Padmashri for Najma Akhtar: Jamia Millia’s First Female Vice Chancellor

Najma Akhtar who created history by being the first female vice-chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia will be awarded the Padmashri, India’s fourth-highest civilian honour today, on March 21, 2022, in the field of literature and education for her indispensable contribution.

Born on November 13, 1953, Prof. Najma Akhtar received her PhD in Education on the topic 'A Comparative Study on Conventional & Distance Education System of Higher Education, Akhtar is also a gold medallist in her Double Master’s degree of MA in Education and an MSc in Botany.

On being asked about this well-deserved nomination for the Akhtar humbly stated, “I will accept this award just not for myself but on behalf of my colleagues. Everyone works hard, but not everyone’s work reaches the recognition they may deserve. I thank the PM and the President for recognizing my work, especially, the President, who entrusted me as the first woman VC of the university.”

Najma Akhtar will be among the 28 Indians, to be conferred with the award in the field, by President Ram Nath Kovind, at the Darbar hall in Rashtrapati Bhawan. Najma Akhtar’s contribution to the field of education has been invaluable. Being appointed as the first female vice-chancellor in Jamia in 2019, she became the first woman to garner that position in any private college.

Padmashri for Najma Akhtar: Jamia Millia’s First Female Vice-Chancellor

Najma Akhtar has previously served as the VC of the University of Kashmir and headed the department of Educational Administration at the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) for 15 years. She is best known for her efforts of working at gender equity in enrolment and quality of education in higher colleges.

During her tenure in the Jamia Islamia was credited with A++ by the National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC). Additionally, JMI also bagged 6th rank in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) of the Ministry of Education (MoE) and an outstanding performance by securing 95.23 percent score among all central universities in a performance evaluation done by the Ministry of Education for the year 2019-20, under Akhtar’s supervision.

Akhtar has additionally worked for the Distance Education Programme at IGNOU, New Delhi. She is the founder Director of the State Institute of Educational Management and Training (SIEMAT) Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. She has worked as the director and visiting nominee for various institutes such as Aligarh Muslim University, Hyderabad University, Delhi University.

The Jamia Millia Islamia Institution has taken to Twitter to congratulate, retweeting all the wishes coming in for their first female VC, Akhtar stating- “It is a matter of great pride for the @jmiu_official that Vice-Chancellor Prof.Najma Akhtar has been selected for #PadmaShri Award for her distinguished services in the field of literature and education.”

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