New Delhi:
Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) Vice-Chancellor Professor Najma Akhtar will receive Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of the country, from the President of India Ramnath Kovind on Monday, March 21. The award ceremony will be held at the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan today. The Government of India (GoI) selected Prof Akhtar for the award for her invaluable contribution in the field of literature and education.
Prof Najma Akhtar has the distinction of being the first woman Vice-Chancellor of JMI-an institution accredited with A++ by the National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) under her supervision in December last year. She is widely recognized as a leading educationist for having brought transformation in the delivery of quality education in premier educational institutions of the country.
Prof. Akhtar led JMI to bag 6th rank in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) of the Ministry of Education (MoE). Under her leadership, the university also achieved outstanding performance by securing 95.23 per cent score among all central universities in a performance evaluation done by the Ministry of Education for the year 2019-20.
Born on November 13, 1953, Prof Akhtar received her PhD in Education on the topic ‘A Comparative Study on Conventional & Distance Education System of Higher Education’. A gold medalist in her Master’s, she holds an MA in Education and an MSc in Botany.
She has worked as a Professor and was the Head of the Department of Training and Capacity Building in Education at the National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA), New Delhi.
She worked in the Distance Education Programme at IGNOU, New Delhi, and was the founder Director of the State Director of the State Institute of Educational Management and Training (SIEMAT) in erstwhile Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh.
She has also held the position of Director, Academic Programmes at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), besides the coveted position of Controller of Examinations and Admissions in AMU.
Prof Akhtar has been the visitor’s nominee on the Selection Committee and Executive Committee of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), Hyderabad, Delhi University, Assam University, and JMI.
She has been on the Management Committee of Delhi Public School, Member of Empowered Committee of Bihar State Madarsa Education Board, Member of High Level Expert Committee of the Ministry of Defence, Govt of India, Member of National Steering Committee of the Ministry of Education, Govt. of India, Board of Management, Jamia Hamdard, Delhi Member of General Assembly of Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR), New Delhi, Member of National Academic Advisory Committee of the Indian Social Science Academy and Search Committee for appointment of new Vice-Chancellor of Kashmir University, Member of Experts Group on NEP 2020, Speaker of Senate, IIT Delhi, Member of University Council Cluster University, Srinagar and Member of Governing Council, Association of Indian Universities.