{"id":1100,"date":"2016-02-18T13:10:56","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T13:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/?p=1100"},"modified":"2019-11-07T10:19:28","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T10:19:28","slug":"jgu-vice-chancellor-calls-for-regulatory-and-governance-reforms-in-higher-education-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/2016\/02\/18\/jgu-vice-chancellor-calls-for-regulatory-and-governance-reforms-in-higher-education-2\/","title":{"rendered":"JGU Vice-Chancellor Calls for Regulatory and Governance Reforms in Higher Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

New Delhi, February 18, 2016:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0 The 43rd Annual Conference of the National Progressive Schools Conference (NPSC) themed \u201cA Learning Revolution for Sustainable Development Goals\u201d, was held on 16 and 17 February 2016 at the Air Force Auditorium, Subroto Park, New Delhi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two day informative and interactive forum was attended\nby leading educationists, public policy practitioners, senior government\nofficials and industry leaders from across the country. The symposium hosted an\neminent panel of experts comprising of Prof. C Raj Kumar, Vice Chancellor, O.P.\nJindal Global University (JGU), Mr. Anant Agarwal, CEO, edX, an online learning\ndestination founded by Harvard and MIT and Dr. Yajulu Medury, Vice-Chancellor,\nBennett University, Times Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Delivering the welcome address, Mr. Ashok Kumar Pandey,\nChairman, National Progressive Schools Conference, said, \u201cWe are delighted to\nhost the 43rd edition of the NPSC and privileged to welcome such august\ndignitaries on this important occasion. I am hopeful that our deliberations\nduring this two-day conference will help start a conversation that will not\nonly broaden our engagement with education but also aid in achieving the goal\nof an equitable, inclusive, harmonious and sustainable society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor (Dr.) C. Raj Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, JGU, was the\nkeynote speaker at the conference and his dialogue focused on different aspects\nof the highly relevant theme. Enunciating that quality education is the\nfoundation to improve people\u2019s lives and sustainable development, he emphasized\nthat widening the reach of education in the country, correcting existing\nimbalances and overcoming impediments are some key measures needed to create a\nsustainable future for the country and its citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Kumar\u2019s in his engaging narrative broadly defined ten\nleading challenges and opportunities confronting the educational institutions\nof the country and urged audience members who comprised of leading\neducationists from across India to recognize and address the issues. His unique\nideas to usher a \u2018Learning Revolution\u2019 in institutions across the country\nreceived a spirited response from the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ten broad challenges and opportunities that will help\neducational institutions in the country to transform into world-class\ninstitutions include;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quality and Excellence: The first and foremost challenge in\nthe realm of education is to achieve a maintain a degree of Quality and\nExcellence, far too long we have emphasized on building more schools, colleges\nand institutions to meet the demands of a growing population, but the need to\nthe hour necessitates quality over quantity<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hire the Best Minds as Faculty: The second big challenge is\nthe ability to draw and retain the best and brightest minds into academia, it\nis imperative to attract and nurture the top 20% of students to take up faculty\npositions in educational institutions across the country<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Promote Diversity and Interdisciplinarity: The third task\ninvolves promoting diversity and interdisciplinarity in our academic\nengagements a situation that warrants radical changes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learning Pedagogy and Outcomes: The fourth challenge is to\ndefine the learning pedagogy and learning outcomes, the current focus of our\neducation system is primarily centered on increasing student enrollments and\nrecruiting with little or no emphasis on the learning outcomes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regulation and Governance: There is a need for India to\nlearn from other countries. Currently there are 20 different regulators of\nhigher education at the state and central level in India and even courts which\nhave given numerous judgements in conflict with other courts and other\nregulatory bodies, the current system is essentially destroying the\ninstitutional imagination in our country<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accreditation and Assessment: The accreditation and\nassessment mechanisms needs to be radically redesigned and the school community\nhas to shoulder a large responsibility for it<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rankings and Benchmarking: Not a single Indian University\nranks amongst the top 200 in the Times Higher Education World University\nRankings, as a country we are somewhat insecure when it comes to rankings and\nattempt to resist them. Rankings may not necessarily reflect everything that\ninstitutions do, but they certainly cannot be ignored altogether. Independent\nrankings and benchmarks are a fine way of being self-criticism and will\nundoubtedly contribute in creating and promoting a degree of quality across\ninstitutions<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developing a Sense of Curiosity and Critical Thinking:\nDeveloping a certain sense of curiosity and critical thinking will help\nestablish a foundation for learning amongst students, there is a strong need to\ninfuse these aspects and values as they represent strong pillars of any\neducation system<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Global Engagement and National Impact: Almost all major\nissues that we face today, ranging from migration, public health, infectious\ndiseases etc. have a transnational impact. These larger challenges cannot be\nignored while dealing with our education system. It is important for\neducational institutions to take responsibility for the learning revolution\nthat we plan to embark on needs to put global engagement at the center in the\nacademic and intellectual discourse in our country, but more than anything the\nattitude and minds of individuals needs to be shaped towards recognizing the\nglobal engagement     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social change and Transformative Learning: Is a critical\nelement for institutions of learning across all spheres, as long as we do not\nseek the social change and transformative learning, we will not be able to\naddress the challenges of our education system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Raj further called for developing a more nuanced\nunderstanding of the fundamental challenges surrounding the education system in\nthe country and highlighted an urgent need for action, he said, \u201cIt is\nimperative that we not only recognize but urgently try and address some of the\nmost deeply embedded challenges, we are facing in relation to education in all\nits manifestations. The need of the hour necessitates the introduction of radical\nideas that will not only address our most pressing issues but will also help\ntransform existing systems in institutions across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion, Professor Kumar highlighted that it is the\nyouth of the country that will play a critical role in bringing about any kind\nof transformation across disciplines, he said, \u201cWe have 800 million people of\nless than 35 years of age in our country seeking education and empowerment and\nthese very people will be key in transforming the future of not only India but\nthe world at large.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Guest of Honour at the conference Dr. Yajulu Medury,\nVice-Chancellor, Bennett University, Times Group, also delivered a thought\nprovoking dialogue on the theme of creative curriculum: Ideation and\nTransformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Anant Agarwal, CEO, edX, an online learning\ndestination founded by Harvard and MIT was the Chief Guest on the occasion.\nAnant taught the first edX course on circuits and electronics from MIT, which\ndrew 155,000 students from 162 countries. He has served as the director of\nCSAIL, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and is a\nprofessor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central theme of the conference was based on the\nSustainable Development Goals, which is a set of 17 goals adopted by the United\nNations that seek to end poverty, hunger, ensure inclusive and equitable\nquality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all among\nothers. Each of these goals has specific targets to be achieved over next 15\nyears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Delhi, February 18, 2016:\u00a0\u00a0 The 43rd Annual Conference of the National Progressive Schools Conference (NPSC) themed \u201cA Learning Revolution for Sustainable Development Goals\u201d, was held on 16 and 17 February 2016 at the Air Force Auditorium, Subroto Park, New Delhi. The two day informative and interactive forum was attended Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsroom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1100"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1325,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1100\/revisions\/1325"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}