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Time to launch a virtual university: Kalam

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI DEC. 28. Urging Indian universities to become partners in development, the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, today asked the University Grants Commission (UGC) to look into the possibility of introducing educational loans in collaboration with banks to help talented students pursue higher education.

Speaking at the Golden Jubilee Celebration of the UGC, the President warned against the instability, which lack of employment was causing in the country's social structure, and said there was a need to make the education sector more vibrant.

On a light note he said women had managed to ensure the 33 per cent mark in at least sharing a place in the higher education sector, while proposing an 11-point initiative to meet the challenges facing the education sector.

"Our employment generation system is not in a position to absorb the graduates passing out from the universities leading to increase in educated unemployed year after year. This situation will lead to instability in the social structure," he said.

Lauding UGC's work in the last five decades, the President said it was time "we looked at launching a virtual university" that could act as the central hub of all the institutes. Highlighting the importance of entrepreneurship, the President said it was important to start preparing the students from the early stages of study towards setting up of enterprises. The President also launched the UGC's ambitious project of providing free online journals to students through the launch of its mirror sites that will offer 100 science journals and 250 journals of social science online free.

The Union Minister of Human Resource and Development, Murli Manohar Joshi, the Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology, Ashok Pradhan, and the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Vallabhbhai Kathiria, besides academicians were present on the occasion.

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