Ashoka University wins two FICCI Higher Education Excellence Awards

October 9, 2026 /Posted byPrajwal EW / 0

Ashoka University has won two awards at the 12th FICCI Higher Education Excellence Awards 2026, while its Vice-Chancellor, Rishikesha T. Krishnan, has been named Personality of the Year 2026.

The university received the awards for Excellence in Financial Sustainability & Student Access and Excellence in Globalisation at a ceremony held at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, on October 8.

The Excellence in Financial Sustainability & Student Access award recognises the university’s scholarship initiative, supported by more than 200 founders and donors. In FY 2025–26, the university disbursed over ₹100 crore in scholarships. Since its inception, the initiative has awarded ₹723 crore to more than 5,400 students through merit- and need-based financial assistance.

The university reported that 394 students secured placements in companies, 138 gained admission to international universities and 17 graduates won 19 scholarships, including the Inlaks and Gates Cambridge scholarships, in 2025–26.

The Excellence in Globalisation award recognises the Ashoka Global Research Alliances (AGRA), launched in 2024 to facilitate international research collaborations across the humanities, sciences and social sciences. Operating across 16 countries and five continents, the initiative has enabled 385 students to participate in international programmes across 63 partner universities, with 204 receiving summer scholarships.

AGRA has also supported faculty engagement across 16 countries, research partnerships with international institutions and collaborations with European universities through the Erasmus+ programme.

Krishnan received the Personality of the Year Award for his contributions to higher education, institutional leadership and innovation. He previously served as director of IIM Indore and IIM Bangalore and has worked in the fields of strategy, innovation and public policy.

Ashoka University was named University of the Year – Emerging at the FICCI Higher Education Summit 2025.

Also Read: 28 percent of India’s universities concentrated in 20 districts: report

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“Most schools never consciously chose their basic unit. They inherited one from the past: the class. With the class as the focus, the things that happen between people get squeezed out: the apprentice learning alongside someone skilled, the child taught where they are rather than where the class is, and the daily practice of getting along with people they did not choose. The most promising new schools are organising themselves around the individual child rather than the class. A better approach is to group children by readiness in each subject and change those groups as they progress. Communication, collaboration and handling disagreement need daily practice. In a school built around individual progress, teachers get time back to observe, diagnose, mentor and step in where they are most needed. Most teachers entered the profession to make a difference to children. Many spend their careers managing classes instead. The best new schools offer them a system that finally lets them do the work they signed up for.”

- Rahul Raghavan, Economic Times, (27/10)

“Government medical college seats are 100% filled, vacancies are confined entirely to the private sector. Colleges and state fee-fixation committees must re-examine these fee structures, because lowering NEET qualifying cut-offs will not resolve an affordability crisis when millions of candidates already qualify. The vacancies are an indicator that qualifying for medical admission does not necessarily mean students could afford a seat. Institutions charge full fees to early applicants and offer discounts to late entrants to fill the vacant seats. It reflects a purely commercial approach that compromises merit while still failing to fill classrooms. High management-quota fees are putting seats beyond the reach of many candidates. Some 24 lakh students write the entrance test for 1.4 lakh seats. While the cream gets government seats, the rest of the students cannot afford a management-quota seat.”

- Divyansh Kumar, The Times of India, (2/11)

Ashoka University wins two FICCI Higher Education Excellence Awards

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