Ronnie Screwvala & Indu Shahani come together to form India’s Premier SkillTech University – ATLAS

Mumbai: Launched on Independence Day 15th August 2021 – and having had its first Advisory Board meeting on Republic day 26th January 2022 – ATLAS SkillTech University – Maharashtra’s first – is a new addition to the city of Mumbai, situated in the heart of the city’s commercial district, with a vision of global excellence.

Yesterday its Advisory Board met to spell out the vision, scale and ambition to make this a premier institution in India in the next 4 years. The Advisory Board is a who’s who of corporate and education leaders worldwide. Deepak Parikh (HDFC) as Chairman, Dr. Indu Shahani (Founding President ATLAS), Ronnie Screwvala & Mayank Kumar (upGrad), Ram Raghavan (Colgate), Keshav Murugesh (WNS), Karan Singh (Bain), Vivek Pandit (McKinsey), Jamil Khatri (KPMG), Anant Goenka (CEAT), Anjali Bansal (Avana), Aryaman Birla (Aditya Birla group), Sanjay Gurbaxani (Mondelez), Prof Russ Winter (NYU-Stern), Prof Tim Marshall (RMIT), & Carol Kim (Parsons).

Guided and buoyed by the National Education Policy – ATLAS has committed to creating a world-class outcome in curriculum, academic excellence, and experiential learning in five very critical and future-ready verticals namely: (A) Design & Creativity (B) Digital content & gamification (C) Media & Communication (D) Digital Technology and Data (E) Management and Entrepreneurship. The founding batch which commenced in August last year has students from across 22 States – 50% of them came from Maharashtra. Applications for the year about to commence have seen a resounding interest and should cross 10,000 from which the batches will be shortlisted and selected. The generous ATLAS Scholarships Program will enable highly meritorious students from all walks of life to achieve their dreams.

To support this, ATLAS now has over 150 Faculty members that are slated to double over the next 18months. Over 400 Education institutions and schools refer their students to ATLAS and no less than 250 corporates will come to Campus for placements, career options and other tie-ups.

upGrad has committed INR 150Cr (USD 20 Million) in the first phase to build out ATLAS SkillTech University – a not-for-profit – and will continue to support its growth in the years to come.

“Our joint vision is to see ATLAS in the top 5 Universities in the country, a centre for global excellence and we are committed to build and to upskill our young adults for the careers of tomorrow as India heads into the Fourth Industrial Revolution – where innovation and Creativity not labour arbitrage will be at the core,” said Ronnie Screwvala Co-founder and Chairperson of upGrad.

“The world of work has evolved dramatically, altering the prominence and hierarchy of education as well as skills, across the globe; calling for a highly agile and resilient workforce. Our unique model and industry integrated location will enable ATLAS to become a globally ranked urban innovation university bringing together renowned faculty, learning companies and talented students to deliver resilient education & transforming our students to responsible leaders of tomorrow,” says Dr. Indu Shahani, Founding President and Chancellor, ATLAS SkillTech University.

ATLAS has some of the most meaningful relationships with the world’s leading institutions – Parsons School of Design (NY), Vancouver Film School, London School of Economics (LSE), Kings College (UK) and University of Arts London, to name a few.