In a first, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM)— a Centre of Excellence (COE) of Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MoSDE) based out of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, have signed an MoU for institutional collaboration through sharing experiences, best practices, and knowledge with the key objective to promote and strengthen academic and research cooperation to deliver relevant, appropriate and market driven skills integrated higher education as envisioned in the NEP 2020.
The two institutions will explore specific areas of engagement between the School of Languages, Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Management and Entrepreneurship, School of Biotechnology, School of Physical Sciences, Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health and other Schools or Centres to enhance and integrate skills in higher education. The possibility for a pilot centre at the earliest in Delhi closer to JNU to deliver action learning and skills integrated certificate and advance courses is also part of this MoU.
Speaking on this occasion, Prof. Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, Vice Chancellor, JNU said: “This is one of the beginnings of JNU going into new vistas. Centurion University is very different type of a private university which is more committed to community and society, and JNU is also committed to this. And we hope that we will be able to do joint programmes, wherein we not only help the marginalised as well as we bring in excellence with empathy, equality with equity, and inclusion with integrity”. The two universities will look into joint certificate programmes in various industrial clusters as per the need of the industries and in line with NCrF. The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MoSDE) in India is already driving this shift towards skilling individuals for future jobs, with initiatives such as the “Recognition of Prior Learning” (RPL) and the “National Credit Framework” (NCrF)—the single meta framework and recently announced National Higher Education Qualification Framework NHEQF) by the UGC.
Prof. Supriya Pattanayak, Vice Chancellor, CUTM, said: “It is a matter of privilege and honour for all of us, and for our Centurion University to have collaborated with JNU. Together, to implement the National Education Policy, 2020, we hope to explore and work on a range of skills outreach work across India, integrate future of skills with future of education. This association not only will further advance our resolve on skills integration in higher education for the bottom of the pyramid, but also help in reducing the huge skills gap between white and blue-collar workers in the country.”
The MoU signing ceremony was also attended by Prof. Satish Chandra Garkoti (Rector-I, JNU), Dr. Utpal Kumar Debnath (Controller of Examinations, JNU), Mr. Manoj Kumar Manuj, (Dy. Registrar, JNU), and Abhinav Madan (Director, Skills, CUTM), Monalisha Ghosh (Associate Director, Partnerships, CUTM), and Abhishek Chaturvedi (Director, NCR Operations, Gram Tarang Employability Training Services—GTET). GTET is a social enterprise and skills outreach arm of CUTM, jointly instituted by National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) and CUTM, that has skilled over half a million individuals.
