New Delhi: Prof Najma Akhtar took charge as the first woman Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia. She has spent nearly four decades in academic planning and administration.
On her first day as VC, Prof. Akhtar told media persons that she would start more job-oriented courses, improve innovation and entrepreneurship training and will look for different avenues of fund generation for the university.
As reported by the Hindu, she also said that she would take a complete look at all the courses that are offered at Jamia and see which are the ones that need to be updated to suit industry requirements.
The report quoted her as saying, “We need to create job givers and not job seekers by igniting the entrepreneurial spirit in students and helping them with their funding and expertise in the initial phases.”
Prof. Akhtar stressed the need to enroll more international students and collaborate with foreign universities. She aspires to start a medical college on the campus during her tenure.
Prof. Akhtar also wants to improve the gender ratio in the university and have 50% female students by building more hostels and facilities.
Prof Najma Akhtar obtained PhD in Education from Kurukshetra University and has been a Commonwealth Fellow for University Administration Course at University of Warwick and Nottingham. She also got training at the International Institute of Educational Planning (IIEP), UNESCO, Paris. She has received a gold medal from Aligarh Muslim University.
It must be noted that Jamia is heading towards marking its centenary year in 2020.