In addition to being a board member of the Delhi-based Berlias-owned multi-crore business conglomerate Apeejay Stya & Svran Group, Aditya Berlia (28) is pro-chancellor of the recently established Apeejay Stya University, Gurgaon, and joint secretary of the Apeejay Education Society which manages 13 primary-secondary schools and 16 professional education institutions with an aggregate enrolment of 32,000 students. A graduate of Stanford University, Berlia is also an alum of Harvard Business School and founder-director of Apeejay Stya Education Research Foundation (estb. 2004).

Newspeg. Apeejay Stya University (ASU), Gurgaon, India’s first private liberal arts and meta university, is all set to increase its intake of undergraduate students to 500 this year.

University profile. The not-for-profit ASU was established in 2010 in Gurgaon (Haryana) through a special enactment of the Haryana legislative assembly, with industrialist-educationist Sushma Berlia appointed its first chancellor. Spread over a 32-acre campus, the university co-founded by Sushma and her son Aditya, offers graduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes through its eight schools. The four-year undergrad courses draw their inspiration from the best American universities. With an installed capacity of 15,000 students, ASU admitted its first batch of 80 last year. This year the proposed intake is 500, with merit-cum-means scholarships available to deserving students.

Apeejay Education Society. One of India’s first corporate supported education societies, AES was registered by the late Dr. Stya Paul in 1967. Since then, the society has promoted 13 schools and 16 higher education institutions in professional education including engineering, management and media.

Direct talk. “It’s unusual for an old and purely non-profit education society and family with inherent passion for education like ours to start a university after 45 years. We didn’t rush to establish a quick-start institution. We waited for an opportunity, completed all legal formalities and engaged with highly respected foreign and Indian educationists to build a high quality institution which will serve as a role model for higher education in this country. We are wholly committed to providing best learning aids, equipment, labs, faculty and research opportunities to meet our students’ highest aspirations,” says Berlia.

Future plans. Berlia is determined to spare no expense towards developing ASU’s infrastructure even at the cost of being stuck with excess capacity. “Great universities develop over time which could stretch to a century or more. Our goal is to take ASU to the next level of a top class global university. The government doesn’t understand the education needs of the people and even though we are happy to provide education philanthropically, given the scale of demand, it’s time to corporatise education so that the huge sums of money required to build great academic institutions can be raised in stock markets,” he says.

Wind in your sails!

Autar Nehru (Delhi)