The Malaviya Mission Teacher Training Centre (MMTTC), previously known as the UGC-Academic Staff College and later the UGC-Human Resource Development Centre (UGC-HRDC), at Jamia Millia Islamia was established in 1987 with full financial support from the UGC.Since its inception, the MMTTC at Jamia Millia Islamia hasset 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 Centrehassuccessfully 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 to communicate more effectively with the young students.

The Centre organizes three major types of in-service faculty training programmes viz. Faculty Induction Programmes (FIPs), subject-specific Refresher Courses (RCs), and Short-Term Programmes (STPs). The FIPs are of 4-weeks duration,RCs in various disciplines are of 2-weeks duration, and STPs are of 1-week duration.

The Faculty Induction Programmes (FIPs) 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 a 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 of helping 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-MMTTCat Jamia also conducts short-term programmesfor both teachers and administrative staffs on various themes. Further, need-based coursesand workshops for teachers in areas of their professional interest are additional activities undertaken by UGC-MMTTC, JMI. A very striking feature of the UGC-MMTTC is its specialized STPs for Academic Administrative officers of Indian universities.

The UGC-Malaviya Mission Teacher Training Centre caters to the needs of teachers, administrative and support staff of the colleges and universities including research scholars. Apart from Faculty Induction Programmes and Refresher Courses in various academic disciplines, the Centre has the mandate to conduct a variety of academic Programmessuch as Workshops for Principals/Deans and Heads, Professional Development Programmes for senior faculty, and administrative and support staff connected to higher education. The UGC-MMTTC also conducts Interaction Programmes for research scholars. Organising Seminars / Workshops / Symposia is also an integral part of this Centre. The UGC-MMTTC, Jamia Millia Islamia has organised over 140Orientation/FIP Courses,318Refresher Courses, 106 STPs/Workshops, and several NEP-2020 Orientation and Sensitization Programmestill March 2024. About 26,000 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-MMTTC 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-MMTTC 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 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 Internetapplications. 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 tocommunication is the guiding spirit of UGC-MMTTC, Jamia Millia Islamia. Further, the UGC-MMTTC provides 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.

Ever since its inception in 1987, the UGC-MMTTC (Erstwhile UGC-HRDC), 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-MMTTC 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.