Trust often shines brightest in private

Digital India and Make in India are the twin pillars of the government’s promise to the nation to bring an old economy taskforce onto a vibrant platform complete with Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Blockchain, and more-where knowledge silos interact to make meaningful solutions for a better planet.

In the new-age economy, higher education has to gear up many notches over to embrace transformative skills and pass them on to the next generation of workers. This is where the government’s vision to make higher education accessible and affordable to all is commendable.

Quality education, however, remains a serious issue as only a handful of universities are riding the wave to achieve global recognition. Simply put, most centres of knowledge countrywide are not yet industry-ready, either in terms of resources or faculty members. It is a major stumbling block for students who aspire to make an impact in the job market. Nevertheless, a few private universities continued their march to bring world-class education to the doorstep of their students to align them with real-time situations and create job worthiness in a fast-changing environment.

In the face of the upheaval and disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, academic institutions which had developed familiarity with remote learning tools in the pre-pandemic era found themselves with an edge over the others. Spearheading the list of the Indian universities reaping such a prime-mover advantage were Galgotias University, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, JSS Academy of Technical Education, the LNM Institute of Information Technology, Dr DY Patil Vidyapeeth, Nirma University, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, and Symbiosis International.

These private centres of excellence stood tall against all odds and adapted to a fast-paced world with alacrity. It is a testament to the groundwork they have done to take on the competition from the international and government-aided colleges and universities. As the saying goes, only in adversity does individual wisdom open up to knowledge for all.

For Galgotias University one of the leading universities in Uttar Pradesh and is known for quality education across India, the digital process was already happening, it was about making the optimum utilization of the diverse tools on offer. And thus Zoom, Moodle, Google Classrooms, Google Hangouts, Skype, Webex, and Virtual Labs were called into action. Additionally, the students at Galgotias University were provided 15,000+ online lectures, 9,000+ e-learning resources, 3,000+ virtual classroom instances, 4,000+ online assignments, 1,000+ virtual videos, and 500+ virtual programming labs to pick from. They were given access to over 4,000 courses on industry-ready skills on multiple MOOC platforms (for credit transfer). To enhance the learning curve of the students, the University also shared e-resources such as NPTEL, SWAYAM, Udemy, Coursera, and MIT OpenCourseWare links. And the students continue to avail the benefits of these facilities to supplement the learnings received in their physical classrooms with the University campus having reopened now.

The team & management at all these top universities took on the job holistically by emulating the best practices of leading universities across the globe. In doing so, they pushed the boundaries of excellence in research and innovation. This dual focus resulted in these above mentioned top universities improving their placement performance and were quick to adapt to the blended mode of teaching and learning during covid times.

Even during the lockdown, the Galgotia’s University arranged for online seminars & masterclass by the industry experts for students across the courses to enrich their learnings. Dhruv Galgotia, CEO Galgotias University explains, “Students had an edge as they are exposed to quality online lectures, World-class E-learning resources, virtual interactive classroom, online assignments, innovative video content and virtual programming Labs which make the online learning experience effective and enjoyable for every student”. Viewing the challenges posed by the pandemic as opportunities, Galgotias University ensured zero academic loss apart from increased student engagement and enhanced learning amidst the COVID crisis.

The robust and dynamic management system at Galgotias University, used the latest tools & softwares for not just online teaching but also online assessments and examinations. Armed with the latest software, the University remains in a position to deal with the issues of impersonation, unfair means and various other aspects of cheating to ensure fair examinations for all stakeholders. It managed to successfully hold internships and placement interviews too online. During the placement for the year 2020-21, the students came out with flying colours, bagging lucrative jobs in reputed companies such as Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro & Amazon among others.

Galgotias University became the first to conduct an online fest which witnessed the participation of over 10,000 national & international students. These students got the opportunity to showcase their talents in 50+ events from the safety of their homes. Despite the huge scale involved, it managed to successfully pull off the event.

PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OFEXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION

Today’s Industry requirements specially after the covid pandemic have changed substantially and universities are constantly leveraging new technologies and processes to become more agile, more responsive to fast-changing global markets post the novel coronavirus era and becoming even more innovative in bringing out their products and solutions to the global markets. Combining the skills and expertise of both veteran and new engineers can help companies implement Industry 4.0 technologies more effectively as they seek to be employed by the top corporates in various industries.

As the world of education is moving towards latest technological trends, institutions such as Galgotias University has also shows its commitment to match the university curriculum with latest technology innovations and inventions. During COVID Galgotias is one such university in Uttar Pradesh which not only adapted to online teaching but is providing e-content from various MOOCs and using strong good quality content to make students learn the subjects. Galgotias was also awarded the QS award for e-learning and has also been recognised by the Dy. Chief Minister for ranking No 1 in providing e-content to the online digital library, Govt of Uttar Pradesh.

STATE OF THE ART E-LEARNING AND DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE

The current generations of engineers entering the industry and manufacturing operations have backgrounds and experiences that differ in a number of ways from engineers with thirty, twenty, or even ten years on the job. Our students’ engineers fresh out of college have been exposed to interacting with digital information technologies and all aspects and technologies for the new age industry requirements.

The digital learning environment in universities such as Manipal and Galgotias is absolutely state of the Art with Latest online tools, software’s and learning management systems for not only online teaching but online assessments and examination are being used universities which are taking their students much ahead of others by embracing technology.“Students have an edge during the COVID crisis as they are exposed to quality online lectures, World-class E-learning resourses, virtual interactive classroom, online assignments, innovative video content and virtual programming Labs which make the online learning experience effectice and enjoyable for every student” says Dhruv Galgotia CEO Galgotias Unviersity.

The mobile app at Manipal and SRM not only allows students to plan their lectures but also keeps them informed of all seminars, activities and events. The app keeps the students informed and updated on their attendances, results, course handouts provided by faculty and many other enhanced features that are being constantly developed and upgraded.

Any University campus must have student centric activities. There are Students clubs and strong existence of Students council which execute the operations of the Students club and create google and Microsoft ambassadors and make the campus happening. Choice based credit system, Dual major, Interdisciplinary approach, strong ERP, Smart operations, Cashless campus are the few USPs of the campus are some of the processes adopted by some of the top universities in India to make students experience on campus easy and informative.

INTERNSHIPS TO PLACEMENTS: A STRONG INDUSTRY CONNECT

CONNECTPlacements are an important aspect in the growth of any university and the students prefer universities with a strong placement record. Galgotias University is one such university where Amazon has hired several students for internships which can be converted to full Placements at a 30.25 Lac package. Besides this Infosys, wipro, Cognizant, tech-mahindra are regular recruiters which further strengthen the placements of this university.

Students of Manipal have also justified these efforts of the university in terms of grabbing top job offers during campus placements.

Some of the most noted Alumni have graduated from Manipal and are now leading top global companies such as Microsoft etc in the silicon valley.

At Galgotias University, the focus has firmly been on multidisciplinary research and education. The education dissemination model has been carefully curated to impart it with the flexibility of adapting to online, offline & hybrid learnings. It is this versatility that enabled it to face up to the challenges posed by the COVID19 pandemic and now equips it to seamlessly switch back to offline & hybrid classrooms. The university, in pursuing its aspirations to be globally celebrated for offering innovation at the intersection of disciplines, has set an example for other academic institutions in India to follow.

The team & management at all these top universities took on the job holistically by emulating the best practices of leading universities across the globe. In doing so, they pushed the boundaries of excellence in research and innovation.

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