The Institute of Public Policy Studies and Research (IPPSR) in collaboration with Department of Political Science and Department of Public Administration, Utkal University, organised a seminar entitled “Perspectives on Higher Education in India”.
The IPPSR director, Prof Sharada Rath welcomed the guests and students. Prof Padmalaya Moahapatra of Department of Public Administration introduced the institute IPPSR. Prof Brahmananda Satpathy, Chairperson of Department of Political Science introduced the guests. The Public Policy Perspectives, the flagship journal of IPPSR, was released on the occasion by Utkal University VC Prof Ashok Kumar Das and former VC Prof Binayak Rath, who joined as chief speaker.
Prof Das in his key note address, while expressing concern over the deteriorating standard of higher education, said that lifting the underprivileged to the above average level has to be the central aim of inclusive education. Advocating that academic skill development has to be at the core of capacity development, he emphasized on the bottom- up approach. Prof Rath cited Chanakya as a foremost Guru and stressed that positive desirable human development is the aim of higher education. For him high investment in education is the need of the hour.
Prof Anup Kumar Das, Sociology department, Utkal University stressed that education should be an end in itself not just a means. He criticized the counter-productivity of bureaucratization and politicization of education in universities. The task of higher education has been confined to complete courses and evaluate examination papers.This needs to be remedied if we want productive higher education which has the capacity to transform human lives and societies.Prof Satya Narayan Rath presided over the proceedings. For him teachers and the students are partners in a joint endeavor of knowledge acquisition and dissemination and not just mechanically related to classrooms, course completions and examinations. He suggested that students need to spend evenings on music and poetry as creative hobbies.
In the technical session, 12 paper presenters discussed, deliberated and debated on the major issues that affect higher education. These issues include among others degrading value of education, lack of infrastructure, faulty recruitment strategy of faculty members, global university ranking, in search of an India-centric ranking, academic skills, student-teacher relationship and massive open online courses (MOOC) etc. The paper presenters were Purusottam Chuli, Prof Smita Nayak, Dr Satchidananda Mishra, Bibhuti Bhushan Nayak, Basanta Kumar Nayak, Pratap Kumar Swain, Sabyasachi Nayak, Dr Aliva Mohanty, Prof Sudhir Jena, Prof Kamala Kanta Dash, Antaryami Parida and Dr lalit Mohan Sahu.