Central University of Odisha signs MoUs to facilitate inclusive education

Central University of Odisha (CUO) on Monday signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with four other central universities for facilitating inclusive and multidisciplinary education as per the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

 

The participating universities with CUO include Hyderabad-based English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU); Vizianagaram-based Central Tribal University of Andhra Pradesh (CTU AP); Amarkantak-based Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (IGNTU); and Telangana-based Sammakka Sarakka Central Tribal University (SSCTU).

 

The MoUs seek to develop collaborative research, academic exchange, and capacity building with a special focus on tribal studies. The institutions will cooperate in faculty exchange, curricula development, and academic projects focusing on the role of higher education in empowering marginal and tribal communities under the MoUs.

 

Addressing the occasion, CUO Vice-Chancellor (in-charge) Prof. Narasingha Charan Panda spoke of the need to convert MoUs into concrete deliverables through an active interface with faculty members. Emphasizing the emphasis on research on tribals lends the collaboration a very special meaning, which he explained as "a powerful and promising area that can redefine inclusive education."

 

Prof. Panda further mentioned that the plan was conceived following a meeting was conducted when Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan came to CUO in July 2025. The minister had stressed having more convergence of central universities to fuel innovation, knowledge sharing, and inclusion according to NEP-2020.

 

Dignitaries who attended the MoU signing event included EFLU Vice-Chancellor N. Nagaraju, SSCTU Vice-Chancellor Y.L. Srinivas, CTU AP Vice-Chancellor T. Srinivasan, and Prof. Soubhagya Ranjan Padhi of IGNTU.

 

The partnership is sure to benefit the students and faculties both in terms of exposure to common resources, diversity of places of learning, and mutual prospects of co-authorship of research papers. Above all, it will see that India's tribal knowledge systems get developed so that indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage become part of the mainstream higher education.

 

Through this partnership, CUO and its educationally-minded friends aim to provide a model of how the central universities can collectively contribute to inclusive, multidisciplinary, and socially relevant learning in the spirit of NEP-2020.