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Pranab favours smaller varsities
M R Venkatesh, VELLORE (TN), Nov 29,DH News Service
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday favoured establishing more small universities in line with the National Knowledge Commission’s recommendations, which are being implemented by state governments and institutions of higher learning.
“Smaller Universities would not only be responsive to change and easier to manage, but would also become the hub of research to capture synergies between teaching and research that mutually enrich each other,” Mukherjee said in his special address at the valedictory function of VIT University’s Silver Jubilee celebrations on Sunday evening.
It would require “not only policy measures but also changes in resource allocation, reward systems and mindsets,” Mukherjee said, even as expressing his inability to be personally present here for the celebrations. The text of his speech was read out by Union Shipping Minister G K Vasan.
The two-day celebrations began with the Chinese Ambassador to India, Zhang Yan, opening an international summit on global trends in higher education and inaugurating an exhibition on the history of VIT University.
The first fruit of the “Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative”, signed between US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, came to the fore, as the US Consul Chief in Chennai, Bryan Dalton, handed over to Viswanathan, the prestigious American Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) accreditation certificate to VIT University for its technical programmes in Civil and Mechanical Engineering.
I concur with the views expressed by the Union Finance Minister that India should have smaller universities. This alone will enable the university teachers to interact with students closely, involve them in innovations and research. Under the present scheme of things, a single university has as much as 500 colleges under its roof. It becomes difficult to serve any purpose for which the university is set up. There should be close coordination and interaction and ample opportunities provided to exploit the hidden talents of students. They should be allowed to come out with innovative ideas, do experiments, do projects in factories, they should be sent abroad for short term training and adequate funds should be earmarked to universities, so that they become automonous clusters of education. Students should be evaluated on a daily basis and on project basis, rather than through examinations and tests.
