Odisha’s Centurion University, JNU ink wide-ranging MoU to strengthen skill-integrated higher education in India
New Delhi: Odisha-based Centurion University of Technology and Management (CUTM) has joined forces with India’s top ranked central varsity, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) with an objective to enhance skill-integrated higher education in the country. A wide-ranging MoU inked between the two universities paves the way for an institutional collaboration, enabling sharing of knowledge, best practices and experience. The core objective of the partnership is to strengthen research & academic cooperation, deliver industry-driven skill-based higher and vocational education as envisioned in the National Education Policy 2020.
Elaborating further on how the partnership would help students, Prof Supriya Pattanayak, the Vice Chancellor of India’s first skill-based university CUTM, said, “We have been working relentlessly to instill skill learning as part of higher education in India for more than a decade, and we understand that a larger impact can be made only with joint efforts of academia, industries as well as policy makers. Laying special emphasis on mainstreaming vocational education with general education, the partnership between CUTM and JNU will help students acquire various skills to make them Industry 4.0 ready while serving the needs of the society.”
Prof Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, Vice Chancellor, JNU said: “Let me compliment both my staff, the Centurion University and the group here… that we have signed an MoU, which is in itself one of the beginnings of JNU going into new vistas. Centurion University is a very different type of a private university which is more committed to community and society, and JNU is also committed to this, though we are a Central Government university. And because our values come together, we hope that we will be able to do joint programmes, wherein we not only help the marginalized as well as we bring in excellence with empathy, equality with equity, and inclusion with integrity”.
As part of the partnership, the varsities are expected to 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. Besides, the varsities will focus on skill integration through community outreach programmes as well, aimed at fostering entrepreneurship and employability.
Furthermore, possibilities are being explored for joint certificate programmes in various industrial clusters as per the need of the industries and in line with the National Credit Framework. A pilot centre for Action Learning and skills integrated certificate and advance courses is also likely to be set up at the earliest near the JNU campus in Delhi. Notably, Odisha’s Centurion University is the only university in the country to be recognised as a Center of Excellence by the Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, with over 50 manufacturing set-up and advanced industry-sponsored laboratories on campus.