The Shankardev Education and Research Foundation (SERF) is a trust formally established on Sunday, the 22nd of August 2021, at Guwahati, Assam. It is a voluntary organisation that envisions quality higher education along with inculcation of the sense of Bharatiya life values in students. The SERF aims to work on two fronts for realising its objectives:
As a part of its first objective, Pragjyotishpur University has come into being with the enactment of the Pragjyotishpur University Act No. XLVI of 2022 by the Government of Assam. Today, the SERF is the Sponsoring Body of the University. Immediately after its establishment, the SERF, taking a step towards its second objective, conducted a series of academic deliberations and knowledge dissemination exercises. The outcome was the Two-Day North-East Education Conclave 2021, which was organised from 20-21 November 2021 at Guwahati Medical College & Hospital Auditorium and at Assam Administrative Staff College, Guwahati. The conclave aimed to illustrate the basic premise of NEP 2020, its challenges, and experiences related to its implementation in some of the major states in Bharat. This was the biggest Education Conclave in Northeast Bharat in recent years and was attended by many personalities of note: among them, the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Assam, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma; the Union Minister for Education, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan; five education ministers from the states of Manipur, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, and Assam; representatives of the Education Ministers of Nagaland, Mizoram, and Tripura; and resource persons from various reputed organisations such as the AICTE, the NCERT, the NCTE, the UGC, IIMs, IITs, Central Universities, colleges, and schools.
Going ahead, the SERF organised the Pragjyotishpur Literature Festival 2023, an extraordinary literary extravaganza held from 29 September-1 October 2023 in Guwahati. The LitFest was aimed at familiarising and bonding the people of Bharat with the rich literary heritage of Northeast Bharat. It was also aimed at giving youth of the region an occasion to tap into and become more aware of their own impressions regarding their roots in their cultures and literary traditions.