Curbs on entry of foreign varsities sought

BHUBANEAWAR: The Association of Indian Universities (AIU)’s Eastern Zone Vice- Chancellors’s Meet kicked off on Friday with experts debating the gaps plaguing the higher education system. Entry of foreign universities into India was strongly debated on day one. Prof. PT Chande, president of the AIU and V-C of Kavikulguru Kalidas Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya, Ramtek, Maharashtra, set the tone for the two-day meet with ‘Bridging the Gap in Higher Education’ by highlighting the huge gap that exists among the central, state and self-financing universities. Chande expressed concerns over the problem of inadequate staff in the universities. While absence of quality faculty is a grave issue, insufficient funding was another area of concern. He suggested the removal of Section of 12B of the University Grants Commission and maintenance of parity in regulating bodies.  Experts also voiced concern over the fast emerging China. Chande suggested that a curb should be placed on entry of foreign Universities. Universities must focus on research and industry-academic relationship, experts said and called upon the state governments to agree on a common State Act for all the universities. Higher education can never exist in isolation and there must be a link between higher education and societal issues, he said. The conference was attended by more than 50 V-Cs from universities of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, MP, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh. Inaugurating the conference, Higher Education Minister Badri Narayan Patra assured that the State will seriously look into the recommendation of the meet which is being organised by KIIT University. Founder of KIIT Achyuta Samanta and V-C Prof. A S Kolaskar dealt on different areas of higher education.  In the first technical session, V-C of Sambalpur University Prof Arun Kumar Pujari spoke on three major problems _ recruitment, retention and improvement of quality in academics. Secretary general of AIU Prof. Arun Diwakar Nath Bajpai, also V-C of Himachal University, and Registrar of KIIT Sasmita Samanta spoke.