The Open Magazine | A conversation with Shri. Hari Mohan Gupta, Founder & Chancellor, JLU

What makes JLU stand out from the rest? What are the strengths of the institution?

 We aspire to be the University of Distinction where creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship are cultivated, through a practice-based pedagogy. This vision made us stand strong and become the no.1 university in MP and CG. JLU is one of the most awarded private universities in central India. We were able to reach this far only because of the focused approach towards delivering quality higher education that matches the global standards and prepares the students with future skills.

What is the motto of your institution and how do you ensure that the motto is carried out?

 The University’s motto is “Igniting Minds, Changing Life”, and it stands on four pillars which are at the center of everything we do:a. Student Centric Approach ensures that we acknowledge their voice as central to the learning experience. We continuously seek feedback from students about their experiences and understand their expectations from the university with respect holistic learning.b. Skill Based Interdisciplinary Degrees through our system of cross electives, the students get an opportunity to build on their degree program based on their specific areas of interests and choices. Intensive Industry Intervention at JLU offers more than 15 such degree programs which are in close collaboration with industry leaders like KPMG, NSE, Wizcraft, Taxmann, ACCA, CIMA, and Imagine XP to name a few. Industry experts from various fields, interact with our students regularly. Global Network Connect such as connected classrooms credited electives from international universities, international teaching months, short exchange programs for both faculty and students, semester exchanges, and summer schools are some of the ways in which we have been able to globally expose our students.

What processes is the institute involved in to ensure that you keep up with the times and provide the best facilities to the students.

 Our 42+ international academic and industry partners ensure that we keep up with time and provide the right exposure to the students. In 2020, even amidst the pandemic but we believed in our system, team, and partners and we all came together to quickly adapt to the new normal and reinitiate the process in a digitized mode. We were the first in MP to implement online processes within the university. Our efforts were recognized and we became the first and only university in MP and CG to get QS I.Gauge e-lead certificate for e-learning excellence for academic digitization.

The pandemic brought the entire world, including the education sector to a standstill. As an educator and chancellor, how do you think it is going to affect the education sector in the future?

Returning to the old status quo is next to impossible but the new normal is here and redefined the ABCD of higher education. The ‘A’ is for ‘Access to Quality Education’, which every youngster deserves and is the moral responsibility of the nation to provide it. The ‘B’ now is for the ‘Boundaries of Learning’ which have changed rapidly and are not restricted to classrooms, mediums or even countries, as the learning has become blended. The ‘C’ stands for the ‘Context of Learning. The institutions have been designed for skills-based interdisciplinary degrees with strong industry intervention. The ‘D’ is for the critical change in ‘Dialogue of Learning’. It needs to be flexible, inclusive, and interdisciplinary. The two-way information flow can properly gauge the understanding and applicability of the concepts.

What is the achievements of your institutions that you are particularly proud of?

For us, the best recognition always came through the success stories of our students. The more lives we touch and enlighten with the education of international quality, the more rewarded we feel. I am delighted that recently, QS I. Gauge recognized our efforts in this direction and placed us in the top 25 universities of India with the QS I.Gauge Diamond rating. We are the first and only university in MP and CG with this rating.