JMI Vice Chancellor Prof. Najma Akhtar conferred with Padma Shri

Najma Akhtar was chosen for this honor by the Government of India for her remarkable contribution to the field of literature and education.

Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) Vice-Chancellor Prof Najma Akhtar has been honored with Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award of India from the Hon'ble President of India Ramnath Kovind at a ceremony held at the Darbar Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan today. Najma Akhtar was chosen for this honor by the Government of India for her remarkable contribution to the field of literature and education. The event was also attended by her daughter Farha Khan and her son Saad Akhtar was also present during the award function.

Jamia Millia Islamia VC conferred with Padma Shir Award by the President of India

This is the first time the government has selected a female Vice-Chancellor from JMI for the Padma Shri award. Najma Akhtar is popularly known as a leading educationist for having brought about a transformation in the delivery of quality education in premier educational institutions in the country.

Prof. Akhtar's leadership led JMI to secure a sixth-position in the Ministry of Education's (MoE) National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). The university also achieved outstanding performance by securing a 95.23 per cent score among all central universities in a performance evaluation conducted by the Ministry of Education for the year 2019-20.

Who is Najma Akhtar?

Professor Najma Akhtar has the distinction of being the first woman Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) New Delhi-an institution accredited with A++ by National Accreditation and Assessment Council in December, 2021. Jamia was founded in 1920 during the Khilafat & Non-Cooperation Movements led by Gandhiji. Prof Akhtar is widely recognized as a leading educationist for having brought transformation in the delivery of quality education in premier educational institutions of the country.  She led JMI to bag 1st position among all the Central Universities in rankings released by the Ministry of Education and 6thrank in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) of the Government of India. 

Born on November 13, 1953, Prof. Najma Akhtar received her Ph.D. in Education on the topic “A Comparative Study on Conventional & Distance Education System of Higher Education”.  Earlier, she had completed her Master’s in Education with a Gold Medal and also a Gold Medalist in M.Sc. Botany from AMU. 

She has worked as Professor and was the Head, Department of Training & Capacity Building in Education at 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), Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh.  She has also held the position of Director, Academic Programmes at Aligarh Muslim University besides the coveted position of Controller of Examinations and Admissions in AMU. 

She has been Visitor’s Nominee on Selection Committee and Executive Committee of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad, Delhi University, Assam University and Jamia Millia Islamia.  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, Allahabad 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.

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