Ashoka University signs MoU with National University of Singapore (NUS)

The Office of Global Education and Strategic Programmes (GESP) at Ashoka University announced the formal signing of a MoU with National University of Singapore (NUS) on January 24^th 2022. This marks Ashoka’s first MOU in South East Asia.  

“I am very excited that this MOU opens opportunities for students and faculty to collaborate on various fronts with NUS in Singapore, especially since I have been working on it for a few years.” said Vanita Shastri, Dean of Global Education & Strategic programmes at Ashoka University. 

The global offices of the two institutions began work on a collaboration with a visit to Ashoka by a team from the Global Relations Office at NUS in November 2019. Both teams were excited to explore mutual collaboration between the two institutions and expand opportunities for global engagement between India and Singapore.

While the Covid-19 pandemic did put a brake on physical follow up, the two teams continued to work on engaging with each other. The Office of Global Education & Strategic Programmes (GESP) at Ashoka offered its summer courses to students at NUS. The online summer semester made it easier for students from NUS to enroll for these courses in both 2020 and 2021. Previously students from Ashoka had visited NUS where a joint entrepreneurship course was conducted. Prof. Ghazala Shahabuddin from NUS has been collaborating with the Environment Sciences faculty at Ashoka where she is a visiting faculty as well. She also organized a study field trip to the lower Himalayas on sustainability with NUS students in 2019 and winter 2022. 

In December 2021, a successful Joint Virtual Immersion Programme was hosted jointly by Ashoka, NUS and Shiv Nadar University on the theme of Sustainability and Climate Change. The objective of the programme was to expose students to research on sustainability in each university and provide opportunities for students to interact with their international peers through student presentations as well as cultural sessions. Prof. Meghna Agarwala of Ashoka gave an insightful talk on ‘Air pollution and its drivers’ followed by several student presentations.

With these interactions the work between the two universities gained momentum leading to the formal signing of an MOU in January 2022. 

The MoU covers the intention of both NUS and Ashoka to promote the exchange of scientific, academic, and technical information and appropriate academic materials and other information of mutual interest. To identify opportunities for cooperation and joint research and to organize and participate in joint academic and scientific activities such as seminars and conferences. 

According to Loh Wai Lam, Academic Director and Associate Professor of NUS Global “This MOU signifies a budding partnership between Ashoka University and NUS. We look forward to future opportunities for collaborations between both universities”

Sharing her thoughts on the MoU with Ashoka, Prof. Ghazala Shahabuddin from NUS said, “This inter-university MOU is an important development for enhancing joint research and education. In particular, we look forward to productive collaborations in the area of experiential learning, and research on issues of common environmental concern such as climate change and biodiversity loss.”

This MOU will get joint activities between NUS and Ashoka University off the ground like bringing students together in virtual classrooms and engage in collaborative research projects.