ImaginXP, India’s university embedded and university partnered edutech enterprise providing full-time degree programs in future skills, for-credit certifications and employer-led online UG & PG degrees, has roped in the accomplished industry veteran Dr Neeraj Sharma to lead university partnerships for its university partnered and embedded businesses. Armed with over two and a half decades of pivotal service in the domain of higher education, Dr Sharma has imparted a crucial role in transforming various tech institutions into popular success stories. He is a seasoned professional with a PhD in Management from IIT Delhi and M Tech in Human Resource Management from IIT Kharagpur. Furthermore, He has also authored over a dozen research papers which were published in national and international journals in addition to authoring some chapters in various reference books of management.   

His present role at ImaginXP will involve imparting strategic direction for the company in accordance with the newly drafted NEP 2020 wave and the plethora of Government-backed initiatives that are aimed at nudging online education, building and cherishing University partnerships, and steering growth development and further expansion in the online education business ecosystem. This appointment comes in addition to the recent acquisition by the company of Noesis Learning bringing Ajay Kumar – CTO, Talent Edge and Pallavi Singla from the team into the company.  

Prior to joining ImaginXP, Dr Sharma was the Director- University Partnerships and Institutional Alliances at UpGrad which was preceded by his role as the Chief Growth Officer at Talent Edge. Earlier, he was working as the Head of Management Education Business at NIIT which included NIIT Imperia and Training.com. Before assuming his role at NIIT, Dr Sharma was part of the founding team which had set up DirecWay Global Education (now called HughesNet Global Education) at Hughes and was responsible for creating and nurturing tie-ups with various business schools in the country. In a nutshell, he has been an inseparable part of the rapidly advancing synchronous learning revolution in India right from its very inception.  

Speaking on his appointment, Dr Neeraj Sharma, the new Head of University Partnerships at ImaginXP said, “It is indeed an honour to be associated with a disruptive higher education company like ImaginXP that is fast revolutionizing higher education in India by concentrating on enhancing future skills, developing employer-led curriculum and extending industry participated delivery models. It acts as a veritable bridge by covering the gap between the industry and academia while also warranting that students obtain best-in-class education. I look forward to my new role here and utilising my experience to take the company to further new heights." 

Also commenting on the critical hiring, Col Prof Shishir Kumar, the Director-General at ImaginXP, said, “We are thrilled to have Dr Neeraj become a part of the ImaginXP family. An adroit academic and higher education expert with an enormous amount of professional experience and time-tested calibre, a person of Dr Sharma’s stature will surely assist ImaginXP and DegreeKaro attain its ambitious vision of shepherding considerable rise student employability and the GER figures of the country.”