Indian Universities should utilise opportunities: UGC

Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu Sep 15 (UNI) University Grants Commission(UGC) Secretary Tilak R Krem today said the Universities should make use of the opportunities created by the commission in the tenth plan and emerge as a force to reckon with in the educational scenario.

While delivering Evangeline Memorial Endowment Lecture at the Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences(KITS) here on ''Paradigm shift in higher education in India'' he said the number of foreign universities were trying to attract Indian students through their aggressive marketing.

Dr Krem said appropriate internal and external strategies need to be adopted to safeguard the interests of the nation. The need of the hour is to create an operative mechanism, which would allow coordination of higher education at central level, while dealing with foreign countries without creating legal hurdles beween the State Governments and Centre, he added.

He said there was a need for internal reforms both at structural and at operative levels to create level playing field in Indian Universities.'' It is imperative to create a Special Educational Zones for this purpose, he added.

He said SEZ would form a good domain for collaborations between public universities and private education providers. The National Assessment and Accredition Council and National Accredition Board should be made stronger, he added.

Dr Krem said the Indian skilled labourers were in demand in Africa and West Asia and the demand would increase in Europe, Cananda and the United States. There is a shortage of manpower and the gap between demand and supply would also increase, he added.

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