SONIPAT, India, March 22: President of India, Shri Pranab
Mukherjee in recent times unveiled an international conference on 'Universities
of the Future: Knowledge Innovation and Responsibility', a 3-day conference that
endeavored to appraise the future of Indian universities in the 21st century. Coordinated
by International Institute for Higher Education Research and Capacity Building
(IIHEd) of O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) India, the conference took place
from 18th to 20th March, 2017.
Expressing his thoughts at the conference, President
Mukherjee advised universities and institutions of the nation for generating a
higher education plan that emphasizes on essential basics of research, knowledge
formation, institutional superiority and worldwide benchmarking.
President Mukherjee also stressed that the education system
should tackle the problem of extracting the 'demographic dividend' while also proposing
for a tougher industry-academia collaboration. "Knowledge mobilization
through quality higher education is pivotal to the socio-economic development
of a nation. Innovation and futuristic universities are the driving force
behind this," he revealed.
Mr. Naveen Jindal, Chancellor, JGU, stated, "The universities
of the future will be the pillars of growth and development of our nation. They
must be transformed into sites of active learning and research which can act as
launch pads for innovation and path-breaking ideas."
Chancellor Jindal proclaimed the commencement of the Jindal
School of Journalism and Communication (JSJC) the 6th interdisciplinary school
of JGU, which will present prospects for learning, exploration and capability
building in media and communication studies.
JGU Founding Vice-Chancellor, Prof (Dr) C Raj Kumar, stated,
"India does not have a single university in the top 25 Asian universities
while China has 5 universities in those rankings, besides Hong Kong, Singapore,
Taiwan and other countries. We need to introspect and think about the future of
universities which will enable and empower us to contribute towards institution
building for nation building."
"I have always maintained that while Make in India is
important for developing business and advancing economic opportunities, the
future of India will depend upon the making of India through academic
institutions and universities," he commented.
The symposium was a result of a variety of thoughts and viewpoints
that will aid form India's ambitions of creating outstanding universities by
means of comparative and worldwide dimensions.
The forum acknowledged that while individual academics have attained
worldwide brilliance, the Indian university, as an institution needs crucial transformations
to obtain worldwide position.
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