The UGC-Academic Staff College it Jamia Millia Islamia was established in 1987 with full financial assistance from the UGC. Ever since then the UGC-Academic Staff College at Jamia Millia Islamia had set out to steadily blossom into a front running professional development academic unit in the country catering to the academic requirements of the College and University teachers and administrative staff in academic institutions across the country. True to its mandate, the UGC-Academic Staff College had successfully generated an understanding among the college and university teachers of the environment they are working in, besides deeper insights into the pedagogy and psychology of learning in order to equip them communicate more effectively with the young students.

The UGC through its new guidelines circulated in January 2015 rechristened the Academic Staff Colleges in the country as Human Resource Development Centres (HRDCs) and proposed to identify a few Regional Centres for Capacity Building (RCsCB) from among the HRDCs. This was done in order to enhance quality content with ongoing programmes with more emphasis on skill development in the teaching faculty. The new arrangement consisting of Human Resource Development Centres (HRDCs) and Regional Centres for Capacity Building (RCsCB) are structured in a manner that they ensure not only motivational training but also updated exposures to existential techniques, trends and innovative developments, in various disciplines. Further, the focus is on evolving new strategies for governance of educational institutions in order to promote innovations, new directions and collaborative models for ensuring quality in higher education.

The Centre organizes two major types of in-service faculty training programmes viz. general Orientation Courses and subject specific Refresher Courses. The Orientation Courses are of 4-weeks duration and Refresher Courses in various disciplines are of 3-weeks duration each.

The Orientation Programmes broadly serve the following objectives:

• Sensitize the College and University teachers about the linkages between education and society.
• Help teachers acquire/sharpen basic skills of teaching to promote effective teaching-learning processes in the classroom.
• Encourage and guide the teachers to develop healthy personality.
• Make them appreciate the issues involved in the management of colleges and universities.
• Motivate them to undertake extension services including student counseling.
• Encourage them to uphold the democratic- secular fabric of the society in order to sustain its age old ethos of consensus and accommodation.

The Refresher Courses are organised with the underlying objective to help college and university teachers remain updated with the developments in their respective subject / fields with a view to prepare them to undertake quality research and propel academic activities in tune with the changing dynamics of the 21st century. Besides, the UGC-HRDC at Jamia also conducts short term orientation programmes for college principals in order to equip them with the governing institution management strategies. Further, need-based courses, workshops for teachers in areas of their professional interest are additional activities undertaken by UGC-HRDC, Jamia Millia Islamia. A very striking feature of the UGC-HRDC is its specialized Orientation Programme for Academic Administrative officers of Indian universities.

The UGC-Human Resource Development Centre caters to the needs of teachers, administrative and support staff of the colleges and universities including research scholars. Apart from Orientation Programmes and Refresher Courses in various academic disciplines, the centre has the mandate to conduct a variety of academic programmes such as Workshops for Principals/Deans and Heads, Professional Development Programmes for senior faculty and administrative and support staff connected to higher education. The UGC- HRDC also conducts Interaction Programmes for research scholars. Organising Seminars / Workshops / Symposia is also an integral part of this Centre. The UGC-HRDC, Jamia Millia Islamia has organised over 115 Orientation Courses and 210 Refresher Courses so far. About thirteen thousand nine hundred educators and administrators have attended these courses. Refresher Courses were conducted in the disciplines of Arabic, Bio-Sciences, Basic Sciences, Commerce, Comparative Literature, Computer Science, Conflict Studies, Economics, Education, English, Environmental Studies, Fine Arts, Geography, Gender Studies, History, Human Rights, Library and Information Sciences, Management, Mathematics, Persian, Political Science, Urdu West Asian Studies, Special Summer School, and Special Winter School. The success story of the performance and quality of the UGC-HRDC at Jamia Millia Islamia is reflected in the steady increase in the number of participants as well as academic activities every year in the past three decades. Some of the innovative practices at the UGC-HRDC introduced as part of its training and professional development strategies include, practice in writing book reviews / review articles, preparing research proposals for commissioned research projects; writing of seminar papers and presenting the same in seminars organised during each course duration under the guidance and supervision of senior resource persons; developing action research proposals; and preparing technology based lessons and presenting them during peer teaching. Participants are also provided training in the proper use of library resources, computers and internet applications. Besides regular lectures, team teaching, panel discussions, group discussions, workshops, extempore debates and site lectures outside the UGC- Human Resource Development Centre also form part of its activities. Subject upgradation of the participants through their interaction with the faculty of the respective departments of studies in the Jamia is yet another strategy to ensure academic quality. Activity oriented participatory approach of communication is the guiding spirit of UGC-HRDC, Jamia Millia Islamia. Further, the UGC-HRDC provides with quality reading material especially peer recommended books and lists of readings based on the lectures and other related published works. Intra-group cultural activities are an added feature during each programme in order to promote cultural pluralism among the faculty. The UGC-HRDC proposes to launch a quarterly ‘HRDC Bulletin’ covering the events and activities organized, which contains articles, papers, book reviews, research proposals, etc. It is also proposed to prepare a reading material for the benefit of the participants.

Ever since its inception in 1987, the UGC-Human Resource Development Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia has gradually been growing into a distinct centre for professional development in its endeavor to carve a permanent niche in the academic world. True to the foundational values cherished by Jamia Millia Islamia viz. Democracy, secularism and social justice, the UGC-Human Resource Development Centre has been consistently striving to promote these fundamental national goals among its participants in its mission to realise an India of Mahatma Gandhi’s dreams.