University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Prof. Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar said on Saturday that the Higher Education Institutions need to invest in academic and research excellence, develop systems that foster freedom to carry outstanding research that meets the local and national needs of people. Addressing the thirteenth convocation of ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education here, Prof Jagadesh said the institutions need to create an environment to provide maximum opportunities to students and faculty. He asked the teachers to adapt to new teaching and assessment methods to be relevant to the rapidly changing education landscape. He told the students that as they are graduating from the University, they are stepping into a non-ideal world, which has both challenges and opportunities. These challenges range from unstable economic systems, climate change to gender discrimination. At the same time there are several opportunities presented as India has become the fifth largest economy in the world, and the third largest ecosystem for startups. The UGC Chairman said the higher education system should be ready to take advantage of these opportunities by scaling up the quality of education. The National Education Policy 2020 sets direction to do so by providing personalized, individualized and leaning outcome based education, where students can excel in multi-disciplinary education, he added.
The chancellor of the University, Dr.Rangarajan, who presided over the convocation, said that higher education is important to build a nation. Dr.Ranjarajan said that though we have progressed a lot in education, there is still a need to strengthen higher education by reforming it in three dimensions – access, equity, and quality. Access will improve the enrolment rate, equity gives benefit of higher education to under-privileged communities, and quality needs to be promoted, he added. Dr.Rajgarajan while speaking about India’s economic journey and challenges in becoming a developed economy by 2047, said the Indian economy needs to achieve a growth rate of 7 percent for the next two decades, for which Gross Fixed Capital Formation rates needs to grow to 32% of GDP from 29% of GDP at present. The ICOR needs to be maintained between 4 and 5. He called for absorbing new technologies, building proper investment climate, and reducing employment elasticity for achieving growth. He said one of the main challenges that the fifth largest economy faced was in relation to per capita income, the Chancellor added.
The University Vice-Chancellor Prof L S Ganesh presented a report on the progress made by the University during the year, highlighted the University’s endeavors towards promoting quality higher education, particularly the implementation of the New Education policy with Academic bank of credit, multiple entry and exit systems, and imparting multidisciplinary education. Prominent mathematician and statistician Prof C R Rao and Sreedhara Panicker Somanath, Chairman of ISRO were conferred with doctorate honoris causa by the University. Speaking on the occasion, Prof Somnath said that the honor recognizes the work done by thousands scientists and engineers at ISRO. He congratulated the University for spreading knowledge system of the India among the students. During the convocation, 2,488 students were received their degrees. 8 students were awarded their Ph.D. degrees and 1,142 were given MBA degrees along with 723 BBA degrees. In the other streams, 3 LLM, 178 BBA-LLB (Hons), 52 BA-LLB (Hons), and 311 B.Tech degrees were awarded. 11 Executive MBA, 15 MMS (Distance) and 4 Online MBA degrees were also awarded. 7 B.Arch, 5 B.Sc and 29 BA (Economics) degrees were awarded. Medals were awarded to students for academic excellence and all-around excellence.