Aditya Kakkar

Under Vice Chancellor Prof. Talat Ahmad, Jamia Millia Islamia has signed memorandum of understanding (MoUs) with the three services to help uniformed personnel improve their educational qualifications.

Adult education is slowly gaining traction around the world as jobs become complex and multi-disciplinary. In the absence of concrete social welfare benefits, the emphasis on jobs becomes heightened. The uniformed personnel of our country are at a greater risk than their civilian counterparts when it comes to skill development as their varied postings often hinder linear academic growth.

Jamia Millia Islamia, a central university, based in New Delhi, is helping personnel from the Indian armed forces advance their academic and technical education through their distance learning programmes. Under the tutelage of Vice Chancellor Prof. Talat Ahmad, the varsity, which has grade ‘A’ as per NAAC rankings, signed MoUs with the Indian Air Force (IAF), the Indian Army and the Indian Navy. Jamia first signed a MoU on 13 August 2015 with the IAF represented by Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Education). Thus, the Akashdeep programme was created.

“The project is a mutual intent for academic collaboration between the IAF and Jamia Millia Islamia for academic, technical advancement, and progression of air force personnel,” commented OSD, Centre for Distance and Open Learning (CDOL), Professor Mujtaba Khan. “The underlining spirit of the programme is academic advancement of India’s defen