Education without a meaningful purpose will always be meaningless for the society and, therefore, higher education in the country should establish a strong bond with business and industry so that it could establish a link with the society.” This was stated by Union Human Resource Development Minister Dr
M Mangapatti Pallam Raju here on Tuesday, calling for an “inclusive” higher education in the country.
Dr Raju was delivering the Commencement Speech as the chief guest on the occasion of the sixth Convocation of the Ravenshaw University where he informed that the UPA Government at the Centre is making a sincere effort to universalise secondary education and incentivise States’ higher education institutions.
He informed that during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-2017), it has been proposed to create an additional enrolment capacity of 10 million students of which a majority would be in higher education. While there are only 18 per cent of students from the present enrolment in higher education, this capacity would be enhanced to 30 per cent in 2030.
In order to achieve this, he informed, at least 200 community colleges are proposed to be established in the country where the curricula would include a mix of academic and vocational skills. The local community would be given priority in the academic and administrative boards of these colleges which would work in close coordination with industry and business houses.
University Chancellor and State Governor Dr SC Jamir, while emphasising on public-private partnership for higher learning, cautioned that the universities should have a regulation mechanism in place so that quality of higher education is maintained and students find themselves competent and suitable in the employment market.
“Courses should be designed to encourage innovation, spirit of inquiry and meeting of the market demands,” Dr Jamir suggested by warning that there is a great degree of concern today in
the way universities are entering into private partnerships.
A total of 59 students were honoured with gold medals for securing top ranks in their respective subjects in both undergraduate and postgraduate courses, debate competitions and as traditional and professional best graduates.
Eighteen students of the University were awarded with PhDs in various subjects.
The university, however, cut a sorry figure in conferring Honoris Causa on important dignitaries on the occasion. While it had planned to honour seven dignitaries, two of them refused to accept the university’s appreciation and one did not turn up, leaving the authorities embarrassed.
Educationist Dr Debendra Chandra Misra, linguist Dr Debi Prasanna Pattanayak, litterateur Sitakant Mahapatra and dancer and academician Priyambada Mohanty Hejmadi were conferred with Honoris Causa. While classical music exponent Raghunath Panigrahi did not turn up to receive his honour, Justice Deepak Mishra of Supreme Court and HRD Minister Dr Raju himself had earlier expressed their inabilities to receive the honour.