Visva Bharati University to get PM Narendra Modi as Chancellor

The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi has been appointed as the new Chancellor of Visva Bharati University for the next three years. He has replaced former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who stepped down recently.

"The President in his capacity as the visitor of Visa Bharati (Acharya) has been pleased to give Prime Minister Narendra Modi the responsibility of being the Chancellor of Viswa Bharati for a term of three years," said a University notification.

The executive council of the university had passed a resolution in July last year to make Modi as the chancellor and had already sent the resolution to the HRD Ministry. Visva-Bharati was declared a central university and an institution of national importance by an Act of Parliament in 1951. Modi's appointment comes at a time when the varsity's Vice Chancellor is facing probe of financial and administrative irregularities.

It is the only central varsity which has the prime minister as its chancellor. While President of India is the Paridarsaka (Visitor) of the university, the West Bengal Governor is the Pradhana and the Prime Minister the Acharya (Chancellor) of the university. The President of India appoints the Upacharya (Vice-Chancellor) of the University, as reported by the New Indian Express.

Important Points

• PM Narendra Modi will be the new Chancellor of Visva Bharati University for the term of next three years
• The resolution was then sent to the HRD Ministry for getting the final seal
• This is also the only central university in the entire nation that gets the nation’s Prime Minister to be its chancellor

Implementation of Career Oriented programmes by UGC

UGC through several schemes launched by HRD Minister Smriti Irani has encouraged the implementation of skill based and career oriented courses throughout the colleges and universities around the nation. This would give the adequate thud needed to create job opportunities for the students who are eyeing for their higher education in India.

While giving answer to a question in Lok Sabha,  Irani said that under a scheme named, ‘Introduction of Career Oriented Courses’ (COCs) , UGC would provide financial assistance to the eligible universities and colleges to give away COCs at certificate, diploma or advance diploma level. These courses would run in accordance with the conventional degree programmes like BA, BCom and BSc.

In order to give prominence to skill-based vocational programmes UGC has revised its guidelines in accordance with National Skills Qualification Framework. This would attach skill building and vocational training along with the general orthodox education in the colleges and universities around the country.

Under two schemes, ‘Community College’ and ‘B.Voc Degree Programme’ it would provide skill based vocational courses associating an industry partner for curriculum development and assessing the students in a regular while. The commission has also approved a scheme called, ‘Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Kaushal Kendra’ under which 100 Kaushal centres would come up in colleges and universities around the nation. These centres would come up under the XII plan period of the central government. These centres would be responsible for providing skill based programmes to students from colleges and universities. There would a 60 percent weightage as well to the skill component in the curriculum of vocational courses as cleared by Irani.

Important Points

• UGC has launched various skill based and career oriented courses throughout the colleges and universities throughout the nation
• Scheme is named Introduction of Career Oriented Courses and UGC will provide financial assistance to eligible universities
• These courses would run in accordance with the conventional degree programmes like BA, BCom and BSc

Aadhar Card not Mandatory for Getting Eligible for Scholarships

Those students who are eligible enough to get scholarships under the Ministry of Social Justice would not have to suffer due to the absence of Aadhar cards. It was made clear in the Lok Sabha that Aadhar cards would not be mandatory for the beneficiaries to get eligible for scholarships.

Vijay Sampla, the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha said that whether the students have or don’t have Aadhar cards won’t change a thing and the scholarships for the academic year 2015-16 would be given directly to the bank accounts of the selected beneficiaries. Scholarships would soon get released which would in turn help the needy students with their aspirations of getting higher studies.

He added in his reply, “Necessary instructions have also been issued to ensure that no eligible beneficiary for the scholarship suffers for want of Aadhar.” While answering to another question raised in the Lok Sabha the minister pointed out that the Centralised Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System has sorted out 106 grievances related to scholarships in the country and is expected to work in the direction more effectively.

Important Points

• Lok Sabha clearly mentioned that Aadhar cards would not be mandatory for the beneficiaries to get eligible for scholarships
• Scholarships would soon get released which would in turn help the needy students with their aspirations of getting higher studies

Strengthen Industry-Higher Education Relationship

"The eMake in India f initiative, aimed at making our country a manufacturing hub, depends to a large extent on the deepening of the academia-industry alliance, h President Pranab Mukherjee recently said.

The statement highlights the importance of collaboration between academia and industry in the modern-day world, which in the long run may even have direct implications on the country fs prospects. Given India fs ambitious target of becoming a global superpower, the procedure and periodicity of such an interaction needs to be streamlined to truly realise our demographic dividend.

India is home to some of the most respected higher education institutions and corporates, which need to set up a permanent channel of dialogue in order to ensure that the human capital providers and utilisers are in sync. We are living in a world of constant change where technologies, machines, software and everything else is rapidly evolving.

The requirements of industry are changing by the day and we thus need to improvise on the curricula and training in order to make our youth more employable and stay relevant.

Talent shortage: Where we stand globally

According to Manpower fs Talent Shortage Survey 2014, India ranked third among the top 10 countries where a high percentage (over 64%) of employers had difficulty filling captive positions. India is again placed second to Japan (81%) in terms of employer fs talent shortage amongst the leading global economies. A survey of industry-linked technical institutes by AICTE-CII in 2014 revealed:

>> To keep curriculum future-oriented and consistent with an ever-evolving business environment, participating institutes showed keen interest in industry linkages for gcurriculum development h

>> In terms of ggovernance h and gservices and infrastructure h, participating institutes exhibited considerable interest in increasing collaboration with industry The findings highlight that there is a perception amongst corporates about the shortage of talent in the country. Academia has expressed its desire to collaborate with industry and therefore needs to initiate steps in the right direction.

Initiatives taken by the Centre

In its effort to promote linkages between academia and industry, a number of schemes have been initiated by key central government regulators. Some of the prominent ones include:

>> AICTE's Industry Institute Partnership Cell acts as a liaison centre between industry and various departments of technical institutes and universities

>> National Facilities in Engineering & Technology with Industrial Collaboration was started to encourage collaboration between industry and institutions for product development, basic research and consultancy

>> UGC's Encore initiative aims at enhancing faculty resources in universities by involving professionals from PSUs and research organisations Besides increasing awareness levels among institutions about the importance of industry collaborations in the modern world, these schemes have also contributed towards upskilling of students and teachers

How can higher education institutions help bridge the gap?

Higher education institutions and corporates need to take a step forward to embrace each other. The possible role of universities could be:

>> Establish a dedicated cell for corporate interface consisting of senior academicians, administrators and students

>> Effectively utilise their alumni network to build strong relationships and open communication channels with corporates

>> Proactively seek suggestions from the corporates on curricula, pedagogy, syllabus, training etc and engage with the regulators to implement them

>> Build a pool of students and teachers to work on real-life corporate projects. Similarly invite senior members from the industry to address students and teachers on various topics Role of industry Industry needs to take the responsibility of bridging the skill gap by taking the following steps: >> Sponsor chairs of excellence or offer scholarships to bright students

>> Reach out to academia seeking out solutions for real life issues and challenges

>> Offer incentives to students and teachers to intern or research with them

>> Establish a department to consult academic institutions on the latest technologies, processes or tools driving recruitment so that syllabi can be fine-tuned Steps need to be strengthened

The shortage of skilled workforce across industries is likely to pose a complex challenge to India fs growth story. We are expected to become the world fs largest higher education market in terms of enrolment and value and therefore immediate steps need to be taken to reform. Although industry and academia have been interacting intermittently in the past, it is time to strengthen this relationship by a few notches.

The writer Rohin Kapoor is senior manager, Deloitte in India

Source: ET|http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-03-20/news/60322993_1_talent-shortage-institutes-academia-and-industry