Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati   

UGC sets goals for Eleventh Plan

Special Correspondent

Governor Rameshwar Thakur for `one-time grant' to varsities

SETTING THE AGENDA: UGC Chairman Sukhdev Thorat addressing a seminar on higher education in Tirupati on Saturday. Also seen on the dais is Governor Rameshwar Thakur. — Photo: K.V. Poornachandra Kumar

TIRUPATI: Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Sukhdev Thorat has said that there was urgent need to evaluate the status of higher education in the country. It is all the more important in the context of finalisation of the Eleventh Plan proposals and the new higher education policy, he said, while inaugurating a two-day national seminar on the theme, `Indian higher education in the new millennium: challenges and opportunities', being organised in SV University under the joint aegis of the Indian Economic Association and the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education.

The UGC chief in his inaugural address has broadly set the goals for higher education and research in the universities in the context of fast emerging globalisation, GATT regime and privatisation. Thorat said that while privatisation had become imperative in the field of higher education, nothing should be done to compromise on excellence and quality factors. He said despite the impressive growth, higher education in the country suffered from paradoxes and contradictions marked by an exodus of students to foreign universities even as seats remained vacant in higher education centres at home.

Governor Rameshwar Thakur in his address said that the battle against inequality could be won only through university-community synergy and suggested to the UGC to provide a substantial `one-time grant' to all the universities to help them make up for their short-falls and tone-up their working on a now or never basis.

Chairman of APSCHE K.C. Reddy, who is also the president of the IEA, presided. Earlier S. Jayarama Reddy, Vice-Chancellor of SV University, welcomed the guests.

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UGC sets goals for Eleventh Plan

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