India China Experts To Compare Notes On Hr Education

New Delhi, Jan 17 (UNI) Indian and Chinese experts will meet in New Delhi this weekend to compare notes on challenges before the two agrarian economies seeking growth through higher education, it was announced today.

''Higher education has played a catalytic role in the process of their transformation during the past five decades,'' a statement by the Human Resource Development Ministry noted.

The occasion is a seminar on 'Higher Education for Growth and Equity: India-China Experience' being sponsored by the University Grants Commission on Saturday marking the India-China Friendship Year, the statement said.

''As India and China enter a new phase of economic development and social change,'' it said, ''it is universally recognised that higher education has played a catalytic role in the process of their transformation during the past five decades and more since they achieved their freedom.'' The two-day event to be inaugurated by Planning Commission Member Bhalchandra Mungekar will facilitate an exchange of ideas and experiences on higher education in the two countries to see what each can learn from the experiences of the other, it said.

Experts say the two most populous and agrarian countries with oldest civilisations faced common challenges in expanding higher education facilities for their people as they shaped a new social order envisioned during their respective struggle for liberation.

Attaining modern standards of knowledge in humanities, sciences and technology while pursuing social goals has been a daunting task-- involving many policy initiatives in both countries from time to time.

They still face many challenges in the era of globalisation and social upsurge and the seminar is hoped to generate a new body of thinking to inspire innovation in policy-making in the two countries.

Issues have been divided into four sets: -- Growth of Higher Education; -- Access to Higher Education; -- Quality Maintenance in Higher Education; and -- Financing Higher Education.

The first covers growth in undergraduate and postgraduate education and research in humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and technology and policy initiatives and explanations about relevance of higher education to the concerns for social equity, modernisation and development.

The second covers access of disadvantaged groups to Higher Education, conditions in backward regions, rural-urban divide, minority areas, gender issues, affirmative action experiences, the language issue, and roles of national, provincial and local governments.

The third covers quality maintenance through institutional mechanism, internal and external practices of maintaining academic standards, accreditation, role of educational research, central higher learning institutions, public accountability and transparency.

The fourth covers the role of state funding in financing higher education, public and private agencies, privatisation, cross-border education, linkage with foreign universities the issue of 'opening up'.

UNI