By IANS
New Delhi : Nearly 400 vice-chancellors of state-run, private and deemed universities will draw up a roadmap for higher education in the country at a two-day conference in the capital beginning Wednesday.
These educational experts along with officials of the human resource development (HRD) ministry and the University Grants Commission (UGC) will finalise a roadmap for India’s higher education sector for the next five years.
HRD Minister Arjun Singh will inaugurate the National Conference of the Vice-Chancellors of all central, state, deemed and private universities here Oct 10.
Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, UGC chief S.K. Thorat and a few members of the Planning Commission will also participate in the conference.
This national conference is a culmination of four regional conferences the UGC organised at Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and New Delhi earlier this year. A total of 218 vice-chancellors, directors of the college development councils and secretaries/directors of higher education of various states participated.
“The issues raised and recommendations made in the regional conferences would be deliberated upon in this national conference, and the discussions would revolve around six themes,” the UGC said in a statement Tuesday.
“These themes would be deliberated upon in six technical sessions to be chaired by eminent people like Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former UGC chief Yashpal, former union minister of planning and programme implementation Y.K. Alagh and Planning Commission member B. Mungekar,” it added.
Increasing the enrolment in higher education, establishment of new universities and colleges, strengthening and upgrading the existing institutions of higher education will be discussed at the meet.
Besides, removing barriers in access to education, maintaining the excellence in educational set-ups, and administrative reforms in educational institutions will be part of the discussion.