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VGU’s multidisciplinary academic ecosystem supports holistic learning
VGU enhances undergraduate education by promoting transdisciplinary projects, allowing students to work on real-world challenges.
Vivekananda Global University (VGU), Jaipur, is building a new model of undergraduate education, which is supporting students to move from classroom ideas to research papers, working prototypes, intellectual property, and startup creation, through mandatory transdisciplinary projects, innovation platforms, incubation support, and entrepreneurship-driven mentoring..
The university’s academic process
At the core of this model is VGU's approach to mandatory transdisciplinary projects, where students from multiple disciplines work together on real-world challenges rather than isolated subject assignments. These projects are designed to encourage:
- Problem identification,
- Field engagement,
- Solution design,
- Prototyping,
- Validation, and
- Eventual translation into outcomes such as publications, working models, copyrights, patents, and startup registrations.
The approach is changing the undergraduate experience by making students active creators instead of passive learners, said the university. It is also creating a campus culture in which engineering students work with designers, business students collaborate with agricultural innovators, and young researchers learn to think beyond disciplinary silos.
Prof. V. Saira, Head of Transdisciplinary Projects, is central to this transformation, the university stated.
From projects to tangible outcomes
VGU ensures that student work does not end with internal evaluation. Instead, promising projects are routed into research, innovation, and incubation channels that allow them to mature into serious outputs with academic and market relevance.
The university supports this progression through publication activity, intellectual property facilitation, and startup incubation. VGU's Research and Development Cell highlights interdisciplinary and industry-relevant research, while the wider innovation system has contributed to hundreds of patents and a pipeline of research papers and assignments.
For students, this means a project can evolve into a conference paper, a proof-of-concept model, a patent filing, or the registration of a startup. Students are learning how knowledge is applied, protected, validated, and commercialized in the real world, the university noted.
The ecosystem
What makes VGU's model distinctive is that it is supported by a broad ecosystem rather than a single cell or one-time annual event. The Institution's Innovation Council (IIC-VGU) runs a continuous pipeline of ideation activities, startup events, innovation awareness sessions, and mentorship engagements that keep the campus innovation cycle active throughout the year.
Prof. Satish Jangid, Head of the Institution's Innovation Council, leads the model, supporting a large pool of ideas, active participants, mentors, and ecosystem partners, helping young innovators transition from concepts to credible ventures.
Hackathons, designathons, campus pitch forums, and startup showcases play an important role in this ecosystem. These platforms expose students to time-bound innovation challenges, investor-style presentations, product validation exercises, and collaborative problem-solving experiences that mirror the demands of real startup and industry environments.
Entrepreneurship education in action
VGU reinforces entrepreneurship-oriented learning experiences that go beyond theory. Students are not only introduced to entrepreneurial thinking through coursework and innovation programmes, but are also encouraged to test ideas through demo days, startup internships, national-level events, and founder interactions.
Entrepreneurship education at VGU is tied to execution, the university stated. Students are exposed to legal, financial, operational, and market realities early in their academic life, helping them understand how innovation becomes a viable enterprise.
Prof. Sudhanshu, Head of Corporate Relations, bridges student capability with external industry engagement and employability pathways. This linkage ensures that innovation at VGU is connected to placement opportunities, industry projects, and startup internships.
The role of ACIC and incubation support
ACIC-VGU Foundation is a pillar of the university's innovation architecture, recognised as India's first Atal Community Innovation Centre hosted by a private university. The centre focuses on innovation and entrepreneurship for sectors such as art, design, handicrafts, lifestyle, fashion, and agriculture, while also extending support to grassroots and emerging innovators from beyond the campus.
With grant support and incubation infrastructure in place, ACIC-VGU provides a support system for early-stage ventures. This includes mentorship, office space, access to networks, and practical guidance across legal, finance, compliance, and business development functions.
Leaders are associated with this incubation push, helping strengthen the university's startup support pipeline. This ecosystem gives young founders access to structured capacity building and funding pathways, including grants and equity-oriented support.
Stories that inspire the next founder
Motivation for students often comes from examples of alumni and student success. One such example is Cropsync Pvt. Ltd., an incubated agritech venture associated with VGU that reflects how student-led innovation can evolve into a real enterprise with sector relevance.
When students see peers and alumni build ventures, generate revenue, create jobs, and participate in startup conversations beyond the campus, innovation becomes aspirational but also believable.
This has a multiplying effect across the university. A first-year student can enter the ecosystem with curiosity, observe founder journeys, participate in campus hackathons, and begin building confidence through team-based problem solving. A third-year student can take that process further by refining prototypes, participating in innovation forums, and preparing for startup, research, or placement pathways with stronger hands-on exposure.
Building job-ready and future-ready graduates
By participating in transdisciplinary projects, prototyping, mentoring, startup internships, and live pitch environments, students develop practical skills that traditional classroom structures often struggle to deliver at scale.
They gain hands-on experience with emerging technologies, product thinking, teamwork across domains, communication under pressure, and problem-solving in uncertain environments, the university stated. These are skills that improve placement readiness, strengthen portfolios, and prepare graduates for both corporate roles and entrepreneurial careers.
Students are not only becoming startup founders and researchers, but also more confident professionals who understand commercialization, collaboration, and execution.
Leadership driving the vision
This model is being driven by a combination of academic leadership, innovation stewardship, and strategic institutional support. Prof. D.V.S., Pro President, represents the university's larger ambition to position innovation as a core pillar of institutional growth and national engagement.
Mr. Onkar Bagaria, CEO, is part of the leadership framework that has supported the build-out of innovation infrastructure, incubation capability, and industry-facing institutional positioning. Together with academic and ecosystem leaders, including Prof. V. Sairam, Prof. Satish Jangid, Prof. Sudhanshu, and incubation stakeholders such as Gaurav Sharma, this leadership network has helped convert innovation from a slogan into a working system.
To learn more about VGU's multidisciplinary academic ecosystem, visit here.
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