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Sonipat, Nov 20 (IANS) Following a competitive bidding process, OP Jindal Global University (JGU) has been selected to host the 2026 Star Scholars Network Global Conference from December 10-14, 2026. It was announced during the 2025 STAR Global Conference, which was organized by Istanbul Aydın University in Turkiye last month.
OP Jindal Global University will organize the conference for the second time in India, where global scholars will gather to explore how humanity can thrive amid rapid advances in AI and the growing urgency of sustainability. The conference will be organized on the theme “Prosperity in the Age of AI and Sustainability”.
The upcoming 2026 conference is expected to bring together leading academics, policy makers, researchers and practitioners from all continents, providing an important platform to explore how higher education can shape a world defined by accelerating technological change and urgent sustainability challenges.
With AI transforming labour, governance, culture and communication and sustainability becoming a defining ethical and developmental imperative, the conference aims to examine what “human flourishing” looks like in a rapidly changing global landscape.
Professor (Dr) C. Raj Kumar, Founder Vice-Chancellor, OP Jindal Global University, said, “The STAR Global Conference is organized by a different country every year. The annual conference brings together scholars from across the world to promote cross-border collaboration for scholarly and cultural exchange. It is recognized as one of the most influential global forums on higher education, internationalization and knowledge collaboration with over 20,000 members from 2353 colleges and universities from 115 countries around the world. Earlier, JGU hosted the 2021 STAR Global Conference virtually from India due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2026 Star Scholars Network Global Conference is expected to build on this momentum, providing a space for conversations connecting technology, sustainability, ethics and humanity. Scholars are likely to discuss the risks posed by artificial intelligence as well as the possibilities it offers for inclusion, creativity, and global connectivity.
Similarly, sustainability will be examined not only from the perspective of climate action, but also through questions of justice, equity, and human experience. While the detailed programming will be revealed in the coming months, the selection of JGU as the host of the global conference for the second time signals a growing recognition of India’s growing role in global higher education and research collaboration.
It is also an important moment for international academic networks that seek to understand how universities can lead in an era where the future of work, the planet and society is being rewritten. The decision to bring the conference back to India is a milestone for JGU.
Earlier this year, the university received the “2025 Global Education Award for Peace” from the Star Scholars Network, a recognition awarded annually on the United Nations International Day of Peace. The award recognizes institutions that demonstrate outstanding commitment to building cultures of peace through education by creating globally oriented curricula, inclusive teaching, international collaboration and community engagement.
JGU shared this year’s honor with American University in the Emirates (UAE); Both institutions were recognized as examples of ethical leadership and global citizenship in higher education. The award highlighted JGU’s extensive network of over 450 international partnerships, its emphasis on interdisciplinary and values-driven education and its continued engagement with local communities through social responsibility initiatives.
It also recognizes the university’s role in preparing students to become active, empathetic and globally minded citizens at a time when higher education is being asked to address increasingly complex cross-border challenges.
–IANS
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