upGrad, India’s largest online higher-education company and Deakin University, Australia have announced an online MBA (Global) program for working professionals. Senator Simon Birmingham, Australian Trade Minister launched the program along with Ronnie Screwvala, Co-founder and Executive Chairman, upGrad and Ravneet Pawha, Deputy Vice President (Global Engagement) and CEO (South Asia), Deakin University, in New Delhi.

Deakin University and upGrad will be jointly working towards creating online executive programs for mid-senior and senior professionals offering them learning opportunities to encourage professional growth. upGrad and Deakin is a first-of-its-kind association of an Australian University with an e-learning company to provide transnational educational opportunities for professionals in India.

Speaking on the collaboration, Ms Ravneet Pawha, Deputy Vice President (Global Engagement) and CEO (South Asia), Deakin University added, “New digital technologies are disrupting the business landscape and the type of skills required are changing as rapidly as the industry dynamics. Jobs today are highly specialized and require constant reskilling. Our collaboration with upGrad is based on the need for education providers to come together with online learning platforms to create growth opportunities for working professionals by improving access to higher-quality skills.”

The program has been carefully designed keeping in mind the industry needs and aims to upskill working professionals who are in the early stages of their careers and wish to pursue a post graduate qualification. According to Colin Higgins, Director, Global Courses, Deakin University, “Over the past decade, we have seen a massive change in the kind of courses that are being opted by students. Working professionals are increasingly looking to upskill themselves. Deakin faculty has worked on the course content keeping in mind this need of the professionals. upGrad has ensured that the course remains relevant to Indian job scenario and have taken inputs from industry leaders and key influencers.”

“As one of Australia’s largest universities, Deakin has strong global linkages, world-class research and, most importantly, an educational portfolio that blends the best of campus and digital delivery into a highly supportive and personalised student experience. We believe that our association with upGrad will help the working professionals in India, while also offering them an opportunity to learn globally-relevant skills,” said Professor Iain Martin, President and Vice-Chancellor, Deakin University. 

The program is a blend of rigorous hands-on teaching along with case studies and projects. The digital learning experience will be accelerated by a 360-degree career support aimed at transforming learning into solid career outcomes for each of the students enrolled in the program.

Commenting on the association, Ronnie Screwvala, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, upGrad said, “Our vision has been to provide working professionals a platform where they can continuously upskill themselves in order to stay relevant. We are excited about the addition of Deakin University to our list of esteemed partners and with this collaboration we hope to bridge the gap between evolving workplace requirements and workforce skilling.”

About Deakin University:

Established in 1974, Deakin University successfully combines excellence in teaching, research and effective partnerships with industry and government to deliver high quality courses and undertake research that makes a difference to the domestic and international communities it serves. Deakin’s South Asia operations commenced in 1994 at New Delhi, India, making it one of the first overseas education provider to set operations in this region. In 2019, Deakin celebrated its 25 years of engagement with India. Here, Deakin engages with the government, industry and the academia to share its vibrant culture of education and research. For more information, visit: http://www.deakin.edu.

About upGrad:

Founded in early 2015, upGrad offers online programs for working professionals. In a short span of around 5 years, upGrad on-boarded over 21.5K paid learners and impacted more than 370K individuals globally, making it India’s largest online higher-education company, basis gross revenue generated from the Indian market in FY18-19.

upGrad provides programs in the areas of Data Science, Technology, Management and MBA to college students, working-class and enterprises. These programs are designed and delivered in collaboration with top-notch universities like IIT Madras, IIIT-B, BITS Pilani, MICA, NMIMS Global Access, Duke CE, Liverpool John Moores University and others. To further enhance the learning experience, a comprehensive ecosystem has been built which includes one-on-one mentoring, peer-to-peer learning, industry networking and most importantly expert career guidance providing learners holistic support to elevate their careers to the next level.

The company has been awarded the title of ‘Best Tech for Education’ by IAMAI in 2019. The company received the ‘Best Education Brands’ award by Economic Times and has made it to LinkedIn’s ‘Top 25 Startups’ two years in a row in 2018 and 2019.

For more information, please visit https://upgrad.com.