Delhi University has signed five Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) during the State visit of the President Pranab Mukherjee to Israel, Jordan and Palestine. The President is also the ‘Visitor’ of DU. The MoUs have been signed with five Universities including University of Jordan and Isra University in Amman, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva and Inter Disciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya. The international collaborations are set to enhance the foray of DU in the direction of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
“We have signed the generic MoUs but the main component of this understanding is that both sides have agreed on students and faculty exchange, starting some joint programmes and holding of academic symposiums and seminars. later, the two partners can visit and plan expanding some projects,” Cluster Innovation Centre (CIC), Director, Madan Mohan Chaturvedi told The Pioneer.
Chaturvedi was the nominee of the University who accompanied the President on his visit from October 10 to October 15. Chaturvedi said the focus was to gain maximum from this visit in the sector of innovation since “Israel is the strongest country in innovation and entrepreneurship programmes.”
“We were intending primarily to work on a new pedagogy in the education system. This is the focus of CIC so that we can interact further with them on the real life problems, businesses and entrepreneurship,” he added.
Praising the President, Chaturvedi said that academia remains his priority. “Wherever we went the first thing President did was informed the hosts about the delegation from University which was accompanying him.”
He said, Mukherjee had an important role in getting these MoUs signed for the Delhi University. “He is very pro-active about the academics of the country. He informed everywhere that a delegation from the Indian Universities was accompanying him and talked about other things involving education in our country,” he further added.