Karnataka - Hubli-Dharwad   

Goverdhan Mehta for redefining rigid academic structure

Honour: The former Union Minister Sarojini Mahishi, NAAC chairman Goverdhan Mehta, Vice-Chancellor of Karnatak University S.K. Saidapur, the former MLC Prabhakar Kore and principal of R.V. College of Engineering S.C. Sharma at the convocation ceremony of the university in Dharwad on Wednesday.

DHARWAD: The Chairman of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and former Director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Goverdhan Mehta, has underscored the need for “loosening the rigid academic structure and striving for providing a more flexible menu for a bachelor’s degree programme”.

He was delivering the convocation address at the 58th annual convocation of Karnatak University after being conferred the honorary doctorate by Vice-Chancellor S.K. Saidapur.

Mr. Mehta said the bachelor’s degree programme should provide freedom of choice to a student from offerings in social sciences, humanities, natural sciences and management.

“Academic structure should therefore be redefined in terms of broad themes and programmes, and must necessarily be trans and interdisciplinary to explore the interfacial frontier of emerging knowledge. And establishment of new schools/centres, and activity related clusters, unit or groups representing confluences of ideas and disciplines are a way forward to exploit synergy and generate critical mass,” he said.

Elaborating on the higher education scenario in the country Mr. Mehta said, “We have some of the world’s smartest information technology professionals but also harbour majority of world’s illiterate persons; our IITs and IIMs produce graduates who are sought world over but we also produce thousands of graduates who, according a recent survey, are considered unemployable; we add more than seven million cellphone users every month but can’t provide our people access to safe drinking water, and we aspire to launch moon mission “Chandrayan” in the near future but can’t eradicate infectious diseases from our midst. These contradictions in a way represent both our formidable strengths and also daunting challenges that confront us,” he said.

Mr. Mehta said there was an urgent need for making rapid strides towards bridging this divide and creating an inclusive, sustainable, knowledge-based society.

Mr. Mehta underscored the need for restoring the primacy of research in universities.

Underscoring the need for “rediscovering” the lofty and inspiring tradition of teacher-researcher, Mr. Mehta said at the same time the society should consider its bounden duty to support universities and higher education institutions and regard them as most valuable asset for intellectual enrichment of the nation and as generators of human resources to spearhead national innovation cycle for wealth creation and economic prosperity.

Earlier, in the absence of Governor Rameshwar Thakur, Mr. Saidapur conferred the honorary doctorate on former Union Minister Sarojini Mahishi, former MLC Prabhakar Kore, principal of R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore, S.C. Sharma and Mr. Mehta.

As many as 24,637 students received various graduate, postgraduate and doctoral degrees. While 429 of them were awarded degrees in person, 24,208 persons were awarded degrees in absentia. As many as 219 students were awarded doctorate degree on the occasion.

Mr. Saidapur gave away the doctorate degree certificates and Mr. Mehta presented gold medals to students of various graduate and postgraduate courses.

Registrar Vinay Luthra welcomed the gathering and briefed about the achievements of the university. MLC Basavaraj Bommai, Registrar (Evaluation) V.B. Divakar, deans of various faculties, journalist Patil Puttappa and poet Channaveera Kanavi were among those present.

In the evening, at a function held in the Senate Hall, Mr. Saidapur gave away prizes and scholarships to students of various faculties.

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