state.

Soon SILB became a beehive of academic activities under his stewardship and quickly attained a top 10 position in India in its area of focus. Within 12 months of its establishment, SILB also emerged as the most preferred biotechnology and science post graduate institution amongst colleges affiliated to HimachalPradeshUniversity.

Prof Khosla always dreamt of setting up a state-of-the-art university that pursues world class research and trainsstudents through a flexible curriculum to meet the needs of the industry. With the steady credibility and goodwill created by SILB, Himachal Pradesh Government invited Prof Khosla to set up a specialized private university of biotechnology and management sciences,the first of its kind in India. In just three and a half years of operations, Shoolini is now rated amongst India’s top three biotech institutions (BioSpectrum, 2013), and is considered one of North India’s finest universities.

Prof Khosla has communicated his vision for Shoolini to be a global top 200 university by 2022. In addition, the University aspires to provide quality and relevant education to its students at an affordable and subsidized fee structure. To achieve this aspiration, Prof Khosla and his team are passionately working towards five areas of focus:

1. Attracting and retaining top national and international faculty.

2. Forging alliances with industry and academia of repute.

3. Governing through values and transparency.

4. Building world class and an environment-friendly infrastructure.

5. Attracting brilliant as well as needy students.

Since inception,the University has achieved multiple successes. Amongst many, some of these include:

  1. Full recognition by UGC in its second year of operations.
  2. Chosen by DST, Government of India to run multiple national programmes.
  3. Ranked 2nd amongst India’s leading private biotech institutions (BioSpectrum Survey, 2012 & 2013).
  4. Alliances with leaders such as Genpact, Seoul National University, Korea and Anand Automotives.
  5. Selected by various government ministries to execute important research projects.
  6. Several reputed and internationally trained faculty.
  7. Delivering post graduate and PhD programs across areas of focus.

In his four decades of untiring work, Prof Khosla has shown an inspirational sense of initiative and entrepreneurial acumen. Be it his vision of using science as a tool to empower the small farmer of Himachal Pradesh, or his emphasis on the research and study of natural flora and fauna of the state for environmental conservation,or his passion to create a globally recognized and world class private university - his thinking has been ahead of time and is followed by result-oriented action. His vision to make Shoolini a global top 200 universityby 2022 is unparalleled and inspiring to all in the field of higher learning.

Born on February 18, 1940 at village Samrala, District Ludhiana (Punjab), Prof Prem Kumar Khosla did his schooling at AryaHigh School, Ludhiana, followed by graduation, post graduation and doctoral degrees in Botany at PanjabUniversity, Chandigarh. He bagged gold medalsat graduation and post graduation levels. He started his teaching profession at PanjabUniversity and pursued post doctoral research at OxfordUniversity.

Prof Khosla gave new dimension to forestry education in the country by starting BSc, MSc and PhD courses in forestry at Faculty of Forestry, HimachalPradeshUniversity. He was responsible for setting up the College of Forestry in the newly established Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry (UHF) at Solan.

He held several prestigious positions at UHF before being appointed to the top position as Vice Chancellor of Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishva Vidyalaya, Palampur and subsequently as Senior Advisor to HP Government. He was instrumental in formulating the biotech policy of HP Government and attracting biotech industry to the state. He was also responsible for establishing the ‘Indian Society of Tree Scientists’.

Prof Khosla belongs to Parmahansa Yogananda Order and has fully imbibed his guru’steachings.