IIT Madras, NPTEL win at Wharton-QS reimagine education awards

NEW DELHI: Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) wins recognition at the Wharton-QS Reimagine Education Awards. The awards are created to reflect the diversity and breadth of the education sector.

IIT-M's bachelor of science (BS) in data science and applications programme won silver for the 'best online programme.' Along with this, NPTEL (National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning), a joint initiative of IITs and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), won gold in the ‘lifelong learning category.'

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The Wharton-QS reimagine education awards celebrated the achievements of educators, institutions and organizations in education. The winners are selected by an expert panel. This year’s award ceremony was held at the Wharton Campus, Philadelphia, USA.

IIT Madras' online degree data science and applications currently has more than 15,000 students enrolled at various levels in hybrid mode of online and offline education. The admissions to the qualifier exam of the BS degree will be open till January 16, 2023.

The NPTEL is a consortium of seven IITs and IISc, led by IIT Madras. This project is funded by the ministry of education to enhance the quality of engineering education in India by providing free online courses and video lectures. The programme has online courses, videos, translations, industry associate programs, and college partnership initiatives available to students.

Congratulating BS degree programme and NPTEL, IIT M, director, V Kamakoti, said: “We are honoured to receive these awards from Wharton-QS Reimagine Education. Our BS program and NPTEL are examples of how technology can be leveraged to deliver high- quality education to students, regardless of their location. We are committed to continuing to innovate and find new ways to enhance the learning experience for our students.”

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Highlighting the unique aspects of the IIT Madras BS degree program, IIT coordinator, Vignesh Muthuvijayan, said: “The BS Program opens the door to the world of data science and programming where the demand for skilled resources is very high, to anyone from any background and of any age group. This tailormade program provides core employment-oriented skills to students who are looking to venture into the data science domain.”

Speaking about NPTEL, IIT Madras, programme coordinator, Andrew Thangaraj, said: “NPTEL has become a pillar of the open education community. NPTEL certification courses enable quality and equitable access to a wide variety of learners from different social, economic, and demographic backgrounds who are able to benefit from these courses to up-skill and re-skill.”