upGrad partners with UK’s University of Essex to bring 72 undergraduate and postgraduate programs to the Indian workforce
upGrad, India’s largest online higher edtech in a first-of-a-kind arrangement becomes a recognised enrollment partner to the UK’s leading University of Essex, thereby further strengthening transnational education in India. A list of 72 undergraduate and postgraduate online programs will be delivered through the Kaplan Open learning (KOL) who is an academic/academy partner to the University. The edtech major will be facilitating the enrollment process for learners in India, along with international territories like Africa, Middle East, South East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand.
Stretched across 16 disciplines, upGrad massively diversifies its program portfolio to include Criminology, Cybersecurity, Education, Health, Nursing, Project Management, Human Resource, Psychology, and Public Health, in addition to introducing new programs in areas where it has already built a strong presence like Digital Marketing, MBA, Business Analytics, Business with Finance, Business Management, Computer Science, and Law. The cohort is scheduled to commence in January 2021.
Talking about the partnership in-depth, Phalgun Kompali, Co-founder, upGrad said, “We are very excited about our partnership with the University of Essex which will provide our learners access to more than 70 programs across the areas like Public Health, Psychology, Education, Business, Management & Technology, etc. Given the global brand and reputation of Essex, upGrad is also going to invest in establishing the University program portfolio in other markets across South East Asia & EMEA regions.
Arjun Mohan, CEO – India, upGrad, said, “We operate in times when the country is in dire need of a skilled workforce, as the current unemployment rate has taken a steep rise from 6.67% in September to become 6.98% in October. Therefore, our efforts to join hands with the globally-recognised University of Essex will further propel a stronger and wider online learning ecosystem for individuals in India and across various geographies, thus helping them future-proof their careers. We also look at expanding our program portfolio by 3x in the next two years and this step, is yet another milestone achieved.”
The University of Essex is ranked no 38. in the UK as per the Times Higher Education Ranking of 2021. In 2018, it was rated Gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework and ranked in the top 15 list for the overall student satisfaction out of the UK’s mainstream universities, for the sixth year running in the National Student Survey.