Against the backdrop of violent protests witnessed recently at Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday said that universities should play a leading role in addressing specific challenges faced by the nation and higher educational institutes should emerge as spaces that nurture free expression and ideas.
Addressing the closing session of the meet of vice-chancellors and directors of central universities, Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) and Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Kovind said universities and higher educational institutions should play a leading role in addressing the specific challenges faced by our nation and the society. Kovind said universities should become the laboratories for exposing students to the problems that need to be addressed in the cause of nation-building.
“Many of these challenges require creative and innovative solutions. It is your paramount duty to ensure that your campuses emerge as spaces that nurture free expression and ideas, where experimentation is encouraged and failure is not ridiculed but is seen as a learning,” he said.
Kovind said universities should become the laboratories for exposing students to the problems that need to be addressed in the cause of nation-building.
He said students should be encouraged to take up academic and extra-curricular work with a distinct community orientation. The president said simple steps like strictly adhering to academic calendar for admissions, conduct of classes, examinations, declaration of results and awarding of degrees at convocations and so on, can be the starting point on the journey towards excellence.
“Similarly, there are some steps that you can take to address the shortage of faculty in your universities. For instance, you can develop a robust visiting faculty program or use online teaching tools,” he said.
In another function on the occasion of presentation of the '5th Visitor's Awards' at Rashtrapati Bhavan, he said developing meaningful linkages between the academic community and local industry should be a top priority for the universities. “Students must be encouraged to emerge as job-creators rather than job-seekers,” Kovind said.