Higher Education
Colleges in South India
Educational News Today
Tuesday, Nov 15, 2011
Former Orissa Governor calls upon higher education institutions to equip themselves so they can seek autonomy
He was inaugurating the 10th Asian University Presidents' Forum (AUPF) at the VIT University here on Monday. Mr. Rajendran said that with the role of the government sector in higher education shrinking, meritorious but poor students, who secure admission to quality private sector institutions, are unable to find resources to pay the fees in such institutions. Banks both in the public and private sector are reluctant to sanction loans to students without collateral security, notwithstanding the persuasion and prodding by the government. “In a high interest rate regime, the initiative by the Union government to have an interest subsidy at least during the moratorium period is welcome. But, what is required is a bold step forward by establishing an innovative mechanism to operationalise the Student Loan Scheme. This can be done by setting up an Education Development Bank of India, which will focus exclusively on extending educational loans to needy but meritorious students without insisting on security, ” he said.
Mr. Rajendran wanted more of India's higher education institutions to adequately equip themselves and seek autonomy to make the fullest use of the flexibility and freedom to design courses without the constraints of being affiliated to a university overburdened with too many affiliated colleges. “Updating syllabi to be state-of-the-art is essential to equip students who pass out to face an increasingly competitive world. One of the problems experienced in updating syllabi is the resistance put up by the faculty, who often find themselves deficient to teach the latest advances. This diffidence can be overcome by better use of high quality Academic Staff Colleges and facilities for retraining. Incentives for teachers who perform and disincentives for those who do not should become part of the governance structure. Networking among institutions could facilitate syllabi upgradation. Close industry-university interaction in developing course content in technology and horizontal mobility of faculty between them will make the syllabus need-based and improve the employability of students,” he said.
All technologies for people in the developed countries might not necessarily address the needs, conditions and institutional constraints in developing countries.
“With a weak technological base, developing countries are unable to take advantage of technology from the global market place. Building technological base with adequate R & D capacity is central for long-term solutions for adapting freely available global technologies for their needs and develop R & D agenda for their new innovations,” Mr. Rajendran said. Creating innovative partnerships and new incentives for R & D to motivate private sector, government and academia to combine their strengths both within developing countries and through international collaboration could be one of the initiatives required for building the technological base.
Mr. Rajendran released the AUPF Compact Disc, which was received by G. Viswanathan, VIT Chancellor.
Mr. Viswanathan said in his presidential address that it was high time that the Asian countries took steps to increase the government expenditure on education in the light of the fact that in most Asian countries, the government expenditure on education was less than 5 per cent. Consequently, the gross enrolment ratio in higher education in many Asian countries was very low, while the GER in the developed countries was more than 50 per cent, as against the world average of 27 per cent.
The AUPF-2011, he said, was an opportunity for the universities of the Asian countries to learn from each other's experience in teaching learning process, and exchange of teachers, students and research scholars. It provides ample opportunity for Indian universities to interact, collaborate and cooperate with other Asian universities. India-China cooperation in higher education is happening in VIT for the last six years, he said.
Zhuang Mingying, honorary president, Chaoshan Vocational and Technical College, China, and one of the founding members of AUPF said that education reforms, global partnership for teaching and research, internationalisation of higher education and benefits of research collaborations are some of the themes to be discussed at AUPF-2011. AUPF has become a forum for exchange of students and faculty and other forms of cooperation among the Asian universities. In the next 10 years, AUPF would bring more universities to participate in the forum, he said.
Ogawa Haruo, president, Asia University, Japan, said the AUPF-2011 ought to have been held in Japan. But, Japan could not host the event because of the damage caused by the earthquake and the tsunami that recently struck the country.
V. Raju, Vice-Chancellor of VIT, welcomed the gathering.
"Education Development Bank is need of the hour"
Former Orissa Governor calls upon higher education institutions to equip themselves so they can seek autonomy
- Banks both in the public and private sector are reluctant to sanction loans to students without collateral security: Rajendran
He was inaugurating the 10th Asian University Presidents' Forum (AUPF) at the VIT University here on Monday. Mr. Rajendran said that with the role of the government sector in higher education shrinking, meritorious but poor students, who secure admission to quality private sector institutions, are unable to find resources to pay the fees in such institutions. Banks both in the public and private sector are reluctant to sanction loans to students without collateral security, notwithstanding the persuasion and prodding by the government. “In a high interest rate regime, the initiative by the Union government to have an interest subsidy at least during the moratorium period is welcome. But, what is required is a bold step forward by establishing an innovative mechanism to operationalise the Student Loan Scheme. This can be done by setting up an Education Development Bank of India, which will focus exclusively on extending educational loans to needy but meritorious students without insisting on security, ” he said.
All technologies for people in the developed countries might not necessarily address the needs, conditions and institutional constraints in developing countries.
“With a weak technological base, developing countries are unable to take advantage of technology from the global market place. Building technological base with adequate R & D capacity is central for long-term solutions for adapting freely available global technologies for their needs and develop R & D agenda for their new innovations,” Mr. Rajendran said. Creating innovative partnerships and new incentives for R & D to motivate private sector, government and academia to combine their strengths both within developing countries and through international collaboration could be one of the initiatives required for building the technological base.
Mr. Rajendran released the AUPF Compact Disc, which was received by G. Viswanathan, VIT Chancellor.
Mr. Viswanathan said in his presidential address that it was high time that the Asian countries took steps to increase the government expenditure on education in the light of the fact that in most Asian countries, the government expenditure on education was less than 5 per cent. Consequently, the gross enrolment ratio in higher education in many Asian countries was very low, while the GER in the developed countries was more than 50 per cent, as against the world average of 27 per cent.
The AUPF-2011, he said, was an opportunity for the universities of the Asian countries to learn from each other's experience in teaching learning process, and exchange of teachers, students and research scholars. It provides ample opportunity for Indian universities to interact, collaborate and cooperate with other Asian universities. India-China cooperation in higher education is happening in VIT for the last six years, he said.
Zhuang Mingying, honorary president, Chaoshan Vocational and Technical College, China, and one of the founding members of AUPF said that education reforms, global partnership for teaching and research, internationalisation of higher education and benefits of research collaborations are some of the themes to be discussed at AUPF-2011. AUPF has become a forum for exchange of students and faculty and other forms of cooperation among the Asian universities. In the next 10 years, AUPF would bring more universities to participate in the forum, he said.
Ogawa Haruo, president, Asia University, Japan, said the AUPF-2011 ought to have been held in Japan. But, Japan could not host the event because of the damage caused by the earthquake and the tsunami that recently struck the country.
V. Raju, Vice-Chancellor of VIT, welcomed the gathering.
Courtesy: The Hindu
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