Rethinking Education Through Technology And Entrepreneurship
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Indian higher education is going through a quiet but important shift. Students no longer want a degree that only trains them for one job; they want an education that lets them build, think and adapt. This is the thinking behind the academic approach at the university, which is trying to bring together three things that are usually taught separately – technology, entrepreneurship and liberal learning.
Established under the Government of Maharashtra Act No. 20 of 2024 and recognised by the UGC, the university offers programmes across areas including technology, pharmacy, management, hospitality and liberal arts.
The approach involves connecting these disciplines instead of keeping them in separate silos. A computer science student is encouraged to understand business thinking. A pharmacy student is exposed to entrepreneurial skills alongside science. And through the School of Liberal Arts, which offers programmes in psychology, students get space to build critical thinking and communication skills that most technical courses do not focus on. The university also runs industry-sponsored laboratories, so that classroom learning is tested against real workplace problems rather than staying only theoretical.
A degree today cannot just certify knowledge, it has to prepare a student to apply that knowledge, question it, and build something out of it. This is why the university has chosen to design its schools around real industry connections and a broader, more rounded way of learning, rather than narrow, single-track courses.
This is also reflected in the university’s placement and internship ecosystem, career services support, and its network of recruitment partners, which are meant to give students exposure to the corporate world well before they graduate. The idea, according to the university, is not to treat entrepreneurship as a separate add-on subject, but as a mindset that runs through engineering, management, pharmacy and liberal arts programmes alike.
For an institution built on a four-decade legacy in Pune’s education sector, this model marks a shift from being purely degree-focused to being outcome and mindset-focused. As the university expands its schools and industry partnerships in the coming years, its core focus will remain on producing graduates who are not just employable, but capable of thinking independently and building their own paths – whether in a corporate role, a lab, or a business of their own.
Views expressed are personal
The author, Dr. Rohini S. Patil, is COO, Dnyaan Prasad Global University (DPGU), by Dr. D. Y. Patil Group, Pune
