The long route from courses to degrees

It all started in 2015, working in India as the Director of the Jindal Centre for Social Innovation + Entrepreneurship at O.P. Jindal Global University. Sara Calvo reached out to pitch the idea of creating a FutureLearn online course together. The success of that course led me to pitch Kartik Desai a year later to create another online course on impact investing.

For years, I steadily worked, sometimes unsuccessfully, to build the case for what I believed was a tremendous opportunity in online education at JGU. Then COVID hit.

So, in 2020, when Vice Chancellor C. Raj Kumar approached me about the opportunity to lead online education, I joked, “What took you so long?” Not yet fully grasping the scale of his ambition for JGU’s online programs. It was both thrilling and daunting.

Over the next two years, we launched 5 online masters degree programs and navigated the complexities of scaling global-quality online education alongside great partners, like Coursera and upGrad, and champions like Eric Datta and Phalgun Kompalli.

JGU’s recognition in the Times Higher Education Online Learning Rankings 2024 is a testament to the extraordinary vision of JGU’s leadership and the promise of what can be possible in education if you operate from first principles to build something new.

Fun fact: I did part of this work while living in Tulsa with the Tulsa Remote program. Although my journey with JGU ended in 2022, seeing this recognition brings me so much pride!