upGrad Partners With UK's University Of Essex (Online)

upGrad, India’s online higher education edtech in an arrangement becomes a recognised enrollment partner to the UK’s University of Essex (Online), thereby further strengthening transnational education in India. A list of 72 undergraduate and postgraduate online programs will be delivered through the Kaplan Open learning (KOL) who is an academic/academy partner to the University. The edtech major will be facilitating the enrollment process for learners in India, along with international territories like Africa, Middle East, South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. 

Stretched across 16 disciplines, upGrad massively diversifies its program portfolio to include Criminology, Cybersecurity, Education, Health, Nursing, Project Management, Human Resource, Psychology and Public Health, in addition to introducing new programs in areas where it has already built a strong presence like Digital Marketing, MBA, Business Analytics, Business with Finance, Business Management, Computer Science and Law. The cohort is scheduled to commence in January 2021.

Talking about the partnership in-depth, Phalgun Kompali, Co-founder, upGrad said, “We are very excited about our partnership with the University of Essex (Online) which will provide our learners access to more than 70 programs across the areas like Public Health, Psychology, Education, Business, Management & Technology, etc. Given the global brand and reputation of Essex, upGrad is also going to invest in establishing the University program portfolio in other markets across South East Asia & EMEA regions.

“We operate in times when the country is in dire need of a skilled workforce, as the current unemployment rate has taken a steep rise from 6.67 per cent in September to become 6.98 per cent in October. Therefore, our efforts to join hands with the globally-recognised University of Essex (Online) will further propel a stronger and wider online learning ecosystem for individuals in India and across various geographies, thus helping them future-proof their careers. We also look at expanding our program portfolio by 3 folds in the next two years and this step, is yet another milestone achieved,” said Arjun Mohan, CEO – India, upGrad.