Unveiling the plans of University Grants Commission (UGC) to bring quality ineducation in India, Chairman of Apex Body Dr D P Singh said, “UGC wants to expand theambit of research making itinter-disciplinary, multi-disciplinary. We want to do the research in four different categories viz socially relevant, locally need-based, nationally important and globally significant.”

 

Under the aegis of International Centre for Indological Studies, Kavikulguru Kalidas Sanskrit University (KKSU) had organised lecture of Dr D P Singh at Hotel Tuli Imperial on Friday, who spoke on ‘Quality in higher education: Reflections and Actions’.

 

“We want to push quality research which should be society oriented. Final outcome of the research should be such which could provide solution to society. High Impact Trans-disciplinary Research in Humanities and Human Sciences. UGC has established Consortium for Academic and Research Ethics (CARE) for suggesting a list of credible quality journals in the disciplines such as the Social Sciences, Humanities, Languages, Arts, Culture, Indian knowledge systems etc.,. Statutory bodies in Social Sciences, Humanities, Arts and Fine Arts, Science, Medical, Agriculture and Engineering and the Association of India Universities and INFLIBNET are members of the consortium as a supporting agency. Members of the CARE would prepare lists of quality journals in their respective disciplines within a defined time-frame. These lists will be critically analyzed and curated for the quality of the journals by a special cell at the entrusted institution suing defined criteria. It has been decided that research journals record indexed in SCOPUS and WOS may be considered for all academic purposes in the disciplines of Science, Engineering, Technology, Agriculture and Bio Medical Sciences,” said Dr Singh.

 

Dr Singh pointed out, “Our Gross Enrolment Ratio is 25.8 and we want to take it up to 30 by 2021. Another major challenge in higher education is of quality. We have fixed our target quality education for all. It is a big target. Apart from traditional universities, we have central university, deemed to be university, autonomous institutions, private universities. There is a wide diversion of higher education which we have to taken into consideration.”

 

Quoting Swami Vivekanand, Dr Singh said, “Swami Vivekanand had said, ‘Education is the singlemost important instrument for social and economic transformation’. He meant holistic approach of education that involves physical, mental, social. He advocated comprehensive development of students. UGC wants to spread this message among masses by adopting it in our education system.”

 

During his mesmerising speech Dr Singh explained the stand of UGC for bringing quality education. He informed the audience about how comprehensively the apex body is focussing on education with stress on faculty development, student-centric approach, increasing employability, learning ability, upgrading teaching, developing institutes to bring them on global map in all respects.

 

Earlier Dr Shrinivasa Varakhedi, Vice-Chancellor of KKSU gave introductory speech. After the speech Dr D P Singh answered the queries put by invitees. Those who asked questions included Dr Pramod Yeole, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Rashtrasant Tukadoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU); Dr Pramod Padole, Director, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT); Dr Shirish Upadhye, Controller of Examinations and Evaluation at Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University (MAFSU); Dr Akhilesh Peshwe, Principal, Dharampeth Science College, K K Pandey of KKSU, Dr Prity Trivedi, Head, Department of Ancient History, RTMNU.

 

Prominent among those present were Dr Murlidhar Chandekar, Vice-Chancellor of Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University; Dr Vijender Kumar, Vice-Chancellor of Maharashtra National Law University; Dr Mohan Khedkar, Puran Meshram, former Registrar of RTMNU; Dr Arvind Joshi, former Registrar of KKSU, Dr Deepali Kotwal, Principal of LAD College, Prof Sunil Dudhe and others.