JNU reinvents itself with engineering, management courses, IITs should too

Whatever the reasoning behind JNU's decision to diversify into engineering and management, it seems about time

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), India’s premiere institution for postgraduate studies in the humanities and social sciences, is seeking to diversify and introduce new programmes in engineering and management. University officials have already submitted a proposal for the same to the University Grants Commission (UGC), the country’s premier higher education regulator, and made a presentation of their case.

Since this initiative has come under the leadership of vice-chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar, an electrical engineer from IIT Delhi, the foray into engineering may not seem very surprising. Incidentally, his home institution also runs management programmes.

JNU’s attempt to