Sonipat: The Office of the International Affairs and Global Initiatives at the O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), in collaboration with the British Council, hosted a senior delegation from the leading and top UK universities at its campus.
The delegation included Pro-Vice Chancellors, Deans and Vice Presidents from University of Bristol, University of Glasgow, Liverpool John Moores University, University of Reading, Durham University, Royal Holloway University, Newcastle University, Nottingham Trent University, King’s College London, the Department of International Trade and the Department of Education, UK.
The foundations of the India-UK bilateral relations have been innovation, research and education and taking into consideration India’s NEP, both countries have revealed the aspiring India, UK Roadmap 2030 to expand collaborations between Higher Education Institutes between India and UK. Keeping that in mind, the purpose of the visit was to explore possible avenues of mutual cooperation through institutional partnerships in Higher Education and Research between JGU and the partner universities in the UK.
The areas of collaboration include two-way mobility of students, faculty and researchers in the fields of Law, Business, International Affairs, Journalism, Liberal Arts, Psychology and Public Health among others. The discussions also focused on expanding the scope and scale of JGU’s already existing partnership with King’s College London, Nottingham Trent University, University of Bristol, Newcastle University, and University of Reading, among others.
JGU and the delegates discussed innovative models to expand and establish partnerships through Semester Exchanges, Dual Degrees, Short-Term Study Abroad Programmes, knowledge and expertise sharing. They also identified collaborations which align with India’s NEP on internationalization of Indian Higher Education Institutions through transnational education (TNE).
The Founding Vice Chancellor of O.P. Jindal Global University, Prof. (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar lauded the visit and said: “JGU is a research-intensive university deeply committed to its core institutional values of interdisciplinary and innovative pedagogy; pluralism and rigorous scholarship with international engagement. Internationalization constitutes a cornerstone of JGU’s core vision with student and staff mobility, joint teaching, research, conferences and executive education being the tangible outcomes resulting from these partnerships. JGU’s efforts towards internationalization facilitates innovative learning, high quality education, delivering research and supporting scholarship which are highly valued by local and global communities.”
Speaking about the collaboration, Professor Dabiru Sridhar Patnaik, Registrar, JGU, said: “India and UK share a long standing relationship historically, politically and even socially. And we are also celebrating the 75th year of India’s independence and to commemorate that the government of India and the government of UK announced a few partnership measures cutting across various fields including education, strategy, joint research amongst many other initiatives announced by India and the UK. Internationalization is a key area of continuous emphasis at JGU, and it is embedded within the university’s vision.”
Adding that JGU has a very strong relationship with the universities in the UK since its inception, Professor Dabiru Sridhar Patnaik said: “We have been having exchange of faculty, joint projects, student mobility among many other programmes including study abroad and summer schools. We have summer schools on global governance with various universities and also in the field of Liberal Arts and Humanities under the UK India research initiative. And that did not deter us and stop from partnering with universities with the UK even at the height of the pandemic. I am confident on behalf of the university that with our shared resources and shared beliefs and shared values we are going to contribute to knowledge construction for the benefit of societies in India and the UK.”
Elaborating on the vision behind the collaborations, Professor Padmanabha Ramanujam, Dean, Academic Governance, JGU, said: “When we were conceptualising the world ‘global’, we were serious that we wanted to impart globalised education to Indian students. We understood the word differently, and also made sure that the students of this country understand what we intend by the word ‘global’ and that it means global faculty, curriculum, interactions, opportunities. I was fortunate to be part of this vision where we truly want to be a global university, making sure that every student gets an opportunity to go abroad for a global experience, after starting their foundation from the local level at JGU.
“We have been building from strength to strength. Our international office has been aggressive in not just signing MOUs, but ensuring that they are executed as well. As we speak, roughly 176 students would be travelling to various parts of the world for a short term summer school programme. There are 351 working MOUs that we have signed and we are trying to accelerate making sure that they get executed with different universities all across the world.”
–IANS