Varsities expansion without quality improvement serves little purpose: PM

Regretting that none of the Indian universities figures among the top 200 in the world, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the focus henceforth would be on giving "over-riding emphasis on quality".

"In recognition of the fact that expansion without quality improvement serves little purpose, we will now give over-riding emphasis on quality. We must recognise that too many of our higher educational institutions are simply not up to the mark," he told a conference here of vice chancellors of central universities.

Singh said too many of them have simply not kept abreast with the rapid changes that have taken place in the world in recent years and were producing graduates in subjects that the job market no longer required.

"It is a sobering thought for us that not one Indian university figures in the top 200 universities of the world today," he said at the meet being attended by 40 vice chancellors.

The conference is being hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee after a decade. The then President A P J Abdul Kalam had organised such a meet in 2003.

Noting that the higher education system is often criticised for being unnecessarily rigid both for the faculty and the students, the Prime Minister stressed on the need to introduce flexibility in these institutes to enable them to attract good faculty, raise teaching standards and encourage cutting edge research and nurture talent.

"Today, there are new challenges but also new opportunities. Our collective task ahead entails putting in place an educational system that would help build India into a modern, prosperous and progressive economy and society in the 21st century," he said.

The 12th Plan, he said, has identified the task for the next five years building on the momentum generated in the last ten years and continuing the focus on expansion, equity and excellence.

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