Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh today said the time has come that the academic world of the country to reform higher education to make it come to terms with reality.
New Delhi, Oct 10 : Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh today said the time has come that the academic world of the country to reform higher education to make it come to terms with reality.
Inaugurating the two-day National Conference of Vice Chancellors on Development of Higher Education, Arjun Singh said that 'experimentation' should be the key word while carrying out reforms in higher education.
He said that higher education today is the 'sick child' of education, and is not serving the cause of young people of India.
He told the Vice Chancellors, 'you have opportunity and duty to find a way out for it. To prescribe is not my ideology. Let us now inscribe. Give the country a road map of higher education'.
He asked the Vice Chancellors to keep in mind that there is a rich and poor divide in the country while working out the strategy with conviction and a national commitment to see India through.
He exhorted the Vice Chancellors to jointly define the parameters of higher education as to what should be the content, what should be the extent of higher education, what should be the methodology of teaching and what should be the basic ingredients of the syllabus etc.
In the end, Singh said, "India is not knocking at the doors of the world but the world is knocking at the doors of India."
The Minister also inaugurated e-visit of Exhibition on 150 years of Higher Education.
To commemorate the completion of 150 glorious years of Modern University System, the exhibition depicts through the exhibits, the journey of Higher Education from early 18th century onwards.
The conference is being organised by the University Grants Commission (UGC), in which more than 400 Vice Chancellors from all universities from across the country are expected to participate.
Professor S.K. Thorat, Chairman of UGC Commission gave the glimpse of the Regional Conferences of Vice Chancellors and introduced the agenda of the present Conference.
"The agenda centres around six issues - access, inclusiveness, support to needy colleges and universities, bridging the quality gap, focus on State colleges and universities, and the issue of finance."
The inaugural function was attended by Vice Chancellors of Central, States and Deemed Universities, eminent educationists including Professor Yash Pal, Professor G.K. Chadha, Member, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, and R.P. Agrawal, Secretary, Higher Education, Ministry of HRD.
The National Conference is a culmination of four Regional Conferences that the UGC had organised at Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and New Delhi.
ANI