Joining the club of business conglomerates that have set up a university of their own, Mahindra Group today (July 24) announced opening of its own university, Mahindra University (MU) and is part of the Mahindra Educational Institutions (MEI), a not-for-profit subsidiary of Tech Mahindra.
The university is being set up in Hyderabad in the same campus where the Ecole Centrale School of Engineering was set up in 2014. The 130-acre, multi-disciplinary campus will offer undergraduate, post graduate and PhD courses and will include the Ecole Centrale School of Engineering.
According to a statement from MEI, Mahindra University has been envisioned to drive a meaningful shift in the way that higher education is imparted in the country. “MU will drive interdisciplinary academic excellence, integrating the study of science and technology with the Humanities, Ethics & Philosophy, and Design. It will operate as an autonomous University, with its contemporary, new-age curricula being curated to fully leverage emerging technologies like Data Science, Blockchain and Data Analytics. MU will uniquely enable the holistic development of its students, combining the Emotional Intelligence (Right Brain) and Artificial Intelligence (Left Brain) paradigms,” it said.
Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group and Chancellor, Mahindra University, said, “High quality education has transformative powers for individuals and nations, alike. Mahindra University will strive to deliver a more balanced education, combining the latest technology with Liberal Arts, to create next generation leaders that have a holistic world view.”
As a part of the immediate roadmap, the University will launch the School of Management (2021-22), School of Law (2021-22), Indira Mahindra School of Education (2021-22), School of Media & Liberal Arts (2022-23) and School of Design (2023-24).
Prof Yajulu Medury, Vice-Chancellor, Mahindra University, said, “Mahindra University aims to revolutionise the educating environment for the future workforce of our country through necessary industry-academia collaborations to prepare the students for present challenges and future industry needs. The university will bring together expertise of international faculty and will provide access to innovation and research hubs with top academic partners. We plan to be a holistic learning platform for the students, providing access to studies related to Engineering, Law, Management, Education, Media & Liberal Arts, Design and others.”
An estimated 4,000 Students and over 300+ Faculty members will be in place across the various Schools at Mahindra University over the next five years.
CP Gurnani, MD & CEO, Tech Mahindra and Board of Management, Mahindra University, said, “The Mahindra University is a testimony of our commitment towards bridging the skill gap and creating global leaders that are willing to change, adapt and transform according to dynamic market needs and business environment. The university will also provide access to multi-disciplinary learning focused on leveraging the power of Artificial Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence. This will help the students to develop new-age competencies and inculcate entrepreneurial thinking to enable them solve complex challenges faced by the society.”
MU will also to bring the Corporate and Industrial ecosystems together through its Centres of Excellence. Students will have access to the Mahindra Group’s expertise through a Centre of Excellence, visiting faculty and other strategic engagements. Students will be provided opportunities to interact with CEOs, CXOs of organizations across the country.
MU already has a Supercomputer Lab with an advanced NVidia GPU-based supercomputer, the DGX-1. It also has a Centre for Artificial Intelligence (CAI), a Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE) and a Centre for Sustainable Infrastructure and Systems (CSIS).
Additional CoEs being considered include, the Centre for Computational and Experimental Mechanics (CCEM), the Centre for Research in Optics and Photonics (CROP) and a Centre for Executive Education (CEE).
