Sonipat, March 18, 2017: Shri Pranab Mukherjee, President of India today inaugurated an international conference themed “Universities of the Future: Knowledge Innovations and Responsibility’ ’at O. P. Jindal Global University (JGU). The 3-day conference hosted by the university will be held from 18-20th of March, 2017.
The conference is being organised by the International Institute for Higher Education Research and Capacity Building (IIHEd), O. P. Jindal Global university.
Professor Kaptan Singh Solanki, Governor of Haryana; Shri Manohar Lal, Chief Minister of Haryana; Shri Rambilas Sharma, Minister of Education, Government of Haryana; Smt. Kavita Jain, Minister for Women and Child Development; Shri Ramesh Chander Kaushik, Member of Parliament, Sonepatand other distinguished guests also graced the inaugural ceremony.
Mr. Naveen Jindal, Founding Chancellor, JGU, welcoming the first citizen of India to JGU campus, “We feel immense pride and honour in having the President to inaugurate this conference.
He has inspired several generations of Indians and the country’s public servants, and it is such a rare fortune for us at JGU to have him the second time at our campus. His first visit was during March 2013 for the Conference on ‘The Future of Indian Universities,’ a moment vividly remembered as one of the most memorable ones in our institution’s history”.
With thirteen thematic panel sessions, the conference seeks to examine the future of the Indian universities in the twenty first century.
It recognises that while individual scholars have reached global excellence, the Indian university, as an institution requires essential reforms to acquire the intellectual status and eminence.
Talking about institution building as a potent tool of nation building, Mr. Jindal said, “We are living in a world that is undergoing rapid technological changes which is also transforming education. Of particular relevance are the structures of universities and in their future, rests the future of the nation. As intellectual thought spaces, universities have to assume a far more responsible role in shaping knowledge through innovation. Most Indian universities unfortunately have not been able to shine at the global level barring some honourable exceptions. We need to change this situation. If India wants to achieve a higher growth rate and also improve our position in the Human Development Index, the education sector needs to be carefully nurtured”.
The recent effort of Niti Ayog and other organs of the government aim to seek fundamental reforms in higher education. The debates about global rankings of universities generated by the President of India’s recent speeches have evoked wide response. In this light, the conference is an attempt to focus on this problem by bringing the world of scholarship and policy making from India and abroad to examine the various challenges before us.
Mr. Jindal further added that universities of the future must become central pillars of growth and development of a nation that churn out intelligent minds for the 21st century. “This is what we strive to work towards at O.P. Jindal Global University. The global here stands for global pedagogy, global faculty, global affiliations, global interaction, global outlook and global research. This I believe, is a model for the future”, Mr. Jindal added.
Talking about the pertinent need of the conference, Professor(Dr) C. Raj Kumar, Founding Vice Chancellor, JGU said “The Indian higher education system is facing many challenges, as issues related to quality, quantity, accessibility and equity are simultaneously being addressed. While there has been an effort to address the challenge of expansion and provide opportunities to access higher education, a lot more needs to be done. O.P. Jindal Global University aims to overcome these challenges in a sustained manner to become a truly world class institution.
This is a defining for the Indian Higher Education with the political leadership aligned with institutional aspirations. With substantive and sustained regulatory reforms, and significant funding made available to the Indian Higher Education sector, we can realistically hope that the next decade can have a few Indian Universities to become truly world class”.
The Conference is a culmination of a range of ideas and perspectives that aims to shape India’s aspirations of building world-class universities through comparative and international dimensions. It is a recognition that the future of Indian universities and their ability to seek global excellence will depend on three critical paradigms, first, need for creating a vision for higher education that will focus on research and knowledge creation, institutional excellence and global benchmarking as the indicators for standard-setting; second, the need for pursuing substantial reforms relating to policy, regulation and governance of higher education; and third, is the need for investigating a paradigmatic shift for promoting interdisciplinary in higher education with a stronger and deeper focus on the pedagogy of teaching and learning in different fields of inquiry.
Through a series of perspectives from noted academics and scholars from around the world, the Conference will attempt to discuss these three strings of thought across various sessions, including sessions on research and innovation, regulation and policymaking, financing of universities, internationalisation of higher education and subject specific sessions on science and technology, medicine, law, management, social sciences and humanities, journalism, international affairs and public policy.
The goal is also to create higher education opportunities that will enable the future generations of students to pursue world-class education in world-class universities in India.
About IIHEd
The International Institute for Higher Education Research & Capacity Building (IIHeD), O. P. Jindal Global University(JGU) conducts research and offers advice on all aspects of higher education with a strong focus on research and knowledge creation system; promotion of scholarship and building research capacities; developing international collaborations; benchmarking and assessments of institutions; and for providing institutional support on law; policy and regulations relating to higher education. The vision of IIHEd is to contribute towards institution building for nation building.
About JGU
Jindal Global University(JGU) is a non-profit global university established by the Haryana Private Universities (Second Amendment) Act, 2009. JGU is established in memory of Mr. O.P. Jindal as a philanthropic initiative of Mr. Naveen Jindal, the Founding Chancellor. The University Grants Commission has accorded its recognition to O.P. Jindal Global University. The vision of JGU is to promote global courses, global programmes, global curriculum, global research, global collaborations, and global interaction through a global faculty. JGU is situated on an 80-acre state-of-the art residential campus in the National Capital Region of Delhi. JGU has over 220 full time faculty members and more than half of its faculty members are graduates of the top fifty universities of the world as per the latest Times Higher Education Rankings. More than 20% of its faculty members are distinguished scholars from 20 different countries. In fact, JGU is one of the few universities in Asia that maintains a 1:15 faculty-student ratio and appoints faculty members from different parts of the world with outstanding academic qualifications and experience.
JGU has established six schools: Jindal Global Law School, Jindal Global Business School, Jindal School of International Affairs, Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, Jindal School of Liberal Arts & Humanities and Jindal School of Journalism & Communication. The University has recently been accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council with an “A” grade – the first and only university in the state of Haryana, India to be given such a distinction.