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Vineet Gupta Ashoka University Founder: Re-imagining Higher Education In India

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Vineet Gupta Ashoka University Founder: Re-imagining Higher Education In India Vineet Gupta, Ashoka & Plaksha University Founder and Co-Founder of Jamboree Education has spent nearly 25 years in the education ecosystem of India. During this time, he has not only trained thousands of students, scaled up Jamboree into India’s premier test prep institute, advocated for bringing change in the education policy of the country but also helped set up two world class institutions – Ashoka University and Plaksha University. Established in 2014 at Sonipat, Haryana, Ashoka University, ranks amongst the top 5 universities in the country as per a survey done by QS Asia University Rankings 2022. The survey ranks the university first on ‘International Faculty’. Plaksha University, established with the vision to re-imagine technology education and research in the country, commenced operations in 202, in Mohali, Punjab. How are these universities differentiating themselves? Collective philanthropy Both Ashoka University and Plaksha University are not funded or owned by a single individual or entity. Ashoka University has more than 150 donors and co-founders and these include eminent personalities from different walks of life such as Ashish Dhawan (Co-Founder, Chrysalis Capital), Vineet Gupta (Co-Founder, Jamboree Education), Sanjeev Bikhchandani (Co-Founder & Executive Vice Chairman, Info Edge), Pramath Raj Sinha (Ex-Partner Mckinsey and Founding Dean, ISB), Ashok Trivedi (Co-Founder and Co-Chairman Mastech Inc. and IGATE) and many others. All of them have one common vision – to create an institution, par excellence, which has the potential to transform Indian Higher Education. The story at Plaksha is similar, when in 2015, about 6 Entrepreneurs and CEOs from some of India’s best companies decided to come together to create a university that re-imagines technology education and research by making technology education experiential, interdisciplinary and relevant to the challenges of the 21st century. Today, its list of 100 plus Founders and Donors include Neeraj Aggarwal (Chairman, Asia Pacific, BCG), Manas Fuloria (CEO and Co-Founder of Nagarro), Vineet Gupta Ashoka University Founder (Co-Founder and MD, Jamboree Education), Ashish Gupta (Co-Founder of Benori Knowledge), Mohit Thukral (Co-Founder of Vivtera), Hitesh Oberoi (Co-Founder and CEO of Infoedge), Pankaj Chaddah (Co-Founder, Zomato), Gagan Hasteer (VP, Content Engineering, Netflix), CP Gurnami (CEO and MD, Tech Mahindra) amongst others and has raised over 800 crores as funding corpus. The university opened its doors in 2021 and is one of the most exciting projects in India’s higher education sector. The notion of collective philanthropy not only helps the institution raise funds from a large pool of exceptional people but also fosters excellence as the only glue that binds everyone together. As long as the institution pursues excellence as its single-minded focus, it will have access to more donors. More donors in turn help provide more resources to fund excellence. It is a vicious cycle. Preparing students for 21st century challenges The problems of the 21st century are complex. Most higher education institutions were crafted from a template that got created after World War II. For higher education institutions to be able to serve society better, they need to re-imagine ‘what they teach and how they teach’. The disciplines of learning need to reflect the problems of the real world and of society. Both intuitions not only offer degrees in disciplines that reflects the multi-disciplinary nature of problems around us but have also re-imagined courses and curriculum that may be very different from a conventional curriculum. Both universities were conceptualised with the idea of ‘breadth and depth’ thus contributing to all round development of students and equipping them with the skill-set necessary to tackle the toughest challenges that the world faces. Students are also encouraged to communicate and collaborate with peers on projects that mimic real world challenges. Faculty quality “To become truly world class institutions, the most important aspect is the kind of faculty we onboard,” expressed Vineet Gupta Ashoka University Founder. Today, Ashoka has the best faculty in the country in the social sciences and humanities. Whilst in just over a year since commencing operations, Plaksha boasts of faculty who are alumni of and have taught at prestigious institutions such as MIT, Stanford, University of Cambridge, IISC and IIT’s amongst others. Explore and decide “We believe that students after 12th grade haven’t really figured out what they really want to study. However, in India, most institutions force students to pick a discipline when they enter college and also want them to stick with it. Both Ashoka and Plaksha allow students to explore different disciplines (that these individual institutions offer) before deciding what students want to major in. This decision could be as late as fourth semester,” says Vineet. This freedom not only exposes students to various disciplines but also helps them make informed choices. This choice also helps develop the love for learning. Distinctive research centres Ashoka has set up several centers of learning for students to expand their knowledge and collaborate with peers on campus and around the world. There is a dedicated centre for writing and communication, a centre for entrepreneurship and a centre for political data analysis amongst others. “Since there is a great need for data driven research in every discipline, we are in the process of setting up a Data Sciences Institute at Plaksha University,” added Vineet Gupta. Democratising access by providing liberal scholarships Both universities were conceptualised with a focus on improving education in India and helping meritorious students realise their potential. Both universities have very liberal scholarships for students coming from disadvantaged sections. Infact the promise is that every student who is admitted is not denied admission due to lack of resources. As a result, close to 50 per cent of the students studying at Ashoka and Plaksha University received scholarships. “As India embarks on a journey to be a US Dollar 10 trillion economy over the next decade, there is an urgent need to build a knowledge economy for which we need a vibrant higher education ecosystem. Unfortunately, Indian higher education institutions lag in research and innovation compared to their global peers. At both Ashoka

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Vineet Gupta, Founder, Ashoka and Plaksha University Explains Why Provisions of NEP are transformational for Indian Higher Education

Vineet Gupta, Founder, Ashoka and Plaksha University Explains Why Provisions of NEP are transformational for Indian Higher Education The NEP’s commitment to modernizing education and offering students more flexibility in their higher studies is a step in the right direction as India looks to catch up with developed economies. Three reasons why NEP, if implemented in its right spirit, heralds a new dawn for Indian higher education : Multi-Disciplinary Education As per guidelines provided by UGC, students in India now are free to pursue two degrees simultaneously in physical, distance learning or online mode. Also, undergraduate degrees can now be up-to four years in duration. “These provisions under NEP 2020 give students the flexibility to pursue different streams or courses helping them develop into individuals with both breadth and depth in their education. It is a welcome change in India’s higher education system and will help fulfill the vision of promoting multidisciplinary education”, said Vineet Gupta, co- founder of Jamboree and Founder of Ashoka and Plaksha University. “At Ashoka University, we were perhaps one of the first in 2014 to set up a unique program that delivers on both breadth and depth at the undergraduate level and provides an interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary education. Students are offered a 3+1-year program, in which, they do a set of foundation courses typically in their first year in different disciplines such as Economics, History, Literature, Mathematics, Philosophy etc., and then towards the beginning of the second year, they pick a major in the discipline of their choice. The foundation courses not only provide a broad-based education but also help students decide which discipline they want to pursue. However, since a four-year undergraduate degree was not allowed by UGC at that point, students at Ashoka have the option to graduate in 3 years or stay on an additional year and do more courses to add to breadth of disciplines or depth by doing more courses in their chosen major. Students could do a double major too. At Plaksha, we offer engineering degrees of 4-year duration and build a solid foundation in Mathematics, Computing, Design and Basic Sciences. At the beginning of the fourth semester, students choose the engineering discipline they want to pursue. The focus is also to develop creativity, critical thinking and communication through course work that is weaved in through the four years. I have always advocated for the need of FYUP in India’s higher education ecosystem and it feels great that our stand has been vindicated by NEP 2020”, adds Vineet Gupta. Why a multidisciplinary approach is important? Many 18-year old students come to college without knowing what degree they want to pursue. The most common questing I get asked by 11th or 12th graders is “What subject should I study? My reply most often is ‘whatever you would like to study’”, says Vineet Gupta Ashoka University Right now, students have no choice but to pick a particular branch of study and stick to it for the entire duration of their degree. A multidisciplinary approach gives them the opportunity to find their true calling and choose accordingly. The undergraduate degree should be both broad and deep. When students graduate and go out in the real world, they not only need deep knowledge of their own discipline but also a fundamental knowledge of other disciplines. To be a good citizen of the world and do well in your chosen profession, knowing just one discipline in depth is not enough. In a four-year program, not only are students exposed to different disciplines withing the Humanities, Social and Sciences but they also stand to gain added knowledge through professional and technical subjects that will help them prepare better for the challenges they are likely to come across in their careers. Academic Bank of Credits With the provision of an Academic Bank of Credits, students can store credits after every semester and transfer to other universities midway through a course. With the added Multiple Exit Entry Scheme or (MEES), students not only have the option of transferring to a new institution midway through a course but also pursue semesters abroad. It also allows students who have to dropout due to unforeseen circumstances to have the option of resuming their studies at a later date. “There are a large number of students who wish to transfer to other colleges or would like to take a gap year. Unfortunately, our system did not allow this in the past unless a student was willing to repeat their entire degree. The NEP 2020 has made this possible,” says Vineet Gupta Ashoka University founder. Focus on research and creation of NRF “India has a gross enrollment ratio of 26% while most of the developed countries have a GER of over 70%. To get to a GER of over 50%, private higher education and Ed-tech will play a critical role. Private higher education already has a 60% share in Indian higher-ed. While education especially in the private sector is largely funded by parents and families, research has to be funded by the government. The creation of a National Research Foundation is a step in the right direction,” Vineet Gupta adds. Without a robust research ecosystem, our power to innovate is limited. There is a high co-relation between a country’s research spending and its innovation index. While Indian universities do fairly well in educating a large population, the research output of Indian universities is mediocre as compared to top universities in the world. This is one of the main reasons why Indian universities do not rank well in world university rankings. Lack of research funding is one of the key reasons for this short-coming. Despite all the radical changes, NEP 2020 is likely to bring, the scheme has found its fair share of critics from the industry. Some academics are of the opinion that while it is great to have an academic bank of credits and MEES, there have been no clear guidelines yet on how these would be applied, thus leading to confusion among both students