Higher education should play critical role in society: Governor

Updated on: Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Governor E S L Narasimhan today said higher education in the emerging knowledge economy was expected to play a critical role in the socio-economic transformation of societies, particularly in the developing countries, including India.

Addresssing Vice-Chancellors Conference he said globalisation, together with revolution in information technology, had brought education, particularly higher education, to the centrestage of discussions all over the world.

He said the major concerns of Indian higher education were expansion, inclusion, quality and relevance, and the Government of India, as was evident from the XIth plan document, was working on all of them.

The governor said the Andhra Pradesh Government had taken up several initiatives to make higher and technical education more accessible to all sections and to improve the overall quality of education. The state government's budgetary support to higher and technical education had increased significantly during the last five years.

He said the fee reimbursement scheme of the Andhra Pradesh Government was a noteworthy initiative.

Stating that the universities were expected to respond appropriately by designing strategies to build quality and value based manpower to meet the changing needs of the society and the global economy, the Governor said ''our universities need to realise that their role today is not only to contribute to the creation of new knowledge and its transmission but also to provide efficient workforce to the fast changing employment market.'' He said the present day scenario demands that the universities focus not only on specialised fields but also on programmes in multi-disciplinary fields.

''Our universities are required to put in concerted efforts to foster the innovative capabilities of the youngsters by motivating them and creating a healty research atmosphere.

''It is a matter of concern that the research output both in quantity and quality terms from our universities is not up to the desired level and our universities need to address this issue in a much more serious fashion, focusing particularly on the state specific needs,'' he said.

Higher education should play critical role in society: Governor

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