Prof. C. Raveendranath, Hon’ble Minister for Education,
Secretary, Higher Education,
Dear Vice Chancellors,
Other Officers,
Good morning to all,
I am happy to address you all once again, at the third meeting of the “Chancellor's Council”, which aims to improve the performance of the Universities by promoting inter-varsity cooperation and coordination.
As we all know, the Universities are the most significant of our institutions. As our former President Dr. S. Radhakrishnan has rightly observed, every University represents the interlocked life of many successive generations, making its pilgrimage through time. A University exemplifies the fraternity we wish to build up among human beings by creating useful knowledge and by honouring the achievements in all areas of scholarship.
These noble aims can be achieved only through hard work and proper academic leadership. I must say that in terms of hard work, our Universities are behind no other institution in India. And, ever since we held the first Chancellor’s Council Meeting in 2015, I have noted a greater interest among Universities in designing focused plans of action for overall development in their academic and extension activities.
For instance, last year, Cochin University of Science and Technology was the only University in Kerala which figured in the Ranking of the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development. It is laudable that in 2017, four of our Universities including CUSAT have figured in the rank list of NIRF, with University of Kerala securing the 29th rank and figuring first among the Universities in the State. University of Calicut got the 57th place and Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, the 67th position. I congratulate all these four Universities on their achievement and hope they would still improve their national ranking.
At present, we are witnessing globalization in all areas of education. If we also aspire to make Kerala a global destination for education, our institutions have to figure in the global ratings on the strength of their quality. I hope that at least one of our State Universities would aim at figuring in the global rating in the coming years.
In my recent Policy Address in the Kerala Legislative Assembly, I had mooted the rebuilding of Higher Education Institutions as specialized centres of learning and a State-wise democratization of social benefits of higher knowledge. I had also proposed to give top priority to digitization of College campuses and to encourage Inter University Centres so as to nurture them as centres of excellence.
I am happy that the State Government has budgeted Rs.350 crore for a project for the betterment of basic facilities in 52 Government Arts and Science Colleges including 5 heritage colleges. An amount of Rs. 2 crore is allocated for the creation of District Level Quality Assurance Circles for improving the quality standards in Higher Education. Further, Rs.430 crore has been earmarked for Additional Skill Acquisition Programme (ASAP) to capacitate the students in higher secondary and degree level by developing their vocational skills.
I would request the personal intervention of all the Vice Chancellors to establish suitable mechanism within the University Departments and affiliated colleges under Spoken Tutorial Project, implemented by MHRD and Government of Kerala, with the assistance of IIT Bombay to ensure that all College students in the State acquire adequate IT skills. Universities can even consider to mandate the Spoken Tutorial Training Software courses to all the institutions under each University.
But, Universities should not be satisfied by Skill enhancement alone. What we need is a constant flow of innovation especially in key sectors like energy, education, health-care, sanitation and Agriculture. I have noted the introduction of the Advanced Radar Research facility in Cochin University of Science and Technology and hope it will be widely utilized for the benefit of society and research projects. I also take this opportunity to congratulate our Agricultural scientists who have contributed to develop high yielding varieties of rice and vegetables.
Talking of innovation, we had encouraged Start up ventures even before Start up India was announced. But our response to failure in Start ups is so negative that many youngsters hesitate to make a second attempt with any novel idea. We need to develop campus based Incubation facilities that would support youngsters whose ideas may need more attempts to succeed. For this, we need to ensure better linkage between Industry and the academia with focus on research. I would like to know how much of trust each University has been able to build with the Industry.
Publications, especially research publications reflect the potential and performance of a University in research. In fact, one of the oldest departments in the first University in Kerala was its Publication Wing and so the culture of Publication in the Universities of our State is rather strong. But, the need of the hour is the publication of research oriented books and Research papers in peer reviewed journals by the faculty and students. When it comes to published journals having Impact Factor greater than 0.5, none of our Universities achieved that target last year. I am eagerly waiting to hear from each University about its achievement in this regard, today.
You are aware of the initiatives of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) like the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) Programme to encourage students to take up careers in science research. We should ensure that scholarships and mentoring truly empower our students, especially girls, to become scientists. Equally important is the need to make sure that our teachers utilize the regular opportunities to update their knowledge and skills. For this, the Academic Staff Colleges must widen their choice of resource persons by including more experts from the Industry.
The affairs of our campuses deserve our keen attention. You would recall that in the last Council held at the Kerala Agricultural University, we discussed matters related to cases of prevention of sexual harassment in campuses, drug abuse, ensuring gender equality with emphasis on trans-genders and arranging disabled friendly amenities. I had suggested the submission of monthly report on cases of sexual harassment at work place, as well as uploading of the information on the University website. It was also requested to send monthly reports about pendency of cases in the Hon’ble Supreme Court, High Court, Subordinate Courts & Tribunals in which Chancellor is a Respondent.
Besides monthly reports on ragging issues, I get reports on issues of sexual harassment from some of the Universities and I hope the situation will improve to the level of Universities having no ragging cases at all. The 31st of May was World No Tobacco Day. I would like to know if our Universities observed that day.
Our Universities should develop their social connect through participation in social activities. This will make the student community sensitive to the pulse of society and inspire them to seek solutions to socio-economic problems. Today, we have the Haritha Keralam Mission and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, which actually need the support of our campus community. Students' contribution to Waste Management, management of basic health and hygiene issues etc. should become matters of discussion in our institutions. Vice Chancellors should take initiative to develop University Campuses as models for harvesting Solar Energy, Water harvesting, Solid Waste Management, Sanitation and Tree plantation.
Besides, making everyone a stakeholder in collaborative institution-building would enable the Faculty, Students and the staff to overcome cynicism, which has become a major issue in our campuses. As leaders in higher education, Vice Chancellors should also take special interest in leveraging the support of the Alumni in our academic development.
Like the Alumni, we could also make judicious use of the services of our retired Faculty in our academic and extension activities. Universities can consider utilizing the service of former Faculty in our Massive Online Open Courses (MOOC). You may be aware that the SWAYAMportal of the Ministry of Human Resources Development has become fully functional enabling people to take courses offered by the best teachers online.Our Universities must encourage teachers to share their expertise through new courses on this online platform.
Blood Donor Unit/Blood Donor Registry in Universities and Affiliated Colleges is one of the items in our Agenda. Statistics shows that students are active in blood donation, but voluntary blood donation is less during exams and vacations. Universities should think of encouraging blood donation by maintaining Blood Donor Units/Blood Donor Registry in Universities and Affiliated Colleges and by recognizing blood donors among the students.
But, most importantly, every campus should develop a culture of respecting diversity. India's diversity is our real heritage, and our society has been moulded by various beliefs, cultures and so on. Our campuses should ensure that there is no room for intolerance, prejudice and hatred within the campus community.
Coming to the Agenda items, I am happy that a quick analysis of your reports indicates many positive steps.
The Vice Chancellors may brief us about their achievements on the parameters specified for sending quarterly reports. I expect that your presentations would touch upon new academic initiatives, syllabus revisions, research grant received, research collaborations, extension activities, quality enhancement measures etc.
I have also noted that the structure of the recently started Universities is more conducive than some of the established universities in designing and execution of such plans. This is evident from their enthusiasm and I am glad the Government has now provided a fund of rupees one crore for an award for the best Emerging University to motivate the newcomers to prove their merit along with the established Universities.
In fact, we have already initiated action regarding the next Chancellor's Award and an Award for the best Emerging Young University. We have received suggestions from some of the Vice Chancellors for improving the parameters for evaluation, comparative weights for each of the components, methodology for selection for the Chancellor’s Award 2016-17 and the Emerging Young University.
I request you to present your views and suggestions on the parameters, so that we can place them before the Selection Committee.
In conclusion, I would remind all of you that higher education is now a critical component in social development. It is key to knowledge creation and a major driver of economic growth. The role of Universities has to be beyond education to technology development, innovation, creation of new knowledge and the final transfer of knowledge to society and the industry. Our institutions must become world class, by using the best practices in academic management, including IT enabled services.
I hope that your continuous efforts would further strengthen the acceptance won by our State in the intellectual scenario in the country and finally lead to Kerala taking the leadership in higher education in India.
Thank You
Jai Hind
