The National Monuments Authority, under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, has recognised Ahmedabad University’s Centre for Heritage Management as an expert heritage body, establishing it as a leading institution for archaeology and built heritage conservation in the West and Central region.
The Centre for Heritage Management, along with 12 other institutions added to the list of expert bodies, will be expected to support the Government in expanding the need for heritage bye-laws for Centrally Protected Monuments and Protected Areas.
Neel Kamal Chapagain, Director, Centre for Heritage Management, said, “Though many monuments are listed as centrally protected, their protection makes no sense unless legally and institutionally articulated as such. Even existing bye-laws may need further contextualisation for each protected monument. It is in this regard that we were approached by the National Monuments Authority recently, and we responded positively. It is our philosophy to learn about heritage in every context, and reciprocally we are always happy to contribute back in any way for the upkeep of it.”
Over the last decade, the Centre for Heritage Management has established itself as a national and international authority on heritage conservation.
The Centre was recognised as one of the leading institutions of Heritage Conservation and Heritage Management Education Programmes under the University Grants Commission, and as the only institution in India offering heritage management as a field of study, in the Working Group Report on ‘Improving Heritage Management in India’ published by NITI Aayog, Government of India, in June 2020.
The Centre is a key member of the Asian Academy for Heritage Management and the Asia Pacific Higher Education Network for Intangible Cultural Heritage. It also works on capacity-building programmes with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia Pacific Region (ICHCAP), among others.
It has been closely associated with governmental work, having worked in the past with the Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd., Railway Vikas Nigam Limited, and the Directorate of Archaeology and Museums of the Government of Gujarat.
Ahmedabad University is a leading private, non-profit research university offering students a liberal education focused on interdisciplinary learning and research thinking. The University, established in 2009, is rooted in the vision of one of India’s finest educational foundations, the Ahmedabad Education Society, which was founded in 1935 by nationalist leaders.
Programmes at the University range from bachelors to doctoral levels in humanities and social sciences, natural sciences, engineering, and management through its 10 Schools and Centres:
Amrut Mody School of Management, School of Arts and Sciences ,School of Engineering and Applied Science,Centre for Heritage Management, International Centre for Space and Cosmology ,VentureStudio, Centre for Learning Futures,Global Centre for Environment and Energy ,Centre for Inter-Asian Research , Ahmedabad Design Lab
An urban university, Ahmedabad promotes independent-mindedness and diversity across all dimensions of its activity and helps students mature into critical thinkers who are analytically equipped, practically oriented, and contextually aware global citizens.
The University provides a contemporary educational framework that brings liberal arts, sciences, and the professions to engage together in creating new knowledge for addressing complex challenges of society and in offering majors that merge the boundaries of disciplines to prepare students for the new economy.