Governor Prof. Jagdish Mukhi advocates cutting-edge research & quality teaching in varsities

GUWAHATI: Governor Prof. Jagdish Mukhi has said that universities should carve a niche in cutting-edge research and high-quality teaching to enable Assam to become one of the top five performing States in the delivery of quality higher education and research in the country.

Addressing a conference of the Vice Chancellors of all 17 universities of the State at Raj Bhavan on Thursday, Prof. Mukhi said that though Assam of late has had many good achievements on the expansion of higher education, the universities should take a pro-active role in improving the quality of research and teaching. It may be noted that the VCs' conference was convened at the Raj Bhavan to prepare a blueprint to speed up the quality improvement of higher education with special emphasis on the quality of research and teaching.

The Governor appealed to the Vice Chancellors to take a lead in bringing about desired improvements in the universities. He also said that the Vice Chancellors should also take a lead in preparing a blue print for transforming the universities into institutions of repute. The Governor also exhorted on the need of recruitment of good faculty at every level and ensure the selection of best of the teachers in all the universities for securing good teaching and quality research.

The Governor also urged the Vice Chancellors to fill up the vacant faculty positions at the universities. He also said that since directions have been issued to fill up the vacant posts expeditiously in the colleges and the universities, immediate steps should be undertaken to bring in quality man power in the educational institutions.

The Governor further said that for quality research and teaching and for running the universities in accordance with NEP-2020, the XI and XII classes must be delinked from the universities and autonomous collages. "I have already asked the department to discontinue the teaching of XI and XII classes from this very session from the three autonomous colleges namely North Lakhimpur College, Lakhimpur, Jagannath Barooah College, Jorhat and Nowgong College, Nagaon and the four universities that were upgraded from the colleges", the Governor added.

Prof. Mukhi added that as per NEP-2020, by the year 2035 since no affiliating university or affiliated college will be there and only three types of universities namely Research Universities, Teaching Universities, and Autonomous Colleges converted into university with cluster colleges will remain, they should re-orient their degrees to duly accommodate skilling and vocationalization into their folds for creating skilled man power in the country.

Stressing that the universities should think of implementing dual degree programmes for the benefit of future generations, Prof Mukhi asked the VCs to start brain storming sessions in their Universities to discuss the NEP-2020 and prepare a broad roadmap for implementing the provisions of the NEP in the universities.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma who also attended the conference had meetings with all the Vice chancellors and suggested several key points for bringing about a paradigm shift in imparting quality higher education including cutting age research in the State. He also said that Rs 50 crores would be released to the universities for upgrading and creating more infrastructure for higher education.

Dr. K.Kasturirangan, the main architect who was instrumental in formulating NEP-2020, also joined the conference virtually and interacted with the Vice Chancellors. He said that Education Policy lays particular emphasis on the development of the creative potential of each individual. It is based on the principle that education must develop not only cognitive capacities - both the 'foundational capacities 'of literacy and numeracy and 'higher-order' cognitive capacities, such as critical thinking and problem solving – but also social, ethical, and emotional capacities and dispositions.

Education Minister Dr.Ranuj Pegu who was also present in the meeting also addressed the vice chancellors and assured solving all issues flagged during the conference. He also assured of giving infrastructure support to the Universities. He also said that optimization of the human resource from the elementary to the higher level is being done which will bring about a lot of improvement.

Advisor, Education Prof. Mihir Kanti Choudhury present on the occasion highlighted on the Linking schools with Higher Education, Choice Based Credit System vs Academic Bank of Credit and Key to academic Excellence and Principal Secretary, Education Kalyan Chakravarthy presented the progress in achievement under SDG-4(education sector).

Commissioner and Secretary to the Governor S.S.Meenakshi Sundaram, The Vice Chancellors of the State and the Central Universitiy, Director Higher Education and Technical Education along with the officers of the education department and Raj Bhavan were present in the meeting, stated a release.

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