Odisha Governor calls for a sustained focus on excellence in Universities

Bhubaneswar: Governor and Chancellor Dr S.C. Jamir on Monday called for a sustained focus on quality, relevance and excellence in universities to meet global standards of excellence in academic and research.

Addressing the inaugural session of Conference of Vice-Chancellors in Raj Bhavan, Governor said the need of the hour is to nurture inter-disciplinary education, engage in cutting-edge research and foster creativity and innovation.

He asked universities to make every effort for both students and teachers to acquire multi-tasking skills in order to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world problems.

“21st century bestows upon the universities a great responsibility to provide to the nation inspired and ignited minds of graduates and postgraduates and scholars of eminence to fuel unprecedented growth and development and advance the frontiers of knowledge and shrink the boundaries of ignorance. They must strive to nurture creativity and innovativeness in abundance to manifest the fullest human potential,” said Governor.

Terming universities as the repositories of the wisdom of enlightened and inspired minds, Governor urged upon making higher education a foundation for a developed, prosperous and enlightened human society.

Regarding faculty, Governor urged upon universities to make best efforts to adhere to faculty-student ratio and stay focused on faculty development through training and orientation for augmenting capabilities.

He asked universities to create an environment for performing better in teaching, research and outreach and explored means of larger collaboration with industries.

On changing needs and aspirations of stakeholders of the higher education system, Chancellor said the existing system of governance needs to cater to the large-scale requirements.

Citing effective governance as one of the performance radars of universities, Governor exhorted upon vice-chancellors to have a leadership of moral stature, honesty and integrity for having transparency and accountability in universities.

They must be a great force in the resolve of making a New India, he added.

Governor reiterated integration of human values with education and said the need is to echo discipline, character, peace and harmony in the corridors of universities and promote the value and worth of responsible citizenship in classrooms and campus.

Governor hoped the conference would gear up universities to meet challenges and become the centre of excellence.

The conference deliberated at length on various agenda items such as the timely conduct of examination, publication of results and distribution of certificates, creation of teaching/non-teaching posts in universities and filling up of existing posts.

It also discussed on sports complex in all state universities, thrust on research activities and development of Centres of Excellence, campus discipline and improvement of academic ambience, audit of accounts and utilization of UGC grants, functioning of Placement Cell/Industry Academic Interface and Internship programme, grievance redressal mechanism and amendment of act and statutes/accounts manual/recruitment and promotion rules for universities.

Higher Education Minister Anant Das, Finance Minister Shashi Bhusan Behera, Agriculture and Famers’ Empowerment Minister Pradeep Maharathy, and Tourism and Culture Minister Ashok Chandra Panda also participated in the discussion and were unanimous in strengthening higher education in the state and making the university a vehicle of transformation.