The Founding Vice Chancellor, O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU), Dr. C. Raj Kumar, spaks to a global audience in three separate sessions at this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, from 21st to 24th January 2020.
Dr. C. Raj Kumar said, “The Theme of WEF 2020 Annual Meeting is Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World and Indian Universities need to focus on building leadership and imagination with a stronger focus on sustainable futures. The sustainability framework should permeate all aspects of institution building among the Universities of the world. Indian Universities can play a global catalytic role for promoting sustainable futures given the significant demographic situation that prevails in India. This is further underlined by the fact that more than 850 million in India are less than 35 years of age and India’s life expectancy has increased to 71 years.”
“These include providing representative access, particularly to marginalised groups of citizens; balancing such access with the provision of university environments that are of global standards; helping our students bridge gaps in communication and thinking skills that can meet the requirements of globalised careers and roles; and perhaps most importantly, institutionalising efforts to identify and correct social and economic disparities,” he added.
The sessions that Dr. C. Raj Kumar addressed included:
Caspian Week-WEF, Davos 2020: As part of the Caspian Week - WEF sessions, Dr. Kumar spoke at two panels. The first panel discussion, themed 'Education & Leadership for Sustainable World', focussed on educational leadership, sustainability, inclusive development, institutional cultural change, and pedagogies of sustainability. The second panel discussion, themed 'The Role of Global Universities in Promoting Sustainable Futures', focussed on challenges that universities are confronted with today and that global universities can play a specific role in advancing the cause of sustainable development, including observations about the foci of universities as they assume a leadership role in educating the youth of the world and preparing them for the future.
Professor Kumar is the only Vice Chancellor from India to be invited to speak at Davos, and JGU is the only university from India to be included in this global round table.
Speaking at this prestigious event, Dr. C. Raj Kumar focused on four core areas included:
It is truly remarkable that only 11 global university vice chancellors/presidents have been invited to be a part of this WEF - Davos round table. These universities are:
At Davos, JGU will also be signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland for mutual cooperation in higher education and research. The University of Zurich is the largest and one of the oldest Universities in Switzerland with distinguished presence and excellence in teaching and research. Founded in 1833, the University of Zurich is currently amongst the top 100 Universities in the world as per the Times Higher Education (THE) and QS World University Rankings.