SNDT Women’s University see over 40% rise in student enrolment

Established 110 years ago, SNDT Women’s University held its 75th convocation ceremony on Tuesday, where former speaker of the Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan was conferred with an honorary D. Litt (Honoris Causa). A total of 18,366 students were awarded degrees/diplomas. This included 13,626 Bachelors degrees, 2,656 Masters degrees, 96 post graduate diplomas and 22 PhDs. Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Government of India, Nitin Gadkari was chief guest at the event.

SNDT Women’s University includes 37 departments, 13 higher education institutions, and 384 affiliated colleges with a range of courses on offer in diverse streams and disciplines such as science, arts, commerce and various specialised professional courses which also provide hands-on training in various trades, ensuring better employability of its students.

Talking about the continuous growth in student enrolment, vice chancellor of SNDT Women’s University, professor Ujwala Chakradeo, said, “There are multiple factors contributing to this growth. Foremost, the higher and technical education department’s scheme allowing free education to girls pursuing professional courses. While this scheme has enhanced enrolment in professional courses, in the case of traditional courses, SNDT University has expanded its reach with various sub-centres and affiliated colleges. We have recently started a centre in Chandrapur and a campus in Palghar is on the way. This has allowed forhigher education access to girls in remote areas without having to travel far.”

Chakradeo also highlighted the newly started Apprenticeship Embedded Degree Programme (AEDP), which according to her has become very attractive to students due to enhanced employability assured by these courses. “We have collaborated with several industry players from diverse sectors, to provide hands-on training to our students. Apart from internship experience which makes them more employable after working on real industry problems, students are also paid a stipend, which helps a lot of them in their higher education expenditure,” she said.