Aligarh Muslim University Pro Vice Chancellor, Brigadier S Ahmad Ali (Veteran) with Dr Shahid Jameel, Chief Executive Officer, The Wellcome Trust / DBT India Alliance and Professor Yasmin Saikia associated with the Arizona State University, USA on 13 February inaugurated the Aligarh Open University (AOU) Programme with the launch of www.aligarhopenuniversity.org, the official AOU website at a function held at the AMU’s Zakir Hussain College of Engineering and Technology.
The Aligarh Open University is an initiative, facilitated by the Federation of Aligarh Alumni Associations (FAAA), North America through which the Alumni based in various parts of world will share their knowledge and experience with the AMU students and supplement the classroom learning in collaboration with the AMU faculty.
In an online message during the AOU launch, the AMU Vice Chancellor, Lt General Zameer Uddin Shah (Veteran) said the vision of AOU is to advance student capacity by supplementing their knowledge and skills through instruction, coaching, mentoring and presenting role models. He added that the facility of smart class-rooms in AMU will be a big help in implementing this initiative.
Delivering the keynote address, Dr Shahid Jameel who is also AOU Patron said that AOU is an extension of the Aligarh Summer University programme, which was a vision of Late Professor Asad Ahmed (Professor Emeritus, University of Alberta).
He added that it was under the leadership of Prof Ahmad that the program started in 2000 to enhance the academic experience of students at the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) and it could not be held after he passed away in 2014.
“Now again a number of alumni are ready to volunteer their time to provide new knowledge and serve as role models through AOU,” said Dr Jameel.
On the occasion, AMU Pro Vice Chancellor, Brigadier S Ahmad Ali said that this programme will be beneficial to students as alumni from across the globe will transfer their knowledge to the students connected with AOU.
Brigadier Ali added that this knowledge transfer process will make students acquire skills from the best and the most brilliant mentors. He further pointed out that mentorship is the best form of knowledge sharing in which students will share the whole narratives and experiences of the alumni.
“The role of AMU in the programme will be to fix up and tie up both the ends of students and their mentors,” said Brigadier Ali.
Talking on the importance of the AOU Programme during another Keynote address, Professor Yasmin Saikia said that it is very important for alumni to focus on service to the alma mater and through this programme, students will benefit in the best ways.
She also pointed out that there is a very efficient network of the AMU alumni spread over the world. “The alumni are connected with each other and the students pursing education in AMU, which is why a programme like this will be a huge success,” said Prof Saikia.
She further said that AMU founder Sir Syed Ahmad Khan made connections in between the east and west and this vision will be taken forward with the AOU initiative.
AMU Alumnus, Dr Nadeem Tarin through a telephonic message to the guests and students attending the programme said that AOU will make the best network of students with the alumni, who will share their industry experience besides mentoring them to take the best career moves.