Dr. Pillai has also served as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), He was the sixth Vice-Chancellor of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi and also by default, the Chairman of the Distance Education Council (DEC) which looks after the co-ordination of standards, quality, recognition and developmental assistance to all of the 13 State Open Universities, over 150 Distance Education Institutes in the Conventional Universities and in other private Open and Distance Learning institutions in the country.

Director of the (NAAC), Bangalore, Vice-Chancellor of the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, Vice-Chancellor of the Cochin University of Science and Technology, Founder-Director of the School of Chemical Sciences; Dean of Faculty of Science; Controller of Examinations; Director of College Development Council; Founder-Director of the School of Professional Distance Education and Chief, Employment and Information Guidance Bureau of the Mahatma Gandhi.