Two premier research institutes from the country – the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) — have come together to set up the India’s first mathematics centre. Located in the IIT-B campus, the National Centre for Mathematics will be modelled on the world’s first mathematics centre — the Oberwolfach Mathematics Research Institute in Germany.
“The centre will cater to all mathematicians. While there are conferences for mathematicians, there is no organised platform for them to come together. Mathematics centres are already established across the world in countries like China, France and Canada,” said JK Verma from the department of mathematics, IIT-B.
The centre will conduct research-level workshops, national and international seminars, foundation courses, instruction schools for teachers and facilitate research collaborations among scientists.
The SSN School of Advanced Software Engineering (SSN SASE) has been established by Padma Bhushan Dr. Shiv Nadar – Chairman, HCL Technologies Ltd., to bring world class education to India and make it available to meritorious students of all economic strata.
Despite the Recession, all of MSIT students got jobs – At an average salary of US $95,000! Living expenditure in CMU reduced by Half.
Carniegie Mellon also has another program that students from India can take. Following is an excerpt from a report in redherring magazine.
At an Internet cafe in Delhi, India, up to 80 students sit pensively studying their computer screens. For some, it’s just like any other Internet cafe, but for others it’s a virtual university where they can take computer science courses offered by Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).
The new educational initiative is a collaboration between Sterling Infotech, an Indian Internet service provider, and Carnegie Technology Education, a subsidiary of the university, and is part of an ambitious program to train more than 100,000 Indian computer programmers at 100 locations over the next three years.
It also gives us a glimpse of the changes rippling through education. Universities with expertise in one area can now prepare, monitor, and grade courses given under local supervision in an entirely different location.
"The education model is more like, say, a Microsoft, Novell, or Cisco certification program than a traditional university course," says Allan Fisher, president and CEO of Carnegie Technology Education. "We build computer-based training courses drawing on the intellectual resources of the university, but local instructors [in India] monitor, administer, and assist the students."
The courses offered range from the basic, like software engineering, to the advanced, like object-oriented programming. "However, unlike software vendor training programs that would offer courses in Visual Basic or Java, we teach students how to work with any object-orientated language," says Mr. Fisher.
…Unlike many online education institutions, Carnegie Technology Education not only designs the course but also trains and certifies the instructors and monitors both the teachers’ and students’ progress.
Carnegie Mellon computer-science faculty members design the courses and personally select and train the local tutors who will teach the students at the partner institution. "The tutors then go back to the partner institution and teach the courses; we monitor their progress, and they have access to our computer-science faculty member to assist them with any difficulties," says Mr. Fisher.
If the student completes five courses successfully, they get a Carnegie Technology Education certificate in computer programming; if they complete ten courses, they get a certificate in software engineering.
But it’s not cheap. Each course module costs the Indian student $180, nearly three months’ earnings for those on minimum wage. However, Sterling Infotech offers students their money back if they do not get a job within three months of completing the course.
Georgia Tech says it is planning to set up a research facility in the southern city of Hyderabad in partnership with Infosys Technologies. According to a statement, the university hopes the passage of the proposed legislation will allow it to start offering master’s and doctoral degrees in India.
Carnegie Mellon University is helping the northern state of Punjab to plan courses at a new university, while Virginia Tech and Schulich have lined up Indian partners and have announced plans for new campuses near Chennai and in Hyderabad, respectively.
…The British University of Wolverhampton, for instance, is reaching out to working professionals — junior to midlevel managers who have a few years of experience. It plans to teach business courses through its Indian partner, Bishop Heber College, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, and is happy with this arrangement.
The Schulich School of Business also started out with an Indian partner. In January of this year, it started a joint master of business administration degree program with Mumbai’s S.P. Jain Institute of Management Research. But even as it began this partnership, it was in advanced talks with the GMR Group, a consortium of mostly infrastructure companies, to set up an independent campus in Hyderabad.
Ashwin W. Joshi, executive director of the Schulich M.B.A. Program in India, says there is strong demand in India for a top-quality M.B.A. program, which the school plans to start offering by 2013.
… Earlier this year, Columbia University in New York opened its fourth global center for research and regional collaboration in Mumbai, even though it does not have plans to open a separate campus in India. “We’ve created a center that’s independent of any joint degree program,” said Kenneth Prewitt, Columbia’s vice president for global centers. However, the university’s experience suggests that an initial step like this one might lead to joint degree programs, he said, adding it was a possibility that the same could happen in India.
The Union Cabinet today approved the presentation of the Nalanda University Bill 2010 for the establishment of the Nalanda University in the Monsoon Session of the Parliament at a cost of Approx. Rs.1005 crore.
The Ministry of External Affairs has prepared the Nalanda University Bill 2010 for presentation in the monsoon session of the Parliament, following the consensus reached at the East Asia Summit (EAS) held in Thailand in October 2009.
A Project Office has been leased in New Delhi for the proposed University. This office will become functional after the Bill is enacted in the Parliament.
The proposed University shall have the following schools
(a) Buddhist Studies, Philosophy and Comparative Religions
(b) Historical Studies
(c) International Relations & Peace Studies
(d) Business Management in relation to Public Policy and Development Studies
(e) Languages and Literature; and
(f) Ecology and Environmental Studies
The Nalanda Mentor Group chaired by Prof.Amartya Sen, shall draft the first statutes for the University in August 2010.
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY AND TARGETS
In order to implement the project, India as the host country will make a significant amount of contribution at the initial stage. The Planning Commission has allocated Rs. 50 crore as endowment fund in the form of special grant for the commencement of activities and till such time the Nalanda University becomes sustainable on its own.
The Govt. of Bihar has already acquired about 500 acres of land in Rajgir (in the vicinity of the original Nalanda University site of yore) and another 500 acres is scheduled to be acquired for the proposed Nalanda University.
The establishment of the University would facilitate the revival of Nalanda as a centre of excellence in East Asia and South Asia, reflecting in some measure the role played by the Nalanda University in ancient times. The revival of the University will also lead to the Buddhist circuits in India thereby benefitting the tourism industry substantially.
In addition to scholars/students from all over the world, the establishment of Nalanda University would benefit the local people and encourage the participation of local communities. For this purpose, the University would associate with the 200 odd villages in the local area that had a connection with the Nalanda University from days of the yore. The University will particularly benefit students from South Asian countries.
The salient features of the Bill include:
 The Nalanda Mentor Group (NMG) constituted by the Government of India in June 2007 shall exercise powers as the Interim Governing Board of the University for a period of one year or till such time that the members of the Governing Board have been nominated;
 The Visitor of the University shall be the President of India or any other person who may be appointed by the President;
 The University shall function as a public-private partnership and the funds shall be provided on voluntary basis by the Government of Member States;
The Planning Commission has allocated Rs. 50 crore as endowment fund in the form of special grant for the commencement of activities, and till such time the university becomes sustainable on its own, it will function as a public-private partnership.
Following is an excerpt from a report in Business Standard.
The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has finally agreed to set up a satellite campus near Hyderabad. The decision was taken at a board meeting of the premier B-school on June 24, according to government officials.
IIM-A will set up a strategy committee next month to look into the various aspects of setting up the campus. The faculty at this campus will be part of IIM-A. “This is IIM-A in Hyderabad, and not IIM-Hyderabad,’’ a state government official clarified.
We would like to bring up a facility at Hyderabad but would also need a corpus of Rs 100-120 crore for the same. Either the government or the local industry would have to contribute towards this. We, however, will not accept it (financial aid) if it comes with strings attached like asking for quota for students, etc,” IIM-A Director Samir Barua said when asked to comment on the issue.
“We could begin with our one-year management programme for executives as that would be the most feasible option and later expand. …,” he added.
The process was initiated by the late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy who had written to the IIM-A management, urging it to set up a campus in his state. He had promised to provide 150 acres near Hyderabad for the proposed campus, and also, if necessary, arrange an interest-free loan to the tune of Rs 100 crore. …
The incumbent chief minister,… wrote … on May 31, reiterating the commitment of the state government. “We will facilitate the same by allocating the necessary land and providing required support for realisation of IIM-A’s seamless campus initiative,” Rosaiah said in a letter to Vijaypat Singhania, chairman, board of governors of IIM-A.
… The state government, meanwhile, is encouraging management, science and technology institutes to set up their campuses in the state to create skilled manpower base to sustain higher economic growth. It has invited Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, CMC Vellore, Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (Pilani) and others.
Infosys Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Kris Gopalakrishnan and Georgia Tech’s provost and vice president for academic affairs Gary Schuster recently signed a memorandum of understanding to partner on potential research and educational opportunities, Infosys said in a statement here.
"Georgia Tech is exploring the possibility of establishing a small, high quality post-graduate research institution in Hyderabad. The proposed Georgia Tech facility will include centres for excellence in information technology and information systems, energy systems, biotechnology and infrastructure studies," it said.
As part of the partnership, Infosys will collaborate on research projects of mutual interest in these areas of technology.
"Since Infosys has a presence both in Atlanta and Hyderabad, there are collaborative opportunities in both locations," the statement said quoting Schuster.
The US-based Georgia Institute of Technology has signed up with the southern state to set up two campuses at an estimated investment of $100 million over the next few years.
… Georgia Tech will set up a campus in Hyderabad and later at Visakhapatnam by 2009-1010, on land purchased from the AP government.
The institute will initially start with a faculty of 10 and 200 doctoral students. There are further plans of setting up a special economic zone that will ensure successful industry-university interaction.
Experiences elsewhere, like Harvard and Wales in the UK suggest that such an interaction acts as a catalyst for research, economic development and technology commercialization.
There are ambitious ramp up plans. Says Vijay Madisetti, executive director of Georgia Tech’s India initiative and professor in its School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, "The campus is expected to grow over 10 years to about 100 faculty and 2,000 students co-located with a university-industry research park. We expect to work with private donors and the US and Indian industry to raise the necessary funding (approximately $100 million)."
Georgia Tech’s India campus will offer degrees recognized in the US, identical to those offered by its US collegiate counterparts. This will make Georgia Tech the first global university to do so in India. The initial set of master’s and doctoral programmes will be in the areas of information technology and hardware systems; biotechnology and healthcare; infrastructure research; and energy systems.
Says Madisetti, "The degree programmes will be taught by tenure-track and tenured Georgia Tech faculty, who are expected to possess the advantage of having study and research time spent on both US and Indian campuses."
While most students are expected to come from India, some would be from the US as well. Just as in the US, most students are likely to support through graduate research assistantships.
Virginia Tech is taking a significant step toward establishing a new campus overseas through the execution of an agreement with a large private sector group. The proposed Virginia Tech, India campus will be located on at least 30 acres in the state of Tamil Nadu in southeast India initially encompassing a 70,000-square-foot campus facility. Master’s and Ph.D. programs are planned for approximately 300 students in engineering and the sciences.
The institution – called Virginia Tech MARG Swarnabhoomi, India – fulfills Virginia Tech’s desire to have a credible presence in India with ample land for future growth and proximity to a major metropolitan city. The proposed campus will be located within a two-hour drive of Chennai (formerly known as Madras), India’s fourth largest city and the capital of Tamil Nadu.
“Learning, discovery and engagement – the three pillars of scholarship at the Blacksburg campus – will be in force at Virginia Tech India,” Dooley said. “Graduates with master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Virginia Tech India will help fulfill the country’s need for quality faculty members to teach in ever-expanding engineering and science colleges in India.”
Virginia Tech will manage the campus and design its academic programs, research facilities, and labs. The university will also promote the idea of education abroad at the new campus and arrange for faculty exchanges. The new campus is expected to become the site of high tech seminars, workshops, and symposia.
… In 2007, a government commission in India urged that the country increase its number of universities from 350 to 1,500 by 2015. In 1999, Virginia Tech became the first U.S. institution to offer a degree program in India – a master’s in information technology offered in conjunction with the S.P. Jain Institute. Harvard, Yale, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Georgia Institute of Technology are also pursuing centers in India.
Following youtube video talks about Virginia Tech’s plan.
With a big part of NW-5 passing through Odisha, a branch of the above institute should be located in Odisha and it should offer similar courses. The following map is from http://www.iwai.gov.in/.
"The state government had agreed to provide 100 acres land and facilities for electricity, water, sewerage and road connectivity in Raiganj. But the land acquisition by the state government has not yet started," Sube Singh, Deputy Secretary and CPIO of Union Health Ministry wrote in a reply to an RTI application. Union Human Resources Development Ministry suggested that the proposed AIIMS-like institution may be built in the premises of IIT, Kharagpur which could provide the land, he said. "The state government has conveyed its no objection for setting up of the institution in the IIT-Kharagpur premises," Singh stated. The institution would be built at a cost of Rs 823 crore which has been sanctioned by the Centre.
For long IIT Kharagpur has been trying for a medical school. It had faced many hurdles. Being aware of those efforts, MHRD seems to have played a major facilitator’s role above.
If this happens, this will be a major major achievement of Prof. Damodar Acharya, the current director of IIT Kharagpur.
Another point to note is that, one of the main reason this is being considered is because of the availability of land in IIT Kharagpur. All the new IITs and IISERs (except IIT Bhubaneswar) are constraining themselves by currently only allocating the minimal required land. Down the road they will not be in a position to avail of a similar opportunity. Fortunately, Prof. Damodar Acharya as a mentor of IIT Bhubaneswar ensured that the Odisha government allocated a large enough piece of land.
In 2008 Andhra created 3 new IIITs in rural areas of the state. These three IIITs at Basar, Nuzvid and RK Valley are the components of the newly established Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies. Following are excerpts from a report in Times of India that talks about hiring of faculty for these IIITs.
The institutes are going through a crisis at present due to inadequate faculty and lack of infrastructure because of which the state government has decided to reduce the intake of students by half — from 6,000 per year to 3,000 — from the coming academic year.
… “About 140 post-graduates from the five Indian Institutes of Technologies (IITs) and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore have come forward to teach the rural students even though they have lucrative offers on hand from the corporate sector and international institutes,” said R V Raja Kumar, vice chancellor of the Rajiv Gandhi University for Knowledge Technologies under which the three institutes function.
At least half of the selected post-graduates and PhDs are Andhrites and have expressed their willingness to stay among the students and impart engineering education in the country, the VC said. Raja Kumar himself is an IITian from Kharagpur. “The hunt for talent will continue. We want to recruit post-graduates from the institutes of national and international repute in the country,” the VC said.
.. “This is for the first time in India that campus recruitment is being done by a university for the recruitment of the faculty. The response has been very encouraging and several post-graduates have volunteered to join the institutes located in remote areas,” said Raja Kumar.
In Odisha KIIT has been recruiting heavily from IITs. We reported on it in https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/2492. I hope the Odisha government engineering colleges, IIIT Bhubaneswar, SUIIT and VSSUT follow a similar approach and go for campus recruitment in the IITs.
The program at these IIITs in Andhra are different from programs anywhere else. See http://www.rgukt.in/program.html. They offer 6 year dual degree programs after the 10th class and take students mainly from the rural areas.
Jain International Trade Organisation (JITO) plans to establish a world-class university with Rs 5,000 crore investment in Gujarat.
JITO, which is having its global summit in Ahmedabad over the week-end, may also sign an MoU with the Gujarat government during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit-09. The university will come up over 200 acres of land near Ahmedabad.
… “The blue print of the world class university is ready. The upcoming university will be managed separately by the Jain Education Trust,” said Utkarsh Shah, president, JITO-Ahmedabad chapter. Shah said the university will provide courses in all relevant fields.
Union Minister for Human Resources Development Kapil Sibal today said the Centre has examined a proposal of setting up a second campus of Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.
Sibal, in a letter to Chief Minister K Rosaiah, said he had mooted the idea of opening a second campus with the IISc management.
The Andhra Pradesh government has, for some time now, been pursuing the issue with the Centre.
Initial proposals were to create an Advanced Research Centre, extending the Academia-Government-Industry interactions, and also creation of a Science Park and an Incubation Centre.
The Union Minister informed the Chief Minister that modalities like Memorandum of Understanding for sale of land and time-frame for making available the basic infrastructure were being worked out. "Further developments in this regard will be communicated on receipt of fresh inputs from IISc," Sibal said in the letter.
It involves land contribution from the state of Punjab and financial contributions from four industrialists for a total of 200 crores. Following are extracted from a Times of India report.
The Punjab cabinet has finally given the green signal for the allotment of a fresh parcel of 70-acre land within the upcoming Knowledge City in Mohali for the second campus of the premier B-school.
to be set up at an investment of Rs 200 crore and will be funded entirely by donations from four India Inc top guns:
Max group founder and chairman Analjit Singh,
Bharti group CMD Sunil Bharti Mittal,
Atul Punj of Punj Lloyd and
the Munjals of Hero group.
For its part the ISB administration have roped in top foreign universities to collaborate in the establishment of four schools. Following is excerpted from a report in Economic Times.
The ISB has joined hands with the MIT Sloan School of Management, to develop two new institutes at the ISB’s upcoming campus at Mohali –
The BML Munjal Institute for Manufacturing Excellence and Innovation and
The Punj Lloyd Institute for Physical Infrastructure Management.
In addition to the two institutes mentioned earlier, the school will also establish the
Max India Institute of Health Care Management and
Bharti Insititute of Public Policy.
The ISB will continue to have the support of its founding associate schools such as the Wharton School and Kellogg School of Management. The ISB also has the support of the London Business School (LBS) as an associate school.
Targeting a production of about 500 tons of silk by 2020, Orissa government decided to set up a State Sericulture Research and Development Institute (SSRDI) for speedy growth of the sector.
Indo-US Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE) — an initiative by the Pan IIT Alumni Association — has taken up a US co-guide PhD initiative wherein faculty members of Indian engineering institutes would be able to obtain PhDs in a four-year period, with the mentoring of distinguished US faculty.
… Under the arrangement, interested PhD candidates in India, who are currently teaching in engineering colleges, will identify and register with a PhD guide at an Indian PhD granting institution. The PhD candidate will identify his area of research interest.
If there appears to be matching of interests between an Indian PhD candidate and a US faculty, IUCEE will facilitate the process forward.
Also, the PhD candidate will make a trip to the US institution of the co-guide to ensure exposure to high quality research culture. The co-guide will also visit the Indian institution, to ensure adequate mentoring of the candidate.
… IUCEE is also exploring various avenues for requesting government of India to provide schemes for this purpose.
Three of Maharashtra’s premier universities—Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur—will be split to create new universities.
…Spelling out some details, Tope said the University of Mumbai would be split into two campuses, with a pro vice-chancellor becoming the head of the new campus. The name, though, would not be altered, given Mumbai university’s iconic status, he added. He was replying to a discussion on the supplementary demands of his department.
… Maharashtra has also revived the plan to bring private universities into the state. Tope said that plans were afoot to help the corporate sector play a key role in the field of education. The Private University Act is being finalised in this connection, he pointed out.
(Request to readers: If you know of private state universities not listed below and not in the UGC list mentioned below, please add a link in the comment. We will update this page.)
In this page we will collect information regarding private state universities in India. By private state universities we mean privately managed universities that are establish by an act in the assembly of various states of India. These are different from the deemed universities.
The list at UGC date June 2009 is at http://www.ugc.ac.in/notices/updatedpriuniver.pdf. We also listed them at https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/2782. My guess is that these private universities which have been created by state acts have UGC approval. We have come across many other private universities which have been created by state acts which are not in this list; some of them were created by state acts after June 2009.
We start with Odisha: Odisha has passed state acts for two private universities:
Vedanta University
Sri Sri University
Odisha has introduced an act for ICFAI university. It has been discussed and tabled in the assembly. As of writing this, It is yet to be passed by the Odisha assembly.
Chhatisgarh: The UGC list of June 2009 lists two private universities. (i) CV Raman in Bilaspur and (ii) MATS in Raipur
Gujarat: .The UGC list of June 2009 lists five private universities. (i) DAIICT Gandhinagar (ii) Ganpat, Mehsana (iii) Kadi Sarva, Gandhinagar (iv) Nirma, Ahmedabad (v) Pandit Deendayal Petroleum U, Gandhinagar
Himachal Pradesh: It passed an umbrella private university act in 2006. The UGC list of June 2009 lists two private universities. (i) Chitkara University, Solan (ii) Jaypee, Solan. Besides them following are some new ones.
Maharashtra has also revived the plan to bring private universities into the state. Tope said that plans were afoot to help the corporate sector play a key role in the field of education. The Private University Act is being finalised in this connection, he pointed out.
Meghalaya: The UGC list of June 2009 lists two private universities. (i) Martin Luther Christian (ii) Techno Global.
Mizoram: The UGC list of June 2009 lists one private university. (i) ICFAI
Nagaland: The UGC list of June 2009 lists one private university. (i) Global Open
Punjab: The UGC list of June 2009 lists one private university. (i) Lovely Professional U.
Rajasthan: It has an umbrella private university act (enacted in 2005) to facilitate creation of private universities. There are 11 private state universities in Rajasthan in the UGC list of June 2009. (i) Bhagwant University, Ajmer (ii) Jagannath University, Jaipur (iii) Jaipur National University, Jaipur. (iv) Jyoti Vidyapeeth Women’s University, Jaipur. (v) Mewar University, Chittorgarh. (vi)
NIMS University, Jaipur. (vii) Sir Padmapat Singhania University, Jhunjhunu. (viii) Singhania University, Jhunjunu. (ix) Suresh Gyan Vihar University, Jaipur. (x) Jodhpur National University, Jodhpur (xi) Amity University, Jaipur
Beyond those 11, some of the new ones not in that list are:
Sikkim: The UGC list of June 2009 lists two private universities.(i) Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management University, Jorethang. (ii) Sikkim- Manipal University of Health, Medical & Technological Sciences, Gangtok.
Tripura: The UGC list of June 2009 lists one private university. (i) ICFAI
UP: The UGC list of June 2009 lists eight private universities.(i) Amity University, NOIDA (ii) Integral University, Lucknow. (iii) Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Handicapped University, Chitrakoot Dham. (iv) Mangalayatan University, Aligarh (v) Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, Rampur. (vi) Sharda University, Gautam Budh Nagar. (vii) Swami Vivekanand Subharti University, Meerut. (viii)
Teerthanker Mahaveer Univesity, Moradabad.
Uttarakhand: The UGC list of June 2009 lists six private universities.(i) Dev Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya, Haridwar. (ii) Doon University, Dehradoon. (iii) Himgiri Nabh Vishwavidyalaya, Dehradun. (iv) ICFAI Dehradun (v) University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun. (vi) University of Patanjali, Haridwar.
West Bengal: The UGC list of June 2009does not have any from West Bengal. However, the following has been passed by West Bengal assembly since then.
Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Kalyani
Prof. Yashpal & Anr. Vs. State of Chhattisgarh & Ors.
Coram: CJI ,G. P. Mathur , P.K. Balasubramanyan 11/ 02/ 2005
CASE NO.: Writ Petition (civil) 19 of 2004
PETITIONER: Prof. Yashpal & Anr.
RESPONDENT:State of Chhattisgarh & Ors.
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 11/02/2005
BENCH:CJI,G. P. Mathur & P.K. Balasubramanyan
has reiterated (see point 36) UGC rules that say:
3.1 Each private University shall be established by a separate State Act and shall conform to the relevant provisions of the UGC Act, 1956, as amended from time to time.
3.2 A private university shall be a unitary university having adequate facilities for teaching, research, examination and extension services.
The following table summarizes the private and deemed universities in various states of India. The data regarding deemed universities is from http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=50713. Since the HRD minister Mr. Sibal has said that the deemed university system will vanish, most of the private deemed universities will become private state universities.
State
# private universities in June 2009
# deemed universities
# private universities in pipeline that we know of (work in progress)
There is a story about how Cassius Clay changed his name to Mohammed Ali. There is an equally interesting anecdote about how Jagran Integrated Business School changed its name to Leeds Metropolitan University. Abhishek Mohan Gupta, director (marketing and strategic development) of Jagran Social Welfare Society, which runs Jagran Integrated, wanted to get his alma mater Leeds Met into the country. For five years, he waded through the maze of government approvals. No luck. Leeds remained out. And Gupta remained stuck.
He then used his last trick. He told the government that he wanted to change Jagran Integrated’s affiliation from Barkatullah University to Leeds Met. Nobody had made a request like that before. The absence of precedent befuddled the mandarins who govern higher education and they ended up giving it a go ahead. Overnight, the soul of Leeds Met entered the body of Jagran Integrated. Last year, 70 students were studying there in four programmes. This year, Gupta is ramping this up to 13 programmes. In a few years, Gupta wants to enroll 1,000 students.
That’s not all; Gupta thinks he can use the 36-acre campus even more efficiently. He plans to add two more universities, make student accommodation and food court common to all three and dub the whole thing an "education city”. He has been talking to Nanyang University, Singapore, and New York University for different programmes. He plans to use the same change-of-affiliation route, though things have now gotten easier.
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