OP Jindal Global University hosts delegation from UK universities

The office of the International Affairs and Global Initiatives at the OP Jindal Global University (JGU), in collaboration with the British Council, hosted a delegation from top UK universities on 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 India-UK bilateral relations have been innovation, research and education. Taking into consideration India’s NEP, both countries have revealed the aspiring India-UK Roadmap 2030, to expand collaborations between higher education institutes in India and the 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, as also 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)

C. Raj Kumar, professor and founding vice-chancellor of OP Jindal Global University, 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, Dabiru Sridhar Patnaik, professor and registrar, JGU, said, "India and the UK share a long-standing relationship historically, politically and even socially. We have had 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.”

Elaborating on the vision behind the collaborations, Padmanabha Ramanujam, professor and dean, Academic Governance, JGU, said, “When we were conceptualizing 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. 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. 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,” Ramanujam said.