Jadavpur University will recognise former students who have excelled in their fields with a distinguished alumni award, as part of an effort to reconnect with its alumni.

The move draws on models used by institutions such as the IITs, where strong alumni engagement has helped raise funds and expose students to industry realities.

The award will honour contributions across five categories — academia and research, corporate leadership, entrepreneurship, public life and philanthropy, and the arts.

Vice-chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said the initiative aims to involve former students more actively in the university’s development.

“The university has decided to reach out to former students in a structured way so they feel more connected,” he said, adding that global universities benefit from strong alumni bonds that JU now hopes to emulate.

He acknowledged that the university had been slow to recognise the importance of its alumni, many of whom now hold influential positions across sectors.

The recipients of the award will be selected by a panel “comprising eminent individuals of national repute”, a JU statement says.

The award will be conferred during the annual convocation on December 24.

A member of the university’s alumni cell said former students do not just help in raising money.

“Given their association with industry, their inputs can help in drawing a syllabus that is in sync with the times or helping our students get internship offers,” the member said.

“If an institute does not excel in this outreach, former students will never feel connected. If they do not feel connected, they will never give anything back to their alma mater,” the member added.

IIT Kharagpur director Suman Chakraborty, a former JU student who was invited to deliver an address on the occasion of JU’s alumni day celebration in January, had highlighted what was wrong with the university’s approach toward its alumni.

“JU has one of India’s most diverse and intellectually influential alumni networks. Absolutely no doubt about that. But yet engagement (with the former students) remains fragmented.... JU has not been able to tap its former students,” Chakraborty said in his address.

JU vice-chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee said they are trying to learn from their deficiencies in alumni outreach.

“The alumni are globally treated as strategic stakeholders and not as episodic guests. There are clear engagement pathways, and we want to pursue that,” said the VC.

In a related move, the university’s executive council has approved a proposal under which a California-based alumni platform will fund a “professor of practice” chair — a position approved by the University Grants Commission — in the mechanical engineering department to bring real-world experience into the classroom.