The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Chief Minister wants varsities to be ‘money earners’

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Sunday, Jul 01, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Chief Minister wants varsities to be ‘money earners’

Special Correspondent

‘Looking for Government assistance to start courses is deplorable’

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy has asked universities to be ‘money earners’ to sustain their activities, independent of Government assistance.

Inaugurating a conference of State Vice-Chancellors here on Saturday, he wanted varsities to get out of the traditional mould of functioning. “They should turn into business models, raise bank finance and launch innovative programmes,” he said.

He felt the Government may allocate special grants to universities for collaborative and research programmes. Otherwise, they should be able to get bank finance for building infrastructure and for self-sustenance. The universities in the country generally looked for Government assistance to start courses and construct buildings which was deplorable.

Dr. Reddy made a case for universities to be a huge human resource pool enrolling thousands of students and cited the example of a varsity in Singapore that had 40,000 students on its campus spread over just 50 to 60 acres. The institution constructed multi-storeyed complexes to accommodate the students.

He referred to the construction by the ICICI Bank of a building at Gachibowli to post 25,000 employees. It would be completed in eight to nine months. He wondered if human resources skills on such a large scale was possible in the Government sector.

Higher Education Minister D. Srinivas said only 25 per cent of professional graduates and 10 to 15 per cent non-professional graduates got gainful employment. Technical Education Minister R. Chenga Reddy asked universities to motivate students to take up science as a career.

Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education chairman K.C. Reddy said universities could not compromise on basic curriculum though students’ employability was their major concern. They could consider add-on curriculum for the purpose. On July 4 and 5, he said the IBM would recruit 160 students from the 21st century Gurukulams which offered IT education.

Hands-on experience

Pradeep Dhobale, Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry, said the industry expected hands-on experience from students while recruiting.

Asutosh Mishra, Principal Secretary, Higher Education, said the Government wanted to revamp the age-old university structure of administration comprising executive councils and academic senates.

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